Royal Bastard (22 page)

I
grinned
as I watched April Matthews hurry away from me, knowing that my chances were good to pull this bet off. Yeah, it may have looked bad from an outsider’s perspective, but I had her just where I wanted her. And no one got that angry, that passionate, if there wasn’t something else fueling the fire. Besides, I had planted the seed and no woman would be able to turn down a chance to go on a free tropical vacation. I mean, she would be silly not to go. All I had to do was wait and be patient.

Still, I wondered what her trigger was. Every woman had one. Crystal’s had been attention. As long as she was getting the lion’s share of attention, everyone was happy. I was constantly taking her out to fancy clubs and restaurants so that the media could get a glimpse of her and that expensive-ass ring I’d bought her when I had thought proposing was a good idea. But between practice and Crystal, I was plain tired and well, bored of her.

She didn’t excite me anymore. There was no passion, no lingering urge to have her all the time. And the rush to make her my wife or look forward to the future together had been the result of a stupid decision. I’d gotten caught up in the progression of the relationship, marching forward blindly, checking off each little milestone like they were items on a shipping list without putting any actual thought into the process. It was never going to work out. But the little firecracker that had just put me in my place, now that was something I needed more of.

And I always got what I wanted.

I waited until she disappeared, the elevator doors sliding across and concealing her enraged—but cute—face, before making my way to my new suite, the one I’d got after moving all of my stuff out of Crystal’s.

Whistling as I went, I thought about what I needed to do next. April Matthews was going to say yes, she just didn’t know it yet.

* * *

“What do you mean it’s off?” Richard screamed.

I swallowed hard as I held the phone up to my ear, hearing the disbelief in my boss’s voice. “Well, the groom called it off as of a few hours ago. I tried to get him to change his mind, but he’s pretty dead set on not getting married.” I’d planned on letting him know later on in the morning, but the unexpected crack of dawn call had caught me off guard and there was no point lying to him or putting it off.

“What the fuck did you do? Last week he was picking out party favors and now he doesn’t want to get married? Explain that to me, please.”

I cringed at his raised voice, wanting to defend myself against his tirade. I had nothing to do with the problem, I’d even gone out of my way to fix it. I restrained myself from shouting back at my boss telling him just that, but I bit my tongue. “I guess he just got cold feet,” I finally replied after letting the silence go on for too long. What did he expect me to say?

“Cold feet, huh?” my boss snorted. “Well, this is just great. I gave you a chance, April, and what did I tell you before you left?”

“Not to screw it up,” I mumbled. “But I didn’t. Everything was perfect.”

“You’re fired.”

“W-what?” I asked, stunned. “You’re firing me over this?”

“Yeah, I am,” he said, then ended the call.

I sat frozen, staring at the empty room as my entire career flashed before my eyes. I was fired. I’d never been fired in my whole life. The asshole who I’d busted my tail for over the last five years had just discarded me like it was nothing and over something that wasn’t even in my control.

Tears blurred at my eyes and I threw the phone onto the bed, grounding my eyes with the palms of my hands. I would not cry over this. I had sworn to myself long ago that my crying days were over. I was stronger now, able to handle situations like these in a manner that didn’t make me want to cower in a corner. Now don’t get me wrong, I still wanted to throw something, but now that I wasn’t going to be able to afford it, it probably wasn’t the best idea to have a meltdown a la Crystal Wagner.

So what was I going to do? I had no idea. Without the commission for this wedding job I had nowhere near enough to pay for that lease on the building I had my eye on. Without the building space, I couldn’t open up my own storefront to advertise my business. My tiny apartment wasn’t a good place to conduct a professional business from and I’d never be able to compete with my now ex-boss. It was like I was starting from scratch all over again.

“I hate my life,” I said, standing up. All I wanted was the perfect job, the white picket fence, and the husband that looked at me adoringly like I had watched countless men make moon-eyes at their brides on their wedding day. I wanted the happily ever after like in my books. Didn’t I deserve that? Was it too much to ask?

My eyes teared up again as I grabbed my suitcase and pulled out some comfortable clothes that I had thought I would never have to wear on this trip. I needed to go downstairs and start the painful process of getting all of the setup torn down.

My hand landed on a t-shirt and I paused, a little laugh escaping my lips.

No I didn’t. I didn’t have to do shit!

That was my boss’ problem now. I didn’t have to do anything except put my feet up and enjoy the last days of my stay in the luxurious hotel. My ever-strict boss liked to make sure everything was paid upfront so that he could monitor the money that was coming out of his business, so my room was paid for up until after the reception. I could relax a bit longer while I tried to figure out what to do with my life and what my next move would be. I was a grown woman, I’d been through worse and this little blip wasn’t going to defeat me.

Grabbing my clothes, I hurried to put them on before sweeping my hair up into a ponytail, opting to go sans-makeup; I had no one I needed to impress anymore. It was early and if I hurried, I could get down to the restaurant before it filled up with breakfast patrons. There I could get my head together, enjoy a nice breakfast and then, well…the sky was the limit.

I
saw
her before she saw me. As an early riser, I was usually up in the gym before five A.M., which used to drive Crystal insane, whining that I wouldn’t lounge around in the bed with her until ten or eleven like she would. It was in my DNA to get up and work out, honing my body and taking care of it so that my football career could surpass what was expected of my position.

As a quarterback, I took my fair share of hits; my knee was surgically repaired in college and my throwing arm was not as great as it used to be. Now don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed a wild night out—like last night—and found myself struggling to turn down a good greasy burger and fries on occasion. But in my business, you had to be vigilant about your body.

My muscles were still burning from my grueling workout as I walked into the hotel’s breakfast restaurant and noticed the fiery wedding planner tackle a large plate of pancakes doused with syrup. She was dressed plainer than I had seen her before, her t-shirt and jeans a bit out of character for the luxurious hotel. I liked that she seemed as if she couldn’t care less, giving her another nod in my book. Crystal had to look damn near perfect to even go out to the store, but this woman, well, she looked vastly different and I was surprised to feel a sudden bout of lust shoot through my body; longing to know more about what made her tick.

Putting on my famous ’I can fuck you with just my grin’ expression, I eased over to her table and pulled out a chair without asking her first. April glanced up, and for a moment I saw a slight presence of a smile but it was instantly replaced as she realized it was me—anger flaring up in her eyes. Great, she was still pissed at me, but I wasn’t going to back down, and maybe her hatred of me would work in my favor. “Hey.”

“Leave me alone,” she shot back, spearing her pancakes with her fork.

“How are you this morning?” I tried again, enjoying the fact that she hadn’t thrown anything at me yet. That had to be progress, but I kept my cup of coffee out of her reach just in case.

She put down her fork and sighed, a cloud of sadness and hurt drifting across her face; feelings I didn’t care to see. She couldn’t still be hurt that I’d called off the wedding? It meant she got a day off, she should be pleased. But maybe there was more to it than that; not being able to showcase all her efforts… she wouldn’t get her moment to shine.

I was an idiot. Of course it was that. I couldn’t imagine working my ass off all season, be one step away from going to the Super Bowl and then WHAM having it all stripped away from me at the last minute.

No wonder she didn’t want to see me. But there would be more weddings for her to plan…

I’d seen her work hard, someone with pretty damn good ideas and with buckets of patience to deal with people like Crystal that I couldn’t ever imagine having. She had taken all of the changes in her stride, no matter how much I was sure she wanted to punch Crystal in the face, her smile never wavering. Until now.

“Are you okay?” I asked, feeling the need to know what the hell was bothering her and help make it better again. Even though I hardly knew her, I hated that she’d ended up collateral damage.

“I… just go away,” she forced out, turning her attention back to her pancakes.

I knew I couldn’t let this go, I wanted to cheer her up. And if I could kill two birds with one stone, then all the better. I needed for her to take the honeymoon tickets from me so I could put my final plan in motion and get the bet wrapped up and become eighty grand richer. The money was shit, but the premise of showing those assholes that I could commit was much more important. My reputation was on the line, even though they probably didn’t really care, but I was tired of being labelled as a man who was running scared from commitment.

“Come on,” I tried again. “You can tell me.”

She let out a hollow laugh that made me feel uncomfortable… she was more than pissed, she was downright sad. “You want to know what’s wrong with me? Why is that?”

“Because I feel like I’m probably responsible,” I replied, running an uneasy hand through my hair. It was a given that I’d completely ruined months of work on her part. I shouldn’t care, but dammit those sad cocoa-colored eyes were damn near killing me.

She shook her head in disbelief and pushed away her half eaten plate, a small giggle escaping her lips. “You know what, you are one-hundred percent right. You’re responsible for me getting fired from a job that I loved doing, one that gave me great satisfaction. What the hell am I supposed to do now? It’s all your fault, so why don’t you leave me alone and go disappoint someone else today?”

I opened my mouth to make some smart ass retort, but the look in her eyes, the hurt in them stopped the words from coming out. Shit. I had gotten her fired. That wasn’t the intention. What kind of asshole fired their employee over a groom splitting on his wedding anyway? Surely there was some type of rule or law against that.

“Hell,” I finally said. “Listen, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen. Maybe I can call your boss—”

“Don’t bother, you’ll only end up making it worse I’m sure,” she sighed, her shoulders slumping as she pushed back her chair and stood. “Goodbye, Mr. Haden. Have a great life.”

I stood up and threw some bills on the table before following after her, watching those swaying curvy hips walk away from me. I couldn’t lose this bet and I had to make it right somehow. “Wait, April.”

She turned around and frustration prickled upon her face. “What? What more do you want to do to me? You’ve ruined my life, so what more do you want?”

I swallowed, realizing my first answer probably wasn’t the best one to blurt out in this moment. Hell, I wanted to push her up against the nearest wall and fuck her until the sadness left her eyes and they were blazing with passion. The urge had sneaked up on me so suddenly that it was all I could do not to reach out and take her right there. “I feel responsible for this.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she replied, turning to go. Without thinking, I reached out and touched her arm. She stopped instantly, and didn’t pull away. “It does matter, dammit,” I said, reaching into my back pocket and extracting the envelope I’d been carrying around. “Here, take this. Everything should be paid for but if not, just charge it to the room. You’ll be alone to enjoy the sun and sand by yourself. Curse my name and everything I am during that time, I don’t fucking care. I won’t be there to hear it.”

“I already told you I don’t want your—” she blurted out, finally shaking off my touch.

Blocking her way, she nearly collided with me as I stepped in front of her and put the envelope in her face, where she had no choice but to look at it. “I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“Will you leave me alone if I take it?” she asked, looking up at me, a resigned tone in her sweet voice. I nodded and she snatched it out of my hand, and brushed past me to leave. I grinned, finally one step forward… she was definitely going to go, there was no doubt about it. One look at the brochure I’d tucked inside, along with the teaser of the first class plane ticket and the extra excursions that were already booked, she wouldn’t be able to resist.

I eyed her ass again, swinging from side to side as she disappeared down the corridor… she would look fucking sublime in a bikini and I couldn’t wait to see her half naked.

Now all I had to do was get to the getaway island undetected.