by Lucy Lennox
“Especially living in a small town. They come in droves, news vans and camera crews. The entire town thinks it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. They make money hand over fist with the influx of new consumers, and they beg me every time to play up to the press to drag it out as long as I can. The more exposure Hobie gets, the better our summer lake season is for all the business owners. They act like I owe it to the town to help out by letting it happen.”
“Felix, that’s terrible.”
He blew out a breath. “Yeah. It is. That’s why I couldn’t stand it this time. This movie is going to be huge, and I know it will be the craziest media frenzy yet. I just couldn’t deal. I hate the paparazzi. Hate them. And I hate my mother for bringing me to their attention.” The last part was mumbled, but I still caught it.
I realized with sudden clarity that the same thing would happen if word ever got out that we’d slept together. He would be the center of attention once again, but this time it would be because of me. I’d be the one responsible for putting him in the spotlight he so desperately hated.
“Oh fuck,” I breathed.
“Yeah. Sorry. I didn’t mean to bring down the mood.” It was an attempt at a joke, but I couldn’t even fake a chuckle. “Do you think the pizza is ready yet?”
I stood up to check the pizza. My entire body seemed to have gone numb at the realization that I was no better than Felix’s mom if I was willing to risk his exposure for my own benefit.
As we sat at the table eating our dinner, my mind spun. Surely Felix knew something was up with me, but he didn’t ask. Instead of our usual easy conversation, there was silence.
Finally, after we’d finished and cleaned up the mess we’d made, Felix turned to me.
“Listen, I get it. Now that you know who my mom is, you’re not interested. It’s fine. You don’t need to worry about hurting my feelings or anything. Honestly, it’s actually better than the opposite. Usually guys want into my pants when they find out, not out of them.”
“Felix—”
He held up his hand. “No, really. It’s cool. I’m just going to head back to my room and turn in. I have lots of work to do on my dissertation anyway.”
“Felix,” I said again. I could not let him leave like that, thinking I didn’t want him. What would the harm be in spending one more night with him in the comfort and security of the private estate? It’s not like anyone could catch us here.
“I don’t want you to go,” I admitted. “I… I really like you.” And that was the absolute truth. Even if there was no future that included the two of us together. “Please may I stay with you tonight?”
His face softened into a shy smile that squeezed my heart. “Really?”
I nodded. “Yes, really. But first, I was hoping we could take a glass tour of the castle. You can explain your theories to me.”
The sparkle returned to his eyes, and I let out a breath of relief.
“Let’s go,” he said. “I’ll show you my favorite first. It’s in the portrait gallery.”
I thought about the recent addition of my own portrait in the gallery. Surely, he’d seen it. “Actually, have you seen the hidden glass in the king’s bedchamber?” I said quickly.
Felix’s eyes widened. “Of course not. It’s off-limits.”
Not to me it’s not, I thought.
I grinned at him and grabbed his hand. “I’m sure Mari will overlook a little innocent snooping.”
Thank god, I had enough time to message Arthur to prepare the room for visiting before disappearing to his own room.
Chapter 16
Felix
After hours and hours of the most exciting and intriguing treasure hunt of my life, Lio and I returned to my room and fell into bed.
“That was amazing. Best Christmas present ever,” I gushed. “I can’t believe how many hidden passages you know about. And the glass handles in the royal water closet… they were amazing.”
Lio turned to look at me with a satisfied grin. “I’m glad you liked it. It was fun hearing about all the different techniques, especially considering those pieces were made hundreds of years ago.”
“I’m sure a good chunk of Calum’s job is maintaining the existing glass in the castle. He has to keep it from glass disease and—” Lio cut me off with a kiss.
“Merry Christmas, Felix,” he murmured against my mouth. “I’m so glad you’re here with me.”
“Me too,” I breathed. “Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
We made out like teenagers, kissing and touching and humping against each other until we couldn’t stand another minute with fabric between us. As we stripped each other bare, our eyes met and locked on to each other—the intensity in Lio’s deep blue gaze struck me like a jolt to the heart. I’d never before felt at once so exposed and so protected.
“Lio,” I whispered.
“Shh,” he said, reaching for my face and pulling it in for a kiss. “Let me make you feel good, Felix.”
And he did. Over and over again for hours until I fell into an exhausted sleep curled up against his strong body.
I awoke to banging sounds and shouting, deep voices I’d never heard before and the broken static of walkie-talkies. Before I could figure out what was happening, I felt Lio’s body cover mine, his arms wrapping protectively around my head.
“Lio?” I asked, trying to shake myself out of a deep sleep. “Is that the TV?”
“Shh, everything’s fine, Felix. I’ll explain in a minute,” he whispered quickly in my ear. “Please just trust me, okay? I’m sure it’s a false alarm.” I could hear slight fear in his voice, but what I didn’t hear was surprise. Did he know what was happening?
I tried to shift so I could see, but Lio kept me covered.
“Sir, you need to come with us now. It’s a full call.” The voice was low and commanding. “We’ll keep Mr. Wilde safe.”
I blinked up at Lio, whose head was tilted to the side.
“He’s coming with me. He needs to stay with me,” Lio said.
“You know we can’t do that, sir,” the voice responded. “And I don’t have time to argue. We go now.”
I felt Lio’s body being pulled off me, and I cried out. “What’s happening? Lio?”
A man in dark clothing was forcing Lio off the bed and leading him out of my room by the arm. Lio’s bare ass was exposed for everyone to see.
“Lio!” I called. The fear was stark in my voice. “You can’t take him!”
I scrambled off the bed, pulling a sheet around myself and charging after him, but another man stopped me with a hand around my biceps. It was Jon.
“It’s okay, Felix. He’s all right, I promise. You need to come with me.”
“The hell I do,” I snarled, yanking my arm out of his grip and trying to follow Lio. When I got to the door of the guest apartment, I saw someone had thrown a blanket around Lio’s nakedness. He looked back at me, his face full of apology.
“I’m sorry, Fee. I’ll explain everything when I see you again. I’m so sorry.”
And just like that, he was gone.
I turned back to look at Jon, who’d grabbed me around the shoulders to keep me from following Lio.
“You need to come with me, quickly,” he said.
“Why? Let me get my clothes.” My head was spinning, and I didn’t even know what to think. Had Lio just been kidnapped? “What the fuck is happening, Jon?”
Without even allowing me more than the sheet around my waist, he quickly led me out of the apartment and toward the main house. Instead of entering via one of the regular doors, we entered through a space that looked like a cellar door. It took us straight down into a level below ground, and I immediately recognized the stone arches of the basement corridor.
“Where the hell are we going?” I asked, hearing the panic in my own voice.
“To a secure room. There’s a security protocol in place we follow until we get the all clear.”
“I don’t understand.”
Jon sighed and glanced at me. “This is a royal house, yeah? So when there’s a threat to the monarchy, the royal house goes into a lockdown protocol. In this case, that protocol includes you.”
“But what…” I thought about where to begin with the questions. “What about you? Why are you the one bringing me here, and why can’t Lio be with us?”
Jon led me into a room where I saw a woman about my age sitting curled up on a worn plaid sofa. She was slender with pale skin and delicate features. Thick waves of messy dark hair tumbled down over her shoulders, and she held an e-reader in her lap.
A space heater was trying and failing to warm up the space, and I noticed a table with a coffee maker in one corner. Everything was slightly blurred without my glasses.
I shivered in the thin sheet wrapped around me.
The woman looked up at the commotion of our entry, and her eyes flew wide at the sight of me. The same dark blue eyes as the man I’d been curled up with only moments before.
“Who are you?” she asked.
I looked from Jon to the woman and back. “Um… Felix? Who are you?”
“Henrietta. Hen.”
That name rang a bell. “Henrietta, Lio’s sister?”
“Yes. And you?”
I wondered if he was out to his family. “Oh. I, ah… I’m a friend.”
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Jon roll his eyes, but it was the valet named Arthur who spoke up from where he’d been sitting reading a book. “They’re sleeping together,” he said with a sniff, not even looking up from whatever he was reading.
My head spun around to glare at him. “That’s none of your damned business.”
But the woman, Hen, just laughed. “Ah-ha. I see. Even when he hides away at Gadleigh, he manages to get laid. Little shit.”
The comment soured my stomach, making it seem like all there was between Lio and me was a cheap fuck.
Hell, for all I knew, maybe it was. I swallowed and looked around for a place to sit.
“I don’t suppose anyone happens to have an extra pair of sweats lying around,” I muttered.
Henrietta looked me up and down with a smirk. “No, but there are extra blankets in that cupboard over there,” she said, nodding toward a wooden wardrobe against one wall. I shuffled over to it and found stacks of wool blankets. Despite smelling musty, they were nice and thick and warm.
“Thanks. Much better.” I exhaled and found a spot in an overstuffed chair. “How long until we get an all clear?”
“It depends on what the threat is,” Henrietta explained. “Some last only a couple of minutes. Some last days.”
“Days?” I sputtered. “I can’t stay down here with no clothes for days.”
“Well, maybe you should have thought about it before sleeping with the prince of Liorland,” she teased.
I stared at her while I waited for my brain to catch up. When it did, I felt the blood drain from my entire body.
“What?”
“Oh hell,” Arthur said before standing up and approaching Jon to whisper something into his ear.
“You heard me,” Hen continued. “Everyone wants a piece of Lio thinking it’s all fun and games, but then this sort of shit happens and they realize it’s not all nightclubs and fancy clothes.”
“Wait, what?”
I couldn’t feel my lips. Or my tongue. Or my feet.
Henrietta’s eyes narrowed at me. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I didn’t sleep with a prince,” I insisted, knowing full well it was a lie. “I slept with Lio.”
Henrietta stared at me for a beat. “You’re serious, aren’t you? You really don’t know who he is. How can you not know who he is?”
I thought about the magazine cover from the night before, the one with the king and queen of Liorland on the front. Liorland with an L-i-o. As in, the royal family of Monaco. The house of Grimaldi. I thought about Lio, who seemed so at home in a royal fucking castle. Grimaldi.
“Oh fuck,” I breathed. “Oh god.” I thought about how stupid I sounded complaining about the paparazzi to him, of all people. How stupid I felt for not knowing who he was. For letting him keep me in the dark about it.
Henrietta glanced up at Jon. “Is he breathing?”
I felt like an absolute fool.
“Shit,” Jon said. “Felix, put your head between your knees for me.” His hand guided my head toward my lap.
I noticed Arthur leave the room out of the corner of my eye.
“Oh god,” I moaned. “I can’t breathe.”
Hen came to perch on the arm of my chair and rubbed my back. “Honey, it’s okay. Just calm down.” She mentioned something to Jon about finding Lio.
“But, Hen,” he argued.
“Find him!” Her shout made even me jump, and I noticed Jon’s feet disappear from view. A few moments later I heard multiple sets of footsteps clamber into the room. Jon, Arthur, and the face I most wanted to see.
“Shit.” It was Lio, and he didn’t sound happy. “Felix, baby, just breathe. What happened?”
Henrietta began lecturing Lio about being an insensitive jerk. She seemed to go full sister on him and lambasted him while he tried to calm me down.
I opened my eyes to find him squatting in front of me, lines of worry carving divots in his forehead. His hands held mine on my lap, and I soaked in the warmth of them as my brain spun.
“You’re a prince,” I said.
His face fell. “Yes.”
“Of, like, a country.”
“Yes.”
“Oh god,” I groaned again. “It’s true. I’m an idiot.”
Lio’s hands came up to cup my chin, forcing me to look at him. “You’re not. You’re smart as hell.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked. “You could have told me. I wouldn’t have treated you any differently.”
Arthur mumbled something that sounded like I told you so.
One of his hands moved to push hair back from my face. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Felix. I wanted to, but then…” He looked up at his sister and the other men in the room, who I’d figured out by now were some type of security personnel. “But then you saw that magazine and…”
And I’d gotten upset. Very upset. And I’d raged against the tabloid press when his entire life was most likely lived in front of the exact same paparazzi.
No wonder he hadn’t told me.
Chapter 17
Lio
The minute the security team had barged into Felix’s room, I’d known it was all going to go to shit. Regardless of the reason for the alert, Felix surely wasn’t going to get through the experience without finding out who I was. And, sure enough, he hadn’t.
He looked so small and pale sitting on the chair with old blankets wrapped around him. I wondered if I’d fucked it all up. If I’d ruined whatever respect he might have had for me.
“I’m so sorry,” I said again. I honestly didn’t know what else to say to him.
His brown eyes peered up at me from under his dark lashes. “I understand why you didn’t want to tell me,” he said in a soft voice. “You just wanted to be normal with someone. Be with a person who didn’t know the public bullshit side, right?”
I felt a breath of relief exit my tight chest. “Yes, exactly. How did you know?”
Felix’s eyes darted away from mine. “Because I know that feeling. I-I mean… not like you do, of course. I could never know what that’s like. But with my mom… well, I know what it’s like to be the focus of the media’s attention. And if it’s bad for me, I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like for someone in a royal family.”
I still held his hands in mine and rubbed them idly while he spoke. “Still,” I began. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t want to lie to you. I really wanted to tell you.”
My sister spoke up from her perch on the edge of the sofa to my left. “Then you should have. No one wants to be with a liar, you freak.”
I glared at her. “Thanks a lot, H
en. What are you even doing here?”
“I told you I was coming to keep you company for Christmas.”
“Yeah, and I thought you were joking. You haven’t been to Gadleigh in years. You hate it here.”
She rolled her eyes, but I could still see affection soften her face. “Maybe, you idiot. But I don’t hate you. And I was worried about you. Didn’t want you to be alone on Christmas. Turns out, I needn’t have worried so much.” Henriette’s grin was mischievous, and I worried at the teasing she had in store for Felix.
“Hen,” I warned.
“What? Introduce me properly to your boyfriend, Lior,” she said with a false innocence.
I blew out a breath and looked back at Felix. “I’m sorry,” I murmured. “Sisters are assholes.”
His grin curved the corner of his mouth slightly, causing me to imagine teasing it with the tip of my tongue.
“Why does she call you Lior?”
Before I had a chance to downplay Hen’s slip of the tongue, she cut in.
“Because that’s his name—the name of the king of Liorland and all of the kings before him.”
If it was possible, Felix’s complexion went even paler. I shot daggers at my sister.
“Cut it out, Hen. Can’t you give him a minute to wrap his head around this? And, besides, I’m not the king.”
Her delicate eyebrow arched. “That’s not what I heard.”
“Fuck,” I snapped through clenched teeth before looking over at Jon. “Can we go yet?”
“No, sir. We don’t have the all clear. Someone was spotted on the grounds, so we need to finish securing the estate before we can let you go.”
“Then can you at least send someone for Felix’s clothes?” I gave Jon a look that brooked no argument and saw him say something to the other guard by the door. Before the guard could respond, Arthur offered to go up to my room and grab something of mine. When I turned back to Felix, I noticed he was shaking. “Scoot over and let me sit with you.”
I nudged him over to the side of the chair and then pulled him back on my lap and wrapped my arms around him, forcing him to curl against my chest. “You’re freezing,” I murmured into his hair. “I’m so sorry. This whole thing must have freaked you out.”
