Page 11 of The Prince and the Bodyguard
Eddie closed his textbook and stretched in a way that drew my attention to the lean lines of his torso. “It’s time for a break, and I believe you promised to introduce me to the wonders of sweet tea.”
“I did, and I made a pitcher this morning before breakfast, so that’s ready and waiting for us.”
His face lit up. “You did? I wasn’t sure if you had all the necessary ingredients…”
“The ingredients are tea, water, and enough sugar to put half the campus into diabetic shock. It’s not complicated.”
His delighted laugh drew looks from nearby students. He was so easy to talk to, like a friend rather than a protectee.
The ten-minute walk back to our dorm gave me time to process how much Eddie had opened up. While I kept scanning our surroundings, he was talking freely, asking genuine questions about my background instead of the polite small talk we’d started with. It was dangerous territory and I was fixin’ to walk right into it. The more I got to know him as a person rather than a protectee, the harder it became to maintain professional distance.
Back in our suite, I busied myself with pouring us both a glass of sweet tea while Eddie settled on our couch with his laptop. The domestic normalcy of it should have been comforting. Instead, it felt like walking a tightrope.
“Right,” I said, setting a glass in front of him. “Fair warning—this is going to be nothing like what you’re used to.”
Eddie picked up the glass and took a cautious sip. His eyebrows shot up immediately. “Good lord,” he said, though he was smiling. “That’s essentially liquid candy, isn’t it?”
“Pretty much. What do you think?”
He took another, longer sip, considering. “It’s absolutely dreadful,” he said solemnly, then grinned. “I love it.”
I laughed and had to remind myself that this was supposed to be work.Professional distance, Puller. Remember why you’re here.
But then Eddie started asking questions about North Carolina, about my family, about growing up in a military town, and I found myself sharing stories I hadn’t told anyone in years. How Mama made the best biscuits on the planet according to a family recipe no one but her knew. How Daddy taught me to change a tire before he taught me to drive. How the whole town turned out for high school football games like they were the Super Bowl. How we all mourned when a uniformed member of the military showed up on someone’s doorstep because we knew what it meant.
“It sounds wonderful,” Eddie said quietly. “All of it. The sense of community, the traditions, knowing your place in something larger than yourself.”
There was something wistful in his voice that made me look at him more carefully. “You didn’t have that growing up?”
“Not exactly.” He was quiet for a moment, staring into his sweet tea like it might hold answers. “My upbringing was rather more… isolated. Lots of people around, but not many genuine connections. Everything was about protocol and appearances. It’s hard to make friends that way.”
The raw honesty in his admission hit me harder than it should have. Here was a guy who had everything anyone could want—wealth, title, privilege—and he was envying my small-town childhood. “But you do have close friendships with some other princes, right?” I’d read that in his file.
Eddie’s face lit up. “Nils, Tore, and Floris? Yes, they’re my best friends. We understand each other in ways that most people wouldn’t.”
“Because you’re all in similar situations?”
He glanced at me, seeming to weigh how much to reveal. “We’re all trying to figure out who we are outside of the expectations placed on us. It’s harder than you might think, discovering your authentic self when you’ve spent your entire life being told who you’re supposed to be.”
The vulnerability in his voice made something twist in my chest. He was just trying to figure out his place in the world, like anyone else. The only difference was that his family expectations came with crowns and constitutional obligations.
“Well,” I said, trying to lighten the mood, “you’ve got a year to figure it out. No pressure.”
Eddie laughed, but it was softer this time. “Indeed. Though I suspect it might take longer than a year.”
We fell into comfortable silence after that, both of us returning to our respective work. But I kept stealing glances at him as he typed, noting the way he chewed his bottom lip when concentrating, how he unconsciously straightened his shoulders every so many minutes, as if he’d been trained to keep a correct posture at all times, how he let out these small, wishful sighs from time to time. Small details that I definitely shouldn’t be cataloguing.
Eddie announced he was taking a nap, so I took the opportunity to get an extra run in, hoping it would clear my head. It did, but as soon as I got back, I was right back where I started.
As I showered, the problem was becoming increasingly clear. Somewhere between helping him navigate campus dining and listening to him laugh at cheesy American sitcoms, I’d stopped seeing Prince Gregory as a job and started seeing him as simply Eddie. A guy I genuinely enjoyed spending time with. A guy who was thoughtful and funny and surprisingly down to earth despite his background.
Sweet baby Jesus, it was starting to sink in how complicated this year was going to be for me. Not because of external security threats or logistical challenges, but because of the internal battle I was fighting every time Eddie smiled at me like I’d said something clever, or when he was genuinely excited about something small, or when he asked questions about my life like my answers mattered to him.
I’d never been pegged as bisexual, had always worked hard to be straight-passing. One had to in the Marines, where homophobia was unfortunately still alive and kickin’, and the Secret Service wasn’t all that better. I’d swapped hand jobs twice with a guy while on leave, but both far from home, and I’d made sure not to give my real name. After that, I’d become too scared of being found out, and I had stuck to women.
Look, I liked women well enough, so I reckoned I’d be fine with hooking up with girls until I found the one I wanted to settle down with. I’d squashed that bisexual side of me like a bug, and that had been the end of it.
Until now.
