My plan was to get some sleep for a few hours, then go and relieve Emerik on guard duty. But I spent the time tossing and turning. I told myself it was because the motel bed wasn’t big enough: my feet were almost hanging off the end. But in the corps, I’d learned to sleep anywhere. It wasn’t the damn bed. It was her.

In a way, she was the opposite of everything I’d expected. I’d never met a politician before who was so genuinely passionate about peace. Most of them are happy to send thousands of grunts off to die just to make themselves look tough and get a boost in the polls. And I’d never expected someone from her background to be so down to earth and caring.

But in other ways, she was exactly what I’d expected. She was everything a princess should be: beautiful and noble and... better. Better than the rest of us, in a way that makes you want to be better, too. I was crazy about her. Obsessed. That’s why what happened in my doorway was still spinning, nonstop, in my mind. I’d nearly tasted those sweet lips.

But I couldn’t. I couldn’t get close to her, or she’d find out what a mess I was, inside. From now on, I’d make sure to keep my distance. I’d protect her, but that was it.

To distract myself, I tried to figure out how to get her home while staying off the radar of whoever was trying to kill her. I sure as hell couldn’t put her on a commercial flight. Her name would make ten thousand computer screens light up at the FBI. Whoever was leaking information to the assassins would tell them, they’d sneak someone onto the plane again, and she’d be a sitting duck for eight hours. Or they could just plant a bomb on the plane. Three hundred passengers meant nothing to these people.

It took me over an hour of wracking my brain, but finally, I got it. Barney. Barney could do it. It meant getting her to New York, a two thousand mile drive. But it would work.

The downside of figuring it out was that my brain went right back to what happened in the doorway. What would have happened if I’d kissed her. The scent of her, warm and sweet, but with that coolness of mountain mist. The soft push of her breasts as I crushed her to me. Her panting as I pinned her up against the doorframe and unbuttoned her jeans. I’d slide a hand down the front, under her panties, and cup her. She’d moan and toss her head, that chestnut hair lashing my face—

Under the covers I was achingly hard. The temptation to just keep thinking about her, to slip a hand down there and—

No! Jesus, I wasn’t going to jerk off to her! I wasn’t some teenage kid and it didn’t seem right, with her sleeping just a few rooms away. I sprang out of bed and pulled on my clothes. If I couldn’t sleep, I might as well go relieve Emerik early.

Outside, I walked down the line of rooms to where Emerik stood outside the Princess’s door. “Go get some rest,” I told him. “I’ll watch her, then Jakov can take a shift.”

Emerik didn’t move. “I’m fine,” he said. “It’s my duty. You get some rest.”

I frowned at him. Sure, he was loyal, but I’d never known anyone argue with having their shift cut short. “Seriously,” I growled. “Go.”

“Seriously,” he echoed, “No.”

I frowned again and then tensed, staring at the Princess’s door. “Did you hear something?”

He went silent for a moment and then shook his head. And I didn’t hear anything more, either. I relaxed. Just my imagination.

“Go back to bed, Mr. Buchanan,” said Emerik. “I’ll be fine until Jakov takes over.” He glared at Jakov’s room.

“You think she’s wrong about everyone living in peace, don’t you? You don’t trust him.”

He looked me right in the eye. “I lost two nephews in the war, Mr. Buchanan. So, no. I don’t trust any Garmanian. No matter where they were born.”

I shook my head sadly. I was trying to figure out what to say to the poor guy when I thought I heard a faint noise again. I put my hand on the door handle. “I’m going to check on her,” I told Emerik.

He grabbed my wrist. “You most certainly are not! It’s forbidden for a commoner to be in the Princess’s room!” I opened my mouth to argue but he cut me off. “There’s only one door and one window in her room and I’ve been standing in front of them all night! She doesn’t need you!”

I didn’t miss the way he said that last part. We glared at each other, our faces only a foot apart. But I could feel my neck going hot. He knew. Of course he did. Did you really think you were the first guy to fall for her? He probably sees this all the time.

I dropped my eyes to the door handle. Had I really heard something? Or was I just looking for an excuse to open the door and see her again?

I let go of the handle and stepped back. “Fine,” I grunted. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

And I walked off towards my room.