Eleanor was fighting her way through a crowd. Jasper beside her. His arm around her waist, her curled into his chest as she was taught to do. They had ten paces to go to get to the car. Eleanor saw something blur, felt Jasper shift his position to defend her, before he was holding her once more.

She wasn't frightened. She knew Jasper would not let her get hurt.

Five paces.

Four

Three

The car door was opened by another member of her protection team.

Two

One.

She dived in, expecting Jasper to leap in beside her. When he didn't, she looked back. He was just stood there, red spreading across his shirt. She screamed as the car door was slammed shut and he dropped to his knees.

She shot upright, her breathing laboured, silent tears pouring down her face. She could feel the Goosebumps rise all over her body as she pulled her heavy cover off her, climbed out of bed and put some clothes on.

She knew it was only a dream, but she could not stop crying.

Eleanor opened her door, and crept the six paces to the secret door for her room. She opened it and entered the secret tunnels, intent on finding some air.


Jasper could not sleep, so he did what he always did and watched the CCTV monitors. He was looking at the one in the tunnels when he noticed movement on one of the other monitors. He immediately knew it was the monitor covering Eleanor's door. He saw her creep out of her room and head into the tunnels.

He watched her pace the tunnels, and when she turned and faced the camera straight on, he realised she had been crying.

He stood, grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and went searching for the Princess.


Being alone in the tunnels was starting to have the desired effect on Eleanor. She was starting to calm down, but she was still alone, with her thoughts. Thoughts of her former body guard.

She was that lost in her thoughts, she could smell him, she could also hear his footsteps behind her, as they always were. It wasn't until he spoke to her she realised she had not been imagining it.

"Len? What are you doing down here?"

"What are you doing down here Jasper?" Eleanor's tone lacing finely veiled hostility, her eyes cast to the floor.

"I couldn't sleep, so I watched the monitors. Saw you come down here. Wanted to make sure you were ok."

Eleanor faltered at his words. Her head shot up to look him in the face. Once again green met blue, and she felt time stop. She loved his eyes. She loved the concern she saw in them, and how they have always seen straight through her lies and behaviour.

Before she knew what was happening, she closed the gap between them and slammed her lips against his, kissing him for all she was worth. Her fingers, defying her brain screaming in protest found their way to the lapels of his jacket, and with one quick movement, she flicked it off his shoulders, down his arms and to the dusty floor. He turned their bodies around so that he could push her up against the wall, where he led a trail of kisses to her ear, and then down her neck to her shoulder. Her moans brought his lips back to hers.

Then he remembered where they were.

He pulled his lips away from Eleanor's and placed his forehead against hers.

"Jaspurrr" she pouted

"We can't do this here." he stated, looking up and down the corridor

"Of course we can do this." she smirked, losing herself in his too blue eyes.

"I have no doubts, just not here. With cameras."

He let her go and picked up his jacket off the floor, shaking as much dust as possible out of it.

"Are you going to tell me why you are down here alone?"

"I had a nightmare and needed air."

"Must have been a hell of a nightmare. Let me walk you back to your room."

Jasper held his arm out, and Eleanor took it loping her arm around his, and placing her other hand and her head on his shoulder. They walked this way until they reached the steps to Eleanor's secret door when they were forced to ascend them in single file. Jasper waited in the corridor for her, and again offered her his arm. This time, she declined his arm, but took his hand instead. When they got to her room, she opened the door and dragged Jasper inside. She let go, and before he could turn to leave, she closed the gap and kissed him again, their bodies making their way backwards, shutting the door.

Jasper reached for the hem of her top and pulled his over her head, tossing it to the side, while she tried to undo the buttons on his shirt. Once she had undone the last one, and had thrown that clear also, Jasper ran his hands down her sides, keeping his touch as light as he could. He reached her bottom and cupping a cheek in each hand, he carefully, and quickly picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist.

Still kissing her, he carefully dodged her furniture and carried her to the bed. Pressing his body on top of hers, he kissed her, while driving her insane with his featherlight touches.

"Someone is wearing too many clothes" she gasped as he kissed the pulse point at the base of her neck.

Jasper stood at the end of Eleanor's bed. Slowly, and never breaking eye contact with her, slowly and teasingly, undid his belt and let his trousers fall to the floor. He saw her eyes widen like they had never done this before and before she knew it he was back on top of her, kissing her, teasing her, loving her.

Eleanor groaned, and moved underneath him until all of her nightmares and doubts about Jasper melted away into nothingness. Her pleasure building and building until she felt about to burst.

Until her doors were flung open wide.

"LIAM?!" she screamed, as Jasper rolled off her and buried himself into the bed sheets next to her. she sat up in the bed, covering herself.

"Shit Sorry Len. Jasper." he chuckled. "I'll see you in the morning"

"What did you want Liam that you felt the need to wake me up at this time?"

"It's really not relevant now" he said as he backed out of the room, closing the doors.

Eleanor simply sat in her bed, looking at the door, open mouthed.

"Well that killed a moment" Jasper said, his voice muffled by the blankets

"Tell me about it."

Jasper rolled over, and sat up, next to Eleanor.

"You ready to tell me about that dream you had?" he asked her.

"No. Why are you here Jasper?"

"Here as in?"

"At the Palace. I mean, you handed me back the Koh-I-Nor, which is what started all of this."

"Len. When I got here that was my focus, my drive, but when I saw you in that tunnel on the night of your birthday, I realised I had found something more priceless than I ever imagined, and I had broken that. It was you Len."

"Why did you go after her?

"I wanted to get her to come back and apologise to you. To give you your earrings back. When I saw you in that bumper car, I wanted to hold you, but I also realised that, especially in that moment, you didn't want me anywhere near you."

"Tell me about Elizabeth. She said she was your sister."

"She is. She hated the life. Ran away from home when she was 15 and never looked back. Moved over here when she was 16 and legally changed her name to Elizabeth Delphi. Got married to Anthony Burr. He died a couple of years ago."

"What was her name?"

"Olivia."

"So that's why you called her 'Liv'. She seems nice. Said that you were living the ultimate con."

Eleanor shivered violently, so Jasper encouraged her to lie down, before he pulled the covers over both of them. They lay, both studying of the face of another.

"We used to talk about getting out of the life. Once, our parents heard us and beat us to within an inch of our lives. From that point on, we referred to leaving the life as the ultimate con. Living the lives we wanted to, not the ones we were forced to. I went into security. Worked a few casinos, but ultimately, the con man life never left me. I was constantly trying to find ways to rip off the whales, but then Samantha came up with this idea to rob the Koh-I-Nor, and with what we would have made stealing that, we would have been able to quit the life and disappear."

Jasper lifted his hand and stroked the hair out of her face.

"But then I came here, and met you, and you changed my life! I thought that the ultimate con could be possible, just not without you."

"I dreamed that you died." Eleanor told him, the tears filling up while he was telling her his story falling again.

"I haven't died. I am right here."

Jasper took her hand and placed it over her heart and he pulled her closer and held her, using his free hand, smoothed the top of her hair. Within minutes they were both asleep.