what you’ve always wanted from me. But you were my job. I did what I needed to do to stay close. Nothing about you could have ever convinced me to do more than that.”
Her words were like a blunt trauma to his solar plexus.
He didn’t know where to look; how to hold his body upright.
“You asked to kiss me.” Her breath was shallow. Her gaze was fixed on his chin. “My answer is no. You once said you wanted to touch me. But I don’t want your hands near me.”
Breathe. He needed to breathe.
“Get out,” he said, because he couldn’t fill his lungs with her here.
“It’s easy enough to convince someone of what they want to believe,” she said. “But there was nothing mutual between us.”
“I said get out,” he rasped, pain and fury clotting inside him. This was too real. “Go show yourself to Tommy. Don’t make me tell him. I never want to see you again.”
“Bad luck.” She grabbed the door handle, preparing to leave. “You can’t be trusted to keep yourself safe, so you’ve forced me to take matters into my own hands. As is my duty.”
Shattered, he stared at her.
“Starting tomorrow, every time you set foot off palace grounds,” she said, hauling the door open. “I’ll be your bodyguard.”
3
Adrenaline kept Frankie going as she knocked on Tommy’s door. Her body was buzzing, humming, like she’d clung to an electric fence the entire time Kris had spoken. Her thoughts were fragmented. Jumpy and unfocused. And the lies she’d told . . . it had been agony to watch her blows land while hiding behind detachment. But she’d had no choice.
Kris had to let her go.
And she needed to get out of here—had to hold herself together a little longer.
Just a little longer.
After a time, the door opened. Tommy stood in the threshold in nothing but loose pants, his expression as rumpled as his soil-brown hair—until his curious gaze locked on her and his features tightened in shock.
There was a long, crushing silence as he processed her presence.
His attention moved from her uniform to his guards on either side of the door. They had allowed her to rouse their prince well after midnight. It betrayed her rank—few had the authority to do so. By the time his arms slid slowly across his bare chest, he was radiating a contained kind of fury.
“Why you little rat,” he finally murmured.
Only Tommy could piece everything together without asking a single question.
“How nice of you to finally turn up.” He spoke with all the composure Kris lacked. His quiet voice was level, his stare unwavering—she’d never been a source of his anxiety and that clearly wasn’t about to change. “We’ve wondered about you.”
“Then stop wondering,” she made herself say. “I first moved to Sage Haven to monitor your safety and report back to Philip. Now I’m head of personal security and have been since you arrived.”
Another silence stretched out and it all started to sink in. She felt shivery; sick.
“You’ve lied to my brother.” His expression was hard with insult, but his eyes betrayed his pained confusion. “To us all.”
She clamped her hands together behind her back. Tight, so tight, the pain kept her in line. “I did what I had to do.”
“Well, in that case,” he said, tone mocking. Then his gaze turned critical. “You should go. You look like you’re about to pass out and I don’t want to have to deal with it.”
An order. Her first from this quiet, contained prince, and it clamped a band of shame around her throat. It wouldn’t be the last.
She left him, needing to get out. Away from these royals and the eyes of her team. Out of the palace, off the grounds. Somewhere safe where she could wrap her arms around herself and try to keep the crumbling pieces together.
Just a little longer.
Kris hardly noticed when Tommy arrived. One moment he was pressing his forehead against the window, willing the world to stop tilting, and the next he was being led by the elbow through the palace and out into the night. Tommy didn’t speak until they’d reached a white stone bench surrounded by sweet-scented shrubs and a stretch of trimmed grass.
Tommy’s voice rumbled. “Sit here. I’ll be back.”
Kris ended up on his back in the grass, staring sightlessly at the stars.
Then there were footsteps and the sound of heavy breathing, and their old ranch dogs Buck and Bull were shoving their noses against his neck, licking his face, clambering over his