by Kat Mizera
“Sandor is marrying Lennox, who is neither rich nor royal. Why would it be different for us?”
“Because I’m the man. It might be sexist and old-fashioned, but you know as well as I do, we’ll get looks if we get married someday. I have money put away and I make plenty, but obviously it’ll never be what you have. It’s something we have to think about carefully if we decide to move things to the next level.”
“Well, this is a buzzkill,” she said softly, looking at me, her blue eyes shrouded. “The truth is, I just want us to be together. I don’t care about how much money you have or don’t have, as long as it doesn’t bother you that I have a lot. I don’t care that you’re not royalty, as long as you’re okay with the fact that I’m spoiled and a lot more self-absorbed than I thought I was. More than anything, I need to know you care about me and all my broken pieces, because I’m definitely going to be a handful if we decide to make this long-term.”
I chuckled, wrapping my arms around her and nuzzling her neck. “Baby, you think I don’t know how high-maintenance you are? I like high-maintenance. In fact, high-maintenance is part of what makes you who you are. If I didn’t like it, why would I be here? And if you say for your money, I’m throwing you over my shoulder and spanking your ass all the way back to the hotel.”
She giggled, something she didn’t do very often. “Not if you want me to wear this lingerie tonight, you won’t.”
We started to walk again and I couldn’t help but smile. Even when she was being an insecure, neurotic mess, Elen made me smile. One of the best things about her was that almost everything she was upset or insecure about came from a place of kindness, generosity or the desire to help people. She had no idea what regular people made for salaries, but now that she was aware of it, it embarrassed her and made her want to do better. Most people never recognized their faults or strived for more, and Elen did all the time. Even when she’d been in exile, she’d strived to help people that were less fortunate. Even though everything was extremes to her. She lived a life of wealth and privilege but gravitated toward children in third-world countries. I was fairly altruistic myself and didn’t have half of her desire to help.
The more I knew her, the more I wanted to know. I was falling hard, for a freakin’ princess, and my gut was still telling me we had a rough road ahead. Ironically, the harder it appeared to be, the more I wanted it. Which made no sense for a guy who didn’t usually go for complications. I figured there was plenty of time to figure it out, though. It’s not like either of us was going anywhere.
Tonight we were having dinner with friends of mine from the military and college and though I felt a little guilty about not telling them the truth about who she was, I was anxious to see what they thought of Ellie, my princess-in-disguise. I hadn’t kept in touch with most of my friends. I was mostly too busy, and they all thought I was still doing security for some rock star, which was necessary since I couldn’t really talk about my work as a Royal Protector. It wasn’t a secret, and I was obviously seen in public with the royal family, but it was safer all around to keep it low-key, which meant fudging the truth to anyone who wasn’t in my inner circle.
“So who are we meeting again?” Elen asked as we walked up to the restaurant a few hours later.
“My friend Alice and her husband, Ross. She and I were in basic training together and then college. We’ve stayed friends all these years. Her husband is a surgeon here in the city and they have a couple of kids. Gina’s going to come but I don’t know if her husband is. He’s a fireman and works weird hours. And finally, my old commanding officer, Colonel Jack Nicoletti. He works at the Pentagon now, but his wife performs on Broadway so they go back and forth, depending on whether or not she’s in a show. They’re in town, so I thought it would be a fun crowd.”
“Do they know who I am?” she asked quietly.
I shook my head. “That’s up to you, Princess. I can introduce you that way, or I can call you Ellie and you won’t have to answer questions that might make you uncomfortable.”
She bit her lip, frowning slightly.
I paused, taking her arm. “Honey, if you want to tell the truth, we absolutely can. I don’t want you to feel like we’re hiding anything. I just wanted to make it easier for you.”
“I…” Her voice trailed off. “If these people are important in your life, and I’m important in your life, how can we lie to them?”
“Then we won’t.” I pulled her inside and went to hug Alice, who immediately called my name.
“How do you keep getting better looking?” she demanded, laughing.
“It’s a gift,” I told her as I pulled Elen forward. “El, this is Alice and Ross Bernardo. Guys, this is Elen Gustaffson.”
If Elen’s name rang any bells, Alice and Ross didn’t react, just smiled and shook her hand. Gina came bustling in, calling out a greeting, with Jack and his wife, Bree, behind her. The hostess took us to a table and everyone settled in. I felt a little bad for Elen as my friends caught up with me and each other, but she didn’t seem at all bothered by it.
“So you didn’t tell us there was a lady in your life,” Alice said, turning to me. “And we’re all just talking over her. Tell us everything!”
I slid my hand into hers beneath the table. “We’ve been together almost two months,” I said. “But we’ve known each other about eighteen.”
“With your job?” Gina asked. “How’d you meet?”
“Xander is my bodyguard,” Elen said quietly, answering before I could.
There was a moment of confused silence. You could almost see the wheels turning as everyone began to process what this meant. The Limaji royal family wasn’t a household name compared to, say, the British royal family, but they were in the news enough, after all the assassination attempts, for people to have heard of them.
“The king is my first cousin,” Elen supplied helpfully, giving them an easygoing smile. “So yes, I’m a princess. Yes, we know what a cliché it is for me to be dating my bodyguard, but we’re happy, and if you know anything about what my family has been through the last decade or so, life is too short not to grab happiness wherever and whenever you can.”
“I think it’s wonderful,” Alice said quietly. “Xander is a great guy and I’ve always wondered why no one had snatched him up.”
“I was waiting for the right woman,” I interjected with a grin.
“So you’re a princess?” Bree’s eyes twinkled with excitement. “I’ve never met royalty before.”
Elen waved a hand. “It’s not a big deal. I’m never going to rule, so it’s more of a formality and a title. I’m also a member of Parliament and that’s a far more important job than anything to do with my role as a princess.”
“Parliament?” Gina looked impressed. “Doing what?”
“I’m Minister of Education, trying to get our schools back on track. Things got really bad when King Anwar was in charge.”
“That’s incredible,” Bree said. “What a wonderful opportunity to make a difference and affect change.”
“It must be stressful, though,” Ross said.
Elen nodded. “Very. I’ve wanted to quit a dozen times, but I keep reminding myself how important it is, how much the people need us to make their lives normal again.”
Talk moved to all things education-related and then to more generic topics like living in a palace and Sandor and Lennox’s upcoming wedding. Elen was friendly and relaxed, and my friends seemed to genuinely like her. I saw both surprise and respect register on their faces when she briefly talked about her time in exile, teaching kids in third-world countries to read and bartending in Tahiti. If I’d been worried that maybe we were truly too different, because we came from such disparate backgrounds, I wasn’t anymore. Not that I would have done anything differently if my friends hadn’t liked her, but it was nice to see we had common ground in spite of everything.
“How much longer are you in New York?” Gina asked as we finished dessert and sat back sippi
ng coffee and after-dinner drinks.
“Two more days,” I responded. “Maybe three. We’re playing it by ear, but Elen has to work and it’s not very convenient for me to be away. Elen is my main responsibility, but not my only one.”
“I’m glad I got the chance to see you,” Jack said. “It’s been a while.”
“Do you keep in touch with any of the other guys?”
He nodded. “A few. Do you remember Erin Riser? Well, she was Erin Gentry then.”
I frowned. “I think so? I’m pretty sure I met her a few times, but we never served together. She was older than me.”
“Yeah, she’s married to one of the Las Vegas Sidewinders now, and we’re pretty friendly. Other than the two of you, though, I’ve served with a lot of people over the years, so it’s hard to keep up with everyone.”
“True. Me living in Europe now makes the time difference a bitch too.”
“So, what happens if you two get married?” Gina asked, cocking her head. “Do you become a prince?”
26
Elen
Xander looked startled and I felt the need to say something, even though Gina’s question caught me off guard as well.
“The title of prince has to be appointed by the king,” I said automatically, since this was a topic I was comfortable and familiar with. “As a commoner, Xander would have the choice to accept a title or not. The king would talk to us about it ahead of time, and it would be a wedding gift. That’s the easiest way to do it. At any other time, it involves votes from the royal family and a bunch of other stuff.”
“I don’t know if I’m interested in a title,” Xander said slowly, leaning back and sliding his arm along the back of my chair. “I like the job I have and where I am in life. I’m not sure a title adds anything to that.”
“Would you change your last name?” Gina asked him, cocking her head.
Yikes. These were questions I hadn’t thought about but I wasn’t going to say or do anything to embarrass Xander. Luckily, he didn’t seem upset about the question.
“We’ve only been together two months,” he said. “We’re nowhere near ready to talk about those things, but I’m not worried about changing my last name if it makes her happy.”
A warm but unfamiliar feeling spread through me and I didn’t dare look at anyone because I was certain my face was flushed. As always, Xander never failed to amaze me. Although it didn’t matter to me either, the idea that he would change his last name to mine if I wanted him to made me fall in love with him on the spot. It was a small, somewhat insignificant thing, but in our incredibly disparate lives, it meant a lot.
It was hours before we were alone to talk about anything since the group of us went out after dinner and played darts at a local pub. I’d had a wonderful time with his friends and they’d treated me normally, like the people I’d met while in exile, which was nice after spending the last year and a half being fawned over. Or spoken down to, in the case of my fellow Parliament members. Regardless, this was turning out to be exactly what I’d hoped it would be: time with Xander that had nothing to do with the royal family or our mutual duties.
He came up behind me when I was in the bathroom taking off my makeup. He wrapped his arms around me and pressed a light kiss on my right shoulder.
I met his gaze in the mirror. “Everything okay?”
“Of course.” He smiled at me. “Just thinking how beautiful you are. How much fun today was.”
“I liked your friends,” I said. “It was nice going out on a date like that, with friends, doing something like shooting darts.”
“I think tonight was the most relaxed I’ve ever seen you, outside of sex.”
I nudged him. “Funny.” I continued wiping off my makeup.
“I can’t decide if I like you better as a blonde or a redhead,” he said.
“Well, just tell me what you’re feeling on any given day and I can make it happen. Have wig, will travel.”
He chuckled. “Good to know.”
He continued to watch me as I washed my face and brushed my teeth, merely leaning against the wall of the bathroom while I did my thing. I finally turned to him curiously. “Why are you watching me?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’m just enjoying having a little downtime with you. Not rushing off to a meeting, doing drills, or anything else. Just you and me, away from the insanity.”
“Kind of like Tahiti.” I turned and moved against him.
“You really love it there, don’t you?” he asked, sliding a hand into the hair at the back of my neck.
“I do.”
“So that’s definitely where we’d honeymoon if we ever get married.”
“Definitely.” I gave him a little push. “Okay, go wait for me. You don’t need to watch me pee.”
He chuckled. “Honey, I’ve seen it all, but okay.” He walked out of the bathroom and shut the door behind him.
I wasn’t particularly shy, but after looking at my calendar a little while ago, I’d realized my period was late. I wasn’t too worried, because it was sometimes impacted by stress, but I had a weird feeling about this. We’d been having a ridiculous amount of sex, and though I couldn’t remember a specific time where we might have forgotten or broken a condom, it was possible. It was all a blur of passion and mind-blowing orgasms and emotions that were becoming all too real.
“How long does it take you to pee?” Xander called out. “If you take any longer, I’m going to put on one of the pay porn stations on TV.”
I hurriedly did my business, noting I definitely still wasn’t on my period, and went out to join him. He was on the bed, naked, a warm, inviting look in his eyes. I glanced over at the bags of lingerie but he caught me and shook his head.
“We don’t need any of that tonight. I just want you.”
“I think you’re a bit of a romantic,” I told him, crawling across the bed after disposing of my clothes, all thoughts of my missing period disappearing.
“I’m totally a romantic,” he said, pulling me astride him.
“I’m not much of one, to be honest,” I said, wrinkling my nose. “You think you’re romantic enough for both of us?”
“Absolutely.” He pulled my head down for a kiss and I lost myself in him. As always. His touch both calmed and excited me, in different ways for different reasons, but the effect was blissful. When the craziness of my new reality started to overwhelm me, Xander brought me back down to earth, to him. When it was just the two of us and we had time to be alone together, he made me feel like no one else ever had. My feelings were growing exponentially and I was helpless to slow them down.
“Do you like romance, Princess?”
“I do…” I dipped my head, almost embarrassed to admit that out loud.
“So you want the man in your life to bring you flowers and leave you love notes and wake you up with breakfast in bed?” He was stroking my back, making it hard to think.
“I want the man in my life to be you,” I whispered. “Those things would be a nice bonus.”
“Would you want me to take your last name if we ever got married?” he asked softly.
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” I said honestly. “I’m happy to take your name, like most couples do. The fact that I’m royalty doesn’t change that. Technically, I would still be Her Royal Highness, Princess Elen of Limaj, as far as titles go, but I could change my name to Elen Holt legally. I mean, does it matter to you?”
“If we get to that point, it wouldn’t matter to me either way. You could take my name, keep your own, or I could take yours. I’m man enough to not give a shit what anyone thinks. We could even hyphenate if that made you happy. I’m all about making you happy.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I kissed him instead, grinding on his lap until I felt him pressing inside of me. Our kisses grew fervent, his cock filling me completely and I dropped my head, breathing through the exquisite sensation of being in this position. I loved being on top, how it
felt to take all of him, the pressure on my clit already sending shockwaves through my whole body.
“El…” Xander’s voice was gritty as he looked up at me. “Babe, wait.”
“Shh.” I leaned down to kiss him again.
“Elen.” His voice was more insistent this time. “I’m not…wearing…a…condom.”
I groaned, my eyes falling shut. This was so damn good, I didn’t want him to pull out. “Xander…”
“Honey, if we do this, we’re playing baby roulette.”
Disappointment washed over me as I moved off of him, sighing a little as he groped for one of the condoms he’d left near the bed. He sheathed himself and then pushed inside of me again. I had no idea what had come over me lately, but it was like I was someone else. Like someone who was hopelessly in love and wanted marriage and babies with a sexy bodyguard.
A little while later I was lying against him, my head on his chest as he stroked my hair. Our lovemaking had been quicker than usual, as if our mistake had somehow heightened our need for each other.
“You want babies, El?” he asked, his hands never leaving my body.
“I…yes.” I wouldn’t lie to him. The idea of having his baby, even at this early stage of our relationship, filled me with sinful excitement, yet another thing I hadn’t been expecting to feel this soon.
“Now?” He was watching me intently and I glanced up at him.
“Not now as in tonight, but yes. I’m thirty-four this year. I want babies. Probably a few of them.” I paused, practically holding my breath as I asked, “Do you?”
“I do.”
Our eyes met and locked and he lifted a hand to trace the line of my jaw. “You want to make babies together, El?”
I swallowed, unable to answer right away, but also unable to look away. “D-do you?” I whispered.
“I asked first.”
