by Nana Malone
For the first time since coming home, I laughed. I truly laughed. I don’t know if it was Sebastian with his American accent saying twat or just the effort it took him to be serious with me for a moment. Or hell, maybe I just needed to laugh. I threw my head back and let out all of the tension. Jessa was safe for the moment. Safe. She knew the truth, which was even better. She still hated me, but that was neither here or there. It didn’t matter anyway.
She was safe.
Sebastian continued, “I’m not fond of her plan. I don’t want to use her as bait, but I might not have any choice. I wish there was another way, but right now it doesn’t look like there is one. I need to end this, once and for all.”
“I agree. I’d rather people stop taking shots at my family.”
Sebastian turned and grinned at me then. “Glad to see that you remember you have family.”
“I never lost sight of it.”
“Good. Because as family, I’m putting you back in as her guard.”
I shook my head. “Are you insane?”
“Maybe. She’s not going to be thrilled about it, but it’s not as if you are going to let anyone else guard her.”
“Yeah, I’ll go.”
“There’s no one else I’d trust my sister with.”
“I hear you. I wouldn’t let anyone else guard her anyway. Besides, you’re the one who has to tell her the good news. And I can’t wait to see the look on her face.”
For the first time since he and Penny had gotten together, Sebastian looked legitimately scared. “Are you serious right now? I have no idea if she’s going to shoot my nuts off.”
I grinned. “Well, there’s only one way to find out.”
10
Roone
The flight was mostly a silent affair. I and four other guards boarded the plane with the princess. Ariel would join us in two days.
The other guards were at the back of the plane leaving me and Jessa at the front. As soon as we embarked, Jessa made a show of putting her earbuds in and relaxing all the way back. Then she pulled up a blanket and closed her eyes.
So, she was doing the full-on pretending-I-wasn’t-there thing. About three hours into the flight, I finally leaned over as she sat up to take a sip of water. “Jessa, we’re going to be in tight quarters. You can’t pretend you don’t know me.”
She slid me a glance and fire danced in her eyes. “You’ll be amazed at what I can pretend.”
My dick stirred because he had no idea what was good for him. “I know you’re mad. But we need to work together. And I will point out the hypocrisy because Ariel lied too and you’re not mad at her.”
“You think this is about the lie? Yeah, that’s bad, but you didn’t just lie. You made me believe. I believed you had fallen for me. Ariel lied, sure, but she didn't fuck me, give me orgasms, and pretend to care about me.”
Dick: I can still give her orgasms. Let me try.
Me: Shut it.
I scrubbed my hand over my face because she was right. I’d crossed the line, that was why she was really mad. She didn’t know what to believe.
“Jessa—” Before I could finish, she rolled her eyes.
“Oh, it’s Jessa now. No more princess?”
“I never meant to hurt you. It wasn’t my intention.”
“Oh, so I was just an assignment.”
“No. You know that’s not true.”
“I don’t know what I know. I do know that I want you to stay away from me. As far away as humanly possible.”
I chuckled low. “You recognize how hard that’s going to be.”
“I know you’re my personal guard. I get it. Stay close, that’s what Sebastian wants. I will comply, but I don’t have to talk to you.”
How exactly did she think this was going to go? “Do you realize that we’re going to be living together, princess?”
She whipped her head around and glared at me. “Don’t call me princess.” And then it took her another beat to ask, “What the hell do you mean we’ll be living together?”
“Yeah, two guards will be placed across the hall in my old flat. Two guards will be placed across the street. And the other guard,” I waved, “will be in your apartment.”
She shook her head. “There’s no way in hell. No way, no how.”
“What do you think Sebastian meant when he said that I was going to be your personal guard?”
“I don’t know. I thought he meant that you’d follow me around. Wave a gun or what not. I didn’t realize that I had to live with you. He can’t mean that we have live together. If he doesn’t know about before, he certainly suspects.”
I decided normalcy was what she needed, so I shifted back into annoying-twat mode. “I get it. You care about me. You’re pissed off that I didn’t tell you the truth, and then I took you into an area that I couldn’t explore. And I feel bad about that. I’m sorry. I wish things had turned out differently. I wish I’d been able to help myself, but I wasn’t. And now here we are. So the best we can do is try and get along, because right now, you’re stuck with me. Flatmates.”
She glared at me. “This is not going to last long. I was really clear with Sebastian. No more antics.”
“Sweetheart, every time you don’t get your way, you think it’s some kind of antic, when in reality, you just weren’t paying attention. He was very clear. ‘Roone is to be your personal guard.’ Personal guard means I am with you twenty-four/seven, whether you like it or not. Good luck trying to get rid of me.”
“Oh, I’m getting rid of you. I just have to figure out how.”
It was nice to see the fire back in her eyes. “You’re more than welcome to try.”
She shrugged. “I’ll do more than try.”
Dick: I can’t wait.
Jessa
It was weird being home. It had only been a week, but it felt like a lifetime. Like everything in my life had changed… the things I knew to be true, the things I knew to be me. None of it was true. And if none of it was true, then who the hell was I?
I had my keys out, and Roone deftly took them out of my hands. “Sorry, princess, but you don’t go in first anymore.”
I frowned at him. “I see you’re back to calling me princess.”
“Well, it is your title.”
“That’s why you called me princess all those times?”
He shrugged. “Well, I called you princess the first time because it was a slip of the tongue. And then it pissed you off, so I kept doing it.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re a jackass.”
“I think you’ve called me worse.”
He slipped the lock and turned. When he pushed open the door, he immediately ducked, shoved me back, and then tackled whoever it was that swinging something at him.
A round of grappling and “oophs” and “oh shit,” and he was back on his feet like a cat. Agile and smooth and gently pulling someone up with him. Someone tiny.
“Chloe!”
Chloe peeked around him. “Oh my God, it’s you guys. Do you not realize that, well, after this place was broken into and someone tried to kidnap Jessa, every time I come here, I come with a weapon?” She pointed at the giant umbrella on the floor.
“Yeah, it’s a great weapon.” Roone nodded solemnly. “You almost had me there.”
Chloe just stared up at him. “You’re huge. Do you know that? And also surprisingly agile. I didn’t feel a thing. You broke my fall, turned around, and were back on your feet in seconds. That’s some ninja stuff right there.”
Roone just shrugged. “You’re not hurt?”
I was pretty sure his muscles had rendered her dumb because Chloe kept staring at him.
“Chloe, what are you doing here?” I asked.
“Watering your plants.”
I blinked at her. “What plants?”
She rolled her eyes. “The ficus in the corner. And the orchid I stuck in your bathroom.”
“Chloe, you know those aren’t real, right?”
“That
orchid is real.”
I shook my head “No, it’s not.”
Her brows furrowed. “No, I bought you that orchid.”
“Yes, I remember. It was our first year working together. And I made a joke that it was the only plant I could keep. I couldn’t have a pet because I couldn’t keep anything alive. The only pet I could keep was the plastic kind. For Christmas, you gave me that orchid.”
Chloe blinked. “I have risked my life every day to water plastic flowers?”
I grinned at her. “You’re a good friend.”
“Plastic flowers!”
Roone’s lips twitched, and I couldn’t help a soft giggle. “Well, they’re well hydrated.”
She shook her head and bent down to pick up the umbrella. “I have been risking my life for plastic flowers. Well, I hope you two had a great lover’s vacation. Now that you’ve taken several years off of my life, I want to go home.”
My eyes went wide. “A lover’s vacation? What in the world are you—“
Roone wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close, then placed a kiss to my forehead. “Chloe, you’re the best.”
I wasn’t sure what bothered me more; the kiss or that Chloe thought we were on a lover’s vacation.
What the fuck was he on about? He was insane. That was the only explanation. But then he squeezed me even harder and gave my shoulder two squeezes. Ah, he wanted me to go along with this. But why? And then I got it. Chloe couldn’t know. No one could know, because if I was actually being bait, everyone would have to think everything was normal, not that I was here on some kind of undercover mission. So I forced a smile on my face, even though I wanted get out of Roone’s strong embrace.
The hell you do.
My stupid body was loving every second of it. The scent of him was wrapping around me, filling my nostrils, relaxing me, and making me want to ease into those muscles.
To pull this off, it was best to go along. And it seemed he was going to pretend to be my boyfriend, my blooming boyfriend.
Well, for what it’s worth, it could have been mostly true. And you would have loved every second of it.
Yeah, I would have loved it, but it wasn’t true now. Now were lying to my friend. Or, you can look at it as keeping you safe.
“Yup, vacation. It does your body good.” The irony was the Caribbean had done me good. I was more relaxed than I’d been in years, but I still didn’t know what to make of everyone. I needed time to process.
The girls had been fun, and crazy, and amazing, and I still couldn’t believe Ariel was some kind of insane hacker. And she’d made up Meet Cute. Oh God, what did that mean for Chloe’s date? Who was he?
Another problem for another day. But first, I needed to figure how I was going to live with Roone.
“Oh my God, you guys are so cute together. Where were you anyway?”
Roone answered before I could. “Hawaii. It was amazing. The water was so clear and blue and warm.”
I frowned, why wouldn’t he just tell her the Caribbean? Because, you idiot, first of all, anyone could be listening. Second of all, Chloe might inadvertently say something.
So, this was to be my new normal, trying to lie and figure out who’s lying in return? I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to live like that.
Chloe laughed. “Oh my God, relationship goals. You just whisked her away to Hawaii?”
Roone nodded, still with his arm around me. “Yup. She needed the break.”
“I’m going to leave you two lovebirds alone. I’m sure you want to unpack. But it’s good to have you back. Evan has been going insane.” She slid a glance over to Roone. “I told you he was jealous of Roone. Maybe next time you’ll listen to me.”
Then she was gone. I shoved Roone away. “You plan to make people think we’re together?”
“It will be easier. The whole hate-to-love-you thing, is not going to work for much longer. I need to be with you all the time. When you’re at Ben’s, I can just protect you with surveillance. And since Ben knows some of the deal, he’ll be able to accommodate. But, when we step out these doors, everyone in the world needs to believe that we’re together, a happy couple meeting for lunch, a happy couple strolling around town, a happy couple… do you get it?”
But what I focused on was ‘Ben.’ “When did you tell Mr. Covington?”
Roone winced. “Well, Ben is my cousin.”
I blinked. “What? Ben Covington of London Lords is your cousin?” I thought back to that first meeting and wanted to disappear. He was probably laughing his ass off now. “He has more money than God. Covington is your cousin?”
He nodded solemnly. “Yep, lucky me.”
“I just can’t believe it.”
I rolled my eyes. “He knows I’m not in PR, so while you’re there I’ll have one job.”
“What, you’re just going to quit Evans?”
I chuckled low. “Well, I’ll keep doing what we were doing before. If Evan objects too much to the relationship, I’ll talk to Rick about being undercover. We might be able to work it out.”
“Wow, you have this all figured out.”
He shrugged. “Yeah.”
Then suddenly it all crashed into me, the gravity of what was happening, the intricacies, and all the moving parts. This was going to be insane. And then regret weighed in. What had I done? I needed to breathe. I needed some space.
No, what you need to do is talk to Phillip. He may be able to give you some more answers.
But I also didn’t want to take Roone with me. It would be difficult enough to explain to Phillip what the hell was going on.
Maybe I’d call and make an appointment. In the meantime, I had to figure out how the hell I was going to live with Roone.
11
Jessa
Maybe it wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had, but I needed to speak to Phillip. I needed help to untangle everything I’d learned, and honestly, I didn’t think Roone would allow it.
There might be a reason for that.
Phillip wasn’t going to hurt me. He was a friend, and he’d cared about my father. It was surprisingly easier to ditch my guard than I thought. I simply told them that I needed to go to Evans PR for something. And once at Evans, I knew the exits better than he and his men did. There was a rarely used service exit in the basement. Just like that, I had a car waiting and I was out the door.
My heart hammered against my ribs. This was really stupid. And honestly, I could have just told him I needed to see Phillip.
Have you met Roone?
Okay, fair enough. He’d have insisted on being there, and it just would have been a mess. And frankly, I wanted to tell Phillip about the trip and everything I was feeling. It was strange how comfortable I felt with him. As I sat in the back of the Uber, my phone rang.
Roone. Shit, I hadn’t cut it off. I turned it off but couldn’t figure out how to remove the battery. I had no idea why that was important, but they did it in the movies. But since I didn’t know how to remove it from my iPhone, it was just going to have to do.
When the car dropped me off in front of the university, I glanced around. The whole university seemed to be milling about, running to class, or to work, or hanging out with friends.
I wrapped my coat around me to help block out the spike of cold. Even though it was technically spring, there was still a hint of a cold snap every now and again. I took the worn-out stairs, unable to believe that I’d managed to pull one over on Roone. Although there was a part of me that was concerned he’d be worried. Should I have left a note?
This morning, true to his word, he’d mostly kept out of my way. By the time I woke up, he’d apparently worked out and showered already. And he was out of the apartment, waiting outside in the hall. It almost like I didn’t have a flatmate.
And why do you feel so guilty?
Stop. It feels weird because of how everything happened.
We’d figure it out.
When I knocked on Phillip’s office door, no one answe
red. I knocked again, leaning my ear against the door, waiting to hear footsteps. I checked the time, it was 8:30. He should have been here. He had office hours at 8. It was recorded on the website.
I tried the door, and it gave way easily.
If he wasn’t here, why wouldn’t he lock it? And then I pushed the door open.
There were papers everywhere. His heavy oak desk had been moved off-center. The chairs in the room were upended or strewn about.
Oh God, someone had been here. But who? Every instinct told me to back away, to run, to turn and bolt and call Roone and beg for protection.
But there was a part of me that refused to believe it, refused to accept it. Something had happened to this man.
Had something happened to him because he’d helped me? Was this related to my brothers? I couldn’t just sit here and accept what I was seeing.
I did a double check, and there was no laptop anywhere in sight. Another cursory look told me that there were also no personal items, no coat or briefcase. The room had just been destroyed. Who would do this to him? Who would make this happen?
It doesn’t matter. You need to get out of here.
But it was too late. I heard the footsteps outside the door. With mere seconds to spare, I had nowhere to hide. My body screamed at me, Danger is coming.
Why on earth had I thought it would be a fantastic idea to leave Roone behind? This was dumb. I should have listened to him, but instead, I’d put myself in even more danger.
Roone
When I caught up to Jessa, I was going to palm her arse.
She’d slipped the guards on her detail. She had to do one thing, one little thing, which was listen. Follow through. It was all she had to do. But the moment she’d had a free minute, she pretended to go in into Evans PR, slipped out the side, and then dodged our guy on the street. God, she was such a pain in the ass. All of them were. Sebastian used to do it to me. Granted, he’d always text me later and tell me where he was. And Lucas… Lucas had been the worst. And now her. Was that a Winston Isles bloodline thing?
