Claimed: Gowns & Crowns, Book 3 Read Free Page B

needed to get debriefed or whatever the term was, but he also didn’t want her out of his sight. His sight or his arms—though maybe, for him, they were both the same thing.
    That thought made her stand a little straighter. Had his kiss been something more than simple lust? Maybe some sort of weird move to control her or keep her in place? It was exactly the kind of high-handed move Stefan would enjoy, and irritation riffled through her.
    She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “One of the hotels is setting up their kayaks and boogie boards. I’m going to go work on that. You guys have a good time.”
    “Don’t leave the beach,” Stefan said, the words more an order than a suggestion.
    “Sure thing,” Nicki waved. Not. “I’ll see you later.”
    She stamped off through the sand, aware that Stefan was watching her. Her heart had quieted finally, and she breathed a sigh of relief for that. The true condition of her heart was a complete unknown, though she definitely had dizzy spells and migraines, which were problematic enough. She’d been prescribed beta blockers for the migraines, and despite her disdain for pills she’d continued taking them, hoping they’d keep any worse heart issues at bay.
    Which was silly, really. Beta blockers wouldn’t fix her heart if what she really feared was true. Her brother and father had been diagnosed with familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy…basically, their heart muscle was thick and inefficient, slowing down the flow of blood out of the heart. Her father had had a devastating heart attack five years earlier, and lived in fear of having another one. Her brother, once he’d been diagnosed, had lived in fear, too. Neither one of them had done anything active since.
    Nicki had been tested…once. But she hadn’t gone back. She couldn’t live in constant fear. She wouldn’t live in constant fear.
    Still, any time her heart skittered out of control she knew was facing a potentially deadly risk, and she needed to watch that. And there was no denying that whenever Stefan got close her heart definitely did kick up a few notches, and not in a comfortable way. He made her feel out of sorts, defensive and aggressive at once, and she wasn’t used to anyone making her feel that way, especially not a guy. Especially not a guy who people called “ambassador” with a straight face. That wasn’t the kind of man Nicki had ever attracted.
    And what was Stefan’s attraction to her about, anyway? He had a way of seeming simultaneously interested and oppressive, and she thought more about that kiss. She hadn’t been imagining his interest, had she? Was this all truly some weirdly obscure strategy to allow him to keep tabs on her?
    Well he could go spin in small circles if he thought she was going to put up with that. Regardless of what Emmaline and Kristos’s upcoming wedding plans were, she would need to come up with an excuse to get out of Garronia. Otherwise, she was going to go crazy.

    If Nicki Clark didn’t leave the peaceful kingdom of Garronia soon, Stefan vowed silently, he was going to go crazy.
    He watched her jog across the sand as if she owned the entire beach, his attention fractured between her sun-browned legs and Cyril’s pre-emptive throat clearing. “You are doing yourself no favors by displaying your interest in her,” Cyril said, the words so blunt that Stefan swung his gaze back to him.
    “My interest?” he scowled. “Since when do you care about any woman I speak to?”
    “Since the queen has become fixated on the romantic lives of every one of the four young women presently under the royal roof. And don’t think she hasn’t noticed the way you and the American seek each other out. You would do well to be more circumspect, if you don’t want to find yourself in Queen Catherine’s sights.”
    “Seek each—” he glanced toward Nicki then back toward Cyril. “Cyril, half the time I’m trying to track her down, not meet up for a chat.”
    “Half the