by S. E. Rose
“Lord Harrington’s son went to school with me.”
She nods. “I know.” Turning her head, again, she says, “But you know this part of the story.”
“I do but tell it anyhow.”
“He asked me what I was doing after graduation. I said I wasn’t sure yet. That maybe I’d travel for a bit and figure it out after that. I think his direct quote was, ‘Pish-posh. You aren’t going to be one of those obnoxious backpackers. I know of someone who is hiring. It’ll allow you a bit of travel and will garner you with the most excellent credentials.’ He whipped out a piece of paper and wrote down the contact information for your father’s personal secretary who was arranging interviews. And the next thing I know, I was traveling here to be interviewed.”
“What about once you got here?”
She turns her whole body, mirroring mine. “I wasn’t entirely sure what I would be doing until you interviewed me. The second I saw you, I had the biggest crush on you.” She blushes before continuing. “But then the more you spoke, the more I wanted to work with you, even if that meant I had to pretend not to have a crush on you.”
“That didn’t go so well, now did it,” I muse as I raise an eyebrow.
She laughs. “Nope,” she answers, letting the “p” pop.
She’s quiet as she mulls over her next sentence. “Then, after we…you know…a few months later, I decided to go to a coffee shop. You know that one a few blocks from the palace?”
I nod.
“I was waiting for my coffee when a man came in and struck up a conversation with me. It seemed innocent enough until he said my name. I asked him how he knew me, and he asked me to sit down. So, I did. That’s when he showed me the DNA test results and told me the people he worked for wanted to know what you were up to. He gave me a phone and said I had one week to make up my mind. That’s when I went home. I confronted my father, who told me that I was indeed a princess, and he was a prince and that people shouldn’t know that. He thought maybe someone had found out and was trying to make money with the tabloids. Apparently, that happened a few times to Dad. So, I let him think it was a journalist.”
“What did he look like, the man at the coffee shop?”
She purses her lips as she thinks. “Tall, blond, blue eyes. He wears glasses sometimes, but sometimes not. His accent sounds Russian, maybe? He has a birthmark on his neck.”
“And how often did you see him?”
“Only twice. Otherwise, it was just text messages. Until he came to my parents’ home.”
“And how often did you text him?”
“Weekly.” Her face falls on that word.
I reach out and touch her cheek. “Stop wallowing in guilt. We have to move forward.”
Sighing, she rolls over onto her back again. “It was months later that he was at the coffee shop again with the photos of us after I didn’t send a message for a week or so. And then, there was no contact until he came to our village a few weeks ago. He knew so much more. He knew all about what had happened with The 44. He claimed to work with them. He said he could take you and everyone else out. That’s when I got scared and decided to…disappear.”
“And has he contacted you since?”
She shakes her head. “I left my work phone at the Royal Palace along with the one he gave me. I turned my personal phone off and left the SIM card in my sock drawer. I’ve only used burner phones since then.” I wonder how no one found the SIM card, but that is an issue for later.
“What about you?” she asks.
So, I reciprocate. Telling her abbreviated stories she already knows and a few she hasn’t heard. And then I tell her about how I went looking for her and finding the phone. She listens to me, asking occasional questions and laughing at a few funny childhood stories, but otherwise, she’s quiet. When I finish, she rolls back onto her side.
“Will this ever end?” she asks.
“What?”
“People wanting to kill you and your family?”
I shrug. “Probably not.”
Suddenly, I’m afraid. Does she not want to be with me? Maybe being a royal is too much for her to handle.
Chapter Fifteen
Mia
His words chill me. No matter how much I expected that answer, it still is hard to hear. I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t know if I can be in love with a man whose life is always on the line. My own life has been lived as a normal commoner. Well, nearly normal. My family was wealthy, I always knew that, but not over-the-top wealthy. Enough to afford to send me away to school. Enough that we could take nice family trips. I had no idea we were royalty. It would have never dawned on me to even think for one second that I was a princess.
“What do you know about your family?” Christian asks, as though reading my thoughts.
“My dad’s family, you mean?”
Nodding, he props his head up a little higher, watching me intently as I open my mouth to answer.
“Not a lot. It sounds like Dad was a product of an affair that wasn’t meant to be. My grandmother didn’t want my father raised in the palace. King Ivan provided for them, but I honestly don’t know much about her relationship with him after my father was born. Dad doesn’t talk about it, ever. Once Dad was eighteen, he distanced himself from his mother. He didn’t want any part of the royal family. She gave him some money and the rest of what he has, he earned himself.”
“Do you know anything about King Ivan and his son?”
I shake my head. I’ve thought about searching on the internet over the past three weeks, but I haven’t for a multitude of reasons. I didn’t want to go online if I didn’t have to. I wasn’t sure I was ready to learn about my family. And I wanted to speak more with my father.
“Do you know them?” I ask. “We haven’t had any meetings with King Ivan.”
“I’ve met him before. It’s been a while. Dad has had some meetings with him in the past few years, but no, I don’t know them well. Their nation isn’t a neighboring one like Montelandia, so we have less political and economic ties to them.”
I sit up and pull my knees against my chest. “You don’t think King Ivan has something to do with The 44, do you?” I ask, suddenly wondering where his line of questioning is going.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so, but at this point, who the hell knows. I used to feel confident in who I could and couldn’t trust, but after this past year, I’m afraid I don’t know friend from foe anymore,” he admits as he sits up beside me.
Our faces are so close together that I can feel the air leaving his mouth. “Christian?”
“Yes?”
“How do you live, knowing you are never really safe?”
He studies me for a long moment. “No one is ever really safe. Something bad could happen to anyone at any given moment.”
“But most people only have to worry about car accidents, diseases, and maybe a tornado or hurricane. You have to worry about people wanting to kill you just because of who your parents are.”
“Well, to quote Shakespeare, ‘Fear the worst oft cures the worst,’” he states.
I roll my eyes. “I think we both know that’s a crock of shit. You can’t stop bad things from happening.”
“You’re right, but I can try.”
I let myself fall back on the ground. Closing my eyes, I let the sun warm me as I contemplate his words. There’s no way the royal family can predict everything bad that can happen. Clearly, that’s true because if they could, then the queen would still be alive.
I feel the sun’s rays disappear and I open one eye to find Christian peering down at me. “Penny for your thoughts?”
“I’m not sure a penny is enough.”
“Can I just say that if life were up to me, I’d stay right here forever, so I can watch you this closely, uninterrupted by life,” he says with a smile.
“I’m not that interesting.”
“On the contrary, you are the most interesting person that I’ve ever met.” He runs a f
inger along my cheek and down my neck. “Each and every part of you fascinates me.”
“Every part?” I ask with a smirk.
His grin widens as his finger circles my nipple that’s pebbled against my shirt and then trails down my belly to between my legs, where he presses, making me let out a whoosh of air.
“Every part,” he confirms in a low voice before leaning down to kiss me.
My eyes flutter closed as I feel his lips against mine. His hand skims my waistband before slipping inside and cupping my sex. I squirm against him, wanting more, needing the friction in the worst way possible.
I reach for my riding tights and start pulling them down my legs alongside my panties as I kick out of my boots. I let my legs fall to the side as Christian continues to kiss me, but his hand now has access to where I need it most.
He teases me, running a single finger up and down my seam.
“Please,” I beg beneath him.
His lips curve up and he slides a single finger inside of me. I moan as he begins to move it, slowly, in and out while his thumb rubs circles around my bundle of nerves, making me pant and beg for more.
“We have all the time in the world,” he hushes me, but adds a second finger and curls it. He knows where I need him to touch, and he knows I’m close. Part of me wants to curse at him and the other wants to relish in his languid pace, enjoying each subtle movement.
“God damn, I’ve missed this pussy,” he murmurs as he nips at my lower lip. He slowly kisses down my throat. My body stills with anticipation as he bites on one nipple through the fabric and then the other before continuing down my body until he’s comfortably lying between my legs. He lays a light kiss on my clit and pulls his head back as he traces my folds with one hand while the other still pumps inside me.
“You are so beautiful here like you were sculpted just for me,” he whispers as he leans forward and begins to suck and lick each place his finger has traced.
It’s when he adds a third finger and sucks right where I need him that I come undone. I cry out into the empty meadow as my orgasm rips through me like a hurricane.
I hear a bird squawk in the distance, but besides that, the only thing I can hear is my breath mixed with Christian’s. I hear clothing move and then I feel his erection pressing into me. He fills me in a single thrust. I can tell he’s close already because he doesn’t take his time, he pumps fast and hard and my body builds up to that pinnacle once more.
“Come with me,” he says after a few minutes, his breath ragged from his exertion. He tilts his hips and his pelvis grinds against my sex as he continues his fast past. I feel my body tightening around him as his cock begins to jerk and that’s all it takes for me to go falling over the edge again.
He slows his pace as he makes one final thrust and then falls to his forearms over me. His lips press against mine.
“Best second first date, ever,” he whispers. It’s my lips that turn up in a grin this time as I open my eyes and look up into his. He’s perfect. And I want him to be mine so badly, but I’m also scared to death. Can this really work?
I bite my lip.
“What?” he asks, as he brushes my hair away from my eye.
I shake my head. “I’m just happy.”
“And?”
My eyes search his as I contemplate my next words. “I don’t want to lose this feeling. I don’t ever want to lose you,” I admit.
His hands come to cup my face as he kisses me again. “That’s not going to happen, Mia. You’re mine and I protect what’s mine. I’m never leaving you.”
“How can you be so sure?” I ask as I feel tears threaten.
He presses his forehead to mine. “I can’t explain it. I just know. No one is going to pull us apart.”
“OK,” I whisper, but deep down, I feel like his words are a mere foreshadowing of trouble ahead. I only hope that I’m wrong.
Chapter Sixteen
Christian
I take Mia’s hand in mine as we walk into the palace. We need to figure out what is going on and that starts with a call to Jack.
I walk into my father’s study and shut the door. “I’m going to call Jack.”
“Shouldn’t we…I don’t know…set up an appointment or something?” Mia asks as she takes the seat next to me at a large conference table.
“We could but I have a feeling Jack will answer. If not, we’ll call Anna.”
“OK,” she agrees, but her voice is filled with apprehension.
I press call on my phone. It rings twice before Jack picks up.
“Everything OK?” he answers.
“Fine. I have Mia here. Do you have time to talk with us?” I ask.
Jack’s silence might as well be an answer, so it surprises me when he says “yes.” I hear a door shut and then he asks what we want to know.
I look over at Mia. “Is there any chance that King Ivan or Prince Gilbert are involved in The 44?”
“What do you think?” Jack answers.
“Jack, no games. Yes or no.” I know he’s pumping me for information, but this time, I have nothing.
“I see no evidence of that at this time. Mia, I believe I tracked down the man at the coffee shop, but I need you to confirm it for me. I was going to wait to speak with you both tomorrow after I ran some facial recognition on this, but since you’re available now, I’ll send it. Can you get online?”
“Yes, one moment,” I say as I walk to my father’s computer and log in to the secure network. “I’m in.”
“Coming through now,” Jack says as we wait. A moment later a message pops up on the screen. I click on a link and a photo appears. It’s a bit grainy. It appears to be a security camera footage of the coffee shop.
Mia leans in closer and studies the image, her finger reaching out to increase the size, but it only blurs the still photograph. Zooming back out, she looks at it again.
“I…maybe. I can’t tell. It’s not a very good image.”
“It’s the best we have. I have other security feeds being checked, but it’s much harder to pull security footage from several years ago.”
“I understand,” Mia answers. “Is there any other footage? Is this from a video?”
“It is,” Jack answers.
“Can I see the footage?”
There’s silence on the other line and a moment later another link appears. I click on it, and Mia leans in again watching it. It’s the same man. The footage is just a few seconds. He walks by the camera, disappears, and then returns in the same direction he came from.
“There, stop it,” Mia says. I press pause and she zooms in again and points.
“What?”
“There. Do you see it?” she asks excitedly.
I shake my head until she points again. It’s a small mark on the man’s neck.
“The birthmark?” I ask.
She nods. “It’s him, Jack. It’s definitely him.”
I lean in next to her, examining the small mark that looks almost diamond-shaped. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. That spot, his hair color, the shape of his profile, and his walk. He has this gait when he walks that is a little odd to me. I can never put my finger on it though. Maybe an old injury. I’m not sure. It’s subtle but recognizable in this video.”
“Great. This is very helpful, Mia. I’m sorry I don’t have more information. And yes, Christian, before you ask, we are looking into Mia’s family. But right now, I want to know who this man is and why he wanted to specifically know about your schedule. There are many moving pieces. I will be in Norddale in about a week. I’ll share more intel with you as I get it.”
“What about our staff at the palace?”
“I have an entire team working on it. I don’t have anything conclusive yet, but I do have several leads. I’ll touch base with you later this week on that effort. I’m not quite ready to share that information yet. I want more details before we talk.” Jack is always forthcoming with me when it matters and that I appreciate. He pul
ls the wool over my eyes. He’s a spy first and foremost, but he’s also a great communicator, which is an odd combination. He reveals what he thinks you need to know only when he thinks you need to know it.
“Very well,” I say as I disconnect and look over at Mia who is still staring at the screen.
“We’ll figure this out,” I assure her as I reach for her hand and squeeze it.
She sighs as she sits down on my lap and turns to me. “Do you think Tessa would make her famous lobster mac and cheese?”
I smile as I give her a quick kiss. “Of course, she’d make anything for you, she loves you.”
I watch the blush creep across her face. I take her chin in one hand and force her to look at me. “Mia, you are worthy of love. Stop thinking like that. I need my queen to be strong.”
She shivers at my words, and I wonder if she doesn’t like that idea, the idea of marrying me. We’ve never truly discussed it. But it’s been there, in the back of my mind for the past three years. And now that I know she’s a royal, it all seems so much more possible. A future that I can see happening.
“I’ll try,” she answers after a beat. Her eyes look into mine. There are no more secrets between us now. If only I can help her see that she’s so much stronger than she thinks she is. What she did showed strength, not weakness. She took on an enemy single-handed, risking her own life to protect the ones she loved, including me. Now, it’s my turn to protect her. I just wish I knew who or what I was protecting her from because right now, our enemy could be anyone.
Chapter Seventeen
Mia
After a delicious dinner, Christian and I are lounging on the back terrace when his phone pings. I watch as he glances down at the screen and sighs.
“What?”
“Suzy Q,” he mutters. I giggle at his sister’s childhood nickname. He taps his phone and holds it to his ear. “Yes? … Can you be a little more specific? … I see. Fine.” He ends the call and stands up, holding out a hand for me.
