To Kiss a King (Kings of California #11)(15)
Author: Maureen Child

Garrett slanted a look at her. “So, action movie fan are you?”

“Oh, yes.” She turned her face up to the sun, closed her eyes and smiled. “It’s having three brothers, I think. They had no time for comedies or romance, so movie night at our house meant explosions and gunfire.”

“Sounds like my house,” he said, remembering the many nights he and his brothers had spent reveling in movie violence. Garrett and Griffin especially had enjoyed the cops and robbers movies. The good guys tracking down the bad guys and saving the day in the end. Maybe that was why he and his twin had both ended up in the security business.

“You have brothers?”

“Four—one of them is my twin.”

“A twin! I always thought it would be wonderful to be a twin. Was it?”

“Wonderful?” He shook his head. “Never really thought about it, I guess. But yeah, I suppose so. Especially when we were kids. There was always someone there to listen. To play with and, later, to raise hell with.”

Being a twin was such a part of who and what he was that he’d never really considered what it must look like from the outside. Griffin and he had done so much together, always right there, covering each other’s backs that Garrett couldn’t imagine not being a twin.

“Did you? Raise a lot of hell?”

“Our share,” he mused, lost briefly in memories of parties, football games and women. “When we were kids, being identical was just fun. Swapping classes, tricking teachers. As we got older, the fun got a little more…creative.”

“Identical?” She took a long look at him. “You’re exactly alike?”

He shook his head and gave her a half smile. “Nah. I’m the good-looking one.”

She laughed as he’d hoped she would.

“Must have been nice,” she said, “raising a little hell once in a while. Having someone to have fun with.”

“No hell-raising in your house?” he asked, though he couldn’t imagine her and her brothers throwing any wild parties when the king and queen were out of town.

“Not that you’d notice,” she said simply, then changed the subject. “Decker seemed very nice.” She ran her fingertips across the small brass plaque on the gleaming teak dashboard. King’s Kustom Krafts.

“Decker King is his name?”

“Yeah.” He hadn’t even considered that she would learn Decker’s last name. And what kind of thing was that for a man like him to admit? Hell, he made his living by always thinking three steps ahead. By knowing what he was going to do long before he actually did it. By being able to guess at what might happen so that his clients were always safe. But around Alex, his brain wasn’t really functioning. Nope, it was a completely different part of his body that was in charge now.

And it was damned humbling to admit he couldn’t seem to get his blood flowing in the direction of his mind.

“Yeah. Decker’s okay.”

“He builds lovely boats.”

“He really does,” Garrett said, relaxing again when she didn’t comment on Decker’s last name. “So, you’ve heard about my family, tell me about these brothers of yours.”

She looked at him and he read the wary suspicion in her eyes. “Why?”

“Curiosity.” He shrugged and shifted his gaze to the sea. No other boats around. But for the surfers closer to shore, they were completely alone. Just the way he preferred it. Giving her a quick glance he saw her gaze was still fixed on him as if she were trying to make up her mind how much to say.

Finally, though, she sighed and nodded. “I’ve already told you I’ve got three brothers. They’re all older than me. And very bossy.” She turned her face into the wind and her long blond hair streamed out behind her. “In fact, they’re much like my father in that regard. Always trying to order me about.”

“Maybe they’re just looking out for you,” he said, mentally pitying the brothers Alex no doubt drove nuts. After all, the king himself had told Garrett that Alex managed to lose whatever bodyguards were assigned to her. He could only imagine that she made the lives of her brothers even crazier.

“Maybe they should realize I can look after myself.” She shook her head and folded her arms over her chest in such a classic posture of self-protection that Garrett almost smiled.

But damned if he didn’t feel bad for her in a way, too. He hated the idea of someone else running his life. Why should she be any different? Still, every instinct he possessed had him siding with her brothers and her father. Wasn’t he here, protecting her, because he hadn’t been able to stand the idea of her being on her own and vulnerable?

“Guys don’t think like that,” he told her. “It’s got nothing to do with how capable they think you are. Men look out for our families. At least the decent guys do.”

“And making us crazy while you do it?”

“Bonus,” he said, grinning.

Her tense posture eased as she gave him a reluctant smile. “You’re impossible.”

“Among many other things,” he agreed. Then, since he had her talking, he asked more questions. Maybe he could get her to admit who she was. Bring the truth out herself. And then what? Was he going to confess that he already knew? That her father was now paying him to spend time with her? Yeah, that’d go over well. How the hell had he gotten himself into this hole anyway?

Disgusted, he blew out a breath and asked, “So, you’ve got bossy brothers. What about your parents? What’re they like?”

She frowned briefly and shifted her gaze back to the choppy sea, focusing on the foam of the whitecaps as if searching for the words she needed. Finally, on a sigh, she said, “They’re lovely people, really. And I love them terribly. But they’re too entrenched in the past to see that their way isn’t the only way.”

“Sound like normal parents to me,” he mused. “At least, sounds like my dad. He was always telling us how things had been in his day, giving us advice on what we should do, who we should be.”

She tucked her hair behind her ears and, instantly, it blew free again. Garrett was glad. He was getting very fond of that wild, tangled mane of curls.

“My parents don’t understand that I want to do something different than what they’ve planned for me.”

He imagined exactly what the royal couple had in mind for their only daughter and he couldn’t picture it having anything to do with boat trips, ice cream and Disneyland. He knew enough about the life Alex lived to know that she would be in a constant bubble of scrutiny. How she dressed, what she said and who she said it to would be put under a microscope. Reporters would follow her everywhere and her slightest slip would be front page news. Her parents no doubt wanted her safely tucked behind palace walls. And damned if he could blame them for it.