Player's Princess (A Royal Sports Romance)(80)

"I'm not going to. She does, but she chose you."

"Uh. Thanks."

His huge shoulders shrug. "I believe you did not sleep with the woman professor."

"Thanks again."

"If you do ever hurt Princess Anastasia, I will rip your spine out and f*ck you with it."

"Okay, duly noted."

"She is like a daughter to me."

"Yeah, I gathered that."

As the plane taxis along, Konstantin glances at us but says nothing.

The air feels a little empty. I try to fill it. Inanely.

"So, uh, you and the queen?"

"No."

"Oh. But—"

"I was twenty when I was taken into the royal service and appointed her bodyguard. She was sixteen years old. She was a child. I looked at her as a child. Then she grew up and I began to look at her as a woman."

"She must be hot. I mean she's Ana's mom. Wow this is awkward."

"No. She is cold as ice."

"Oh. So what—?"

"She was warm once, but there was a boy like you who broke her heart."

I swallow, hard. "Uh, yeah. Okay. I'm not going to do anything to Ana. Well, I am, but not bad things. I mean I will if she asks me, but—"

"Dude, shut up," Akele says.

I grip the sides of the seat as the plane starts to speed up.

Have I mentioned I hate flying?

Thorlief gives me an amused look. "Afraid of planes?"

"No, afraid of crashing."

He laughs. It sounds like a mountain crashing into another, slightly larger mountain.

"Who isn't?"

There's a pause, and then he says, "I'm not."

I white-knuckle my way through the takeoff and finally start to feel my heart slow when the plane levels out. I don't dare look out the window. I don't like heights much, either.

If I had to sit on the nose of the plane, I would. Anything for Ana.

"So you, ah," I start, half-mumbling, "you had a thing for the queen."

"Have."

"Oh. Must be tough. You were around her a lot?"

"Until I became Anastasia's bodyguard. Before that I was in her presence at all times except when she was alone in her apartments in the castle, when I stood guard outside the door. I was only apart from her then, and when I was asleep."

"Wow. What's she like? Ana's mom."

"Cold. Severe. Stern. Focused. Her country is everything to her. Her legacy is everything to her. Ana is everything to her."

"Really? Ana never talked about her."

"There is a rift between them. The queen does not wish to see Anastasia repeat her mistakes."

I chew on that for a while. "What do you wish?"

"I wish to see her happy."

"So when you see the queen—"

He shifts in his seat. "I have not seen her in almost three years, since Anastasia came to the United States. I have seen her in pictures. Spoken to her, but she speaks to me as she would any of her servants. I am nothing to her."

"That ain't right, man. You're totally carrying a torch."

"Yes. Others look at her and see only the hardness on the surface. The glacier. I see what lies beneath but was once on the surface. The softness beneath the armor."

"So why don't you tell her?"

"Me? I am no one. A queen is above my station."

"I'm pretty sure a princess is above my station."

"You do not actually have a station."

"Whatever, the point is—"

"I see the point. It means nothing."

"You should tell her how you feel."

He shifts in the seat again and folds his huge hands in his lap. Good, I was getting a little crowded even in the big first-class seats.

"I can't."

"Why?"

"I can't."

"That's not a reason. You just repeated yourself."

He growls. Literally growls, a deep rumble from inside his chest.

I shrug. "You don't actually have a reason, do you?"

"It doesn't matter. It's too late."

"Is it? It's not too late until you die, dude. The only shot you know you'll miss is the one you don't take."

"That is easy for you to say."

"Yeah, it is. I bagged a princess."

He turns to me with a sharp look. "If you use that word again—"

"Sorry. Look, all I'm trying to say is that you need to take a chance, man. How do you know she doesn't feel the same way about you?"

"She doesn't."

"What if she does?"

"Why would she?"

"Hell, I don't know. Does anyone understand women?"

"No," Konstantin breaks in, laughing.

I hear some scoffs and snorts from farther back on the plane.

The cheerleading squad heard that too.

"Smooth, guys," Akele says.

"You should talk," Dee sighs.

Aheahe snorts loudly.

This is going to be a long flight.



Ana