Page 60 of X: Command Me through Alexander’s Eyes

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he says.

“What? Why? I can’t leave her to fend for herself.”

“Perhaps, you should speak to your father about a security detail, then,” he suggests, adding a thoughtful, “if you plan to continue your courtship.”

“Courtship? For fuck’s sake.” I bite out a laugh. “We’re well past courtship, and you know what my father will say. The Crown doesn’t protect non-royalty.”

“Perhaps…”

“Perhaps what?” I ask, although I suspect that I know what he’s alluding to.

“The Crown only protects royalty, as you said.”

“I think marriage is a bit premature,” I snap. “Clara doesn’t know me. She doesn’t know my family. She has no idea what she’d be getting into.”

Norris maneuvers through a tight alley, exiting a block from Clara’s building. There are no reporters in sight. As we merge into London morning traffic, he watches me in the rearview mirror. “It’s interesting that your first instinct is to apply royal resources to protect her, though, despite knowing they won’t be made available.”

“They should be. She’s being dissected by every tabloid in the country.” In the world, if I’m being honest.

“Yes, but that won’t stop with a security detail. If you want them to leave her alone, there is a simple solution.”

I lean forward, gripping the shoulders of the front seats. “Which is?”

“Break things off,” he says coolly.

“They’ll still follow her.”

“See another woman. Someone suited to the spotlight. Miss Lockwood seems eager for the opportunity.”

Now he’s just baiting me, but to what end? “I’d rather stick my cock in a light socket,” I say grimly, “but you know that.”

“Well, then you’re at an impasse.”

I retrace the conversation’s twists until I’m back at what started it. “Why shouldn’t she use the door?”

“They’re going to keep coming after her. The more she hides, the more aggressive they’ll become. You can’t lock her away in a tower and take her out to play with her.” He sighs as though all of this should be obvious. “If you want her protected, you have to protect her.”

“We’ll never leave the bedroom if I’m her bodyguard,” I say shortly. He’s got a point, but not a solution.

“Not you, exactly. But you have to decide what you can do to help her and keep her safe,” he advises.

I do have resources—money of my own, holdings, titles, bank accounts. I rarely bother with any of it. Everything at Buckingham is taken care of. There are secretaries to see to most other needs. “A security detail. I’ll need your help…unless you want the job.”

“I’m happy to step in as necessary, but someone has to keep you from your own worst enemy,” he says.

“Who’s that?”

“Yourself,” he says as though this is patently obvious. “I’ll look into it, and once that’s figured out, you need to prepare her.”

Is all romance so complicated? I feel as though I’m coordinating a military attack. “Prepare her for what?”

“For the day, she is royalty,” he says evenly.

I laugh, half-surprised, half-awed by his balls. “That sure of her, are you?”

Norris arches an eyebrow and asks the one question I refuse to ask myself. “Aren’t you?”