Twisted Games (Twisted, #2)(54)

Besides, the country wouldn’t survive two abdications so close to each other. We would be the laughingstock of the world, and I would never tarnish our family name or the crown by passing it on to Andreas.

“How am I supposed to find a husband so soon? My schedule is already so full I hardly have time to sleep, much less date.”

My grandfather’s eyes crinkled, and he suddenly looked more like a mischievous youth than a king who’d ruled for decades. “Leave that to me. I have an idea, but before we get into it, there’s one last thing we need to discuss. Your bodyguard.”

The word bodyguard made my heart twist. “What about him?”

I was still getting used to my new bodyguard, Elias. He was fine. Nice, competent, polite.

But he wasn’t Rhys.

Rhys, who’d rejected my offer to extend his contract.

Rhys, who’d walked away a month ago without looking back.

Rhys, who’d given me the most perfect four days of my life and acted like it had meant nothing to him afterward.

Maybe it hadn’t. Maybe I’d imagined the connection we had, and he was busy living his best life in Costa Rica or South Africa right now.

Bucket list number four.

A familiar burn spread through my chest and behind my eyes before I set my jaw and composed myself.

Princesses don’t cry. Especially not over a man.

“We received a rather unusual call from Harper Security,” Edvard said.

Harper Security. The agency Rhys worked for.

“Is Rh—Mr. Larsen okay?” My pulse quickened with terror. Was he hurt? Dead?

I couldn’t think of any other reason his employer would call, considering he was no longer contracted with the palace.

“He’s fine.” Edvard gave me a strange look. “However, they had an odd request. We normally wouldn’t entertain such an idea, but Christian Harper has a considerable amount of influence. He’s not someone you say no to lightly, even if you’re the king, and he asked for a favor of sorts on behalf of Mr. Larsen.”

I was growing more confused by the minute. “What’s the favor?”

“He wants to rejoin your personal security detail.”

If I hadn’t been sitting, I would’ve fallen over in shock, and that was before Edvard added, “Permanently.”





22





Rhys





“That makes us even.”

I stuck my phone between my ear and shoulder so I could grab my suitcase out of the overhead bin. “I told you already that it does.”

“I want to make sure it sinks in.” Christian’s drawl seeped over the line, its smooth, lazy veneer hiding the razor blades beneath the surface. It reflected the man behind the voice, a debonair charmer who could kill you with one hand and a smile on his face.

Many a person had failed to look beyond the smile until it was too late.

It was what made Christian so dangerous and such an effective CEO of the world’s most elite private security agency.

“I didn’t realize you’d become so attached to the princess,” he added.

My jaw flexed at the insinuation, and I nearly bowled over an older man wearing an unfortunate mud brown jacket in my haste to get off the plane. “I didn’t become attached. She’s the least annoying client I’ve had, and I’m sick of rotating between random pop stars and spoiled heiresses every few months. It’s a practical decision.”

In truth, I knew I’d fucked up less than twenty-four hours after I turned down her offer to extend my contract. I’d been on the plane back to D.C., and I would’ve forced the pilot to turn back if doing so wouldn’t have landed me on the no-fly list and resulted in a very unpleasant detention courtesy of the U.S. government.

But Christian didn’t need to know that.

“So you move to Eldorra, the country you hate most.” It wasn’t a question, and he sounded less than convinced. “Makes sense.”

“I don’t hate Eldorra.” The country came with a lot of baggage for me, but I had nothing against the actual place. It was a me problem, not a them problem…for the most part.

The woman walking next to me in an I Heart Eldorra T-shirt stared at me, and I glared back until she blushed and hurried past.

“If you say so.” A note of warning crept into Christian’s voice. “I agreed to your request because I trust you, but don’t do anything stupid, Larsen. Princess Bridget is a client. The future queen of Eldorra, at that.”

“No shit, Sherlock.” Christian was technically my boss, but I’d never been good at kissing ass, not even when I was in the military. It’d gotten me into my fair share of trouble. “And you didn’t do this because you trust me. You did it because I spent the past month dealing with your mess.”

If I hadn’t, I would’ve taken the next plane back to Eldorra after I landed in D.C.

Then again, if I hadn’t, Christian might not have agreed to pull his many strings for me. He didn’t do anything purely out of the good of his heart.

“Either way, remember why you’re there,” he said calmly. “You are to protect Princess Bridget from bodily harm. That’s it.”

“I’m aware.” I exited the airport and was immediately hit with a blast of frigid air. Winter in Eldorra was cold as shit, but I’d survived colder in the Navy. The wind barely fazed me. “Gotta go.”