To Kiss a King

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Alexis knew she should feel guilty for having left Cadria the way she had, but she just couldn’t manage it. Maybe it was because of the years she had spent doing all the “right” things. She had been a dutiful daughter, a helpful sister, a perfect princess. She was always in the right place at the right time saying the right things.

She loved her father, but the man was practically medieval. If it weren’t for her mother’s restraining influence, King Gregory of Cadria would probably have had his only daughter fitted for a chastity belt and tucked away in a tower. Until he picked out the right husband for her, of course.

Alex had had to fight for every scrap of independence she had found over the past few years. She hadn’t wanted to be seen only at state occasions. Or to christen a new ship or open a new park. She wanted more. She wanted her life to mean something.

And if that meant a twenty-eight-year-old woman had to run away from home—then so be it.

She only hoped her father would eventually forgive her. Maybe he would understand one day just how important her independence was to her.

Nothing had ever been hers. The palace deemed what she should do and when she should do it.

Even her work with single mothers in need, in the capital city of Cadria, had been co-opted by the palace press. They made her out to be a saint. To be the gently bred woman reaching out to the less fortunate. Which just infuriated her and embarrassed the women she was trying to help.

Her entire life had been built around a sense of duty and privilege, and it was choking her.

Shaking her head, she tried to push that thought aside because she knew very well how pitiful that sounded. Poor little rich girl, such a trying life. But being a princess was every bit as suffocating as she had tried to tell little Mia earlier.

Mia.

Alexis smiled to herself in spite of her rushing thoughts. That little girl and her family had given Alex one of the best days of her life. Back at the palace, she had felt as though her life was slipping away from her, disappearing into the day-to-day repetitiveness of the familiar. The safe.

There were no surprises in her world. No days of pure enjoyment. No rush of attraction or sizzle of sexual heat. Though she had longed for all of those for most of her life.

She had grown up on tales of magic. Romance. Her mom had always insisted that there was something special about Disneyland. That the joy that infused the place somehow made it more enchanted than anywhere else.

Alex’s mother had been nineteen and working in one of the gift shops on Main Street when she met the future King of Cadria. Of course, Mom hadn’t known then that the handsome young man flirting with her was a prince. She had simply fallen for his kind eyes and quiet smile. He kept his title a secret until Alex’s mother was in love—and that, Alexis had always believed, was the secret. Find a man who didn’t know who she was. Someone who would want her for herself, not for who her father was.

Today, she thought, she might have found him. And in the same spot where her own mother had found the magic that changed her life.

“I can’t feel guilty because it was worth it,” she murmured a moment later, not caring that she was talking to herself. One of the downsides of being by yourself was that you had no one to talk things over with. But the upside was, if she talked to herself instead, there was no one to notice or care.

Her mind drifted back to thoughts of her family and she winced a little as she realized that they were probably worried about her. No doubt her father was half crazed, her mother was working to calm him down and her older brothers were torn between exasperation and pride at what she’d managed to do.

She would call them in a day or two and let them know she was safe. But until then, she was simply going to be. For the first time in her life, she was just like any other woman. There was no one to dress her, advise her, hand her the day’s agenda. Her time was her own and she had no one to answer to.

Freedom was a heady sensation.

Still, she couldn’t believe she had actually gotten away with it. Ditching her personal guards—who she really hoped didn’t get into too much trouble with her father—disguising herself, buying an airplane ticket and slipping out of Cadria unnoticed. Her father was no doubt furious, but truth to tell, all of this was really his fault. If he hadn’t started making noises about Alex “settling down,” finding an “appropriate” husband and taking up her royal duties, then maybe she wouldn’t have run.

Not that her father was an ogre, she assured herself. He was really a nice man, but, in spite of the fact that he had married an American woman who had a mind of her own and a spine of steel, he couldn’t see that his daughter needed to find her own way.

Which meant that today, she was going to make the most of what she might have found with Garrett—she frowned. God, she didn’t even know his last name.

She laughed and shook her head. Names didn’t matter. All that mattered was that the stories her mother had told her were true.

“Mom, you were right,” she said, cradling her cup between her palms, allowing the heat to seep into her. “Disneyland is a special place filled with magic. And I think I found some for myself.”

He had already been cleared for the penthouse elevator, so when Garrett arrived early in the morning, he went right up. The hum of the machinery was a white noise that almost drowned out the quiet strains of the Muzak pumping down on him from overhead speakers.

His eyes felt gritty from lack of sleep, but his body was wired. He was alert. Tense. And, he silently admitted, eager to see Alex again.

Stupid, he knew, but there it was. He had no business allowing desire to blind him. She was a princess, for God’s sake and he was now, officially, her bodyguard.

Garrett caught his own reflection in the mirrored wall opposite him and scowled. He should have seen it coming, what had happened when he finally got through to the King of Cadria. The fact that he had been surprised only underlined exactly how off course his brain was.

In the seconds it took for the elevator to make its climb, he relived that conversation.

“She’s in California?”

The king’s thundering shout probably could have been heard even without the telephone.

Well, Garrett told himself, that answered his first question. He had been right. The king had had no idea where Alex was.

“Is she safe?”

“Yes,” Garrett said quickly as his measure of the king went up a notch or two. Sure he was pissed, but he was also more concerned about his daughter’s safety than anything else. “She’s safe, but she’s on her own. I’m not comfortable with that.”

“Nor am I, Mr. King.”

“Garrett, please.”

“Garrett, then.” He muttered to someone in the room with him, “Yes, yes, I will ask, give me a moment, Teresa,” he paused, then said, “Pardon me. My wife is very concerned for Alexis, as are we all.”

“I understand.” In fact Garrett was willing to bet that “very concerned” was a major understatement.

“So, Garrett. My wife wished to know how you found Alexis.”

“Interestingly enough, I was with my family at Disneyland,” he said, still amused by it all. Imagine stumbling across a runaway princess in the heart of an amusement park. “We met outside one of the rides.”