Royally Protected (Protector's Promise Book 2) Read online

  And even though they were ‘allowing’ me to go on a walk alone, I knew I was going to be watched. They were probably using their binoculars to follow my every move around the perimeter.

  When I was younger, it was easy for me to just shrug this all off but the older I got now, the more aware I was of how much of a prison my life really was. I was living a life devoid of independence. But the truth was that I did love my country, and I was humbled by the passionate devotion that the British people showed towards our family. Also, I was aware of the responsibility and the tradition that I owed them.

  I just didn’t know how to balance it all. I didn’t believe I was fit for the position I held in the world.

  I was walking in one straight direction, holding the map up in my hand because the last thing I needed was for some scandal to break out about how I lost my way in the woods at a resort.

  But I did know how to read a map. I knew how to survive outdoors due to my time served in the Royal Army in my early twenties. They were the truly formative years of my life and the years that I enjoyed the most. But now all that was behind me. I had other duties to perform as a member of the Royal family.

  I was looking down at the map, anticipating the way around the loop when I heard a rustle in the bushes up ahead. I looked up and saw a beautiful woman, stepping carefully, her head down, and she was deep in concentration.

  I followed her movements, she looked like someone I had seen somewhere before. I assumed she was the other mystery guest Ivan and Sierra had told me about.

  Surprisingly, maybe because she was so preoccupied with not tripping over knots of roots and twigs, she hadn’t still noticed me standing there which gave me a few more moments to study her.

  She had the most pristine caramel brown skin I had ever seen on a woman. She was flawless, petite but tall, and her arms were slender in that sleeveless blue dress she was wearing. Her dark hair was sleek and laid out gracefully around her shoulders. She looked up at me abruptly, catching me by surprise, and I saw that her eyes were a deep chocolate brown.

  She stopped, probably stunned for a second because she thought she was alone here.

  “Oh!” was her only remark. It wasn’t just the sunlight I felt like I was bathed in, there was some kind of glowing aura emanating from her as she stood there in front of me. We were just two people, alone in an emerald green forest trail with some sunlight filtering through the canopy of leaves above us.

  We could have been in the middle of a fairytale.

  “Hello,” I called out to her, clasping my hands together behind my back, while she smiled. She had the most perfect lips, a deep coral color, not too thin and not too thick. They looked perfectly kissable. Why was I thinking about kissing a stranger?

  “Hello to you too,” she replied, and I noticed how tender and graceful her voice was, and yet it was strong and articulate at the same time. She had an American accent.

  “Looks like we’re the only two people here,” I said as I took a few bold steps towards her. She clutched the strap of her leather satchel tightly, and I glanced down her slender endlessly long legs.

  “I know what you’re thinking, sandals!” she exclaimed. She caught me looking, and now I noticed there was a darker blush on her cheeks.

  “I wouldn’t personally recommend them, no,” I said as I tidied up some hair that had fallen on her face. Was she feeling what I was feeling here? This may have been the most unique opportunity of my life. I was completely alone, completely cut off from the world with a beautiful woman in front of me. I wanted to kiss her. I also wanted to push her up against the trunk of the tree behind her, but that clearly wouldn't be appropriate!

  “Did they promise you we’ll keep out of each other’s way?” she asked as an awkward response to my previous awkward statement. We both grinned at each other, and I wasn’t sure if she’d recognized me. But then again, I wasn’t an easily recognizable face in America.

  “It’s fine. I’m glad we’ve crossed our paths now, and I hope you have a lovely walk and a quiet stay here,” I said. Her smile grew, and she nodded.

  "It's such a beautiful day for a walk," she stated. She spoke slowly. It was almost like she was possibly figuring out how she knew me as she spoke. She smiled and turned to walk away and then she tripped on a low lying tree branch. I ran over to her and tried to catch her, but I was too late. Instead, I reached out my hand to help her up.

  "Thank you. As you can see I haven't been for a hike in quite a while," she said.

  "Are you okay?" I asked.

  "Thank you for your help. I'll be okay now. I think I'll go take a break," she laughed.

  Before I could add anything else, she walked right past me. She looked over her shoulder once, our eyes met and then she was walking away. I felt like that smile of hers was going to be embedded in me for a long time.

  Within moments, she had disappeared. She was gone so fast that I wasn’t even sure if this meeting had happened or not. But she did leave me with a massive smile on my face which I didn’t know what to do with.

  Why was I smiling?

  What was I so worried about before I saw her?

  Something had happened to me.

  Chapter 5

  Ava

  It wasn’t just the fact that the man I had casually bumped into moments ago, looked familiar, but there was something more about him that kept me thinking. Something was interesting about him. There was definitely something attractive which had drawn me to him. Thinking about this encounter was making me stop in my tracks instead of just carrying on. For some reason, I wanted to hear his voice and look into his eyes and have him look into mine.

  When we spoke that day in the forest, I had butterflies in my stomach. I couldn’t recall the last time someone had made me feel that way.

  In the past few years since I became a part of Hollywood and became a ‘celebrity,’ I had been in and out of casual relationships. There had been nobody I’d been able to commit to, but there had been several of them nonetheless.

  And right now, despite the spark I felt with this man, I couldn’t even remotely entertain the thought that I might like him. If he was the only other guest at the resort, there was a chance I might bump into him again, but for the sake of my privacy and my sanity, it would be better if I didn’t.

  I did not want to be tempted by a handsome, dashing gentleman into a casual whirlwind affair at a remote ski resort. That would be insane. I had no mental space for that sort of thing!

  Still thinking about him, I walked back to the resort, trying to divert my attention to the possibility of a relaxing bath instead. I had come here to get away from my problems, not to create new ones!

  Siera was at the reception desk, working on her computer and she looked up when I walked in.

  “How was your walk?” she asked as I walked up to her.

  “It was beautiful and surreal. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this close with nature before!”

  She smiled and nodded.

  “That is how I felt when I first came here, too. I just couldn’t get enough of the natural beauty.”

  I sighed and looked around the gorgeous sparkling lobby interiors.

  “I bumped into your other guest,” I blurted out.

  “Oh? I hope that wasn’t too much trouble for you. We were hoping your paths wouldn’t cross at all during your stay.”

  I shook my head.

  “It was fine. He was very polite and well mannered. In fact, he looked quite familiar.”

  The smile on Sierra’s face was growing, and I knew she knew something I didn’t know. "Prince Sebastian is so down to earth. He's such a nice man," Siera said.

  I knew it! He was a celebrity!

  When she said it first, I thought I’d heard her wrong. It couldn’t be…was it really? He looked different from the photographs I’d seen of him. Granted, I’d never paid much close attention to what the tabloids had to say about him, but he was so normal and casual today!

  “Prince
Sebastian? You mean, cousin to the Princes of England?”

  Sierra smiled knowingly, and I blushed. She must have seen the look of crazed excitement in my eyes. Even Hollywood stars like me had our starstruck moments!

  I gulped and tried to control myself.

  “He’s so grounded isn’t he?” Siera remarked, and I nodded, licking my lips nervously.

  “Charming. Anyway, I think I’ll spend some time in my room for now. I might relax and have a bath. Thanks for the company,” I said and quickly walked away from her. Even though she was lovely and I would have loved to get to know her better, the last thing I wanted was for the staff at the resort to gossip about how floored I was by a British prince!

  As I climbed up the stairs to my room, I still couldn’t believe I had just bumped into a member of the British royal family. I was amazed by how ordinary he seemed, and yet there was something extraordinary about him.

  He wasn’t just a regular well spoken handsome man, he was unique in some inexplicable way.

  I shut the door behind me, my heart was pounding.

  Prince Sebastian. He's been all over the tabloids recently. Now it was all coming back to me. I remembered reading about it in a magazine.

  There were stories about him and some woman. The story was about a British supermodel, was claiming to have been in a relationship with him. She said that he had even proposed to her and wanted to make her his wife. In the story, she says that he cheated on her with someone else after he proposed. She then claimed to be heartbroken and distraught, sharing intimate details about him with the media.

  And maybe all this might have been run-of-the-mill for any other celebrity, but I could only imagine how devastating this kind of a scandal was for the royal family. They had an image and a reputation to uphold.

  I was horrified for him, especially now that I’d met him.

  As for myself, I didn’t believe a word of what was published about him in these tabloids. I had been subject to enough of these lies and scandals myself. People said whatever they wanted to if they thought they could make a buck out of it.

  I wasn’t going to make any preconceived judgments about Prince Sebastian, not unless I personally got to know him. A media character assassination was just not something I was ever going to entertain, and I hoped for his sake that he was doing okay.

  I knew what a scandal like this was capable of doing to a person and I empathized with him.

  Chapter 6

  Sebastian

  It was several hours since I bumped into the beautiful mystery woman in the woods and I still couldn’t get her out of my head. I was sure I knew her from somewhere. I just couldn’t place her.

  I was half-tempted to go down to the lobby, find Ivan or Siera and ask them her name. I was pacing around my own bedroom, thinking maybe I could get one of my staff to do some digging around and find out who she was.

  But I didn’t want to set off any alarm bells.

  The last thing I wanted was for people to think I was interested in this woman. Even though she had made me feel something I hadn’t felt at first glance with anyone like this before.

  I needed to work myself out of bad habits, and this felt like a test of exactly that. A few months ago, before the scandal, I wouldn’t have wasted any time. I would have been down there right away, trying to get a direct and private line to the woman’s room.

  But now I knew better. I knew I needed to keep my distance and take some time off from casual relationships.

  And then it struck me. Right there in the middle of the room while I was pacing around, I remembered where I’d seen that beautiful brunette before.

  She looked so much like that child actress from my favorite movie as a kid. Even though I promised myself I would practice some restraint, I jumped on this opportunity. Within seconds, I was lying on my back on the sprawling, lavish bed, looking up that film on the internet.

  It was a fantasy fairytale film from my childhood, ‘The Singing Woods,’ which I knew was a favorite with all my cousins. It was a cult favorite of our generation, and now here she was, the same shining brown face, her dark sparkling eyes staring back at me. Only in child form on my screen.

  Ava Morrison.

  I hadn’t kept track of her through the years. I never realized she grew up. I didn't even think about that—because naturally, she grew up, just like I did. I looked through more images and information on her.

  She was in a few other children’s movies and had an immense fan following amongst people of our generation and kids of all ages alike. But as far as I could see, she hadn’t been in many films in the past few years. Her last film was five years ago. I wished I kept myself more updated with Hollywood, but I didn't

  But now I knew who she was, and I couldn’t believe it.

  The girl from my childhood dreams, the face that had kept me transfixed to the screen over and over again as a child, was right here in this hotel now. I was still thinking this all through in my mind. I had a conversation with her. She even looked into my eyes. I could have touched her.

  Sometime later, I decided to saunter down to the dining room and get something to eat since I hadn’t eaten anything all day. My staff were keeping their distance because I ordered them to, so nobody had the guts to remind me to eat earlier.

  When I entered the dining room, I noticed her immediately. She was sitting in the corner of the room, near the windows looking out. Still in that pretty blue dress, except she had a light, silky scarf around her shoulders now, adding to her natural grace.

  She glanced in my direction as I sat down at my table. There was only one member of the waitstaff who promptly brought me the menu and the wine list. I had to drag my gaze away from Ava and look down the menu.

  “I’ll have the steak, thank you. Rare.”

  Ava had a book on the table, which she was now flipping through, while I had nothing at all to occupy me except these thoughts about her.

  I knew she wanted to be left alone. That was exactly what I had asked for too, but now I was itching to go and speak to her. Part of it was because I was in awe of her presence. This character from my childhood was now a grown-up adult, and there was a mystical quality about her.

  And then there was a part of me that remembered the attraction I’d felt towards her in the trail outside.

  I wasn’t able to hold back for very long. Soon after my wine arrived, I picked up my glass and marched over to her table. Throwing every caution to the wind. She looked up as I approached her. Her brown eyes widened even more.

  “You must forgive me for interrupting, it’s just that I recognized you from my childhood, and I had to say something.”

  She smiled, in a faraway dazed kind of way and I saw how much more beautiful she looked now, in these dim lights and shadows of the dining room.

  “Of course, I’m glad you’re saying something. What is it that you’re saying?”

  It made me smile. Our eyes were transfixed together, and I couldn’t look away.

  “That I’ve seen your film, The Singing Woods, at least two hundred times, as a child of course. It’s not like I still watch it on repeat as an adult.”

  “Some do,” she said with a soft chuckle.

  I put my glass of wine down on her table and pulled a chair out and sat down. I knew I was taking liberties and she was in full authority to send me away, but all Ava did was smile even more extensively at me like she’d been waiting all evening for me to do exactly this.

  Chapter 7

  Ava

  Prince Sebastian coming over to my table, actually recognizing me, and deciding to have a conversation was not something I would have expected from the quiet dinner I intended to have. My heart beat fast in my chest as he pulled out a chair and sat down across from me.

  His blue eyes were strikingly blue, fiery almost, piercing even in the dim candlelight of the table. He had a neat haircut for his straw-blond hair, which had a reddish tinge. His features were aristocratic, with a robust Aquiline nose and
thin fierce lips. Now that I looked at him closely, there was no mistaking he was royalty.

  The staff in the dining room asked him politely if he would like to be served his steak at my table and he looked at me, and I smiled.

  “Am I making you miserable? I’m sure you get this often, fans throwing themselves at you unashamedly.”

  “I wouldn’t have taken you as a fan. I had no idea they were showing my film to British royalty,” I said. His eyes grew.

  “Ah! I was hoping you wouldn’t have recognized me.”

  “Why? Did you think I would treat you differently?” I took a sip of my white wine, and he seemed to be watching my lips. Or was I just imagining it? I knew my muscles were all tensed up. I was sitting on the edge of my seat. It was difficult to keep calm when this man was sitting across from me.

  “Most people do,” he replied in a lower hoarser voice. “As I’m sure they treat you.”

  My finger flickered over the stem of my crystal wine glass.

  “Yes.”

  Our eyes met, and I could see he was thinking of something. He couldn’t be thinking what I was thinking!

  “I’ve never met a Prince before,” I continued, and he squared his shudders and sighed. “But I bet you’ve met Hollywood actresses before.”

  He smirked handsomely, twirling his glass of wine smoothly.

  “Not as many as you would think. We, in England, tend to keep to ourselves.”

  His voice was smooth and firm like he was so sure of himself. His accent was refined, flawless, like music to my ears. Was it just me or was he the sexiest man I had ever met? Maybe it was just the wine. Since when was I this floored, this easily by a man?

  “I apologize if I’m not speaking to you correctly, as in, am I addressing you correctly? What do I call you?” I felt flustered, my cheeks were flushed.

  “Just call me Bas, please. It’s just the two of us here.”