The problem was knowing where they would be safe.
There were no safe rooms.
No bug out shelters.
No bolt holes.
No secret passages.
Nothing like there would be in any of the palaces.
The best option would likely be to hide in a room believed to be unoccupied. Where anyone looking for them wouldn’t think to look.
“Dave? What are you doing here?”
He looked over to see a sleepy Jacqueline Grace struggling to push up onto one elbow.
“Good morning, sunshine.”
“It’s not really morning is it? I didn’t sleep all night?” She swung her legs over and managed to sit up.
Dave chuckled as he shook his head. “No. It’s almost four in the afternoon.”
“Good. But what are you doing here?”
He sighed. “You’re not going to like this, princess, but unless you’re taking a shower or visiting the little princesses’ room, I’m not leaving your side until Thor and the others figure out if there’s a threat or not.”
As she ate dinner later, Jacqueline Grace realized again that Dave hadn’t been kidding. Except for when she changed clothes in the bathroom, he hadn’t left her side.
At least this meal was served rather than a buffet like most of the previous meals had been.
The next generation were all being fed elsewhere. Alfred was the youngest in the room. It was nice being able to eat with the grown-ups rather than supervising the younger children. She didn’t mind, and it let their parents have meals with adults more often than they’d be able to otherwise - at least without having the nannies at more family meals - but that didn’t mean she didn’t welcome the reprieve.
Dave sat to her right. To her left sat Prince Gabriel of Auverignon. He flirted shamelessly with her, though Jacqueline Grace saw him wink at Esme.
Esmerelda glared at him with the fury of a woman scorned.
What was that about?
Did they have a history? Jacqueline Grace had never heard of one, but that didn’t mean anything. Her sister and Darius were proof that occasional trysts happened, and Gabriel did have a reputation as a ladies’ man.
Maybe she’d ask Esme about it if she had a chance later.
And unless she was mistaken, Dave wasn’t crazy about Prince Playboy’s flirting either.
Even if he didn’t know they were legally married.
Dave stayed with her as she went back to her quarters for the night. When she reached the door, she walked in, fully expecting to close it behind her. Instead, Dave followed.
“You’re not spending the night here,” she told him, poking a finger in his chest. “You can turn around right now and go somewhere else.”
He shook his head. “Sorry, princess. You don’t get to get rid of me until we leave this island.”
“What will people say?”
“They all have security personnel staying in their quarters, too. You just happen to be the only single woman staying alone.”
“And how does that look?”
“It looks like your safety is important.” The door closed behind him, and he walked to the patio doors, closing them and locking the latch.
“You can’t stay here.” She knew she was starting to sound frantic, but that was how she felt.
He sat on the couch and pulled the binder he’d left on the coffee table toward him. “Sorry, princess. You’re stuck with me.”
She didn’t want to be stuck with him.
Except she did.
She just didn’t want him to know that.
Jacqueline Grace went into the bathroom and found a set of pajamas waiting for her. She changed and brushed her teeth before joining Dave on the couch.
“What is all that?”
“Security plans. Nothing really classified, just the layout of the resort and staffing numbers, as well as the general itinerary and room assignments.”
“And you left it lying here while we were gone?” She frowned. “I can see why something like the layout isn’t classified, but where everyone is staying? If you’re worried about a threat, isn’t knowing where the kings are staying a bit of an advantage?”
He seemed to think that over. “Good point. Next time we leave, I’ll stick it in the safe.”
“How do you know someone hasn’t already copied the information? Taken a picture of it? You’d never know.”
Dave flipped the binder closed. “If there’s bad guys around, and they have the information, they didn’t get it from this binder.” He stood and locked it in the safe anyway. “You should get some rest.”
Her thoughts were tumultuous and undefined. The sight of Dave in her quarters, sitting down in one of the chairs, and looking so utterly at home, disconcerted her. She needed to get some sleep before she did something completely stupid.
Like kiss him.
“Go to bed, Jacqueline Grace.” His soft voice caused her to look up as he moved to stand in front of her. “I’ve got things under control out here. I’ll be on the couch all night. No one will get to you without going through me first.” He held out a hand to help her up.
She grasped it and let him pull her to her feet.
Without waiting for an invitation, Jacqueline Grace slid her arms around his waist, underneath the suit coat he still wore and rested her cheek against his chest.
She felt him take a deep breath as he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly to him.
“I’ve missed you the last few days.” She hadn’t meant to tell him that.
“I’ve missed you, too.” His words rumbled through her.
“What have you been doing? Being my father’s valet?”
“Mostly working with security, though I did spend time with the girls earlier.”
“I heard. I’d planned to be there, but Esther asked if I wanted some time with my nieces. I couldn’t turn that down.”
“You should get some rest.” His hold on her loosened, but she didn’t want to let go.
Instead, Jacqueline Grace let her hands slip back around until she could rest them on his upper abdomen. She leaned up and brushed her lips against his.
Exactly what she’d been telling herself she shouldn’t do.
But she did it anyway, going back to kiss him again.
This time he kissed her back, taking control of the situation as he held her more tightly.
After what seemed like an eternity, he rested his forehead against hers, breathing as heavily as she was.
“We shouldn’t start something like this when we both know there’s no way we can finish it.” The husky sound of his voice turned her insides to jelly.
Her rational side had long since fled. “Who says we can’t finish it?”
“We both know it can’t go any further than this, and probably shouldn’t go this far.”
Dave started to pull away from her, but Jacqueline Grace gripped his shirt in her hands. “Under San Majorian law, we’re legally married, Dave.” She reached up to kiss him again but found herself suddenly alone.
He stood several feet away, one hand running through his hair, his eyes wide. “Under San Majorian law, we’re what?”
22
What had she said? Dave tried to wrap his brain around her words. “What did you say?” He needed an answer.
Jacqueline Grace seemed to shrink into herself, taking a seat in the corner of the sofa and pulling her knees to her chest. “I had to tell my father about the civil contract. I told him our plan to return to Athmetis and dissolve it.”
She didn’t go on. “And?” he finally prompted.
“And King Adrian failed to mention a technicality and neither of us read the dissolution paperwork.” Was that a tear streaking down her cheek?
“What technicality?”
“You have to be a resident of Athmetis to get the dissolution.” She swiped at her face as more tears followed the first one. “San Majoria doesn’t have an equivalent to the civil agreement, so it’
s considered a valid, legal marriage document.”
No. This couldn’t be happening. “Even though we never I do-ed or till death do we part-ed?”
She nodded. “We’d have to live in Athmetis for eighteen months to establish residency in order to dissolve the agreement.”
“And if we just wait out the seven years?”
Jacqueline Grace shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t think it matters.”
Dave sank into the chair behind him. “And we can’t dissolve it in San Majoria?”
“Only with a divorce.”
“Not an annulment?” Not that it would be much better.
She wiped her other cheek. “I didn’t ask, but my father didn’t mention it.”
“We have to either move to Athmetis for eighteen months or get divorced?” This could not be happening.
“He’s going to talk to Adrian and see if there’s some loophole we’re not aware of. I’m not sure when he’s planning to do that. Probably not until after the press conference today at the earliest. I’m guessing probably not until after we get home. It’s not urgent.”
Maybe not to King Edward.
“The paperwork is a matter of public record, isn’t it?”
“If anyone is looking for paperwork on a San Majorian princess in Athmetis.”
He slumped in his chair. “As long as some nosy busybody Yaya in Athmetis doesn’t have too much time on her hands and look through the daily register and realize there’s something odd about the one entry?”
“It’s possible,” she admitted. “But we’ll have to deal with that when it happens, I guess.”
With his face buried in his hands, Dave tried to think it all through. “Was there anything else in the contract that would allow one of us to break it?” There had been several things, hadn’t there? Things he’d barely paid attention to, but things that would allow one of them to break the contract early.
“I don’t know that they’d be any more valid than a dissolution without being residents. Besides, we’d have to lie about whatever it was. Neither of us went into the contract unwillingly. Neither of us is committing infidelity. Neither of us lied on the contract.”
His conscience pricked at him. There might be a way out of it, though he’d done as the king instructed when filling in the form.
If there was no other way.
Jacqueline Grace stood and started for the other side of the room. “Don’t worry about it. After we get divorced, you’ll find someone else and laugh about your short-lived marriage to a princess. I’ll find a way to laugh about the time I accidentally ended up married to a member of my father’s staff. Life will go on.”
Something about the way she said it ate at him as he shed his jacket and tie then found a pair of shorts and a t-shirt to change into. Thankfully someone had brought a few of his clothes over.
As he grabbed a sheet from a closet as well as an extra pillow. He tried getting comfortable on the couch, but it wasn’t easy. Every time he’d start to drift, he’d hear Jacqueline Grace shifting in her bed.
His wife.
The concept was hard to wrap his mind around.
His father would be livid on one hand, but ecstatic on the other. Thrilled about the permanent connection to the Cordovan Dynasty, sure to be strengthened by the birth of children someday - if it were a real marriage.
Gideon’s words reverberated in his head.
The legal ramifications back at home if he adopted Mary would also apply to children if he and Jacqueline Grace, or any woman, were to have them.
He couldn’t worry about that. Not while Isaiah might still be out there, while there was a potential threat this week. Once this was all over.
Once there was justice.
Then he could worry about other things like how to get out of this marriage.
That feeling bothering Thor matched the one Dave hadn’t been able to shake. Something was going to happen, and soon.
Once it did, once everyone was truly safe, then life could begin to move on.
He’d tell Jacqueline Grace everything. Try to convince her there could be more between them than heated kisses they wanted to let carry them away. Give a relationship a shot before deciding if divorce was the answer.
Maybe, one day, propose for real. Have a wedding.
Then see what happened when they didn’t have to stop those kisses.
If she didn’t refuse to talk to him once he told her everything.
A noise outside the main door caught his attention, reminding him why he was sleeping on a couch. The noise itself didn’t concern him but did refocus him. He couldn’t let anything happen to Jacqueline Grace because of his distraction.
Security personnel were on duty all over the island resort and her safety didn’t depend solely on him, but if something happened because he wasn’t on guard, he’d never forgive himself.
How Jacqueline Grace managed to keep her tears silent enough to avoid detection by Dave, she would never know.
What had she been thinking, throwing herself at him like that? Telling him what her father said had made it worse. Throwing herself at him would have been one thing. At least then he would just reject her for reasons she could understand. Being married made that sort of thing “legal” and the rejection was of her.
Her logical side knew better. She’d dropped a bombshell on him. No wonder he’d moved away. He wasn’t rejecting her at all.
When dawn began to break, she took a shower and dressed for the day. Breakfast was served in the same room the other meals had been. Not everyone ate at the group meal, though. Jacqueline Grace found a quiet end of a table, put in a food request, and scrolled through on her tablet. Dave had escorted her then left her in the care of other security team members while he checked in with his superiors.
Glancing around to make sure no one could see what she was looking at, she pulled up the contract they’d signed. She found the section about what kinds of things would constitute a breach of the contract. It included only what she’d remembered - signing under duress, infidelity, and falsifying information on the contract.
Nothing helpful.
As she finished her breakfast, someone sat down across from her. She looked up to see her father sitting there.
“Interesting reading?” He nodded toward her tablet.
Jacqueline Grace shrugged. “Just checking the details on that contract.”
“I doubt there’s anything of any real interest.” His breakfast was set before him.
“Not that I saw. We were hoping for something to invalidate the contract, but it doesn’t appear there is anything.”
“We?”
She nodded. “I told Dave about it last night.”
“He’s been staying very close to you.”
She used her fork to poke at the remnants of food on her plate. “Not that close.”
Her father gave a single nod. He’d really thought something might happen between them?
If Dave hadn’t stopped things, he wouldn’t have been wrong.
“What’s the danger? Isaiah?” A change of subject wouldn’t hurt.
He didn’t look at her but stared at his breakfast. “Maybe. Or perhaps his minions. Benjamin and Thor have never been completely convinced they ousted everyone, but they don’t have any leads either.”
“So it’s just one of those things where you have to wait and if nothing ever happens, then you got them all?”
“Unless we learn something at some point, then yes.”
“What’s on the schedule today?”
Their conversation moved on. Dave entered the room but took a position against the wall rather than at a table for breakfast.
“What’s going on between you two?”
Jacqueline Grace shook her head. “Nothing.”
“I know you better than that.”
She blew out a breath. “He’s cute. He’s a great dad. I like him. There’s definitely chemistry between us, but it’ll never happen.”
&nb
sp; “Why not?”
“Because he’s a commoner. Two of your children already married commoners. I’ve seen the surveys. The San Majorian people are okay with it in theory, and they love both Jordan and Anabelle, but the reality is that when we do, it undermines their faith in the government in general and, specifically, in the monarchy. That may not be true in all countries, but it is in San Majoria.”
“You think that’s my biggest concern?”
“No, but I think it needs to be a consideration.”
He smiled at her, that paternal smile she both loved and hated. “You worry about finding a man worthy of you, regardless of your title or last name. I’ll worry about any potential political ramifications.”
“Thanks, Papa. I don’t think there’s going to be some fairy tale ending with myself and Dave. He’s a wonderful man, but I don’t think we’re going to have a happily ever after like you and Mother or Astrid and Jordan or Kensington and Anabelle, or even Esther and Darius. In fact, I think I would be quite all right raising Kiara and possibly some other children who have no one else.”
The possibility had occurred to her in the past, though she’d never broached it with her father before.
“If that’s what you decide to do with your life, then know that I will be behind you, completely.” He reached across the table and covered her hand with his. “But don’t close yourself off to others. To the possibility of more with Dave or someone else eventually.”
“I won’t,” she promised. She knew he knew she didn’t really mean it. Not in this moment anyway. Moving away from the table, Jacqueline Grace stood. “I’ll see you at dinner this evening.”
Though most of their meals had been informal affairs, this one would not be. Everyone would be at their almost formal best. No tiaras or sashes and medals or extra blingy accessories, but gowns and heels and tuxedos.
It would be the first official function Esther and Darius would attend as a married couple. Queen Carlotta would be in attendance as the monarch of Islas del Sargasso. Pictures would go out to the press and on social media.
There would likely be some dancing, though Jacqueline Grace didn’t plan to participate. Most of the unattached adults wouldn’t have dates. There wouldn’t be any extra partners.
Her Undercover Prince Page 17
