A Royal Engagement: The Young Royals Book 1 (17 page)

"I've been dying to kiss you again since Friday night," he murmured softly as we walked.

I smiled and my cheeks heated, "Me too," I replied.

He broke into a jog, pulling me with him and startling a laugh out of me.
 
We headed towards the hedge maze and I knew my body guards would not be happy with either of us.
 
He pulled me through the entrance and down the long, straight avenue before ducking around one of the corners.
 
He'd pulled me into a dead end, and there was a stone bench and a marble statue filling the alcove.

Jordan stopped and pulled me into his chest.
 
He looked down into my eyes and lifted his hand to brush an errant lock of hair off my cheek.

"I know Benjamin is going to be mad," he said, his voice low and husky, "But I really needed a moment away from all the prying eyes."

His head dipped and he fit his warm lips over mine.
 
He kissed me softly at first and then gently coaxed my mouth open, deepening the kiss and causing me to lose all brain function.
 
One hand cupped the back of my neck, under my hair, and the other slid around my waist and pulled me against him.
 
I could feel every hard ridge and furrow of his body through our clothing and I melted into it.
 
I could kiss him all day.

All too soon, he lifted his head and I became aware of footsteps heading towards us on the crushed gravel of the maze's path.
 
I stifled a giggle as Jordan grabbed my hand and pulled me out of our hiding place and back onto the avenue.
 
We raced through the maze until we reached the centre where Jordan pulled me to him once again and kissed me deeply, his tongue sliding silkily along mine and causing my skin to erupt in goosebumps.
 
My knees turned to jelly and I leaned into him, letting him support me and keep me upright.

Jordan lifted his head and smiled at something over my shoulder and I knew we'd been found.
 
I burrowed into his shoulder, embarrassed but delighted.
 
Having a boyfriend with a security detail was always going to be tricky and I had to trust that they would keep my confidences.
 
But that didn't make it any less embarrassing knowing that they were going to be privy to nearly every new step in our relationship.

"Come on Jamie," Jordan called, "You couldn't give us even a half hour alone?"

"Boss' orders," Jamie said.

I sighed and turned around, giving Jamie a smile.

"It's okay," I said, "I have to get going now anyway." I turned back to Jordan and raised up onto my toes to press a chaste kiss to his cheek.
 
"Thank you for lunch and for that ridiculous horse," I whispered in his ear.

He wrapped his arms around me in a brief, but tight hug, before letting me go.
 
I walked backwards, towards Jamie, giving Jordan my sweetest smile.

"See you next week, Lieutenant," I said with a wave.

A few hours later I was surrounded by piles of paper, my hand clenched around a fresh cup of coffee and a perplexing frown on my face.
 
My father had been a good King, but he hadn't been a very innovative one.
 
In the twenty-five years or so that he had reigned, he hadn't initiated a single thing.
 
All he had done was keep the status quo.
 
Merveille had been trundling along, secure in it's wealth, but without any clear direction.
 
Research and development had not been encouraged and from what I could tell, we were losing some of our smartest and most talented people to other countries.

The only person who seemed to persevere with the King was Will Darkly.
 
I came across several letters and emails and proposals requesting grants from the crown to further develop the breed that Will had created and I couldn't, for the life of me, understand why my father hadn't jumped at the chance.

But we had missed the boat.
 
Will had patented his breed and was in the process of petitioning for it to become recognised by the Livestock Association of Europe.
 
If that happened, then Will would become a very wealthy man.

I noticed that he'd also had several grant requests denied to help with the expansion of his cheese factory.
 
It just didn't make sense to me, we should be fostering this kind of innovation.
 
If we could support our own people in building successful industries and businesses, then we would be less reliant of the rest of the European Union.

I'd learned about micro-financing in my International Relations studies and how it had helped developing countries grow their economies and improve their standard of living.
 
Merveille was far from being a third-world country, but the principals still applied.
 
Investing in our own people could only benefit us and that the King had turned down such an amazing opportunity confounded me.

Would all of Parliament be this conservative?
 
Were they so mired in tradition that they failed to see the potential in our own people.
 
We had aligned ourselves with the EU and had taken on board the Euro as our currency, but did that mean we had to lose our entire identity to them as well?

Or was I just being naive?
 
I had to admit that I knew very little about our political standing in the EU or for that matter, the political agendas of our own Parliament.
 
I knew we were a wealthy country, but what were we doing to ensure that wealth continued?
 
Surely initiatives like Will's could only strengthen our economy, so why weren't we encouraging that?

I pushed away from the desk and stood, gripping my coffee cup tightly.
 
I paced the office, my eyes drifting over the detritus of my father's life.
 
He had always been a conservative and a traditionalist.
 
His resistance to me studying at university was proof of that, not that I'd needed it.
 
He had very much endorsed the patriarchal society of Merveille, believing that men were born to lead and women were born to support their men.
 
I really don't think he realised how much of his political wrangling was dependant on her mother's sway with the other wives.
 
They had worked as a team, even if he hadn't known it.

Which left me wondering if the rest of the men in government were similarly unaware of their wives' assistance.
 
How many of the backroom deals that these men brokered were actually born over a cup of freshly brewed tea and some fresh baked scones?
 
Most of them, probably.

The women had done themselves a disservice in this way.
 
As long as they allowed their husbands to believe that they were solely responsible for leading, the women of our country would never get a fair hearing.
 
Backroom politics had it's place, but not at the exclusion of women.

And so it had fallen to me to change the well established mindsets of the powerful men of government.
 
And that was going to go over like a lead balloon.
 
Turning this tide was akin to steering the Titanic away from the fatal iceberg and I had to wonder whether I was too late in the game.

What chance did I have when I couldn't even sway my own father's opinion.
 
I had been the apple of his eye, as long as I conformed to his idea of appropriate gender roles.
 
He didn't care what my grades were or whether I was contributing to society in a responsible way.
 
He only cared whether I could read aloud, pen elegant missives, play the piano, dance the traditional waltzes and be able to carry on a decent conversation with the other ladies at court.
 
He hadn't taught me how to debate political strategies or how to understand the machinations of Parliament.
 
Those lessons he had saved for Jacob alone.

I picked up a silver framed photograph of myself and Jacob.
 
He had been about ten at the time, me a mere six.
 
Jacob was staring confidently at the camera, a wide grin on his face, a sparkle in his eye.
 
I was staring at Jacob.
 
My small round face tilted up with a look of adoration for my big brother.
 
He had been my hero and I had idolised him.
 
I had followed him everywhere and he had let me, encouraged me, almost.
 
That was until he started lessons with my father.
 
Then for a hour a day, Jacob would be kept out of my reach.
 
I didn't understand then and I certainly didn't understand now.
 
If my father had had the foresight to include me in those lessons, maybe I wouldn't be floundering now.

I replaced the photograph back on the shelf and turned to survey the mess I had made of my father's office.
 
Stanley, my father's assistant, was going to hate me, but it was something that I'd had to do.
 
My search had been fruitless, but I had gotten to know my father a little better.
 
Unfortunately, I didn't like what I had seen.
 
I had always thought my father a brave and astute man who led the country with wisdom.
 
But from where I was standing, it looked more like he was just marking time and that was disappointing.
 
It made me wonder whether my brother would have been the same.

I sighed and sat back down in my father's chair.
 
I had loved him with all my heart, I still did, but now some of the shine had been tarnished on the memories I had of him.
 
Had my father been a mere figurehead?
 
A puppet that bowed to the whims of the Prime Minister and his cronies?
 
And is that what they expected of me too?

One thing was for sure, there was no way I would be just a puppet.
 
If I were to become Queen, then I wanted to be all in.
 
Now I just had to get Parliament to agree with me.

Benjamin, Jamie, Cody and Aiden escorted me across the property to my mothers Chalet.
 
We travelled in two golf carts, Benjamin and I in the first followed by Cody and Aiden in the second.
 
It wasn't far to the Chalet, too far to comfortably walk but too short to drive.
 
The golf carts were ideal, if a little odd.

"So things with you and Jordan are serious." It was a statement, not a question.
 
Benjamin's soft but firm voice broke the stillness of the evening.

"I know you don't like him," I began, but Benjamin cut me off.

"You don't need my opinion," he said, "But I need to know of any potential suitors so that we can do background checks."

I huffed, "He works in the palace and I've known him my whole life."

Benjamin shrugged, "Be that as it may, I would still like to check up on him"

"Aren't you doing that already, with the investigation?" I asked softly.

"We are limited in our search criteria," he said, "But if you are serious about a personal relationship with him, then I'd like to dig deeper."

I sighed, "Do you really think that's necessary?" I asked, looking out at the passing scenery, "He was a close friend of Jacob's and his father and my father were also close."

"If you're not worried about what I will find, then you shouldn't have a problem with me looking into it."
 
Benjamin kept his eyes forward and I watched the tick in his jaw as he clenched his teeth.

"Fine," I said with resignation, "I suppose I should've expected it."

Benjamin let out a harsh breath and shook his head slightly, "This is new territory for all of us," he said, "In all the years I've been on your detail you haven't even dated.
 
We haven't had to have 'the talk'."

"Oh my God, Benjamin.
 
You do not need to give me the sex talk." My face flushed with embarrassment.

Benjamin chuckled, "That's not what I meant," he said, "Well, not exactly what I meant."
 
He sighed, "You don't get much privacy and so navigating a sexual relationship is going to be tricky."

"Stop, please," I said, completely mortified.

"No, we need to talk about this.
 
That little stunt he pulled this afternoon, that can't happen again.
 
We need to know where you are at all times, we're paranoid like that, and if we can't have eyes on you, then we at least need to know where you are and who you're with, if not what you're doing."

"God." I covered my face with my hands, wishing that he would just shut up.

"What I suggest is coming up with a signal.
 
Something so that you can signal us that you want alone time.
 
We will back off and give you space, but we won't be too far away."

"So you want me to come up with a hand signal to let you know I'm going to have sex?" I asked, mortified.

He full out laughed and I continued to blush furiously.

"God, no," he said, "Maybe you just want to sneak into the maze for a few minutes, like this afternoon, or maybe you want to go for a walk in the moonlight in the rose garden."

His idea had merit, even if it was embarrassing to talk about.

"Okay," I conceded.

"And we should also have a signal so you can let us know if things are going further than you're comfortable with." His voice hardened and became dangerous.

"I don't think..."

"No, no one ever does, but it's better to be safe than sorry."
 
He looked over to me as he pulled to a stop in front of the Chalet.
 
"We just want to keep you safe, Princess, whatever it takes."

The seriousness in his eyes brought the reality of the situation into crystal clear relief.
 
I nodded and rested my hand on his arm for a moment in acknowledgement.
 
These men wouldn't hesitate to give their lives for me if they needed to and I needed to remember that.
 
Taking off with Jordan this afternoon could've been dangerous and I had exposed us all to potential disaster without thinking.