Free A Princess Next Door (Rothman Royals Book 1) by Noelle Adams Page A

us, and he positioned himself in the lobby. He had
his instructions. Unless I was in genuine danger, that was as close as he got.
    I was relieved when the door shut, and Jack and I were truly
alone at last.
    I went over to sit on the bed, breathing deeply and trying
to pull myself together.
    Jack sat down beside me. He didn’t say anything, but his
eyes were expectant.
    “My mother sent the photographers after me,” I began.
    He nodded. “I figured that from your conversation with your
brother.”
    I sighed. My secret was over now, as surely as if I’d
already spoken it. I might as well say it out loud. “My father is the king of
Villemont, which is a tiny country in the Alps. I’m…I’m a princess.”
    Jack’s expression registered no surprise, no anger, no
outrage or shock. If anything, he looked relieved as he gave me a little smile.
“It’s about time you told me.”

Five
     
    It took me a minute to process what
he’d said. When I figured it out, the truth hit me like a blow. “You knew ?”
    His lips twisted in a dry, apologetic smile. “Yeah.”
    “For how long?”
    “Since that day we were shopping and those people recognized
you. You blew it off as nothing, but I found it very strange. So I looked you
up online. It didn’t take too long to figure out who you were.”
    “Oh.” My heart was racing wildly, and my skin felt chilled
and flushed at the same time. “You didn’t tell me.”
    “No.” He reached out, like he would touch my face, but then
his hand dropped onto the bed between us. “I figured you were keeping it a
secret for a reason, and I was hoping you’d eventually trust me enough to be
honest with me.”
    There was the slightest reproach in his voice, and it caused
a stab of guilt in my chest. “It’s not that I didn’t trust you, Jack—” I broke
off my words when he arched his eyebrows. “Well, it wasn’t that you couldn’t be
trusted with the truth. I just didn’t want…I just didn’t want…”
    “What didn’t you want, Amalie?” His voice was very soft and
thick.
    “I didn’t want things to change between us, and I knew they
would.”
    “Why would they?”
    “Because…because I’m a princess.”
    “You were always a princess to me.”
    That might have been the sweetest thing anyone had ever said
to me. It made my throat ache and my eyes burn with tears. “I’m sorry I didn’t
tell you, Jack. But this was the first time in my life that anyone knew me,
liked me, for who I truly am, and I didn’t want it to go away.”
    “It’s not going to go away.”
    Part of me believed him, even though the rest of me had a
lifetime of experience to contradict his claim. “So…so you’re not mad at me for
hiding it?”
    His expression changed back into its normal dry good-humor.
“Maybe a little. Every once in a while. And kind of hurt when you had the
opportunity lately and still didn’t tell me. But we agreed that we were just
hanging out, no strings attached, so I’d be pretty shitty if I held it against
you for not baring your soul to me.”
    I let out a breath of relief.
    He added, “And you’re not mad at me for not telling you that
I knew?”
    I shook my head. “I’m not mad. And…and I’m glad you know. I
didn’t like keeping that kind of secret from you.”
    “Good.” He reached out and pulled me into a soft hug, and I
clung to his big body for a minute, feeling comforted, feeling safer than I had
in a very long time.
    When I finally pulled away, Jack’s eyes were studying me
closely, as if he were searching for signs of something I didn’t understand.
    I cleared my throat. “So you understand why things are so
complicated for me? I can’t just do anything I want.”
    “I don’t know. I can see why you’d have a lot of pressure.
But they can’t make you do things you don’t want to do, can they?”
    “They can make it almost impossible for me to do anything
else. I put my foot down about marrying the man my mother had picked out for