A Royal World Apart(8)

At the same time, she fought the urge to flaunt every bit of leg her simple black sheath dress revealed. She wasn’t sure where either feeling had come from.

“Just walk on,” he said.

“We just got out of the car together, Mak, it’s pretty obvious that I’m with you.”

“Just walk on,” he repeated, his voice firm as he closed the door behind her.

Frustration built in her chest, like a hardening knot. It was completely disproportionate to the situation, but that didn’t stop it from getting even worse.

“Fine,” she said, turning and heading toward her favorite coffee shop. It had been a long time since she’d been able to go out for coffee. Trips out on the town were a rare treat, typically reserved for the times when Marlo and Sidney were around and their security team joined forces with hers. They were always a spectacle, the three of them, with everyone giving them a wide berth. Often, their security detail would go into shops first and clear them of clientele before they went in.

It was all a bit over the top. And as far from normal as anything she could imagine. This would be a different angle on it. Still, hardly normal with a large, muscular man in a custom black suit stalking her like predator.

She turned and looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He pretended not to notice, choosing to fade into the crowd around him. Not that he could really fade, not in the sense that he could go unnoticed. But he blended into his surroundings like something organic to the cityscape.

He looked more a part of Kyonos than she’d ever felt she was.

She turned away from him and focused on the shops that lined the narrow streets. English and Greek were spoken in Kyonos, and both languages were printed on signs in newer parts of the city, but in old town, it was predominantly Greek. Here there were still market stalls, with fish and fruit and homemade pitas. She liked it better than the polished, uniform look found deeper in the city.

She made her way into the kafenio, and she could feel Mak follow her in. She focused on the surroundings instead of turning to look at him. She always enjoyed coming here. It was small, with lavish details carved into darkly stained wood. Old books filled the shelves and mismatched armchairs were placed in front of small boutique tables.

It was intimate. Quirky. Everything the palace was not. Everything she looked for when she sought to escape the confines of her family home.

She approached the counter and spoke in Greek to the woman working the register.

“Coffee. Metrio, please.” The hair on the back of her neck stood up, a shot of adrenaline spiking in her veins. Mak had gotten closer to her. Strange how she was so certain of that fact. That she was so very aware of him. “And another please. No sugar.”

Mak didn’t seem like the sugar type.

Eva paid for both drinks and collected the white cups after the woman finished pouring the thick coffees. “Efharisto,” Eva said, nodding her head, grateful that the woman seemed oblivious to her identity.

Since the other night’s casino debacle had made the news, it was likely her people expected her to be on house arrest. Or at least wearing something much flashier than she’d chosen for the day. In the papers, lately especially, she’d been shown in glittering gowns with bright lipstick. Today, she was much more subdued.

“I got yours,” she said to Mak. “We can sit over here.”

“I’m not here to be, or look like, your companion,” he said, hardly looking her direction.

“Oh, come on, Mak.”

“Didn’t I tell you not to argue with me?”

“Maybe, I zoned out through half of that speech.” If she didn’t look so beautiful, the sort of beautiful that tied a man in knots and made him say, and do, things he was sure to regret, he would have slung her over his shoulder and deposited her back in the car. All things considered, it seemed like a good idea, really. And he would have an excuse to touch her.

“You are disobeying direct orders.”

Her full lips curved into a smile. “I’m not very good with orders.”

“Princess …”

“No one knows I’m here. I’m traveling without an entourage of security which, on sanctioned outings is quite unusual, if not unheard of. And the barista didn’t seem to have a clue who I was. Let’s pretend I’m a very forward woman. And I’ve just bought you a coffee so that you’ll come and chat with me for a while. How about that?”

“I have a lot of experience turning those sorts of women down.” Mak took the cup of coffee Eva was holding out to him and moved to a table tucked into a corner of the shop.

She was intent on causing a scene and going along with her wishes seemed the best way to keep it from escalating. That was why, in some ways, he preferred protecting someone in a war zone to something like this. In a hostile situation, he would simply pick her up and sling her over his shoulder if he needed to move her.

In public, in a situation where he was protecting her reputation more than her safety, it was something that couldn’t happen.

He sat in the chair and she put the coffee in front of him. Her full lips tipped upward into a smile. She had sauntered across the coffee shop, each movement speaking of her utter satisfaction with herself. Each step revealing a bit more of her long, golden legs.

She was beautiful, there was no question. He had noticed it the first night, when she’d been putting herself on display, and he noticed it now, when she was practically demure in a dress that recalled old days of sophisticated glamor and elegance.

At least, he imagined that’s what a woman might think. Being a man, his focus tended to run toward her toned, tanned thighs.

He tightened his hand into a fist. Not for the first time, he wondered if it was time to find a lover. Well, the answer to the question was yes, it was past time. But there were complications. Complications that would only grow.

Eva took her seat across from him, a hint of her feminine scent drifting to him. Like floral soap and clean skin. His blood started to pump hotter, faster. Thinking of her at the same time he thought of finding a lover was not the best idea.

Another crack in his iron-clad control. She always seemed to be at the center of those breaks. Not something he cared to analyze. That was how he lived his life. He filtered out what he didn’t need. Extra information, emotion, and he concentrated on what he did need. Essentials, the ability to act in a crisis. He had to. He had to be able to cut through noise, and confusion, to take swift and decisive action.

He didn’t have time to stop and smell the flowers. Whether they were literal flowers or soap that smelled faintly of them.

“Why do you turn them down?” she asked, her head tilting to the side, dark curls spilling over her shoulder like a glossy river.

“You’re trying to share again. Why do you go to casinos?”

“We’ve been over that,” she said, looking down into her cup.

“To try and destroy your reputation?”

“In part. I won’t lie. But also because I want to have some fun. My father … I love him but he believes very strongly in control and in public opinion. Those two things mean that my life has been micromanaged from the moment I was born. If I ever went on vacation with friends I had to bring an entourage of palace employees. To keep me safe, that’s what he’s always said. But the reality is it’s also to keep me in line. The more I’ve grown the more I realize that … the more I’ve hated how much I’ve always stayed in line.”

She lifted her head, and he felt her looking at him. Her dark eyes were still covered by her sunglasses, but he could imagine them, glittering, fringed by thick black lashes, filled with emotion. Yes, she was beautiful.

“You feel things too much, Eva. Take too much personally.”

“Now you’re giving advice?” she asked, her lips tightening.

“You wanted to talk. I’ll talk. Emotion changes constantly. All you really have in life, the only constants, are honor and commitment to upholding that honor. You make choices to do certain things, and you do them. And you can find satisfaction there.”

“Sounds noble,” she said, taking a sip of her coffee.

“I’ve never considered myself noble,” he said. “But it’s how I live.”

His eyes were always on the goal. If he said something would be done, he saw it was done. It was why he’d consented to dealing with Eva for the next six months. Completing the task, and doing it exactly as promised, was more important than being comfortable, or happy.

“Are you happy?” she asked.

He clenched his teeth together. “Happiness, in my mind, is one of life’s biggest lies. People break so many things in the pursuit of happiness. Contracts, marriages, they destroy other people’s lives to find a taste of it, and, yet, it never lasts. There has to be something more enduring that you live for.”

She frowned, a slight crease forming between her perfectly shaped brows. “So you think it’s more important to consider the greater good than your own feelings?”

“I don’t trust feelings. They lead to a great many stupid actions. People would be better off if they used their heads and not their hearts.”

“You are a barrel of monkeys, aren’t you?” she asked.

A reluctant laugh escaped his lips. “This means I’m … fun?”