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At McKinnon’s sudden frown he added softly, “All the princess wants is what most of us take for granted—a normal life. She’s not a social butterfly—the bright lights and the fast-paced lifestyle don’t appeal to her, and—”
“How the hell do you know that?”
“Come on, McKinnon. Alec and I have been guarding her for almost six weeks now, same as you. Don’t you think we’d have noticed? She comes home from work and she stays home. She grades papers and plans her classes, and works on her book. She calls Zakhar and talks to her brother or one of her friends, and she rides that horse she loves whenever she can. Except for an occasional outing like Mount Evans, that’s it. Speaking of which, in case you hadn’t noticed, she only rides on the days you’re officially on duty.”
“I noticed,” Trace growled. “So what?”
“So she’s not the kind of woman where it’s all about her. She’s thoughtful, considerate, and from what Alec and I can gather sitting in on her classes, she’s a decent teacher—she really cares about her students. So why don’t you cut her some slack? You’re pretty hard on her—Alec and I were talking about it the other night.”
Trace threw him a forbidding expression, but Liam just smiled. “Yeah, we’re not blind, either. We’ve seen the way she looks at you, and it’s not the way she looks at us. If she were any other woman and she looked at me that way, I—”
The forbidding expression turned into a scowl, and Trace gritted his teeth. “Get the hell out of here, Jones.”
“Yes, sir!” Liam threw him a mocking salute. “See you Sunday night.”
Liam sauntered out and Trace cursed under his breath. He picked up his newspaper and tried to finish the article where he’d left off, but his thoughts strayed to what Liam had said. And what he hadn’t. Damn it, Trace thought, throwing his newspaper aside. Why did he have to bring that subject up? Now I’ll never be able to sleep tonight.
It wasn’t as if he hadn’t noticed almost from the start the princess wasn’t the kind of woman he’d first thought her. And it wasn’t as if he hadn’t noticed she’d strictly curtailed her own pleasure in riding to accommodate his working schedule. And it damned well wasn’t as if he hadn’t noticed the way she followed him with her eyes.
At least he didn’t mention my eyes follow her, too, whenever they get the chance, Trace told himself, taking small comfort in his ability to hide his emotions. “Cut her some slack,” he muttered. “Yeah, right. If I don’t keep her at a distance emotionally, there’s not a snowball’s chance I’ll be able to keep her at a distance physically, job or no job.”
He wanted her. But it was just one of those things he had to live with. He knew there was no future in it, and he wasn’t going down that road. Not if he could help it.
Last Sunday had been a near thing, and he’d spent Labor Day Monday distancing himself from her. She’d toppled his defenses on Sunday...and she hadn’t done it on purpose. She just had to breathe, to smile, to take his hand, to laugh the way she had at the summit, and his protective instincts kicked into overdrive. He wanted to protect her from everyone and everything...except him. But he was the one she most needed protection from.
He hadn’t meant to tell her anything about himself. And he sure as hell hadn’t planned to tell her about Afghanistan. But somehow the words had poured out of him like water through a sieve. Then she’d looked at him with compassion in those green eyes, and he’d felt as if he could tell her anything and she’d understand. He’d almost blurted out the reason the Corps had wanted him to re-up, because of his facility with languages. He’d remembered just in the nick of time why he was there with her, and had held his tongue.
Afterward, he couldn’t help but notice the way she’d darted wistful looks at him every time they’d passed another couple as they finished up their walk alongside Echo Lake. He’d managed to shunt that to the back of his mind—until she’d touched him in the SUV atop Mount Evans. I never burn, he’d told her, but she’d rubbed sunscreen on him—sunscreen, for God’s sake!—and the softness of her fingertips had burned right through him, hotter than the hottest sun. Then she’d touched his lips and he’d almost pulled her into his arms.
His reaction to her on every level baffled him. Like when they’d been talking about her one-time friend, the achingly beautiful Juliana Richardson. He’d seen the actress in his mind’s eye as they were discussing her, but somehow her perfection had paled in comparison to the warm, animated face of the princess sitting next to him. He couldn’t prove it, but he knew in his heart that if he were given his choice between the two women he would choose the princess. Hands down.
