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sometimes when she saw him. Inconvenient since he was always around.
    How she wished she could put marriage off. At least marriage to Damien. It was difficult to feel any excitement or even openness to that relationship. She couldn’t even imagine wanting him. Not when only one man had held the starring role in her fantasies. The man she wasn’t ever allowed to make a move on. The man she could never ask to dance.
    Oh, Liam Ryder was far too many things. Bodyguard, confidant, best friend—and the man she wanted desperately as her lover.
    The bride and groom made their way out to the dance floor and Alys’s heart tightened. That was what she wanted. She wanted love. The kind that made vowing to give your entire life to someone seem like a joy rather than a terrifying chore.
    She ignored the ache in her heart that said she already had that. It didn’t count if the man you felt it for didn’t feel it back.
    And it especially didn’t count if he was a man you would be absolutely forbidden from making vows to, even if the love was mutual.
    “The shrimp isn’t all that good, Liam. I’m ready to go back to the room.”
    And because she was the princess, what she wanted was all that mattered. At least in this case. She looked at Liam and her heart sped up. Yes , at least in this case.
    The sad fact was, when it came to other things, the most important things, what she wanted would always be out of reach.

CHAPTER TWO
    L IAM LET THE hot water run over his shoulders and release the tension. Slowly. It would never go away entirely. It was an impossibility. Guarding the life of another person twenty-four hours a day meant rest wasn’t optional.
    And there was no one else to whom he trusted Alys’s safety.
    Her old guards had missed a threat that had nearly cost the young princess her life, and Liam had taken a bullet—thankfully only to the flak jacket—in order to save her.
    And he would do it again. Because the royal family of Brynland had his allegiance. Because their country had been his home when he’d had none. Because he’d found purpose in their household.
    And because he cared so deeply for their princess.
    Another reason he could never fully relax.
    Alys had a strange hold on him. Her safety and well-being seemed inextricably linked to his own. If anything happened to her, he was certain he would forfeit his life. Then there were the other ways Alys had hold of him.
    His body tightened at the thought and he pushed it away. She was too young, among other things. He was ten years older and a hell of a lot more jaded. One marriage behind him already.
    Then there was the small matter of him not being royalty. The Bowens had an impeccable lineage containing royal blood from many European lines, and they did not marry commoners.
    It was Alys who’d had a prospect pegged from a very early age. Royal, suitable in every way. All the things Liam was most definitely not.
    A good thing he had something to keep him in line. Another man standing in the wings.
    He laughed and turned the water off, stepping out of the shower and wrapping a towel around his waist.
    A strange thing to want to protect a woman from everything. From danger, from censure...and all the while wishing more than anything that you could ravish her.
    Yes , very strange.
    But it was his life, and had been for far longer than it should have been. His devotion to Alys and to the Royal Family had been one of the main factors in the dissolution of his marriage. He’d never touched Alys, never violated the vows he’d made to his wife or to Alys’s father, but his life was centered around the princess. And that meant it couldn’t be centered around the woman he’d married. A fact Neve had come to resent, and he couldn’t blame her.
    Neve had been aware of what he’d done for a living before they’d married, and what it meant to him, but she hadn’t truly understood until after they’d taken their vows. Until she’d had to spend half her nights