Justin couldn’t believe he had a luxury hotel room on a Friday night in San Francisco. He couldn’t appreciate the perk. All he could think about was getting back out to the country with his team.

Any other time he’d check out the ladies.

Not when he had to play bodyguard to a Russian princess.

About that princess ...

He stared at the worn and faded gray suitcase he had placed in the middle of Elianna’s beautiful room, which connected to his via a common door.

She’d stepped into the bathroom as soon as they walked in and it sounded as if water ran in the sink. 

What kind of princess was sent on a trip with that piece-of-shit bag?

Romanov was a freaking alpha shifter king.  His clan had to be loaded.

On the flight here, Justin recalled the time he’d heard all about Romanov and his clan.  That was years ago and had been Rory’s fault.  That egghead lived for research. During a typhoon when they were hunkered down in a Quonset hut in some unholy country, Rory started talking about bear shifter clans. When he hit on Clan Boudreaux and began drilling Justin for information, Justin warned him off the topic of where he’d grown up.

He did not want to relive one minute of his life in that place before he’d turned his back on them and vowed to never return.

Unfazed, Rory had gone off in another direction, talking about the clan on the Kamchatka Peninsula and how it had been the best-kept secret within a royal human dynasty.  Evidently, one of the sons with a roaming eye got involved with a woman who turned out to be a grizzly bear shifter.  She gave birth to a son and raised the boy in secret, but with the father’s knowledge. When it came time to battle the king’s enemies, the first Romanov alpha bear shifter became the king’s best weapon, with no one knowing the truth about him except his mother and father.

Fast forward a few hundred years and humans learn of shifters among them. As soon as that happened, Romanov declared his clan and that he ruled the Kamchatka Peninsula. 

Yep, the princess Justin had to play bodyguard for came from royal blood, which showed. She carried herself with the haughtiness of royalty, but she’d managed to be polite after all.

That was more than he’d expected.

He still didn’t understand that ratty suitcase.

The bathroom door opened and her skin had more color, but she still wore sunglasses. He couldn’t even see her eyes. Why would it matter?  They had to be brown.

She asked in a worried tone, “You are sure this is place I stay?”

Damn, was he going to have to find a suite to appease her?  He’d actually asked about one when he arrived, just in case, but the hotel had a conference going on. 

Justin explained, “These reservations were made by my boss. I have no say over the type of room you get, but if this is not ... acceptable or big enough or whatever then—”

“What? No.  Not what I say.”

Justin had been up thirty hours by the time he reached Junction, Wyoming, but he’d planned on drinking beer and trading lies with his buddies tonight.

Instead, he’d jumped on the jet, arrived in San Francisco and taken off in the SUV rental the Guardian had arranged to have waiting. The rush had been due to Justin’s need to meet with the local alpha of a powerful wolf shifter pack in San Francisco, to confirm he had entered the alpha’s territory. This particular alpha was deadly serious about no unauthorized shifters entering his area, regardless of the animal.  Especially wolves from another pack were not allowed.

With being short on sleep and worrying about Adrian, by the time Justin had reached the dock he was not at his best. 

But that wasn’t the reason he hadn’t been his usual jovial self when he met Elianna. He’d carried a preconceived notion about her and now felt guilty over being less than charming. 

When he was on his game, women loved his charm. 

Pretty women brought it to the surface without him even trying. In spite of being a princess and not showing her eyes, this one was every bit a serious babe. 

But that whole royalty crap had screwed with his head.

It wasn’t Elianna’s fault that everyone had treated him like day-old scraps while he was growing up, and she was obviously trying to be polite.

His screwed-up attitude changed now.

Softening his tone, he addressed her point that he had misunderstood her words. “Okay, then I’m confused, which is my fault for not listening closely. So help me out. What’s wrong with the room?”

Her expression would be comical if not for leaving him even more confused. Damn, he really wanted to see her eyes so he could better read her.

She stared at him as if he’d asked whether she wanted to eat a live gator for dinner.

“Nothing wrong. This room ... too much.” She glanced over at the door to the large bathroom with a walk-in shower.  “I do not share bath?”

Okay, this whole gig was getting weirder by the moment.

And the brains in both of his heads leaped to the idea of sharing a bath with her.  She might be polite to the help, but getting naked with him would never happen. 

Justin wanted to ask her what kind of palace or home did Romanov run if a princess had to share a bathroom.

Maybe he had a pile of daughters. 

Instead, he kept his tone easy going and said, “No, you don’t have to share the bathroom while you’re here.”

The image of water rushing down over her as she lifted her arms to wash her hair flooded his mind. Then she’d turn and smile at him.

Not the time for fantasies, Justin reminded himself.

There was no explaining the way the male brain worked other than admitting to its simplicity.  He was in the presence of a sexy woman who had yet to curve her lips up at all and he wanted to make her smile.

And scream.

Stop. Right. There.  That thought was way out of bounds.  Not for another woman, but he wasn’t touching a princess even if she offered it to him, which she clearly wasn’t. Also, he did not intend to face the Guardian and explain how he couldn’t keep his pants zipped on an assignment.

Hell, this was the most conversation they’d had since he grabbed her arm and she barked at him.  That was another thing. When he touched her skin, his hand had tingled. No, it actually buzzed with energy like a mild electrical shock.

Not painful, just ... stimulating.

“Do you wait for me?” she asked.

How was it that yet again he felt like an idiot around her?  He was just standing there, staring at her as if he’d never seen a woman before. 

No wonder she probably thought he was a jerk.

He had been, but no more.  “No, I’m not waiting on you, but, uh, I was wondering, uh ... ” Think, moron.  Say something intelligent for once.  “Oh, yes, when would you like to eat?”

Whew. Not brilliant, but a decent recovery.

“I am good for five minutes.”

“What are you going to do in five minutes?”

“Take bath and dress.”

Five minutes? What woman at any point in time had ever showered and been ready in five minutes? 

She wouldn’t be thinking about rushing if he hadn’t made her feel as though she’d been imposing on his time, which this assignment was, but not her fault.

He smiled.  “No, you should take at least an hour.”

Her eyes narrowed to slits and her mouth did a great impression of a heart monitor display when it flatlined.

Now what had he said wrong?  In a hurry to leave before he made it worse, he took a step away. “I’ll knock on your door when it’s time to go eat.”

He stepped out, but before he closed the door, he reminded her, “Please don’t leave the room without me.  I’m responsible for your safety.”

“You guard body?”

She just had to say body in that lush accent.

His eyes—all on their own he wanted to point out—tracked north to south along that curvaceous frontier. 

“I do not need guard.” Her abrupt comment brought his gaze back to her face and reminded him he was on a mission he could not screw up. 

Or do any screwing around during, period. 

He must not have replied fast enough, because she said, “Is local alpha shifter?”

“Yes.”

“He knows I am here?”

“Yes.”

“He approved?” she asked.

“Yes,” Justin said, repeating his answer like some damn canary with a one-word vocabulary.   He explained, “I sent him a text as soon as I saw you arrive to start the twenty-four hours we’re clear to move around his territory without any restrictions.  He assured me his people would give us a wide berth.” More like the alpha had warned his people not to cross Justin due to whatever the Guardian had told him in their discussion regarding the princess. 

This was getting complicated and didn’t need to be. 

Justin cut to the point. “Whether you think you need protection or not, I am your bodyguard until I deliver you to the Boudreaux Clan.”

“Why do you frown?”

He had to start saying that name without grinding his teeth. Sticking a fake smile in place, he said, “Muscle cramp.”

She gave a terse nod, which he took more as dismissal than acknowledgment, because she continued to just stare at him. 

Getting the royal cold shoulder was all it took to push his mind back on track to treat this as a job. 

He pointed at the deadbolt lock on the door. “Turn this when I leave so no one can come in.”

“Know what lock is.”

That sounded like he’d just stepped on her last nerve.

He backed out and shut the door before he had no feet left to walk on at the rate he was shoving them down his throat. 

He waited for the lock to click. 

When it didn’t happen, he said, “Elianna.”

She made some muffled noise that sounded like a Russian curse, then the lock snapped in place as if flipped hard.

He actually laughed. 

That woman had some piss and vinegar in her royal veins.  If that hadn’t gone so awkwardly, he’d have departed her room through the adjoining doors to let her see that he was only a shout away.

But his gut told him she would take exception to a strange man having access to her room. 

Once she took a long, hot bath and had a meal in her, he’d give her the sealed packet with her name on it. Justin had found one for him and one for her on the Guardian’s jet.

Beyond that, the Guardian did not expect to hear from Justin unless something came up that he couldn’t handle on his own.

Seriously? 

The boss knew Justin would never live it down if he called for backup to escort a woman to a clan.  With the exception of having to walk into a bear shifter territory he’d sworn to never enter again, this mission registered as nothing more than a nuisance.

In fact, calling this side trip a mission was a stretch, but if he thought of it in professional terms then he could stay on track and approach her with the polite respect she deserved.

Nothing more. Nothing less. 

Definitely no eyeing her lush princess body again.

He also couldn’t allow his irritation over being pulled away from Adrian to spill over onto Elianna. This was probably no more than a vacation for her, but it was her time and Adrian was not her problem.

Justin just couldn’t brush off the worry hanging in the back of his mind.

While Rory and Cole were more than capable, being in San Francisco with a pretty woman felt like farting off while his buddies were getting bloodied.

Adrian had to make the cut.

Justin had lost human and shifter friends in some nasty ways, but he couldn’t live with losing that wolf.

But Adrian would be the first to tell Justin to focus on what was right in front of him, which meant delivering Elianna safely. 

Feeling every long hour of grime clinging to him, Justin headed for his own shower. He scratched his chin, noticed the start of a beard, and grabbed his shaver.  Pausing, he listened as the shower ran next door. Their rooms were mirror images, which meant his and Elianna’s bathrooms were side by side.

That water had to be running down her sweet body and touching places he ...

Shit. Stop it, right now, dickhead. She doesn’t even like you.

Maybe that was a good thing.

He peeled clothes off, already thinking of how he could up his game and do a better job of interacting with her during dinner.

Who knew, he might get a smile out of her.

She’d had a rough sea crossing, which could explain why she’d gotten a little cranky as he’d left her room. Still, after thinking back over everything he’d said, he honestly couldn’t pinpoint what had been wrong. 

He’d be ready much sooner than an hour. Should he go back early?

Why not? She’d been the one to say she needed less than ten minutes to get ready.

If that was true, she was a woman after his own heart. 

Good mate.

Justin froze with his hand on the shower controls, trying to decide if he’d heard Herc correctly.

Herc, the most obstinate bear in the world, that had never liked any female bear shifter Justin had shown an interest in.

Ever. 

Herc had even told Justin once, Grizzly mates no good.

Still, that had sounded pretty clear.  Pausing, Justin listened again then asked, Herc? Did you say something?

His bear snuffled as if Justin had disturbed him. Herc liked his sleep.

Shaking his head, Justin spun the controls to blast hot water and snorted at his imagination.

That’s all it could have been. 

He wanted a mate at some point, but he wasn’t up against a deadline like Cole had been with the mating curse.  Around ten years after having a Gallize animal called up by the Guardian, the mating curse started activating if the shifter was not mated.

Cole’s wolf had been going mad until Cole reunited with Tess. Lucky bastard. Few women could accept the Gallize power during bonding, but a Gallize female or a strong female shifter with their own power would survive the mating bond.

The female guardian who’d been charged with watching over Gallize females had vanished two hundred years ago.

The odds against finding one of those women to mate without that guardian involved were mind-boggling, just as grumpy Rory had pointed out.

But Herc didn’t like female bear shifters.

That meant Justin’s chances for flying the next spaceship scheduled to launch were better than him finding a suitable mate, but the desire nudged at the back of his mind.

Attacking his body with a bar of soap, he snorted again at the good mate comment.

He’d simply misunderstood his animal.