Bad Boy Prince: A British Royal Stepbrother Romance (12 page)

I never want it to end…

F
ourteen missed calls from Mum
.

Interesting
.

Rex and I have been buried in each other for a week, barely surfacing to eat and shower.

Well, the shower part is a little less odious, considering that we’ve been doing it together.

I blush as I think about Rex pressing me against the glass shower wall, pushing me to my knees, demanding that I
service the crown
. He’s terrible, really.

He’s all wrong for me, another scandal waiting to break and ruin me.

And I can’t stop. He’s like a drug I can’t quit, don’t even want to try.

Today, though, we’ll have to play normal. We’ve been summoned to the palace for formal tea, which means hours of smiling and answering questions.

About my failed fashion career, about how I ran away to school in the States, about my disastrous relationship with Charles. On top of all that, I’ll be desperately trying not to look in Rex’s direction, because…

I’m certain that everyone will look at us and just
know
.

I straighten my navy Dior dress and touch up my makeup, then slip into my white heels. When I walk into the foyer, Rex is there waiting for me, leaning against the wall in his crisp charcoal suit. He’s the epitome of handsomeness, his golden hair swept off his forehead, those sapphire eyes pinning me, looking right through me.

Just looking at him
ruins
me.

“You look beautiful,” he says, and for some reason the way he says it makes my legs shaky.

“Thanks,” I say, then force myself to change the topic… lest we end up tangled together and breathless, in short order. “Have you got missed calls from your father?”

“A fucking ton,” he says, shrugging. “And his social secretary.”

“Is there some news we’ve missed?” I say, glancing around the flat. “I feel like we would’ve heard.”

Rex chuckles and reaches out, taking my hand and tugging me close. He leans down and kisses the corner of my mouth, neatly avoiding my lipstick.

“The only thing I’ve heard all week is you screaming my name,” he says, a satisfied male smirk on his face.

I roll my eyes and smack his arms, but he’s not totally wrong. We’ve both been so wrapped up in each other, ordering in for every meal…

“I’ll check the news on my smart phone once we’re in the car,” I say.

“Right, then. Ready to go make believe in front of all the royals?” he asks, giving my ass a light slap.

“You have to promise to behave,” I say as we take the elevator down. Rex holds my hand, which feels… nice. Like he’s a real boyfriend or something, not this dirty secret I’ve been keeping.

“Absolutely not,” is Rex’s immediate response. “What fun would that be?”

“Rex…” I give him a hard look. “Be serious. You know that my reputation can’t take another blow. I’ve got two strikes already, for my father and for Charles.”

“Neither of which were your doing,” he mutters.

“No, but three strikes gets me sent away to America forever, I’m pretty sure.”

He looks at me for a long second.

“What?” I ask, my cheeks growing hot.

“Maybe we should go voluntarily,” he says.

“What? To the States?”

“Yes. We could start over. We aren’t exactly famous there, you know,” he says, squeezing my hand.

“You’re the only famous one,” I remind him. “And you’re talking crazy.”

“Think about it, though.”

I do, for a second. Me and Rex on the beach in California, splashing in the waves. Eating ice cream, kissing each other with sticky lips. Not
hiding
, mostly.

“You’re in line for the throne,” I say at last. “It’s… not possible.”

“I have money,” he says.

I give him a startled look.

“Who’s talking about money? That’s not the only thing that makes it impossible, and you know it. There’s no way the King is letting you run off to the States with your…” I stop, because there is no nice word for what I am to Rex right now. “With me, I mean. It’s a dream.”

Rex is quiet, mulling that over. When we get to the car, he helps me in, then pulls through the basement level to the garage exit. When he hits the remote button to raise the garage door, nosing the car out into the street, we’re both aghast.

“Prince Magnum! Lady Katherine! Do you have a comment?”

Reporters are lined up four and five people deep, immediately pressing in around the car. Screaming, shouting, thrusting microphones and cameras at us, banging on the hood of the car.

“What the hell?” Rex utters. He throws the car into reverse, trying to back up into the garage, but there are already photogs behind us, stopping our progress.

“Comment on what, exactly?” I ask, baffled.

I fumble for my phone as Rex puts the car in drive and starts to edge through the throng of press.

“Oh shit,” I say, staring down at my screen. All around us, the reporters are going absolutely nuts, howling their questions and tapping on the windows to get our attention.

The first page of news articles is all about Mum and Prince Archie, including photos of Archie with a series of other women. And a photo of Mum trying to scratch Archie’s eyes out in front of a downtown hotel, if the picture tells the story accurately.

“Lady Katherine! Any comment on the Countess’s current mental state?” one guy shouts.

Attacking our cheating boyfriends must run in the family…

I start to laugh.

“Well, what is it?” Rex asks, cringing as he continues to push the car through the crowd. “We’re nearly free now.”

“Your father cheated on Mum. A lot. And she caught him, obviously…” I say, giggling and scrolling through dozens of articles and photos. “Oh, shit. I can’t believe it. They got photos of her trying to punch him in front of the Hotel del Mar.”

“When did this happen?” he asks.

“Umm… it broke four days ago,” I say, laughter bubbling up harder. “We were too busy to notice.”

“This is… bad. Good for us, maybe, but really really bad for the royal family,” Rex says.

Finally we’re past the crowd and Rex guns the engine as he heads for the palace.

“No fucking wonder we’ve been summoned. This is absolute chaos.”

“Oh god,” I say. “Charles’s threat to expose me just became a lot more real. If he tries to sell my story now, he’d get more than I could ever hope to pay him.”

Rex grimaces. “You probably should have let me get the Queen’s guard to kill him.”

“Rex, this is
serious
.”

“Yeah, I mean, the press is going to be crawling all over us for a while, but…” He slides a glance over to me. “You realize that this means we’re likely not to be step-anythings, right?”

I open my mouth, then close it again. He’s right, of course.

“So if… I mean, eventually…” I try to get the words together, but Rex beats me to it.

“We could be together,” he says with a nod. “Once the press dies down from all this, the scandal would be minor. Compared with what my father’s done, especially.”

“We could be… public,” I say. I bite my lip. It’s exactly what I wanted to hear him say… five years ago. Now, I’m not so sure. “I think we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves.”

Especially since there are still quite a few secrets between us, things Rex doesn’t know. And since Rex and I have never dated, not in any adult capacity. This is all so new, and no matter how good it feels, it’s all a huge gamble at this point.

Rex reaches over and squeezes my knee.

“We’ll sort it out later, Kitty. Right now, let’s see what the palace has to say. Let’s be… what’s the phrase?
Cautiously optimistic
,” he says.

To my surprise, our meeting is with more than just the Queen. My mum is there, and Prince Archie, though they are sitting as far away from one another as possible, avoiding eye contact. Both the Queen and the King are also there, which makes me beyond nervous.

This is what you’d face if you and Rex were a real couple
, I think.

Rex ushers me over to a couch opposite his grandparents and crowds me, sitting right next to me. Too close to be appropriate in this situation, surely.

The Queen eyes me, raising a brow as she clears her throat.

“You two have been very quiet this week,” she begins.

“Which we appreciate,” Mum says. She looks a mess, mascara smudged just a little, her skirt suit wrinkled. Her roots are even showing. “Really, Katherine, you’ve been very good.”

“Um, thanks.” I can’t say anything else without blushing.

“The press is like a pack of hounds after a fox,” the King rumbles. “The very last thing we need is to give them anything else to sniff after.”

Oh god, they know. How?

Prince Archie finally jumps in, nasal and snooty as ever.

“Countess Saville and I will each be taking private vacations, which should help put a damper on the press’s excitement,” the Prince drones.

Rex and I are silent, waiting.

“We’d like to thank you for keeping your end of the bargain, staying out of the press,” the Queen says.

“Of course, your highness,” I say.

She hesitates for the briefest moment.

“We also need to know… is there anything else that the press is going to find? About either of you, I mean. We can’t afford any more secrets here in the royal family, not in this unfriendly media climate.”

My stomach drops, and for a moment I think I might be sick. Rex actually pats my knee, giving me a hard look.

“Katherine’s ex-boyfriend has been quite a problem lately,” Rex says.

I want to scream. I want to die. Please, please don’t tell them that Charles is going to expose me…

“In what manner?” the King asks, cocking his head.

“He’s been threatening to make up stories, take them to the press. He’s demanded money, quite a lot of it,” Rex says.

Prince Archie and Mum both shoot to their feet, exclaiming.

“Don’t you worry about that,” the King says, a cruel smile flitting over his face. “And thank you for telling us. We will certainly handle the matter.”

I glance at Mum, whose lips are pressed in a thin line. She’s giving me this accusatory look, like any of this is
my
fault.

That’s what you get for trying to marry someone you loathe just for status, Mum.
Maybe wanting the Westwood men, even though we know they’re bad for us, also runs in our blood.

Rex and I are dismissed shortly after that. I hang around and wait for Mum, who stalks out shortly afterward. She grabs me by the elbow and tows me down the hall, away from the rest of the group.

We huddle near the wall, Mum brushing a lock of hair back from her forehead and sighing.

“Are you all right, Mum?” I ask. We aren’t the hugging kind of people, but I wonder if maybe she needs one just now.

“I’m fine, Katherine. All of this will be handled in short order.”

I bite my lip. “Mum, what are you going to do now? Surely they won’t let you stay here at the palace. Will you reopen Auberge House?”

She gives me a sharp look, then sighs.

“Yes, Archie has agreed to… compensate me, for what’s happened. I plan to reopen the house this week, in fact. I’ll message you the details of when to schedule the movers.”

“The what? Why?” I ask, confused.

“To move your things home?” Mum says, narrowing her gaze on my face. “I’m sure Rex is more than ready to have you out of his hair. It can’t have been easy being in such close quarters with you these last weeks.”

I swear, I try not to blush. I really do, but it happens anyway. And Mum, who never misses a beat and draws gossip out of thin air on the best of days, she
sees
it.

Fuck
.

She turns to me with a new kind of interest, a sly look creeping onto her face.

“Have you made any progress in replacing Charles, my dear?” she asks.

“No ma’am,” I mumble, but it’s a waste of time. She’s already figured almost all of it out, I’m sure of it.

“Right. Well… no rush with moving back, then,” she says, picking a piece of lint off my shoulder, brushing me off. “If you’re comfortable, I mean.”

Jesus, she’s cold-blooded.

“Kit? You ready?” Rex calls.

I turn and glance at him, then back to Mum.

“Dinner this week, I should think,” she tsks. “I feel as though we have so much to catch up on, Katherine.”

“Sure, maybe,” I say, pecking her on the cheek.

I turn and flee down the hall. When Rex holds his hand out to me, a strange sort of reflex on his part, it’s everything I can do to brush him off.

“Not here,” I hiss. “Are you mad?”

I rush down the stairs, and I’m already waiting in the car when he gets there.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asks. His tone is casual, but I can tell I’ve hurt his feelings.

“No matter what’s happening, we can’t just go around… showing
affection
at the palace,” I say, turning away from him, staring out the window.

“Maybe not yet. But soon,” he says.

I glance at him again. “Rex…”

“Is this the part where you break us up by listing all the reasons we still can’t be together?” he sighs. “Do me a favor, don’t.”

“Honestly, Rex. You think it’s all so easy, but that’s just your life. For the rest of us, there are complications.”

“Like what?” he snaps. “Like the secret Charles is threatening to reveal? Is that what’s bothering you now?”

I suck in a breath. Of course that’s what’s bothering me. This thing with Archie and Mum is so unexpected. I never thought that this secret would be the only thing standing between me and Rex.

I never once thought I might be
forced
to tell him the truth.

How would I even start?

When I don’t answer, Rex goes silent. He calls his security to let them know we’re coming back to the flat, and when we pull up to the garage they’ve cleared off most of the press.

Unfortunately, we can’t just slip off to our separate spaces and stew on our problems.

“Your highness?” One of the doormen is waiting for us in the garage. “There’s a Charles Ford waiting in the main floor lobby. He’s been quite…
insistent
that he see you.”

Of course. Of course he’s here, to ratchet up my misery.