Not-So-Perfect Princess: Not-So-Perfect Princess

This time it came naturally. No effort required. Jules turned off her headlamp. She no longer needed the light with the lamppost on the dock.

Tingles filled her stomach. She couldn’t imagine sharing tonight with anyone else.

As Julianna walked along the private dock with a clear spring to her step, the tension in Alejandro’s shoulders eased. He’d planned her escape from the palace with the precision of a military operation. His efforts had seemed to work. With one foot in the cockpit and the other on the rail, he waited for her to come to him.

She stopped two feet away from the boat. “Your map was spot-on, Alejandro.”

He liked the way his name rolled off her tongue. She might sound like the same elegant princess he’d met yesterday, but she looked nothing like the woman who had stared down her nose at him, cried in his arms on the beach and prompted him to rename his cat. The disguise had completely changed her appearance.

He looked beyond her to the path leading up to the cliff, but only saw a few trees. Anyone who ventured out here on this late night would be trespassing. He’d picked this secluded spot for that reason. “Were you seen?”

“Not that I know of,” she said. “Though I doubt anyone would recognize me if they saw me.”

A satisfied smile settled on his lips. “You’re right about that.”

Baggy clothes covered Julianna’s feminine curves and round breasts. A short, brown wig and America’s Cup baseball cap hid her luxurious blond hair. With all the makeup scrubbed from her face, no one would mistake the fresh-faced kid for fashion icon Princess Julianna of Aliestle.

“You look like a teenager,” he added.

“A teenage boy,” she clarified. “You picked an excellent disguise for me.”

She sounded appreciative, not upset. That surprised him a little. Most women wouldn’t want to look like a boy. But then again, she hadn’t wanted to get caught. A good disguise had been necessary.

“I had no problems, except Ortiz might want to reconsider his claim about no rats in the palace. I saw mice, and something … larger in the tunnel.”

“Ortiz doesn’t know about the tunnels. Only the royal family knows of their existence and an architect long dead,” Alejandro explained. “The tunnels were built by pirates to hide treasure. When the king had them attached to the palace, a hand-selected crew was used. They were blindfolded and had no idea where they were working.”

“How did the royal family find out about the tunnels?”

He grinned. “Supposedly my great-great-great grandfather was a king and pirate.”