1
Xander
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
The beautiful woman in the bathtub looked like she wanted to stab me. I’d figured today’s drill wouldn’t go over well, but I hadn’t been expecting to find her in the tub. Or fuming mad. Or completely unembarrassed by her naked body, which was on display for me amidst the bubbles skimming the top of the water.
“Let’s not do this, okay?” I said amiably. “I have a job to do and—”
“Just get the fuck out and tell Sandor I was in the tub.”
“I can’t.”
“The hell you can’t.”
“Dammit, Princess, are we going to do this dance every goddamn time?” I asked, scowling.
“This is the third drill this week!” she yelled, throwing up her hands and giving me an unimpeded view of her breasts. Which were probably the most beautiful I’d ever seen. Too bad she hated me and I was about to piss her off even more.
“Take it up with your brother,” I said, reaching for the big, fluffy towel on the warmer against the wall.
“Get out!” she hissed, glaring at me.
“You know I can’t.” I held out the towel and averted my eyes, offering her a modicum of modesty. But she had about two more seconds before I did what I had to do.
“Xander, I’m not going anywhere.”
With a resigned sigh, I dropped the towel, reached into the water and scooped her out. I wrapped the towel around her as best I could, considering she was cursing a blue streak and swinging at me, and tossed her over my shoulder.
I could have grabbed her bathrobe, but she was being a serious pain in my ass, and I had a job to do. She knew this. As she’d said, this was the third drill this week and we both knew what was going to happen if she continued to resist doing what she would inevitably do anyway. I was bigger, stronger and extremely well-trained as a bodyguard. She was never going to get away from me, and why she continued to fight me every time we had a drill was beyond me. This was the first time I’d caught her in the tub, though, which I genuinely felt bad about.
Unfortunately, we were being timed and until Sandor and Joe, who ran security, were pleased with the results, we would continue to do unannounced drills.
“Put me down,” she hissed in my ear.
“Why? So you can run away and continue doing everything in your power to avoid the drill?”
“God dammit, it’s the middle of winter, I’m soaking wet and naked—put me the fuck down and let me get my clothes.”
“That ship has sailed, Princess. Sorry.” I took a side stairwell to the first floor, which was different than the ground floor, and headed to the newest hidden door that led to one of the palace tunnels. We’d been practicing every route, every exit, every possible option for escape the last few weeks, and though everyone was tired of it, no one more so than me.
“I’m going to fucking kill you in your sleep!” she growled when we got to the tunnel.
“I look forward to the challenge,” I grunted.
Finally, as we rounded the corner and joined the others, I set her on her feet.
“You’re late,” Sandor said in a stern voice, though the tic in his cheek belied the fact that he was about to laugh since I’d had to throw Elen over my shoulder on more than one occasion.
His sister, otherwise known as Princess Elen Gustaffson and the biggest pain in my ass, whirled around, gripping the towel around her. “What the fuck, Sandor?! Are you kidding me with this shit?”
He sighed. “Elen, you know—”
“I’ve been working eighty-hour weeks trying to put the important elements of the new education bill into action,” she snapped, her chest rising and falling with what appeared to be exertion. “I don’t sleep, I haven’t had a day off in months, and I found out this evening I’ve got walking pneumonia!” She turned to King Erik, her first cousin, and pointed her finger. “You have to choose. If you want me working as the Minister of Education, and doing it twenty-four seven, enough with the drills.”
Erik turned to her, his voice quiet as he said, “Once the drill is over, we’ll take this up in private, in my office. Until then, you need to calm down.”
“I’m standing here in a fucking towel. You calm down.” She gripped it tighter around her. “And the drill is over for me. I’m going back upstairs or I swear on everything holy, I will leave the country and never come back.” She turned on her heel, pushed past me and toward the exit.
I looked to Erik but he shook his head, indicating to let her go.
“She has walking pneumonia?” Sandor asked quietly. “And no one knew?”
There was a moment of guilty silence as the members of the royal family and the rest of the security team looked at each other, slightly embarrassed. We were a close-knit group, even though I was nothing but a blue-collar kid from Michigan who’d lucked into the job of a lifetime working with this amazing family.
“Was she in the bath?” Sandor asked after a moment.
“I tried to get her to get out on her own and get her robe. She said she wasn’t coming.” I looked at Erik, whom I didn’t have to address formally when we weren’t in public. “Dude. You said I wasn’t to take no for an answer.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I know. But I didn’t know she had pneumonia. Fuck. This is on me and Sandor. All right, the time tonight was really good aside from Xander and Elen, but that wasn’t logistical—it was situational. I’ll talk to her about this after she’s had time to cool off. For everyone else, thank you for putting up with the constant interruptions to your schedules and time. We have to be prepared for anything, and the only way to do it is to know the plan, escape routes and contingencies like the backs of our hands.”
Everyone ambled back toward the stairs that would take us up to the palace, and I fell into step beside Sandor.
“You can’t keep doing this to me, man,” I told him. “I always look like the slacker and it’s not fair. She was literally in the bathtub and I had to walk in on her naked. Yeah, in an emergency I wouldn’t think twice, but this was the third drill in seven days and she was more pissed than I’ve ever seen her.”
“I know.” Sandor nodded, giving me an understanding smile. “Erik and I will talk to her. This isn’t on you. We’re going to have to be a little more cognizant of exceptions to the rules because I would have let her opt out tonight if I’d known she had pneumonia.”
“I think I’ll go check on her.” Lennox Briggs, another member of the security team, who was also Sandor’s fiancée, touched his arm. “First, because I’m worried about her, but also because I think she’ll shoot first and think later if any of you approach her right now.”
Sandor let out a little laugh. “You’re probably right.” He kissed her. “See you later.”
“Bye.” She hurried in the other direction, and I gave both Sandor and Erik a serious look.
“I think it’s time for me to get reassigned,” I said finally. “This isn’t fair to either of us.”
“Let me talk to Elen tomorrow,” Erik said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “I apologize for putting you in this situation on a regular basis. If she and I can’t come to some sort of agreement about the drills, and whatever else has to be bothering her, I promise to make some changes.”