by Nana Malone
He joined me from the west, and he was running too. As he'd been on the polo field with me, he looked like he'd only just grabbed a shower himself. "Okay, let's head out. I think she might be at the overlook. She likes to go there sometimes to think, and I—“
Roone grabbed my arm and held me back. "Seb, wait."
I grabbed his hand and I frowned. Roone wasn't generally much for touching. There were occasional mate hugs here and there, but honestly, he rarely ever touched anyone. What the hell was that about?
"What's going on?"
"Seb, I only saw the news as I was hopping out of the shower. I'm so fucking sorry. Listen—“
I interrupted him. "What news?"
He frowned. "Laila."
"Fuck. I just saw the ring on the nightstand. How is it that gossip rags know already?"
His eyes went wide. "You don't know?"
"Know what?" I stared at him. The pit of my stomach knotted tighter, threatening to squeeze all the bile out. "Fuck, just tell me. Know what?"
"Ah fuck, I'm sorry." Roone pulled out his phone. A couple of quick taps and he handed the phone over to me. There was a video playing, and there was Laila, laughing and smiling, except not in my arms. She was with Prince Alfonse de Pasqual. They were laughing, and de Pasqual had his arms around her. They were smiling and talking, and Laila was waving a twenty carat ring, give or take a carat, at the cameras. I turned the volume up to make sure I was hearing it correctly.
"It was all so sudden, and Sebastian gave his absolute blessing. We were waiting a while to announce our separation. And then he just—“ she fluttered her lashes at the camera and put on her best sympathetic face. "He's just so amazing. He knew it just wasn't working, so he gave me his blessing. And I just—I had to follow my heart."
"Blessing my ass,” I muttered. “What the fuck?"
Roone watched me warily. "Mate, I'm so sorry. I’m gutted for you."
"This is a lie." I held up my phone. "She's fucking lying. I gave no such blessing. I gave her no blessing at all. I just—I expected her to be at the polo match today. I hadn’t really seen her in a couple of days, but I thought she was tied up with the wedding plans. She texted me last night. She said, 'I'll see you tomorrow.'" I shook my head. "She's lying. I gave no blessing."
Roone looked at a loss for words. "I have no idea what to say, mate, except this is bullshit. You don't deserve this."
"She dumped me, publicly, on television, and in the gossip magazines. She dropped me for a better prince."
"Seb—“
I shook my head. "No. That's what happened. Don't try and sugar coat it. Be the friend I need. I got played."
Roone nodded. "Yeah, you did."
"She dropped me for a better match. She never wanted me at all. It was only ever about the crown."
Chapter 3
Penny…
"Okay, this is your chance. Just walk right up to him and talk to him. I mean, it's not like he hasn't been in and out of your house since you were kids."
I slid my gaze to my best friend. Ariel was my bestie for all the right reasons. When Belinda Cartwright had planned to beat me up after school when I was eight, Ariel had stood by my side. We'd both gotten our asses kicked, but it had been well worth it.
When Michael Buckley told me I had no boobs, Ariel called him a twat monkey in front of the whole school. He never messed with me again. She was always in my corner.
Where I questioned her was when it came to matters of the heart. She had a full-throttle, jump-both-feet-first kind of approach to things, and it terrified me, because frankly, in that instance I wasn't sure how I would be received. "I don't know. This is a family picnic."
In the Winston Isles, we didn't actually have any real concept of summer because the weather was always awesome, except for hurricane season.
"Look, this is your chance. There are lots of people around, so no one is going to notice if you walk right up to him and start talking. Everyone should be really busy. So just pull this off and finally be like, 'Hey, wanna jump my bones?'"
"What if he says no?"
She rolled her eyes. "Well, then he says no. And then he's a doucheface who lost out. But he won't say no. He's going to love you, like everyone else does. Besides, he's probably into you already and just doesn't know how to say it.
I bit my lip. "You think so?"
"I know so. I mean, he's always checking you out. And I happened to notice that he's been checking you out a lot more often lately."
"That's because Michael is tied up with Emily right now, so their bromance is on pause." I immediately wished I could recall the words. How could I be so stupid? "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have pointed that out. Forget I said anything." Ariel had been crushing on my brother, Michael, since we were kids.
"It’s fine. I saw her. She’s just a passing fancy. She’s going go away, and then I’m going to slide in and have Michael all to myself. I mean, he’s supposed to date other people, right? Like, it’s not the right time for either of us. Besides, I just got off that thing with Tony Alders. So, I’m going to let that settle a while before I make my move.”
This was the other reason I loved her; Ariel’s unwavering commitment. When she decided something was going to happen, it was flipping going to happen. And I admired her for that, because she was nuts.
“Okay, you’re right. I am sorry though. I shouldn’t have pointed her out. But if it helps at all, Mom thinks she’s kind of white bread.” I glanced right out at the window to what usually served as our lawn. It was really one of the side gardens of the palace. As my father was head of security for the Royal Guard, our accommodations were the closest to the palace. It had the added benefit of being adjacent to one of the best gardens. So whenever we had a party, King Cassius always granted permission for us to use the space.
There was my brother, arm wrapped around the slim blond. Neither of them looked particularly happy. Not that they looked sad or upset either. But there was no light in Michael’s eyes. His gaze kept dancing around as if looking for someone. And Emily, well, she looked uncomfortable mostly. “Look at her. I don’t think that’s going to last very long. You know Michael has aspirations for all kinds of things.”
Ariel nodded. “You’re right. She does look unhappy. Not that I’m happy about that. She’s not even my concern. And we’re turning the conversation back to you. So why don’t you go and find Robert? I’ll hold down the fort while you talk to him.”
I shifted on my feet. “Are you sure?”
“Yes please, for the love of God, go! Just make your move. You’ve had a crush on him since we were eleven. Make it happen. Make me proud.”
“You’re right. I can do this.”
Besides, what was the worst that could happen? I opened the sliding glass door of my bedroom and closed it gently behind me. Ariel was likely going to go back to the entrance at the kitchen, so she could be closer to Michael to stalk/watch him. Honestly, I would prefer if Michael would date my best friend. But no matter what I’d tried to get the two of them together, my brother seemed uninterested. Whatever. That was his loss. I looked around the party and finally found Robert at the center of the garden in the little maze.
“Hey, you needed a break from the noise too?”
His gaze flickered up to meet mine and skittered away. “Oh, hey, Penny. What’s up?”
“Nothing. I just—I didn’t see you, so I came to see if you need anything.”
“No, I’m fine.” His brows furrowed, and then he slid his gaze back to me. “You were worried about me?”
“Yeah. I guess so. You and Michael are usually pretty much attached at the hip, so when I didn’t see you, I figured something was up.”
“No, nothing’s up.”
I wasn’t sure if I should believe him. Something about the way his smile flickered and didn’t quite reach his eyes. But who was I to judge?
“So, you having fun? It’s Independence Day. I can’t wait for the fireworks.”
The Wi
nston Isles Independence Day was celebrated on March 6th as the day King Jackson won the war, or pretty much the day the British declared they were too damned tired to keep fighting, so they packed up, took their balls, and went home.
Every kid in the islands had been indoctrinated with our history, what King Jackson did for the people, and the kind of King he was after he won. Nowadays though, it was mostly just a reason to celebrate and a good excuse to have a party as an islander.
Robert stood. “Yeah, why don’t we head back to the party?” He slid his arm casually over my shoulders, and I had to hold myself still not to have a complete and total freak out.
He’d never paid attention to me before. Yes, I’d dated a little bit in college, and it wasn’t like I was some wide-eyed virgin. But considering I didn’t have that much experience, I might as well be.
As we rejoined the party, my brother’s gaze met mine immediately, then flickered to Robert, then back again at me. Somehow, his frown only deepened. What the hell was wrong with him? Would he be upset if I was dating his best friend?
Robert’s hold around me only tightened. “You know what, Penny? I’m glad you came to find me, actually. I’ve been thinking you and I haven’t had the chance to really get to know each other that well, despite all the years we’ve been so close. Do you want to maybe get dinner this week?”
My brows lifted. Things were going even better than expected. “Yeah. Pick a night, I’m free.” Oh damn. Way to play it cool there, Marsh. “I mean, I’ll check my calendar, but I’m sure for you I can make myself free.”
Not sure that was much better, but whatever.
He chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. I think it’s time I pay a little more attention to you. Hell, maybe it’s time I pay a lot of attention to you.”
My insides warmed, and I couldn’t help the cheesy grin that spread so wide my cheeks ached with it.
And then Robert did something unexpected. In the middle of the party, in front of my parents and everyone, he pulled me close and wrapped his arms around my lower back. “But you know what? I was thinking we should get this out of the way first so there’s not a lot of pressure on the date.”
Oh God, was he going to kiss me? I really, really hoped he was going to kiss me. Just… was this exactly the place for that?
Robert leaned over, his frame crowding me just a little. And then his lips pressed to mine. And then there was… nothing.
No sparks. I mean, it was nice, but it wasn’t… I don’t know… magic? But how could that be? I had been in love with Robert forever. How in the world did it merely feel nice to kiss him? When he pulled back, I opened my eyes, only to find that Robert wasn’t watching me. His gaze was somewhere over my head, and the lines on his mouth only tightened. “Everything okay?”
His gaze drifted back to mine, and he grinned. “Yeah, everything is perfect. Penny, I think you and I are going to be absolutely perfect together.”
I’m not sure what it was, but there was something about the way he said it that rang a little hollow, as if he didn’t mean it the way I thought it should be intended. But what the hell did I know? For once, I was getting exactly what I wanted.
Chapter 4
Penny…
Another hour on shift, and then I can kick these shoes off, get some ice cream, crawl into my bed and veg out.
One would think being at the ball would be amazing. And it might be, if I was actually at the ball. But no, I was working the ball. All of this was made worse by watching my brother who had actually been invited to attend.
Since Michael had worked on some important security cases with my father, he’d wrangled an invite from the king. What did I get? I got to stand next to some duke and duchess, watching them eat while my stomach grumbled. Not that they could hear it, what with all the ball music going on.
I watched my brother flit across the floor with Emily on his arm. She looked much happier these days. Overnight, she’d turned super sweet. Right around the time Robert and I started dating. Maybe because she could monopolize more of Michael’s time.
I had tried to warm up to her. Really, I had. But she’d made it extremely difficult. It wasn’t even that she was mean or sour all the time, although, that might have been part of the problem. But mostly it was just that she never really looked like she wanted to be there in his arms.
She’d made it clear from the beginning that she didn’t like Robert, which was stupid because he was my boyfriend and Michael’s best friend. But she was so much nicer to me these days.
I shifted again, trying to release some of the pressure on the balls of my feet. Ariel wasn’t working tonight. She’d begged to take my place, but I needed to make a good impression on my father.
Since I’d joined the guard officially six months ago, things had been tense. Not that I was the worst royal guard in the history of the Royal Guard… but yeah, I was the worst. I knew it. He knew it. Everybody knew it. It was like I was just delaying the inevitable.
It would be horrible to have my own father sack me from my job. But that looked like something that might actually happen.
It wasn’t my fault most of the time. I was just Calamity Penny. There was the time that I was supposed to drive the follow car for the Minister of Transportation from Germany when he’d come to visit, and I had been a little distracted and gotten lost… on my own island. I’d lived on this island my whole life. How was I going to get lost? But it had happened. I made a left instead of a right in some subdivision and lost sight of the cars in front of me. And boom, there I was, lost with no GPS.
My father had been displeased to say the least.
And then there was the time that I was supposed to be an escort to some friend of Princess Analize. That was supposed to be easy. Babysit the girl. Never let her out of my sight.
Not so easy.
That innocent teenage girl and her friends were the devils. She’d tried to shake me loose twice during the detail, and finally managed it in the dressing room in one of the boutiques by the shore. She’d gone in to get dressed. I’d expected her to come out in five minutes. She never did.
She’d slipped out the back with her little gaggle of girls, and then they’d gotten up to no good. They chartered a boat to Aruba. The photos were all over their Instagram, and TMZ caught it.
I, of course, was not in Aruba with them, so I’d gotten an earful for that one. So these days, my father mostly had me managing the security affairs for the queen. It was mostly a paper-pushing position. I’d get a request from someone coming in to the islands that wanted to see the queen, And I put in the security request to the Royal Guard, took note of how long they would be here, that sort of thing. No real responsibility. No real danger either.
Which was probably for the best because I would likely screw it up. I was on thin ice and needed to do something that looked good.
I was going to show my father that I wasn’t completely terrible at this job. If I ever left the job, I wanted it to be on my own terms and not because he was forced to fire me because the king made him.
Besides, Ariel’s motives for wanting to take my shift were not entirely altruistic, even though she was my bestie. She mostly wanted to see Prince Sebastian. He was home on holiday. After that whole thing with Princess Laila de Pascal, he’d gone on a bit of a tear. He’d left the island. No one knew where exactly, but mostly in Europe. And he’d been photographed misbehaving… a lot. One time on a boat in Mallorca, he’d been photographed completely starkers, and well, the view was… outstanding. Ariel wanted to catch a glimpse of him in person.
I, on the other hand, couldn’t care less.
Yes you could.
Okay fine, I did a little. I was hoping to catch a glance of him too, but I knew that was going to be unlikely. My charge was the Duke of Essex and his daughter, Bridget. I was mostly to make sure that they got escorted wherever they needed to go on time, get them a car when they needed one, and just keep Bridget from making too much ruckus. Pretty easy.
That will never be you.
They chatted amicably, and I didn’t even bother to try and listen in on their conversation. None of it had anything to do with me. And honestly, I wouldn’t want it to. The way it worked was, Royal Guards stayed silent, hidden in plain sight, and quiet as a mouse. Do your job. Keep everyone safe. It was something I should have been able to manage.
The duke and the socialite leaned forward for a picture together that someone took of them. They smiled brilliantly, and I was impressed by just how gorgeous a photo it was. No doubt that would get leaked to TMZ or one of the gossip rags, and there would be some speculation that the two of them were banging, even though the duke was married.
I didn’t know who the socialite was, but the speculation would help her in some way. I don’t know. I tried not to keep up with affairs of court.
And then it happened; as the Duke leaned in to take another photo, his sleeve pushed over the candle on the table.
I could see it all happening in slow motion, but I was still powerless to do much about it.
I shouted, “Your Grace!”
But he didn’t hear me, so I rushed forward. “Your Grace, your sleeve.”
His gaze flickered to mine, the frown etched on his face, as if how dare I speak to him openly. But then I pointed at his sleeve, and he screeched and stumbled backward. I grabbed two glasses of water off the table and threw them on him. That didn’t work.
Shit.
The couple that had been seated on his other side screamed and jumped up, the woman fleeing as her shouts echoed behind her. Her date wasn’t far behind. I saw the other guards heading my way. “Your Grace, stop flopping please.” I grabbed the napkin and tried to catch his arm, but he kept waving it away.
