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Moments after they’d arrived at the crowded parking lot of the Dunn’s River Falls and Park, Tahira was happy to see there were plenty of sights to catch her attention and get her out of the funk she’d found herself in once more.

The falls were a popular tourist attraction, and they had to park at the far end of the lot, in between two empty tour buses.

Once Kojo and his partner, Alake, had done a visual sweep of their surroundings, ensuring the women’s safety, they stayed close to the princess without being intrusive.

They’d both been part of her team of royal guards for over three years now and knew their jobs well.

They were handsome men, but Tahira never flirted with them for two reasons.

One—they were both married to lovely women, and Alake was the father of three precocious boys.

Two—she only did that with bodyguards who were temporarily assigned to her outside of Timasur, like the men of Trident Security when she visited the royal family’s estate in Clearwater, Florida.

She also reserved her flirting for when she was out of the public eye.

After studying their auras, she knew which men she could tease and not worry about them reacting to it in a negative way.

They were strong, protective men, who would never use their strength to take advantage of a woman.

There had been times during visits to the royal residences in New York City and Los Angeles when Tahira had sensed some of the men on her detail were not as trustworthy as they tried to portray, and she avoided flirting with them.

But the Trident Security operatives were her favorite, and it had been bittersweet over the past few years as each one of the original six-man team had met their soul mates and, therefore, had to be removed from her “flirt” list. Whether some of them realized it or not, she cared for them as friends and was happy they’d found their true loves but saddened she couldn’t tease them anymore.

However, there were new employees who had recently been hired that Ian Sawyer had introduced her to.

Tristan and Cain were the leaders of the Omega Team as it was called.

Their subordinates included Darius, Kip, Valentino, Logan, and Lindsey.

Logan was living with his soul mate, so he was off-limits, and Lindsey was a female operative who Tahira adored.

Apparently, her head of security, Amar, liked Lindsey very much as well.

They’d managed to keep their attraction hidden from others, but Tahira had seen through their charade and was happy for them.

Smiling, Lahana grabbed her cousins’ hands as they walked across the parking lot to the entrance. “Let’s go! I can’t wait to see the falls. They looked gorgeous online.”

Tahira had to admit she was looking forward to seeing them too.

It felt wonderful to act like just another tourist and not a member of the royal family.

Being so far from home, it was doubtful anyone would recognize her and fumble over themselves trying to please her.

While she’d gotten a kick out of that when she was younger, it’d gotten annoying as she’d reached adulthood.

She knew many people were overly nice to her merely because she was a princess and not because they liked her as a person.

Everyone always seemed to have an ulterior motive for wanting to be her friend—well, not everyone, but most people fell into that category.

It was one of the many reasons she enjoyed the company of Ian and Angelina Sawyer and their friends and family.

While they had always been respectful of her title, she felt as if they treated her like everyone else they knew.

And that’s the way she liked it. She wasn’t better than them or beneath them.

Yes, Ian used to think of her as a spoiled child—all her Trident Security men had—but that was back when she was younger, less mature, and used to flirt with him, before he’d met his wife.

Since they’d visited Timasur and stayed in the palace at her parent’s request two years ago, Ian had gotten to know the real Tahira—the one she tended to keep hidden from the rest of the world due to self-preservation.

Now, he acted like a big brother to her, and she loved it.

In fact, she couldn’t wait until Angelina gave birth in a few weeks.

Tahira had already picked out a few gifts for the baby; she was just waiting to find out, like the rest of them, if it was a boy or a girl.

No matter the gender, the child would be gorgeous, as Ian and Angelina made a stunning couple.

The thought of her friends’ baby had Tahira thinking of the children she would hopefully have someday.

A flash of a young boy with her dark hair and soft brown skin appeared in her head.

It was an image she’d had before, but this time, she noticed something different.

The boy’s eyes weren’t hazel like hers—they were green.

A deep, rich, emerald green. They reminded her of the jeweled necklace and earrings she’d received from her parents on her eighteenth birthday.

Was her mind playing tricks on her? The boy’s eyes looked so familiar, yet she couldn’t recall who they belonged to.

“C’mon, cousin!” Nala said on a laugh, tugging on Tahira’s hand and breaking her out of the mental spell she’d been under. “Let’s go have some fun!”