Royal On The Run (unedited)

Chapter One

Naomi

When you are a princess, you are upheld to a certain level regarding rules, regulations, and expectations. You are expected to be poised and regal at all times. You are expected to dress and talk as if the world is always watching you, and to be honest, they always are. Cameras are following you each morning during your morning run to get hot cocoa at the little coffee shop down the block from the palace. Each afternoon they catch you when you're just trying to enjoy your simple lunch with a friend or your bodyguard. Even at night, it doesn't end, no at night; they try to get their fancy-schmancy cameras to find you inside the palace, try to creep into your room to spy on you while you sleep. It never ends, and after a while, it begins to take its toll on you, especially when you aren't one to follow the rules.

Well, when you don't follow their rules, that is. When it comes to following my own, I do that spectacularly.

It was those pesky cameras that got me caught, though, this time. I was having fun dancing with some people from my classes I rarely attended, laughing my ass off with a drink in my hand when I saw them. Saw two guards with grim looks on their faces when we locked eyes.

Palace guards.

I tried to outrun them, bursting through people as if they were cardboard, and I was a karate master. And while I was on the shorter side, I was able to run decently fast. But not as fast as a palace guard trained to run marathons. I was good; they were better.

"Naomi." A drawling male voice drifted to me. Even through the people, I heard his voice. When he was sent out to get you, you weren't going to get away. When he caught the scent of his target, that target went down with no questions asked.

People scrambled out of my way, or rather the guard's way, but either way, they didn't want to be in my path. My path meant to harm, my approach meant asking for trouble, and they didn't want to get caught up in that tangled web. I couldn't blame them; I didn't even want to be in it, and yet I was smack dab right in the middle.

I was Princess Naomi of America. And I'd been caught.

Again.

Hands came around my arms and chest, pressing me to a sturdier chest. A male chest. I could smell the woodsy scent he always wore, with a hint of cherry blossoms. Was he stealing my shipment of body washes again?

"Devin," I said in a tone of recognition and defeat. "Why'd they send you?"

Devin turned us back towards the palace, away from the onlookers, as Natalie surveyed them with a look that promised trouble if they lingered. The crowd quickly dispersed. Why was she coming for me and not Deacon? My brother was her charge, not me.

"You know why they sent me," Devin told me. "With Sebastian out, you're dealing with me until he gets back."

Sebastian was my regular personal bodyguard. But due to an accident not long ago, he was undergoing medical evaluations. He was supposed to be back tonight, and I couldn't wait to see him as I hadn't been allowed to visit him in the hospital. Though I did try to use a potential visit as a chance to perform my royal duty and see other sick patients, my parents hadn't taken the bait. While I would've visited a few other patients, they wouldn't have been visits worth mentioning as my focus would've been the tall and handsome man in a room I hadn't yet reached.