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“My secrets won’t hurt you.” Her voice is small and soft.
“Then why won’t you tell me who you are?”
“Because I’ve never been able to do this before. I’ve never had the freedom of anonymity.”
“Are you a real life princess?”
She laughs. “No. I promise you, I am not royalty. But it is something like that. Except it’ll be underwhelming when you find out. I come from a wealthy family and—”
“You don’t need to say anything more.” Understanding dawns. She is always pre-judged for who she’s related to, rather than who she is as an anonymous girl. “But if you are in trouble—”
“I’m not.” She turns to look at me, her gaze more trusting than I’ve seen yet. “My life is complicated and controlled by others, that’s all.”
I frown. “What kind of control?”
She blows out her cheeks. “The kind I can’t choose.”
And running from me, making me chase her, letting me catch her and hold her tight…that’s a kind of control shecanchoose. Me bossing her around about her feet… “So what did you do, ditch your handlers?”
“No.” Her denial would be more believable if her cheeks didn’t turn that adorable shade of pink. “Sort of.”
Jesus. Even if she’s not in trouble, this girl is in a different league than me. “Are you too young to get a Roman Holiday reference?”
She gasps. “I love that movie! Yes, I guess we could call this my Virgin Peak Holiday.” She laughs. “No. But I swear I’m not a princess.”
“You’re a princess to me.”
“And you’re the hot older guy who makes this brief escape special for me?” She blinks up at me shyly, but it’s not a surprise to me that she thinks I’m attractive. I’ve noticed her gaze following me around the cabin. I feel how she responds in my arms, every time I yank her close and threaten to kiss her.I see you, baby girl. I see your hungry little eyes.
“I’m whatever you need me to be until Thursday. Then I need to leave.” Those five words grate, leaving my throat raw as I put an end date on our time together.
She licks her lips. “So whatever happens…whatever I might want…it’s just our secret between now and then?”
“Code Name Goldilocks, the highest security level possible.”
She glances back at the trail we just came down, then turns and walks to the edge of the glittering lake.
I give her the space she needs, because whatever she wants, I know I will want it, too.
When her gaze drifts back to me, I recognize the coy look as an invitation. I stroll closer. Her hand hangs loose at her side, so I nudge her fingers with my own.
She eagerly entwines our hands, and I squeeze her fingers reassuringly. “Just say it, princess. Tell me how far I can take this wild thing between us.”
The sharp intake tells me I’m on the right track.
“My keepers…” She makes a face. “There are a lot of them, basically. Estate trustees, family lawyers, corporate liaisons. And they all collectively enforce rules that were established long before I became an adult. It’s…from the outside, I think my life would seem archaic, to be honest. And there’s no room for change.”
“That sounds complicated. Are you…alone? No family?”
“I was an only child.”
Was. One word carries so much pain. “Your parents are gone?”
She nods. “They died in a— I lost them at the same time. When I was a teenager.”
I frown at the way she rephrases that mid-sentence. A wealthy young woman, orphaned as a teenager. It’s the type of story that might hit the media, and I wonder if her interest in keeping her identity a secret is related to that.
But I’ve been head-down on military mission after military mission for the last fifteen years. If she was infamous for a hot second, there’s a good chance I missed it.
