Free The Royal Mess by MaryJanice Davidson

bodyguard, me easily tricked, come into my web said the spider to the fly.”
    â€œOr words to that effect,” he agreed, hands in his pockets so he wouldn’t grab her for another kiss. “Let them think what they like. Let them assume a man my size is slow and/or stupid. I like it when they can’t see me coming.”
    â€œNow that’s a philosophy I can get behind,” she said approvingly, and he grinned in the dark. “So where’d you learn to fish?”
    â€œMy dad, when he wasn’t guarding the late king and queen. His dad before him. How about you?”
    â€œI found guides and they taught me. I’ve spent more of my life in Los Angeles than Alaska, but I was always . . . I don’t know . . . pulled?”
    â€œPulled,” he agreed. It was as fine a word for duty as any. Duty to country, or to self.
    â€œI always wanted trees and rivers and green. I feel like there’s a plan when I’m in the forest instead of all this—this”—she gestured vaguely and he wondered if she realized she was pointing at the palace—“chaos.”
    â€œThey’re a noisy bunch,” he said quietly, “and they’ve got tempers like you wouldn’t believe. Or perhaps you would. But they’re good people. There’s a reason nobility comes from the word noble . The Baranovs showed me that when I was still a child.”
    â€œWow, Jeffrey, sounds like you’ve got a serious case of man-love,” she teased.
    He didn’t crack a smile. “They take nothing for granted; not their wealth, not our service. Nothing. And if someone shot me, he’d have his hands full with my king. I can dedicate my life to them because they have dedicated theirs to mine.”
    She chewed on that one for a moment, then added, “Really noisy. Hair-trigger tempers.”
    â€œPot, meet kettle. Kettle, meet pot.”
    â€œOh, hush up. You and your unanswerable observations.” She was cupping her elbows and he realized that she was wearing only black leggings, flats, and a black T-shirt, and the sun had set two hours ago. He unbuttoned his suit jacket and slung it over her shoulders.
    â€œThanks. Stupid not to bring a jacket. Except I didn’t have a black one.” She pushed her arms into the sleeves and huddled into it. “Hey, maybe I would have frozen to death and then wouldn’t have to worry about any of this.”
    â€œHow nice that my career would have ended on a note of personal disaster, not to mention total disgrace.”
    â€œHey, nobody asked you to skulk outside my window.”
    â€œI’ve been transferred to your detail,” he said, not telling her he’d slammed the paperwork through himself. Not telling her that the thought of someone else guarding her made him physically ill. “You don’t have to ask me to skulk. Skulking is what I do.”
    â€œGreat.” She kicked at a tuft of grass. “What, you get demoted? That’s a bummer.”
    â€œNot . . . quite demoted, Highness.”
    â€œNih. Cole. Nicole. Nicole! You’re wasting your time, you know. I thought you realized when we met that I could take care of myself.”
    â€œNicole Krenski, private citizen? No question. Her Royal Highness the Princess Nicole? The world is a big place, and there are an awful lot of people who wouldn’t mind seeing you hurt. Or ransomed.” Or dead .
    â€œI’m the same person I was two weeks ago,” she argued.
    â€œYes, Princess Nicole. To that end, you’re the same person you were thirty years ago: Princess Nicole.”
    â€œMy mom was right not to tell me,” she muttered. “She was right to protect me from all this.”
    â€œYour mother kept you from your rightful inheritance, from your destiny. And for what? To keep you to herself.”
    Nicole swung around and even in the near-gloom he could see her blue eyes blaze. “Do not ever shit