A Royal Mess and Her Knight To Remember Read Online Free

especially Amelia, who always knew when trouble was coming, had wanted Natalia to come here alone.
    But all Natalia’s life she’d been sheltered and over-protected. All her life she’d chafed at the restrictions. Hence, being stranded in Dallas. “So what happens now?”
    â€œWell…” The woman’s fingers flew across the keyboard as she decided Natalia’s fate. She had hair teased up like a Dolly Parton wig, and earrings as big as saucers hanging from her poor lobes. And they thought Natalia dressed strangely. “The next flight out is tomorrow,” she said.
    Natalia stopped comparing hairstyles. “Tomorrow?”
    â€œTomorrow.”
    Natalia resisted the urge to thunk her head on the counter and have a good cry. “What about my luggage?”
    â€œI’m sorry, you’re going to have to meet up with it at your final destination.”
    â€œYou’re kidding.”
    The woman didn’t crack a smile, not even a sympathetic one.
    â€œYou’re not kidding.”
    â€œMa’am, kidding isn’t in my job description.”
    Natalia shook her head. “This isn’t happening.”
    â€œIf you’d like, you can check the bus schedule.The shuttle to take you to the depot is outside the terminal.”
    â€œBus?”
    â€œBus.”
    Bus.
    Â 
    W HICH WAS WHERE Natalia found herself forty-five minutes later. Sitting on a bench outside waiting for the shuttle bus in the soggy, muggy, disgusting heat, with clouds surging overhead, waiting.
    For her bus.
    There was no lunch service on a bus, she was fairly certain. She removed her leather jacket, setting it on her carry-on at her feet. No pretty but huffy flight attendants. No bags of peanuts.
    But there was, she’d been told, a “pot.”
    Goodie.
    At any rate, it was the lack of food that got to her now.
    Given how out of shape she was, she could probably stand to skip a meal or two. Since there was no one around—apparently everyone else had been smart enough to stay inside the airport and wait for a flight—she looked down at herself. Definitely, being on the plump side of average, she could stand to go without lunch.
    But being on the plump side of average gave her good breasts, she reminded herself.
    Not that breasts mattered when she was as chaperoned as she had been all her life.
    You’re not chaperoned now.
    At that thought, a good amount of her tension faded away. She even smiled to herself. She was alone, just as she always had wanted to be. And come hell or high water, she was going to make her family proud.
    She was well aware of how wonderful her life was. But there was more to life than mugging for the press and charity parties.
    And with all her heart, she wanted to experience some of it.
    Hard to do with two sisters, bodyguards, an ex-nanny, an entire country and a protective father hovering over her night and day. But it was past time for her solo flight. An adventure. Okay, so the wedding of one of her mother’s oldest friend’s daughter in Taos, New Mexico, wasn’t exactly an adventure, but it would be a start, even though her older sister would also be attending. But as Andrea—being the oldest—had been asked to be in the wedding and would therefore be quite swamped with wedding stuff, Natalia had demurely suggested she meet her there.
    Demurely, ha! She’d leaped at the chance.
    Her father had agreed, reluctantly. Be careful he’d told her a million times. Call often.
    Natalia had promised, in good humor because it would be worth the entire trip to see her older, tomboy sister in a dress. Just thinking about it now had her letting out a quick, sharp grin that she knew would make Annie pounce on her.
    Thunder hit, and Natalia jumped, suddenly wishing Annie was here for a good diversion. Or even Lili—the baby of the family at twenty-three. But Lili was coming straight from another obligation, and was to meet them in