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"That’s baby brother doing his job" He winked over his shoulder at her "Let’s get you hoirl he’d one They could take her back to the palace, but a part of her would always be trapped here, forever tainted
Chapter One
Bezakistan – Two years later
Alea escaped frohter of the ballrooant, and she couldn’t breathe It wasn’t her dress or the amount of food she’d consumed, but the press of bodies, the expectation, the terror she could never quite shake…
The warht air caressed her skin as she closed the balcony doors behind her The terrace overlooked the garden at the center of the palace Normally, the doors would be open and a bar would have been placed out here, but Dane Mitchell, one of Tal’s bodyguards, had decreed it unsafe for the ti After an episode that had nearly ended in the o, Dane had been on a security tear Everyone had tried to explain to him that the perpetrator, Khalil, was dead and wasn’t likely to rise as a zombie to eat Piper’s brains Alea felt a suned on to the new "keep the women safe" plan
To Alea, it felt more like the "never let the women have any fun" plan Or a minute alone
"Hello, Landon" She didn’t have to turn around to know he stood there, strong and stalwart She’d heard the briefest squeak of the door opening…then nothing Landon Nix never es defeated his silent grace
"You don’t have to talk I just can’t leave you alone Pretend I’m not here"
Impossible She turned and stared at the quietest of her three watchmen, all of whom had been hired months after her rescue By then, she’d recovered, and Alea was beyond glad they had never seen her so weak They had been apprised of her abduction and given sketchy details, but by the time Tal had hired them, thanks to Cole Lennox’s advice, at least her body had recovered The three guards kept her safe day and night And had quickly become the bane of her existence
As well as the center of her every fantasy
Landon hovered in the corner, shadows clinging to hierous than normal He was six foot three and leaner than the two Mack Trucks he called friends, but there was no way he was any less lethal Her brain told her that, but so about him put her at ease in a way she wasn’t with the other two Dane was so dark and dos that scared the crap out of her But Landon, with his golden hair and face, with his expression so often as placid as an untouched lake, was a cal presence He never pushed her too hard to talk or deuarded her, he sio Coop and Dane either pretended to flirt with her or downright insisted that she follow their direction, but Landon just quietly did his job
He was a little like the large, gorgeous Labrador retriever she’d had as a child Except she had never drea on his friends
She had to stop thinking that way, but Landon ht fell softly all around her She’d snuck away to escape the crowd, but she was surprised at just howout here alone with Lan "Did Tal loo flush Maybe Lan’s down-to-earth nature hat made her feel so comfortable He was obviously uneasy with the wealth around him Ever since she’d returned to Bezakistan and the palace, she had felt the sa in the real world, and sometimes this opulence chafed
"I don’t knohy I have to wear this ht," Lan said with a bit of a Texas drawl
She couldn’t help herself He was far too endearing to ignore Months andhad just proven she wasn’t capable
Alea closed the space between theht"
He looked up, his eyes flaring briefly as she neared "I’ood with clothes like this I have to admit, I liked the uniforms in the Army better Uncle Sam’s dress code ood Of course, he looked devastatingly handsoht Stop now After hesitating for an instant, she forced herself to buck up and do what she’d crossed the room to acco for his tie
Lan nodded, and she quickly undid the black scrap of silk The Armani tuxedo had been perfectly fitted, but she knew very well that his normal wardrobe choices ranT-shirts It was a criainst women everywhere that the o there, Alea He can’t handle your dae None of them can And you can’t handle them
Her inner voice ay ht Landon Nix was a gorgeous god of a man ouldn’t look at her twice if her cousins weren’t paying him to None of them would She’d seen a picture of Dane’s ex-wife once She’d been blonde and stacked and gorgeous She wasn’t sure why they’d divorced, but it couldn’t have had anything to do with a lack of desire Any heterosexual man would want that woman
No one would want Alea if she wasn’t tied to the fabulously wealthy, royal al Mussads
Landon didn’t ain, this time much looser No wonder he’d been uncoled hi his hard chest beneath He was so close and he smelled incredible The heat of his skin penetrated her senses His gorgeously sculpted lips lingered just above her own His eyes, which had always seemed so cold, were noarm blue and focused intently on her A flash of heat passed through her body
If he knehat she was thinking, she would undoubtedly make a complete fool of herself because he was her cousins’ e soo That should behis throat "Yeah Thanks It is You’re really good with that I mean with men’s clothes" His eyes closed briefly "I didn’tthe to shut up now"
This was another reason she felt more comfortable with Lan Looks aside, he wasn’t anywhere near perfect In fact, he could be a charly inept conversationalist "It’s okay I only kno to tie a bowtie because Kadir was so bad at it When Rafiq would try to help hiirl, they broke my Barbie house To avoid future disasters, I took care of their ties from that point on"