by Dianna Love
Her expression would be comical if not for leaving him even more confused. Damn, he really wanted to see her eyes so he could better read her.
She stared at him as if he’d asked whether she wanted to eat a live gator for dinner.
“Nothing wrong. This room ... too much.” She glanced over at the door to the large bathroom with a walk-in shower. “I do not share bath?”
Okay, this whole gig was getting weirder by the moment.
And the brains in both of his heads leaped to the idea of sharing a bath with her. She might be polite to the help, but getting naked with him would never happen.
Justin wanted to ask her what kind of palace or home did Romanov run if a princess had to share a bathroom.
Maybe he had a pile of daughters.
Instead, he kept his tone easy going and said, “No, you don’t have to share the bathroom while you’re here.”
The image of water rushing down over her as she lifted her arms to wash her hair flooded his mind. Then she’d turn and smile at him.
Not the time for fantasies, Justin reminded himself.
There was no explaining the way the male brain worked other than admitting to its simplicity. He was in the presence of a sexy woman who had yet to curve her lips up at all and he wanted to make her smile.
And scream.
Stop. Right. There. That thought was way out of bounds. Not for another woman, but he wasn’t touching a princess even if she offered it to him, which she clearly wasn’t. Also, he did not intend to face the Guardian and explain how he couldn’t keep his pants zipped on an assignment.
Hell, this was the most conversation they’d had since he grabbed her arm and she barked at him. That was another thing. When he touched her skin, his hand had tingled. No, it actually buzzed with energy like a mild electrical shock.
Not painful, just ... stimulating.
“Do you wait for me?” she asked.
How was it that yet again he felt like an idiot around her? He was just standing there, staring at her as if he’d never seen a woman before.
No wonder she probably thought he was a jerk.
He had been, but no more. “No, I’m not waiting on you, but, uh, I was wondering, uh ... ” Think, moron. Say something intelligent for once. “Oh, yes, when would you like to eat?”
Whew. Not brilliant, but a decent recovery.
“I am good for five minutes.”
“What are you going to do in five minutes?”
“Take bath and dress.”
Five minutes? What woman at any point in time had ever showered and been ready in five minutes?
She wouldn’t be thinking about rushing if he hadn’t made her feel as though she’d been imposing on his time, which this assignment was, but not her fault.
He smiled. “No, you should take at least an hour.”
Her eyes narrowed to slits and her mouth did a great impression of a heart monitor display when it flatlined.
Now what had he said wrong? In a hurry to leave before he made it worse, he took a step away. “I’ll knock on your door when it’s time to go eat.”
He stepped out, but before he closed the door, he reminded her, “Please don’t leave the room without me. I’m responsible for your safety.”
“You guard body?”
She just had to say body in that lush accent.
His eyes—all on their own he wanted to point out—tracked north to south along that curvaceous frontier.
“I do not need guard.” Her abrupt comment brought his gaze back to her face and reminded him he was on a mission he could not screw up.
Or do any screwing around during, period.
He must not have replied fast enough, because she said, “Is local alpha shifter?”
“Yes.”
“He knows I am here?”
“Yes.”
“He approved?” she asked.
“Yes,” Justin said, repeating his answer like some damn canary with a one-word vocabulary. He explained, “I sent him a text as soon as I saw you arrive to start the twenty-four hours we’re clear to move around his territory without any restrictions. He assured me his people would give us a wide berth.” More like the alpha had warned his people not to cross Justin due to whatever the Guardian had told him in their discussion regarding the princess.
This was getting complicated and didn’t need to be.
Justin cut to the point. “Whether you think you need protection or not, I am your bodyguard until I deliver you to the Boudreaux Clan.”
“Why do you frown?”
He had to start saying that name without grinding his teeth. Sticking a fake smile in place, he said, “Muscle cramp.”
She gave a terse nod, which he took more as dismissal than acknowledgment, because she continued to just stare at him.
Getting the royal cold shoulder was all it took to push his mind back on track to treat this as a job.
He pointed at the deadbolt lock on the door. “Turn this when I leave so no one can come in.”
“Know what lock is.”
That sounded like he’d just stepped on her last nerve.
He backed out and shut the door before he had no feet left to walk on at the rate he was shoving them down his throat.
He waited for the lock to click.
When it didn’t happen, he said, “Elianna.”
She made some muffled noise that sounded like a Russian curse, then the lock snapped in place as if flipped hard.
He actually laughed.
That woman had some piss and vinegar in her royal veins. If that hadn’t gone so awkwardly, he’d have departed her room through the adjoining doors to let her see that he was only a shout away.
But his gut told him she would take exception to a strange man having access to her room.
Once she took a long, hot bath and had a meal in her, he’d give her the sealed packet with her name on it. Justin had found one for him and one for her on the Guardian’s jet.
Beyond that, the Guardian did not expect to hear from Justin unless something came up that he couldn’t handle on his own.
Seriously?
The boss knew Justin would never live it down if he called for backup to escort a woman to a clan. With the exception of having to walk into a bear shifter territory he’d sworn to never enter again, this mission registered as nothing more than a nuisance.
In fact, calling this side trip a mission was a stretch, but if he thought of it in professional terms then he could stay on track and approach her with the polite respect she deserved.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
Definitely no eyeing her lush princess body again.
He also couldn’t allow his irritation over being pulled away from Adrian to spill over onto Elianna. This was probably no more than a vacation for her, but it was her time and Adrian was not her problem.
Justin just couldn’t brush off the worry hanging in the back of his mind.
While Rory and Cole were more than capable, being in San Francisco with a pretty woman felt like farting off while his buddies were getting bloodied.
Adrian had to make the cut.
Justin had lost human and shifter friends in some nasty ways, but he couldn’t live with losing that wolf.
But Adrian would be the first to tell Justin to focus on what was right in front of him, which meant delivering Elianna safely.
Feeling every long hour of grime clinging to him, Justin headed for his own shower. He scratched his chin, noticed the start of a beard, and grabbed his shaver. Pausing, he listened as the shower ran next door. Their rooms were mirror images, which meant his and Elianna’s bathrooms were side by side.
That water had to be running down her sweet body and touching places he ...
Shit. Stop it, right now, dickhead. She doesn’t even like you.
Maybe that was a good thing.
He peeled clothes off, already thinking of how he could up his game and do a better job of interacting with her during dinner.<
br />
Who knew, he might get a smile out of her.
She’d had a rough sea crossing, which could explain why she’d gotten a little cranky as he’d left her room. Still, after thinking back over everything he’d said, he honestly couldn’t pinpoint what had been wrong.
He’d be ready much sooner than an hour. Should he go back early?
Why not? She’d been the one to say she needed less than ten minutes to get ready.
If that was true, she was a woman after his own heart.
Good mate.
Justin froze with his hand on the shower controls, trying to decide if he’d heard Herc correctly.
Herc, the most obstinate bear in the world, that had never liked any female bear shifter Justin had shown an interest in.
Ever.
Herc had even told Justin once, Grizzly mates no good.
Still, that had sounded pretty clear. Pausing, Justin listened again then asked, Herc? Did you say something?
His bear snuffled as if Justin had disturbed him. Herc liked his sleep.
Shaking his head, Justin spun the controls to blast hot water and snorted at his imagination.
That’s all it could have been.
He wanted a mate at some point, but he wasn’t up against a deadline like Cole had been with the mating curse. Around ten years after having a Gallize animal called up by the Guardian, the mating curse started activating if the shifter was not mated.
Cole’s wolf had been going mad until Cole reunited with Tess. Lucky bastard. Few women could accept the Gallize power during bonding, but a Gallize female or a strong female shifter with their own power would survive the mating bond.
The female guardian who’d been charged with watching over Gallize females had vanished two hundred years ago.
The odds against finding one of those women to mate without that guardian involved were mind-boggling, just as grumpy Rory had pointed out.
But Herc didn’t like female bear shifters.
That meant Justin’s chances for flying the next spaceship scheduled to launch were better than him finding a suitable mate, but the desire nudged at the back of his mind.
Attacking his body with a bar of soap, he snorted again at the good mate comment.
He’d simply misunderstood his animal.
CHAPTER 8
Elianna brushed her damp hair back, yanking each stroke with vengeance until she caught a tangle. “Ouch.”
She put the brush down on the hotel bathroom sink. “Hair did not insult you, foolish woman,” she told the mirror.
That arrogant bear shifter had been the one to tell her she needed to take more time.
Did he think scrubbing harder and washing longer would wipe away her natural look and turn her into some hidden beauty?
Staring at her reflection didn’t improve her mood. If she could be honest, he had a point, and that annoyed her even more.
She had fine hair in an unfortunate reddish, pale-brown color, plus her face was too long. She might improve her looks with makeup, but she’d never had money for frivolous things back home, and makeup would not hide her greatest flaw of being an ursid hybrid.
She hated those words.
Now would be an even worse time to waste money on her appearance with so little in hand until Alexandre sent her the money he promised for when she arrived. Then he would send more later. In Russia, she’d saved every bit of money to put toward an apartment for her and Nico, but extra rubles hadn’t come along often.
With one last look in the mirror, she scoffed.
Mascara would not change her pale blue eyes.
She stood out like a lost grizzly on fresh snow.
Justin’s eyes should have been dark chocolate, too, but his were more like dark syrup that caught the light and brightened to gold at times.
Take at a least an hour.
Why would his words not leave her alone?
Slapping the brush down, she said, “I can not fix face or body. I do not care, grizzly.”
But, sadly, she did and being told she needed to spend more time primping stung. It felt like a rejection.
It should not matter. She must worry about what she had to do, not about making any grizzly shifter happy. Like her father, who had smiled and acted as if she should be thankful he had given her a great opportunity.
He was as dense as every other man she’d ever met.
Men would never understand her, because they thought only of their own needs and assumed she would, too. He probably also thought she’d arrive in this country and be so intimidated she would do what every man told her.
Alexandre had lived a long time and everyone around him probably changed to suit his needs. She’d learned to adapt at an early age, which had not been fun, but because she was flexible, she feared nothing except losing Nico.
Not a new land. Not the unknown. Not a man.
She made a grinding sound of disgust. She had only one thing on her mind and that was to prepare for Nico’s future with her. The Boudreaux Clan alpha had to carry out his end of the deal, because no bear clan wanted a Romanov for an enemy.
She would fulfill her part as well, but on her terms.
Men lied to her all the time.
She owed the full truth only to Nico.
With her usual efficiency, she dressed in her jeans again, but feeling cleaner this time. She pulled on a lightweight shirt with long sleeves, then tied her hair back into a ponytail at her neck. Glancing at the digital clock on the nightstand, she scowled. She had taken her time and still there were forty-eight minutes until her keeper returned.
Sitting hard on the edge of the bed, she slapped it.
Go out. Play. Go out. Play.
Her silly bear had risen from its rest.
Elianna spoke to her bear telepathically. Cannot go out.
Why? Bad air. Go out.
I am tired of being in boats and buildings, too, she replied.
Go out. Now, now, now.
No, I must wait for guard, Elianna explained.
Why?
She didn’t have an answer this time. She had no reason to fear humans who would not know she was a shifter. If she didn’t appease her bear in some way after the animal had rested so long, Elianna would not hear the end of complaining for hours.
Maybe all night.
Maybe tomorrow when they were stuck inside a vehicle.
Elianna told her bear, We will go out, but no shift.
She expected the animal to sulk, but instead heard, Yes. Out.
Now she felt bad. Her bear rarely went along without griping, which meant the poor animal needed to get out soon and run. That would not happen for at least a week, maybe longer, until Elianna could find a place where no one would see her bear.
Pulling out a scarf from her case, she wrapped it around her neck. She would not allow this Justin to treat her as a prisoner. He was her escort.
It was time to begin learning this new land.
Justin had said the local shifters would not bother her, just as it was in her father’s country when he gave permission for another shifter to visit.
She left the room, feeling lighter of heart than she had in days. By the time Justin came for her, she would be back.
CHAPTER 9
Justin had paced for the last ten minutes and finally gave up.
Elianna had only wanted five minutes. If he showed up at her door thirty minutes early and she wasn’t ready, he’d wait in the hallway, but he had to get out of his room.
Maybe he should knock on the connecting door and show her how close he would be if she had any problem.
Herc chortled. Lie.
Justin started to argue with his bear, but arguing with the doorknob would give him better results. He just ignored the joker and decided he’d point out the additional room access later.
When he reached her door, he listened for any sound.
Nothing. Maybe she was sleeping.
Damn. He was starving. She had to be hungry, too, so he shou
ld wake her, right?
Herc came alert. Gone.
Justin forgot food and knocked. “Elianna?”
No answer. Dammit. He dug out the extra key to her room and opened it.
Herc had been spot on.
Where the hell had she gone? It was clear she’d left on her own. There was no other current scent in the room, just a tinge of smell left by humans in the past.
Rushing out, he was halfway down the hall by the time her door snapped shut behind him. He allowed Herc to come forward enough to take the lead, but not so much that a human looking into Justin’s eyes would see a change in his gaze. A shifter would know, but according to the alpha, he wouldn’t see any shifters while they were here.
Each of the Gallize shifters had a little extra power of one kind or another. For Justin, he could exert a push of energy that caused humans to avoid him, much as an alpha of a pack could do at will. He didn’t do it often in public, because that same energy alerted shifters to a predator in their midst.
They wouldn’t know he was a Gallize, but their hind sense should warn them to avoid him unless they were too stupid to pay attention to their instincts or carried a suicidal ego on their shoulder.
When he stepped through the hotel doors, he sniffed late-day air that held a blend of salt, city, and chocolate, because the hotel was in the Ghirardelli Square district.
So far, so good, because the only fresh shifter scent he picked up was Elianna’s and it headed toward the boardwalk along the waterfront.
He ran a hand over his head, trying to not lose his temper. She was in a new country and probably just wanted to explore.
He’d explain to her—again—how she had to do what he told her. He would do it calmly and show his patient side.
Lie.
Justin growled at Herc’s censure and whispered under his breath, “What’s with this running commentary?”
When Herc didn’t answer, Justin said, “Well?”
Stupid words.
That meant either Herc didn’t understand what Justin had said or wanted to insult him.
Usually the latter.
