To Kiss a King (Kings of California #11)(34)
Author: Maureen Child

“Shorter than me, then,” Garrett said tightly.

“Most people are,” she returned. “Hardly a crime.”

“He’s at least thirty and he’s at the beach in the middle of the week.”

“So are you,” she pointed out, glancing over her shoulder at the man in black who was glowering at the rest of humanity. Honestly, he looked like the Grim Reaper. No wonder most people tended to give her a wide berth.

“Yes, but I’m working,” he told her.

“And you never let me forget that, do you?” Alex gritted her teeth and turned her head back to watch the handsome surfer carry his board out to the water. His black wet suit clung to a fairly amazing body and his long, light brown hair was sun-streaked, telling her he spent most of his days in the sun. Perhaps Garrett was right and he was a layabout. She frowned at the thought.

“Alex, don’t start that again.”

“I didn’t start it, Garrett,” she told him, now ignoring the surfer to concentrate on the conversation she was having with the man who refused to get close to her. “I never do. You’re the one who consistently reminds me that I’m your responsibility. And I simply can’t tell you how flattering that is.”

He sighed. She heard it even from three feet away.

“But, even though it’s your job to watch over me,” she added, not for the first time, “it doesn’t give you the right to chase away any man who dares to look at me.”

“It is if I think they’re dangerous.”

She laughed outright at that comment and turned to stare at him. “Like the college student yesterday at the art gallery? That sweet young man who was so nervous he dropped his bottle of water?”

Garrett frowned. “He kept touching you.”

“It was crowded in that shop.”

“That’s what he wanted you to think. He wasn’t nervous, Alex. He was on the prowl. He kept bumping into you. Touching you.” Scowling, he picked up a handful of sand and let it drift through his fingers. “It wasn’t that crowded.”

“Well, certainly not after you threw the poor soul up against a wall and frisked him!”

He smiled at the memory. “Did discourage him quick enough, didn’t it?”

“And half the gallery,” she pointed out. “People scattered, thinking you were a crazy person.”

“Yeah…” He was still smiling.

“You’re impossible. You know that, don’t you?”

“If I hadn’t known it before I met you, I do now. You tell me often enough.”

“And yet you don’t listen.” Pushing up from the sand, Alex dusted off the seat of her white shorts and snatched up the sandals she had kicked off when they first arrived. Walking to him, she looked down into Garrett’s eyes and said, “You might want to ask yourself why you take it so personally when another man looks at me. Or talks to me.”

“You know why,” he muttered, keeping his gaze fixed on hers.

“Yes, the job.” She went down to one knee in front of him. “But I think it’s more than that, Garrett. I think it’s much more, but you’re too much of a coward to admit it.”

His features went like granite, and Alex knew she’d struck a nerve. Well, good. Happy to know it.

So quickly she hardly saw him move, he reached out, grabbed her and pulled her close. Then he gave her a brief, hard kiss before letting her go again. Shaking his head, he stood up, then took her hand and drew her to her feet as well.

“You keep pushing me, Alex, and you never know what might happen.”

“And that, Garrett,” she said, licking her lips and giving him a small victory smile, “is the fun part.”

Eleven

“I quit.”

“I beg your pardon?”

Garrett winced at the snooty tone the King of Cadria could produce. He had known going in that this phone call wouldn’t go well, but there was nothing to be done about it. Garrett was through working for the king, and Alex’s father was just going to have to deal with it.

“You heard me correctly, your majesty,” he said, leaning back in his desk chair. The study in his home was dark, filled with shadows in every corner. A single lamp on his desk wasn’t enough to chase them away—seemed like a pretty good metaphor for his life at the moment, he thought, surprised at the poetic train his mind was taking. But there were shadows in Garrett’s past, too. Always there. Always ready to pounce. And the light that was Alex—though damn brighter than anything he’d ever known—still couldn’t get rid of all those dark places.

So there was really only one thing to do. “I quit as your daughter’s bodyguard.”

The king blustered and shouted and Garrett let him go. He figured he owed it to the man to let him get it all out of his system. And while a royal father thousands of miles away ranted and raged, Garrett’s mind turned to that afternoon on the beach. The look in Alex’s eyes. The taste of her.

These past few days had been torturous. He couldn’t be with her without wanting her and he couldn’t have her as long as he was responsible for her safety. But the whole truth was, he couldn’t have her, period.

Even if he gave in to what he wanted, what would it gain either of them? Soon she’d be going home to a damn palace. He would be here, in California running his business. He wasn’t looking to be in love or to be married. But even if he were, she was a princess and there was just no way Garrett could compete with that. Oh, he was rich enough to give her the kind of house and servants she was used to. But he didn’t have the pedigree her family would expect of a man wanting to be with Alex.

He was a King, and he was damn proud of it. The problem was, she was the daughter of a king.

No. There was nothing ahead for them but more misery and, thanks very much, but he’d rather skip that part of the festivities.

Sitting forward, he braced his elbow on the desktop and only half listened to the king on the other end of the line. Whatever the man said wouldn’t change Garrett’s mind. He already knew he was doing the only thing possible. For both of them.

“Mr. King,” Alex’s father was sputtering, “you cannot simply walk away from my daughter’s safety without so much as a warning. I will need time to—”

Enough was enough.

“Sir, I won’t take money from you to watch over Alex,” Garrett finally interrupted the king and the other man’s abrupt silence told him the king wasn’t used to that kind of treatment. Just one more nugget of proof that Garrett King and royalty were never going to be a good mix. “But, that said,” he continued into the quiet, “I won’t leave her out there alone, either. On my own, I’ll watch out for her until she’s on a plane headed home.”