Page 23 of Royal Salvation

Reaper looked across at Lucía who glanced up at that moment, their eyes locking, and he felt a tug in his belly as if an invisible string was pulling him toward her. He knew he had to cut it, or they’d both end up hurt.

The attraction he felt for her was too strong and yet he knew as sure as he stood there that he wouldn’t walk away and leave her protection to someone else. She was his and that was about as fucked up as this could get.

“I should have kept quiet. This isn’t my place and she’s not mine to fight for.” He didn’t know why he was admitting that to the Queen and mother of the woman who’d him tied up in knots.

“Perhaps.”

Reaper turned his attention back to the Queen to find her watching him watch Lucía. “May I ask you a question?”

“You may, but I don’t promise to answer.”

“Why didn’t anyone else speak up for her?”

The Queen sighed and went silent for a moment, and he wondered if he’d pushed his luck too far before she looked him in the eye. “In this family, it’s imperative that you learn to stand up for yourself. My husband and I never wanted to fight her battles for her knowing that one day she’d need to fight her own. We needed her to have the backbone to do it.”

“Believe me, Lucía has more backbone than anyone I know. I’ve been on the receiving end of it.”

The Queen laughed, bringing the adoring gaze of her husband to them. “She does everywhere except here. For some reason, when she’s home, she tries to be who she thinks she should be, not who she really is inside. I’m hoping that after tonight she learns that we love her for who she is, not what she should be. Lucía is perfect as she is, and if she showed her true self to the world there’d be no doubt who the Princess of the people would be.”

“I hope so too.”

“And if not, I know she has people around her who will show her the way.” Her glance at Valentina and Bás confirmed what she meant.

“She does.”

The Queen touched his arm and leaned in close. “Look after my daughter, Mr Carson. Be who she needs you to be, not what you think you should be to her.”

On that she glided towards her husband, leaving Reaper more confused than ever. She seemed to think there was more going on than there was. Or had she seen something he couldn’t? He didn’t know but what he did see was that for the first time since arriving home, Lucía was wearing a genuine smile and the tenseness in her shoulders had eased.

Chapter 10

Justice had avoided her last night, hanging back as Valentina checked her rooms and said goodnight. Lucía wasn’t sure how she’d felt about his outburst at dinner but this morning she felt good and a little sheepish. He shouldn’t have had to do it and she realised she was in part to blame for what she’d allowed to happen.

Bouncing out of bed, she set the power on the coffee pot and headed for the shower. Today would be a good day because she got to catch up with some of her charity workers and look in on them and see how things were going.

As she showered it was hard to forget the image of Justice in just his towel and her body ached with arousal remembering his hard ridges and plains. Her battery-operated boyfriend had done nothing to ease the ache. She regretted letting it go so long without finding a lover, but her position hardly made that easy. Perhaps her long abstinence explained her ridiculous attraction to Justice Carson.

Dressing in dark green trousers and a cream blouse with a round neck and a loose bow, she blow-dried her hair so it lay in waves around her shoulders. She’d be wearing it up for the ball that night, so it didn’t matter if it got blown around. Adding a light layer of make-up, she finished her coffee and the fruit that had been delivered while she was in the shower.

Knowing Justice was outside her door waiting for her gave her a funny butterfly feeling in her tummy, and she rushed to brush her teeth and put on her lip gloss before taking a second to calm her breathing. It wouldn’t do for him to know how much he affected her. They’d only known each other just over a week, and this wasn’t some whirlwind romance but a man doing his job. Lucía had to keep reminding herself of that, or she’d get swept away by the tidal wave of whatever this was.

Opening the door, she saw him turn to her, the ends of his blond hair curling over the collar of his navy suit. “Good morning, Princess Lucía. Are you ready to go?”

“Yes, I am. Is Valentina coming with us?” Lucía had gotten on well with the woman but today she hoped it was just the two of them.

“Valentina is taking care of some things here at the Palace but if you’d like her to come, I can find her and ask her to attend.”

The formal way he was speaking to her made her frown. “Justice!”

His brows rose as he turned from walking her down the stairs, his body just in front as if trying to protect her, from what, she didn’t know. “Yes, Princess?”

“Cut that shit out.”

He didn’t answer but his jaw flexed as he resumed his route, ushering her toward the car he’d drive her around in all day. Opening the door, he waited for her to get in before closing it. She watched him walk around to the driver’s side and slide in, his scent filling the car and mixing with the leather from the upholstery, making it her new favourite smell.

As he drove away, he caught her eyes in the rear-view mirror. “So, what crawled up your ass this morning, Lucía?”

She smiled, relieved that the man she’d spent the last week with had returned. “Nothing. I just don’t want the bowing and scraping I get from others from you. I need you to be you, like we were at home.”