Perry and Her Princes

by Serena Akeroyd

  “I wasn’t sure if I should, but I wanted to.”

  “Well, that changes things,” he said.

  “It does?”

  “It does. Wanting to see me again can only be a good thing, surely?”

  It depended… when George found out, he’d undoubtedly be hurt, and Edward would likely be angry.

  Was that worth a coffee date with a man she didn’t know in any way other than biblically?

  And even if George and Edward weren’t happy at her having coffee with their cousin, they didn’t own her. She wasn’t their peon.

  “May I ask you a question?”

  “Sure,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “I don’t have to answer, right?”

  He chuckled. “True.” Xavier fell silent when the waitress came with her latte and his Americano. She also laid out a croque monsieur and a palmier for Xavier. “Are Edward and George wanting to share you?”

  On the brink of pouring sugar into her coffee, she nearly knocked the tall glass mug over. Only his quick reflexes righted the beaker and with barely a drop spilled.

  “Excuse me?” she asked, her voice a croak.

  She knew, from her cheeks alone, she’d given the game away. Never mind her clumsiness and squeaky voice.

  Jesus.

  She’d need to get better at hiding in plain sight. Well, if she was going to go through with this crazy scenario, that is. She still hadn’t decided, and it wasn’t like her to be so indecisive.

  In her defense, few women were ever propositioned by two men. And by two princes? Yeah, that was more of a never. She figured she deserved a moment to catch her breath.

  Xavier’s lips curled as he murmured, “I’ll take that as a yes.” He dosed his own small coffee cup with sugar, and then reached for the cutlery to start on his croque monsieur. “I thought they’d stopped doing that.”

  “You knew?” she asked, voice low as she looked around them, but the booths behind and in front of them were empty save for Xavier’s bodyguards, and most of the café’s patrons were up front, not in the back.

  “I did. Of course.”

  “Of course?” she squeaked. “Is it like a national secret that everyone knows or something?”

  Xavier huffed out a laugh, finished chewing a piece of bread, then answered, “No. But we were close before George left for the States and Edward married. Very close.”

  Her eyes widened. “Did you share too?”

  Never in her life had ‘share’ felt like such a dirty, dirty word, but in this context, it took on a whole different kind of connotation.

  He shook his head. “No. But I knew what they were into. Knew some of the women they did it with. They were good at hiding it, and they never let things end sourly with their partners so they were always content to keep the secret.”

  The world’s best kept secret, huh.

  She pursed her lips, wondering how much money it had taken to keep their fetish quiet.

  Xavier eyed her. “You’re not their type,” he told her, somewhat brutally, she thought with a huff.

  “No? Apparently, their type has changed then.”

  He smirked. “I said you weren’t their type not that they didn’t have good taste.”

  That stopped her feathers from bristling. “Why are you asking me this?”

  “Because I’m curious. After what happened the other day, with George storming into the bedroom the way he did…” He shrugged. “I’ll be honest. If I’d known you were his, I wouldn’t have approached you.”

  “I wasn’t his then and nor am I now,” she said with another huff. “I’m my own person.”

  He caught her eye. “You know exactly what I mean.”

  She did, so she just took a sip of her latte.

  “Do you love him?”

  She nodded.

  “Then why did you sleep with me?”

  “Because I didn’t know how he felt for me. He decided the morning after sleeping with you was the time to tell me that.”

  Xavier frowned. “That was the first time he told you how he felt about you?”

  “Yes. Perfect timing, no?”

  He rubbed his chin. “You know we connected, don’t you?”

  She swallowed, keeping her attention on her cup, not daring to lift her gaze to look him in the eye. “I know.”

  He let out a sigh, and she could tell he was relieved at her admission. “I wasn’t sure if you’d try to lie to me about it.”

  She hunched her shoulders, wondering what she was doing here, then wondering when her life had turned into some kind of soap opera. X-rated, of course.

  Swallowing thickly, she murmured, “I don’t know what to do, Xavier.”

  He reached over and grabbed her chin, urging her to look up at him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  She bit her lip. “Where could we go?”

  “My car? It’s only around the corner.”

  “Finish your food first. No need to waste it.”

  He laughed a little. “Conservationist to your bones, huh?”

  She grinned, finally feeling like she was on level ground because conservationism was as important to her as her own love life.

  Both were, sadly, equally as complicated.

  He finished up his croque monsieur in a few bites and took his coffee like it was a shot. Her latte had cooled enough for her to drink the majority of it.

  He picked up the palmier, the sugary, crisp puff pastry wrapped in a napkin, and motioned her with his hand. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

  She frowned. “What about the bill?”

  “One of my guards will pay.”

  Her eyes widened. “Wow. Don’t you carry cash or something?”

  He snickered like the idea was a crazy one. “No. Not usually.”

  She edged out of the booth and let him tuck her hand through his arm as they stepped out of the shop.

  As they moved, she knew the coffee shop’s patrons’ attentions were on them. Not because they realized who Xavier was, but because they were the odd couple.

  She hadn’t known what to wear for coffee with a Duke, so she’d worn a business outfit George had picked for her. A neat, tailored skirt, a bright silky cerise shirt, and low-slung flats she could just, only just, walk in.

  In comparison to his kind of slouchy look, they were a definite mismatch.

  As they headed outside, a slight movement caught her attention. She wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe the glint of light against a key? Something tiny like that, but she saw the three men on the street.

  Dressed in innocuous black suits, earpieces in their ears and shades on their eyes, they somehow managed to fit in and stand out at the same time.

  Veronia’s capital, Madela, was as cosmopolitan as Paris or London. Hippies walked side by side with suits, chic businesswomen sat on benches homeless people had been sleeping on earlier that day…

  The city sprawl was as glossy as New York, but here, there were a heaping mound of super rich who enjoyed the fact Veronia was a tax haven. She’d never seen as many sports cars or as many Rolexes on people who looked ordinary.

  It was kind of cool, actually.

  “My guards,” Xavier murmured as he guided her down a street where a black sedan was hovering.

  “You have five guards?”

  Xavier shrugged. “I’m a rich man. Third in line to the throne. Plus...”

  She cocked a brow at him when he fell silent. “Plus?”

  “A lot of Veronians don’t appreciate some of my recent experiments.”

  She scowled at him. “Why not?”

  “We’re a modern country but sometimes, we just don’t like change.” He shrugged it off then opened the back door to his car. As she slid in, she realized there was a privacy screen between them and the driver.

  When Xavier rounded the car and got in beside her, she pointed to it. “How good is that thing?”

  “Good enough I need a microphone to tell Dustin where he needs to take me.” He demonstrated, press
ing a button and murmuring, “Dustin, can you take us to the castle?”

  “Sure thing, sir.” That came through a speaker next to her head and made her jolt in surprise.

  “Why are we going back there?” she asked with a pout.

  “Because that’s where you’re staying,” he teased. “What the movies don’t show you is that when you want to go anywhere, it has to be planned a good twenty-four to thirty-six hours in advance.”

  “Because your security has to check it out?”

  He nodded. “Fact of life.”

  “It seems so safe here,” Perry said with a scowl, rubbing her arms which, through the silk, felt chilly.

  “It is. But we have to take precautions.” He cleared his throat. “Plus, the castle is secure.”

  “Why aren’t you taking me to your estate?”

  His eyes flashed. “Do you think that’s wise?”

  Her shoulders hunched. “I guess not.”

  “Exactly.” He blew out a breath. “We’re just about as private as we can get, Perry. If you want to talk, now’s the time to do it.”

  The last three days had been… difficult.

  She’d needed to talk this out, but the person she usually spoke to, George, was involved so she’d felt verbally trapped.

  The idea of being able to talk to someone who knew about the brothers’ predilections was remarkably freeing, though she was still aware of the need to be cautious.

  “Are you friends with them now?”

  Xavier blinked at her question. “I speak with George twice a week no matter where he is in the world. Edward, less so. We usually meet up instead.”

  “What do you do when you meet up?” she asked, curious. George had never mentioned his cousin to her. She’d known of Xavier, in an offhand way. Not to look at, but by name. She’d have known more if George had made her privy to their conversations.

  His lips twitched. “Sure you want to know?”

  “If it involves titty bars, no, I don’t,” she snapped, her temper appearing out of nowhere.

  He smirked. “It involves a basketball court, Perry.” Xavier reached out and cupped her chin, and when she let out a shaky breath, he murmured, “You’re as tightly wound as a spring. “

  She closed her eyes. “I feel like I’ve stepped into a bad porn movie.”

  “I can see why you’d feel that way.”

  “Are you laughing at me?” she demanded, eyes popping open to study him through narrowed slits.

  He grinned. “A little.”

  She scowled at him. “It isn’t funny. This is all coming out of nowhere, dammit. Everything is on its head and I hate it. George has always been my confidante, but now, he’s the reason I’m so confused.”

  “Tell me what’s happening. Have they approached you in the past couple of days?”

  She rolled her eyes. “What do you think?”

  Edward hadn’t, but every meal she’d had with him and his family, he’d practically devoured her with his eyes instead of his dinner.

  Jesus, what that man could do with a look.

  She’d thought he was handsome before. Now, he was deadly. She’d never realized it was possible to expire from the promise in a man’s eye, but she was getting close to an expiration date of her own.

  George wasn’t pressing her, but it had been pre-arranged that he visit with her. She’d seen Veronia’s main dam yesterday, and this morning, had spoken with some key personnel in their government’s Environmental Agency.

  George had been at her side throughout, but nothing was the same.

  The easygoing flow of conversation that had always been between them, even if there were chunks of silence as they pondered whatever was on their minds, seemed to have disappeared.

  More than anything, she found she was mourning that.

  It scared her.

  He scared her.

  His wants. His needs. His love.

  “I’ve loved him for six years,” she told Xavier shakily. “I met him on the Harvard compound. I was meeting a friend for lunch who was taking the same class as him, and when I saw him leave the study hall, I was amazed by him. He took my breath away.”

  “Did you meet then, or did you just love him then?”

  She peeked at him. “The latter. Even though I know it’s stupid to say that. I guess it was a crush, but it didn’t feel like that. My friend saw more of me that semester than she had all the year before because I kept popping up to meet her so I could see him.” Perry pulled a face. “Stalker alert.”

  Xavier chuckled, revealing strong, white teeth. Not American white, where teeth were almost blue with bleach. But European white. More natural, less superficial.

  She’d noticed that she could discern Americans from a group of people by their dental hygiene alone since arriving in Europe.

  “He always did have the ladies panting after him.”

  She glowered at Xavier. “I did not pant.”

  He snorted. “Sure.”

  Huffing, Perry carried on, “I was waiting for Jessie, and George came out earlier than intended. He fell over, and I realized he was sick.”

  “His guards weren’t there?”

  “George doesn’t have many guards. Not as many as you.”

  Xavier grunted. “Wait until I tell Philippe that. Jesus, he’s always avoided his security detail.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know anything about that. I just know I’ve seen maybe one guard tailing him. Not five like you have.”

  Xavier pursed his lips. “Never mind. What was wrong with him?”

  “He had the flu of all things.” She shook her head at the memory—Perry had been so astonished that something like the flu could fell such a man. “I helped him up, but he was already punch drunk, and I got him into a cab. He passed out by the time I was ready to tell the driver his address so I took him back to my place.”

  Xavier’s eyes widened. “You took a strange man into your apartment?”

  She winced. “I know. Bad, right? But I was just… it all came as a shock, and there was no way he was faking being ill.”

  “Why didn’t you contact the campus security? They’d have known where to take him, surely?”

  She huffed again. “Look, you do know this was six years ago, right? I know I was stupid, and I wouldn’t do it again, but because I did do it, I found the best friend I’ve ever had so I can’t exactly complain about my stupidity.”

  Xavier’s horrified look said he begged to differ.

  She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, when George woke up after two days of being sick everywhere and lots of other grossness, he thought I’d kidnapped him.” Her lips curved into a grin at the memory. “It took me ages to calm him down.”

  “I’ll bet,” Xavier said dryly.

  “Nearly called the cops on me when I gave him the phone and told him to call whoever he wanted to get out of there.”

  “You’re lucky he didn’t.”

  She scoffed at that. “My apartment is small.”

  The non-sequitur had Xavier frowning. “So?”

  “So, when he got up, he saw the huge pile of laundry on the floor and draped all over the furniture. He saw where I’d been sleeping—on an armchair—and…” She shrugged. “He seemed to realize he’d been sick.”

  “I’d like to know how we can fast forward six years to him declaring his love for you in a bedsheet.”

  She shrugged again. “That I can’t answer. He left my apartment that day, and I was sure I’d never see him again. He was kind of mad that I hadn’t called anyone, but to be honest, everything happened so quickly, and he was puking all over the place that I was so busy, I didn’t have much time to think about anything other than helping him.”

  “You paint a pretty picture.”

  She snorted. “I do my best.”

  “I don’t understand why his guards didn’t cause an international incident to hunt him down.” He scratched his forehead. “I never heard anything about him going missing for a short time.”<
br />
  “I think he pulled stunts like that a lot. Plus, there was a time when he fired them all.”

  “You’re telling me the guards still didn’t trail after him?” He cocked a brow, disbelief written plainly on his face. “You don’t know what royal security is like if you think that.”

  “No. I guess not. But, I think he used to take advantage of his new guards and would sneak out. Plus, to be fair to them, I think he made a habit of sequestering himself in women’s apartments… I don’t think they’d have found anything out of the ordinary in his behavior. For a while, he was a bit of a man whore by the sounds of it.” She jerked a shoulder. “Anyway, the next day, he sent over some flowers. Did that for a week. Then, he arrived at my place and asked me out for coffee. We’ve been hanging out ever since.”

  Xavier’s lips twitched. “That has to be the most bizarre way of meeting somebody I’ve ever heard.”

  “Story of my life,” she admitted ruefully. “You don’t even want to know how I met my ex.”

  “Oh hell, you can’t say that and not tell me.”

  She shot him a cheeky grin. “If you’re a good boy, maybe I’ll tell you one day.”

  He sighed. “Meanie.”

  A laugh escaped her, and Jesus, it felt good to laugh. It felt even better to remember how she and George had met, and how their friendship had developed out of a strange genesis.

  It reminded her of the good and the bad times. Of the love that her crush had developed into.

  George was offering himself, his love. And she wanted that, she really did. Perry craved it with a desperation that made her wince, but the truth was, George’s love seemed to come with ties.

  He didn’t just want her love. He wanted her to love his brother too.

  “Why would George want to share me if he loves me?” she asked quietly, turning her head to stare out the window. Veronia was beautiful on a dull day, but in the sun, Madela gleamed like a new penny.

  Not that her attention was on the rolling fields that appeared once they’d made their way out of the city limits and back onto the road that would take them to the castle.

  No, her mind was on George. As it had been for the past seventy-two hours.

  Was there something wrong with her? Something that made him think she’d be so desperate to be with him that he could get her to do anything he wanted?