by Kat Mizera
“Hey, babe.” I slid my arm around her waist, making sure the three men around her understood she was mine.
“Thank you.” She took the glass of champagne from me and motioned with her head. “Do you know Viggo Sjoberg and Jamie Teller?”
“I know who they are, of course.” I held out my hand. “But we haven’t met.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Now I felt like an idiot. Viggo and Jamie were married, an openly gay couple. Viggo still played for the Sidewinders and Jamie had just retired and taken a position as an assistant coach. I hadn’t recognized them from across the room but now that I was standing here, I knew them.
“Mind if I steal her for a dance later?” Jamie asked me. He made an impatient motion with his head in his husband’s direction. “He doesn’t dance.”
“Not at all,” I replied. “I’m not much of a dancer myself, although I’ll suck it up for Lennox.”
“See, babe?” He turned to his husband. “You’re supposed to suck it up for the person you love.”
Viggo muttered, “Not a chance in hell,” in Swedish, under his breath. Since my father was Swedish and I knew the language, I laughed.
“Whatever.” Jamie laughed too, obviously not upset about his husband’s attitude. “You can stand at the bar by yourself while I dance with a beautiful woman. No skin off my teeth.”
We chatted for a while before they wandered off and Lennox slid her hand into mine.
“You look really hot in a tux,” she whispered, her breath warm against my ear.
“Thank you.” I ran my hand over the curve of her ass. “You already know what I think of your dress. I’m already looking forward to seeing you in nothing but those heels, though.”
“Yeah?” She bit her lip. “Then I’m looking forward to showing you.”
I dropped my head to kiss her when someone tugged at the tails of my jacket. “Uncle Loco, don’t do that in public!” Luke’s voice was low but filled with horror. I looked down at him with a grin.
“Someday you’re going to want to kiss a pretty girl in public too. Trust me.”
He made a face. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah. Unless you want to kiss boys. Which is okay too, but—”
“No, I like girls,” Luke interrupted quickly. “You look pretty, Miss Lennox.”
“Thank you.” She smiled. “You look very handsome in your tuxedo as well.”
“It feels weird.” He tugged at the collar of his shirt. “I don’t know why we have to get dressed up for stuff like this.”
“Well, for one thing, girls like it,” Sandor said. “For another, sometimes it’s fun to get dressed up. Probably not at your age, but that’s another thing you’ll like when you get a little older. I prefer jeans and a T-shirt, but this is nice a few times a year.”
“You and Lennox should go dance. Mom said it’s fun but I don’t know how.”
“Perhaps when you move to Limaj we’ll get you some dancing lessons. Everyone in the royal family has to take ballroom dancing.”
Luke’s eyes widened. “For real?”
“Yup.”
“I may have to rethink this moving thing,” he muttered, heading off toward Erik.
“He cracks me up,” Lennox said, watching him go.
“Me too.”
“Should we dance?” she asked quietly.
“We should.” I paused. “Are you comfortable with a waltz or would you rather wait for something contemporary?”
“Contemporary, please.”
“All right. Come, let’s mingle.”
I kept Lennox close to me because it didn’t take long for a group of European princess-types to zero in on me. Most of them hesitated to approach when they saw me with Lennox, but I spotted Veronique whispering to them and silently cursed all of them for making my life difficult. As if I hadn’t just lived through a decade of hell, ten long years worried that Anwar would come for Casey or Luke or someone else I cared about. I didn’t regret the sacrifices I’d made, but I sure as fuck didn’t appreciate this kind of bullshit. I was a protector by nature. I’d known this at a young age, and I’d taken steps to follow my calling. More than twenty years later, I still felt the need to protect those I cared about.
Tonight, this was all about Lennox. She didn’t need my protection in general, but some of the women here could be incredibly cruel. My mother had taught me how to steer clear, but my mom was long gone and I was in an untenable situation because Erik needed me to be Prince Sandor for now. I had to make the Limaji royal family look good and while I’d prefer not putting on airs, I was happy to help him re-establish our place in the world. But not at Lennox’s expense. Not that he would expect that, but I had to be a lot more cognizant of the things I said and did with regard to her.
“Your dance with Sasha is coming up,” Lennox reminded me.
Shit. I’d forgotten about that.
The charity ball tonight made money from the tickets sold and then by charging a ridiculous amount of money to dance with the belle of the ball, which was Sasha. Erik and I had both purchased dances because Casey said that while Sasha had been excited about the opportunity, she wasn’t all that keen to dance with rich old men who might get a little grabby. It had happened in previous years and though it was always handled swiftly, Sasha was a little sensitive right now. Her breakup with Anton had been a year ago but she still pined for him and hadn’t been the same since, so we’d arranged for as many familiar faces as possible that we knew to fill her dance card.
“You should go sit with Casey,” I told her.
She gave me a look. “I can take care of myself. I’ve got a gun strapped to my thigh, remember?”
I chuckled at the thought of her pulling a gun on Veronique. “I know you can protect yourself physically, but Veronique and her crew tend to use the force of their tongues much more viciously than anything else.”
She shrugged. “Sticks and stones and all that.” She leaned up to kiss me. “Go dance with Sasha. I’m going to powder my nose and I’ll be right back.”
I wanted to protest, but that would be silly. She would be fine. She could handle herself. And honestly, this might be a good test of her mettle. If we were going to be together long-term, she had to be able to take the kind of scrutiny she would get as the wife of a member of the royal family.
28
Lennox
Sasha looked beautiful tonight in a stunning lavender gown that showed off her tanned skin and dark curls. She had a gorgeous figure and the four-inch heels on her feet made her closer to my height than her usual five-foot-two. I squeezed her arm encouragingly just before Sandor led her onto the dance floor, and then I made my escape. I’d had to pee for an hour but Sandor had been stuck to me like glue. It was kind of cute, but I had a feeling he was too afraid to leave my side. He probably thought Veronique would hurt my feelings again, and he might have been right, but the more I thought about it, the more annoyed I got. Women like Veronique meant less than nothing to me, and I’d be damned if I let her intimidate me.
Yes, she’d caught me off guard when we’d been at dinner, but that was before he’d told me he wanted to explore something more with me. That he couldn’t sleep at night until I was beside him. Made it clear that I was his girlfriend. Those things changed how I viewed both our relationship and the world he came from. If he was willing to buck the system for me, I had to be willing to step up and take a few shots from stupid people who meant nothing to either of us.
I did my business and then washed my hands, lamenting my aching feet, even though the thought of parading in front of Sandor wearing nothing but my heels kind of turned me on. Hopefully, I’d be flat on my back sooner rather than later once we started that, but for now, I was having fun. I knew quite a few people here tonight, from the owners of the Charleston Hotel to friends of Casey’s to some of the Sidewinders and guys I knew from the gym. Our entire security team was here as well, though most of them were working.
I dabbed some gloss
on my lips just as Veronique and a petite brunette came in, snarky smiles on their faces.
If I didn’t know better, I’d swear they were spoiling for a fight, and it was kind of funny. They probably had no idea who I was to the royal family, or that I was a highly skilled professional bodyguard with military and intelligence training. No, they probably thought I was just some random American girl Sandor was fucking. I’d have to dispel those notions sooner rather than later, but it might be fun to play along.
“Well, hello, Lenore.” Veronique took her place beside me at the mirror while the brunette moved to my other side.
Oh, goody. These two morons thought they could surround me.
As if.
So I smiled. “Hi, Vera. And you know damn well it’s Lennox.”
“Lennox. What kind of name is that? Isn’t that some type of cheap china?”
I smiled. I’d heard all of this before. “Actually, it’s been around for nearly a hundred and thirty years and was the first American china to be used in the White House, so it’s not all that cheap.”
Veronique pressed her lips together. “It’s still a silly name.”
“Well, it’s been lovely chatting with you.” I picked up my purse and started to leave but Veronique moved in front of me, blocking my path. I arched a brow. “Really?”
“You have to know he’s never going to marry someone like you,” she said in a clipped voice. “His family is looking to rebuild the royal bloodline and a commoner like you isn’t going to cut it.”
“I probably know more about what his family is looking for than you do,” I said with a smile. “I live in the palace, after all.”
Veronique’s eyes widened slightly but then she shrugged. “You’re just keeping his bed warm until the right woman comes along and then he’s going to dispose of you like yesterday’s trash.”
“I guess we’ll see.” I tried to move past her but she gripped my arm.
“Don’t be stupid. He’s going to humiliate you.”
Jesus Christ, what was it with this woman? Did she really think she could get away with talking to people like this because she was tenth in line to the throne of a country no one outside of Europe had ever heard of?
“I suggest you let go of my arm,” I said quietly. “I’m not afraid of you, nor am I intimidated by you and your little pixie bodyguard over there.”
The brunette frowned but I was too close to laughing to worry about her.
“You have no idea who I am,” Veronique hissed.
“Don’t care either,” I responded. “But right now, I’m going to go dance with my very handsome prince of a boyfriend.”
The door to the restroom opened and Elen stepped inside, quickly taking in the scene and giving me a wink.
“Hello, ladies. Hello, Lennox, darling.” She reached up to kiss my cheek. “How’s it going, Veronique? Still dating… What was that prince’s name? Rupert? Rudolph?”
“Roberto,” Veronique said, all but gritting her teeth. “And no, we’re no longer together.”
“That’s right. He married an Olympic skier, didn’t he? American, I believe. Or Canadian?” She gave a little shrug as she looped her arm through mine.
“Aligning yourself with your brother’s whore isn’t going to help you establish yourself as part of the royal family.”
“I’m already part of the royal family, and what makes her a whore?” Elen asked bluntly. “The fact that she’s fucking someone you wish you were? Get over yourself. Lennox has more class in her little finger than you have in your entire body. Go find another sucker to chase after—it’ll be a cold day in hell before my brother dates a woman like you.” She tugged my arm and led me out of the room.
“Why’d you spoil my fun?” I asked her, laughing. “It was just getting good.”
“Veronique’s always been a bitch. She’s two years younger than I am, and had just gotten to the Sorbonne when I was a junior, but she drove me crazy. She’s a nutjob and has pretty much alienated all potential suitors in Europe because everyone knows how crazy she is. She’s after Sandor now because he’s just come back from the dead, so to speak, and she figures he hasn’t had time to hear all the stories about her.”
“So not everyone in royal circles is an asshole?”
Elen smiled. “Definitely not. I’ll introduce you to some lovely friends I have and you’ll see there are plenty of nice people. Veronique’s not the only bitchy one, though. They’re not all crazy like she is, but some of them are definitely biased against those who aren’t royalty and who don’t come from money. That’s everywhere, though, and we can’t be bothered to care about people like that.”
I glanced at her. “Did Sandor send you after me to make sure I was okay?”
She smiled. “He did, but not just now. This morning he texted and asked me to keep an eye on you, in case he was busy and anyone tried to blindside you the way they did at the restaurant. He was looking out for you.”
“He’s pretty sweet.”
“He’s smitten, Lennox. I’ve never seen him like this.”
“Well, to be fair, you two didn’t see each other for a long time.”
“No, but I know my brother, and we were in touch. We didn’t see each other, but we talked and he was always a phone call away. Daniil was the one who was incommunicado. I understand why he did, while he was working behind the scenes to aid the rebellion, but it was hard. My brothers are all I have left.”
“Hello, sweetheart.” Sandor joined us and slid an arm around me.
“Hi. How was your dance?” I asked him.
“It was nice. Sasha’s having a good time.” He cocked his head. “What about you?”
“I’m having a lovely time. I was just chatting with Elen about the non-bitchy members of the royal elite in Europe.”
“Veronique followed her into the bathroom,” Elen told him. “But she held her own until I got there.”
“I spent the time thinking about different ways I could break her arm,” I said with as straight of a face as I could muster.
Elen laughed, nudging me. “I love her, Sandor. You should keep this one.”
“I plan to,” he responded.
Elen went to join other friends and Sandor pulled me onto the dance floor.
“Don’t you have any other family?” I asked him. “I mean, I know you lost your parents and brother, but aren’t there aunts and uncles or cousins from the other side of your family?”
He nodded. “Yes, my father has a sister and a brother, who both have children. When I was in hiding, it was much safer for them to think I was dead, and after being gone for eleven years, it’s been hard to rebuild those relationships. To be honest, I just haven’t had the time. I called and visited them once not long after Erik took power, to explain everything, but I’ve been busy and they live in Sweden, which is where my father was from.”
I moved with him easily, as if I was a lot more comfortable dancing than I actually was. He was an excellent dancer, I noted, which surprised me since he was such a big guy.
“What about you?” he asked after a moment. “I know your mother is alive, but you’ve never mentioned her and I never thought to ask.”
I shrugged. “She wanted a girlie-girl who would play dolls and want to paint each other’s nails. Instead, she got a tomboy who joined the military. We don’t see each other very often. She still lives in Florida. I have two half-sisters but she never really wanted us to be close, as if being a tomboy was contagious or something.”
“How old are they?”
“Harlow is twenty-five and Vivian is twenty-one. I talk to Harlow pretty regularly, but Vivian wants nothing to do with me. It’s okay. I do my thing and don’t worry about it.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine not having a relationship with my parents or siblings. I mean, obviously Daniil, Elen and I were out of touch because of circumstances, but growing up we were close. I miss my parents a lot, and my brother Vardan as well.”
“That had to have
been so hard,” I said softly. “I can’t imagine losing most of my family in one fell swoop like that. You must’ve been heartbroken.”
“When it first happened, it was like a year-long adrenaline rush. We had no time to mourn because all of our lives were in danger. Later, after Erik and I went underground, I had to bury those feelings because it made me vulnerable.” He paused. “I’ve buried a lot of feelings over the years. Partially because I’m a guy, but mostly because it was just too damn hard and I couldn’t afford distractions. That’s probably also a big part of the reason why I stayed single. I didn’t have it in me to trust my heart to anyone.”
“And now?” I asked. “Are you willing to trust your heart to someone?”
“I’m getting there,” he said, his mouth gently covering mine, kissing me like we were the only two people in the room even though it only lasted for a few seconds. And damn, I never wanted it to end.
29
Sandor
The ball went until well after midnight. At two thirty, it was still going strong but Casey and Erik took their leave, heading back to the house with Xander and Joe. Lennox and I stayed a little longer, spending time with Daniil, Elen and a handful of friends. Chains had brought his wife, Emilie, and she and Elen were deep in conversation. Emilie was Swedish and since Elen was also proud of our Swedish heritage, they’d found a ton of things they had in common.
Lennox was chatting with Jamie, Daniil had just come off the dance floor with Sasha, and she went off in another direction as he sank into the chair beside me.
“Sweet girl,” he said. “The men are falling all over themselves to get to her, but she’s mostly oblivious.”
“She’s a good kid,” I replied, glancing at him.
“What do you think? Is the brunette safe or do I avoid that group altogether?” he asked, referring to a group of women standing at the bar.
“I’d avoid them,” I said automatically. “They were chatting with Veronique earlier.”
He grimaced. “Well, that settles that then. I guess I won’t be getting any tonight.”