by Emma Lea
“This is Callie,” I said. “We have a meeting with the queen.”
“Callie,” he drawled. “Is that short for Calista?”
“No,” Callie said, folding her arms and glaring at Dorian.
He smirked in return. “Calliope, then?”
“I’m sorry, who are you?” Callie asked, and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself laughing.
Dorian straightened to his full height and tugged at the cuffs of his suit coat. “I am Lord Dorian Stamos, Ducas of Paralia,” he said in his haughtiest voice.
Callie looked at me and raised her eyebrows. “The king and queen have a ducas acting as a doorman these days?” she asked.
“Excuse me?” Dorian growled, his voice low and dangerous.
Callie turned to him and assessed him coolly. “Oh, my mistake, you’re not the doorman?”
“No,” Dorian snapped before turning to me and dismissing Callie, who rolled her eyes at him behind his back.
“What are you doing here on the front steps, Dorian?” I asked.
Dorian stretched his neck to either side and seemed to settle back into himself before answering. “We had an unexpected visitor while you were out,” he said.
“Oh?” I asked. “What does that have to do with me?”
“She is here to see Lucas,” he said, staring at me intently.
Hmm, she…the only two people it could possibly be were Effie or Maya and of the two women in Lucas’ life, only his mother could cause Dorian to come and intercept me.
“Maya is here?” I asked.
Dorian shook his head. “No, not Maya.”
“Effie?” I asked, something nasty clenching in my gut because I knew it wasn’t Effie. “Is Effie here to negotiate the distillery?”
Dorian shook his head slowly, and his eyes looked at me with pity.
“Who—” I licked my suddenly dry lips and cleared my throat. “Who is here?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Clarissa—”
“Oh hell no,” I said, barging past Dorian and into the palace. I looked around, not sure where I would find her but knowing I wanted to scratch the woman’s eyes out.
“They’re on the terrace,” Dorian said, coming up behind me. “But I wouldn’t—”
I didn’t stop to listen to whatever warning he was going to give me. I marched through the palace, completely forgetting that I’d brought Callie here to meet with the queen. I couldn’t think about anything past that miserable woman coming to Kalopsia to steal my fiancée. She’d had her chance with him and she blew it and I would not stand back and let her ruin Lucas’ life. I might not be the woman he needed in his life, but I was still his friend and there was no way I would let that woman back into his life after she turned him down.
I burst through the doors and out onto the terrace and skidded to a stop as I saw the two of them wrapped in an embrace. My breath was sucked from my lungs and I must have made a sound because Lucas looked up and our eyes caught. He stepped back, breaking the embrace, his eyes not leaving mine, and Clarissa turned to look over her shoulder at me and smirked. Yeah, she smirked at me and I knew, I just knew, she had come here to blow up everything Lucas and I had been building.
“Frankie—” Lucas said, but I couldn’t stay and listen to whatever it was he was going to say.
I might have turned him down when he offered me the world, but hearing him say he was going back to Clarissa would be so much more painful. I couldn’t do it.
“Don’t,” I said, before turning on my heel and fleeing from the terrace.
It was time to go. It was time to go home. I raced up to my suite and dragged out my laptop. I hadn’t yet had my interview with the king, but there was no way that would happen now. I logged on to a flight website and booked a ticket home. I needed to leave Kalopsia, and I needed to do it as soon as practically possible because there was no way I wanted to stay in the palace with that woman and there was no way I could sit by and watch Clarissa and Lucas rekindle their relationship. I needed to be gone and far, far away before that happened.
Chapter 21
Lucas
“It’s so good to see you,” Clarissa gushed as she looked up at me. “And how beautiful is this place? I didn’t know, I mean, who knew this little country could be so cu-ute?” she ended on a squeal.
I frowned down at her. Clarissa was acting very un-Clarissa-like, and I didn’t like it. Clarissa didn’t gush, and she didn’t say things like ‘cute’ and she especially didn’t say anything with that high-pitched baby voice that was already grating on my nerves.
“What are you doing here, Clarissa?” I asked.
“I came to see you, silly,” she replied, pressing herself against me.
I tried to take a step back, but she followed me until I was backed up against the balustrade of the terrace.
She pouted. “Aren’t you going to give your girlfriend a kiss?” she asked, throwing herself into my arms.
“We’re not—” I tried to say, but she kissed me, effectively silencing me.
I heard a gasp from the doors of the terrace and looked up to see Frankie staring at me. There was a moment, I was ashamed to admit, where I considered returning Clarissa’s kiss—Frankie had rejected me, she didn’t get to look so hurt and betrayed when she was the one who turned me down—but I just couldn’t do it. Clarissa meant nothing to me and as much as Frankie’s out-of-hand rejection hurt me, I still loved her. Kissing Clarissa felt wrong and weird.
I broke away from Clarissa. “Frankie—”
“Don’t,” Frankie said before fleeing, her eyes shiny and her face a picture of heartbreak.
Dorian filled the space where Frankie had been and lifted an eyebrow at me before looking pointedly at Clarissa, who was trying desperately to drape herself over me.
I stepped away again and held my hands out when Clarissa once again tried to sidle up next to me.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I said to Clarissa.
“But I’m your girlfriend,” she insisted, her voice loud and carrying far too much for my liking.
“No, you broke up with me,” I reminded her.
“And he’s engaged,” Dorian supplied helpfully, striding toward us. “To Francesca.”
Clarissa rolled her eyes and snorted, and I frowned at her again. I had never seen this sort of behavior from Clarissa…ever.
“Frankie’s just a friend, right?” Clarissa asked, turning to me.
“The ring on her finger begs to differ,” Dorian said.
“I saw the photos,” Clarissa said, a note of derision creeping into her voice. “It’s the same ring you proposed to me with, isn’t it?”
I swallowed.
“Besides, I know about the deal you made with your father,” Clarissa went on. “And now you don’t have to pretend with Frankie anymore because I’m here.”
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“I just told you,” she replied.
“No, actually, you didn’t. Why did you come to Kalopsia? What happened to the new and exciting and passionate man you found to replace the boring, predictable, and equable me with?” I asked, crossing my arms.
“I was wrong,” she said, looking unsure of herself for the first time. “He…he was nothing like you and I missed you and I realized what I really wanted was—”
“Boring?” I finished for her. “Bland? Dull? Monotonous?”
“No, sweet and stable and reliable.”
Dorian chuckled darkly under his breath.
“You. I want you,” Clarissa said. “And you need me. You can’t really expect Frankie to keep up this charade forever, can you? I mean, she’s hardly the type to make a good wife to you, especially now that you’re a markissios. You need me, Lucas, admit it. Haven’t you missed me? We were good together, you can’t deny that.”
I hadn’t missed her. In fact, I’d barely given her a second thought from the time I proposed to Frankie. And as for being good together, I’d always thought we were, bu
t now, after spending time with Frankie, I had to question my relationship with Clarissa. Being with Clarissa had felt like a thing I had to do because it was expected of me. Being with Frankie was fun and made me happy.
“So, let me get this straight,” Dorian said, tugging on his cuffs and giving me side-eye. “You proposed to this lovely woman here—” he winked at Clarissa and she blushed. “And she turned you down, so you asked Francesca to pretend to be your fiancée because of a deal you made with your father?”
“It wasn’t like that—” I began.
“It was exactly like that,” Clarissa supplied, unhelpfully. “But I was a fool to turn you down, Lucas. I know that now. I want to marry you. I want to be your wife.”
Did she? Or did she just want to marry the title and gain the prestige of being in the royal court?
“How did you even know where I was?” I asked.
Clarissa pulled out her phone and showed me the Instagram feed. I snatched the phone and stared at it before turning it around to show Dorian.
“Did you know about this?” I asked.
He peered at the screen and then shrugged.
“No, but I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“You don’t see what the big deal is?” I said incredulously. “It doesn’t bother you that Sophia has been posting our photos publicly without our permission?”
“It’s the Kabiero Royals Instagram feed,” Dorian replied. “It goes with the territory of being a royal. Sophia is working on the P.R. for the palace, I just assumed she would post photos. What did you think she would do with all the photos she took? Scrapbooking?” Dorian snickered at his own joke and I just rolled my eyes.
Sophia had been taking a lot of photos, but I just thought…I didn’t know what I thought. Taking photos on a phone just seemed to be something that everyone did these days, I honestly hadn’t thought twice about it, neither had I checked my own phone in the weeks I’d been here. There was no reason to. Frankie was here, and the palace knew where I was at every moment of the day and if I needed to speak to Effie, I used the landline in my office. No one else called me, so there was no reason to obsessively check my phone. I didn’t even have Instagram.
“But how did you know about the Kabiero Royals Instagram account?” I asked Clarissa.
“Your mother shared some photos from it on her feed,” Clarissa said.
Of course. Of course this situation was my mother’s fault.
“And so you just decided you needed to come here, without contacting me first? You saw that I was engaged to Frankie, and what? You wanted to fight for your man?”
“I knew the thing with you and Frankie had to be fake. And when your father told me about the deal you made,” she shrugged, “I just put two and two together. You always said there was nothing between you and Frankie, and I can see that now. Frankie does not fit in here with you. The other royals must be laughing at the two of you behind your back. No one really believes you would be with someone like her. It’s just too ridiculous. You are from different worlds.”
My anger was building with every word she spoke. There was nothing wrong with Frankie and no one was laughing at her behind her back. Everyone loved Frankie, probably loved her more than they loved me, and if anything, people would wonder why Frankie was with me, not the other way around.
“You need to stop talking now, Clarissa,” I said. “You are making a fool of yourself with the rubbish you are letting come out of your mouth. Frankie is amazing and you’re wrong, so very wrong about her. Everyone adores her, and she fits in here like she was born to it.”
Clarissa sneered but before she could say anything, the king stepped out onto the balcony flanked by two large bodyguards.
I bowed, as did Dorian, while Clarissa turned, wide-eyed, to look at him before fumbling into a curtsey.
“Your majesty,” I said, rising.
“Lord Lucas,” he replied with a nod at me and then one at Dorian. “Lord Dorian. I heard we had an unexpected visitor.”
I swallowed.
“Oh, your majesty,” Clarissa said with awe in her voice. “It’s so wonderful to meet you. I’m Clarissa Margate—”
“I know who you are,” Jamie said, smiling to soften his words, but his eyes were still hard. I didn’t know what was going on in his head, but I knew Danika would have a full dossier on Clarissa. “You wouldn’t have been allowed past the front gate if I didn’t know who you were,” he said, a warning and a welcome all at once. “Shall we go inside and meet everyone else?”
“Your majesty—” I began trying to find a way to get out of the not-quite direct order.
“I insist,” Jamie said, and I nodded, my heart clenching. This was the bit where Jamie found out I had been deceiving him the whole time and then he would throw me out if he didn’t imprison me for treason or something.
“Of course,” I agreed.
The queen looked at me with disappointment. The king’s gaze was unreadable. Nerves bubbled uncomfortably in my stomach and I felt the telltale signs of anxiety fizzing under my skin. My breath was short and my heart raced and I realized I hadn’t felt like this in weeks. I’d had the odd moment, but nothing like this. I hadn’t had one panic attack in the entire time I’d been in Kalopsia. I hadn’t had a single anxiety attack in the entire time I’d been with Frankie and yet, here I was, sweating proverbial bullets, and the reason? Clarissa.
We stood in what Frankie had dubbed the ‘throne’ room. Meredith and Jamie did indeed sit on throne-like chairs on a raised dais. It was the same room where we’d been formally introduced to them on our arrival and this was only the second time I’d been into it. Meredith and Jamie did not invoke the throne room very often, and that made this particular meeting more intimidating.
Just like the first time I’d stood in this spot, the other members of the court stood around and watched us carefully. I felt their censure. They all liked Frankie, even Elena who didn’t seem to like much of anything. I had a feeling they would not like Clarissa.
“Clarissa Margate,” Meredith said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “What an…unexpected…pleasure.”
It didn’t sound like a pleasure, and Meredith had definitely emphasized the fact that Clarissa’s visit had been completely unexpected.
Clarissa at least had the grace to appear chagrined by her surprise visit.
“My security people don’t like unexpected,” Meredith went on, and I swallowed.
Was she still talking to Clarissa? Or did Meredith mean something else? Like maybe the unexpected lie that was being revealed by Clarissa’s arrival?
“Arrivals or departures,” Meredith finished, looking directly at me as if she was trying to communicate something telepathically.
Departures? What did she mean by that? Was she hinting that I would be making an unexpected departure?
“I apologize for my sudden visit,” Clarissa said, using the voice she always used when speaking with my mother. “But, as I’m sure you are well aware, when the heart is involved, it doesn’t always listen to reason.”
Dorian snorted and I would have too if I wasn’t too scared to move in case Danika sicced one of her guards on me.
Meredith quirked an eyebrow but said nothing.
Jamie sat there watching me and watching Clarissa, his face a mask. It was his king's face. I’d only seen it occasionally, and it had never been aimed at me. Usually he used it when speaking with a member of parliament, or someone who he didn’t particularly like but had to deal with for the sake of his fledgling country. It didn’t bode well that he was now looking at me like that.
“How long do you plan to stay?” Meredith asked when Jamie still hadn’t spoken.
Clarissa looked up at me and her face transformed into one I’d never seen before. If I was to name it, I would have to say she looked at me adoringly, but again, she had never looked at me like that, so I was just taking a guess. I shifted from one foot to the other and cleared my throat. I suddenly felt like the last cup
cake at a kid’s birthday party with far too many eyes on me and not enough of me to go around.
“That’s up to Lucas,” Clarissa said, her voice sweet and breathy.
“You are aware that Lord Lucas is engaged…to be married?” Meredith asked.
“Oh yes, of course,” Clarissa said, turning back to the queen. “But we were in love and I stupidly broke his heart. Of course he would run into his best friend’s arms. Frankie is a rebound.”
“And so you’ve come to your senses and realized you can’t live without Lord Lucas?” Meredith asked.
“Yes,” Clarissa breathed with relief. “I knew you would understand.”
Meredith didn’t acknowledge that last bit as she spoke again. “And this sudden realization had nothing at all to do with Lord Lucas now having a title and a place on the royal court? Or that the man you left him for, I believe he was the CEO of a large tech company and was touted as being the richest man in America by the end of the year, has turned his attentions to someone else?”
Clarissa froze beside me and I suddenly had a realization of the kind of woman I had been prepared to marry. I never once suspected Clarissa to be anything other than the woman she’d been around me. I thought we’d been so perfectly matched. I thought she’d been the perfect other half for my carefully planned life, but what if…what if she had only been pretending? What if she had only been showing me what I wanted? Had that been Clarissa’s goal all along? Had she only been with me because of the money my family had?
Of course that was the only reason she’d been with me. Just as the only reason Frankie had agreed to my stupid fake proposal was so she could do her research.
No, that wasn’t true. Frankie was my friend, and that was why she’d agreed to pose as my fake fiancée. Frankie was nothing like Clarissa, I knew that, but I also knew that Frankie hadn’t accepted my proposal because she loved me. Frankie was far too bright and colorful and amazing to hitch her wagon to mine. The realization settled in my gut like a stone. I’d gotten swept up in the pretending. I’d fallen for Frankie and I’d tried to make something more out of what we had when I should have just been content that Frankie would shine any of her light onto my stupid boring life.
