Page 10 of Big, Burly Bodyguard

And me?

I’ve always been the one who believes in vows. In staying. In choosing the same person every day, even when it’s hard. I even got close once, but that turned out to be a facade. Even that didn’t turn me off of marriage.

I risk a glance at her now. She’s staring out the window, fingers laced together in her lap, posture perfect despite everything. Still a princess. Still composed.

Still devastatingly beautiful.

I swallow and turn my attention back to the highway.

This is my job. She is a job. Nothing more than a job.

My assignment is simple. Get her there. Keep her safe. And keep my fucking hands off of her.

It’s an assignment I’ve had a dozen times. Protect the asset. I’ve never wavered even once.

So it should be easy.

Except nothing about Evelyn Barlow feels easy anymore.

And the most dangerous part?

For just a few minutes back there, she’d looked at me like I was already hers.

chapter

five

Mitchell

The silence stretches just long enough to start feeling heavy.

Not uncomfortable exactly—but aware. Like we’re both tiptoeing around the thing we pretended didn’t happen back there on the shoulder of the road.

I clear my throat and keep my eyes on the highway. “First stop’s about two hours out. Nothing fancy. Just a roadside hotel.”

“That sounds perfect,” she says immediately. Too immediately. Like she’s grateful for anything that doesn’t revisit the previous conversation.

I nod. “You hungry?”

“Always,” she says, then winces. “I mean—yes. That would be lovely.”

A smile tugs at my mouth before I can stop it.

“You don’t have to do that, you know?”

“Do what?”

“Correct yourself. Watch your words and movements so carefully. No one is judging you in this truck.”

“Thank you.”

“So,” I say, aiming for casual. “What’s life like… over there?”

She glances at me. “Over there?”

“At your castle or whatever,” I clarify. “You don’t have to answer if⁠—”

“No, it’s fine,” she says quickly. “First, it’s a palace. And everything is very structured. Intentional.”