Bulletproof Princess

by It Girls

  If no one "bought" her, perhaps she could steal a few minutes here and there with Harrison. The man could definitely get under her skin. And if she noticed that Jack wasn't here and felt just the tiniest bit empty because of it, well, that was normal. She'd been crazy about him for years. She couldn't get over him in a piddling day. Hopefully, she wouldn't be saying that about a piddling lifetime…

  "Twenty-five thousand." Ryan Greene's voice rang out.

  Chloe groaned, covered it with a delicate laugh. "Oh, he's such a charmer." Dang it. She'd turned him down for dates at least a dozen times in the last two months. The man just considered "no" a challenge. But okay. Okay. Three hours. Maybe four. For the Women's Center, she could stand being with the Rose slut for three or four hours.

  "Thirty." Ryan's father, Franklin, put in that bid.

  Surprised, Chloe smiled. Now why would he bid on her?

  Ryan jumped onto the stage and stole the microphone from the auctioneer. "Fifty thousand dollars." Ryan lifted a hand. "And, Dad, I'll warn you, no matter what you bid, I'm going to raise it. I'm having dinner tonight with Princess Chloe, regardless of the cost."

  That earned the man a collective sigh from an adoring audience. Ryan stood his ground and the auctioneer closed the bid. The room erupted in applause, and Chloe smiled.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she spied Renee.

  She was not smiling.

  Chapter 7

  Rubi Cho snapped a photo of Ryan and Chloe. So did Ashley Thompson. "This is going to make a great feature," she told Chloe, talking about a future issue of Chic. "Father and son compete for princess and royal dinner."

  Chloe tried her best not to snarl.

  Ryan offered her his hand. She glanced again at Renee, who stood stone-faced. Had Chloe done something wrong? But she realized Renee wasn't looking at her; she was looking at Ryan. And at that moment, Chloe felt down to her bones that Renee hated him. But why?

  "Come on, Chloe," Ryan said. "Unless I'm mistaken, Rubi wants a few words with us."

  Chloe stepped down and the auction continued with the sleek and sophisticated Becca Whitmore, fellow Rose agent and master gemologist, who'd only returned this afternoon from Africa. She noticed the blond, blue-eyed man who bought Becca wasn't part of the usual crowd. Interesting.

  Rubi took several photos of Chloe and Ryan.

  "You and Julio must be close," Chloe said to Ryan. "He seems to adore you."

  "He does." Ryan smiled.

  "Are you two really brothers?"

  "He's adopted." Ryan turned on a mega-watt smile for Rubi. "You Roses aren't the only philanthropists around."

  "May I ask a few questions?" Rubi offered them her most charming smile.

  After last night and her fricking column this morning, Chloe was tempted to knock it off her face.

  Ryan smiled back. "Anything for you, sweetheart."

  "I see you're both wearing Rose pins tonight. Ryan, why do you have one?"

  Chloe hadn't noticed his and looked. Of course, it was different from the ones Alan had passed to the Roses. Its diamond winked in the light.

  "I'm a Rose fan." He chuckled. "Which surprises no one."

  It didn't. Harrison was right. Ryan was doing his best to sleep his way through them all. Fortunately, he wasn't enjoying as much success as it appeared to outsiders.

  "Princess Chloe." Rubi turned to her, and the warmth in her eyes faded under the glitter of suspicion. "I was at the G.R.C. today when Renee revealed the reason you and Emma Bosworth were at Hollow Hill last night. Why did you run from me?"

  Ryan's grasp on her arm stiffened, and Chloe winced. "If you knew I was running, Rubi, why did you print the column?"

  She shrugged. "News is news."

  "There was no news, as you now know. Will you be printing a correction tomorrow?"

  "No."

  "Predictable." Chloe stared her down. "Who told you I would be there?"

  Rubi hesitated, and then gave her an exaggerated blink. "I never reveal my sources."

  Chloe smiled sweetly. "I'll remember that and phone the Post the next time I have a juicy tidbit to report." She walked away, leaving Ryan standing there.

  He caught up to her. "What happened at Hollow Hill?"

  "Don't worry, Ryan. Nothing that will impact you. Rubi still thinks you're perfect— right in line behind Adonis."

  "I asked what happened, Chloe."

  His charm dissipated, confusing Chloe. "I can't believe you didn't hear about it. It's been a hot news item all day."

  "I've been out of pocket with Julio. Tell me."

  "It's nothing really." Chloe shrugged. "Emma and I were doing some research down there for the Women's Center, to help get prostitutes off the streets. We— umm— dressed for the part. Rubi showed up and this morning, we were in her column."

  "Good cause." Ryan cleared his throat, darted his gaze as if looking for someone. Within seconds, he added, "Chloe, I'm suddenly not feeling well. Would you forgive me if I asked for a rain check on dinner?"

  Thrilled to be off the hook, she had to temper her reaction. "Why no, of course not."

  "Thanks." He lightly kissed her cheek. "I'll call and we can set up something next week."

  "I hope you feel better." She squeezed his arm, and let go, grateful beyond belief to be rid of him.

  He walked to the door, saw Tatiana and stopped to speak.

  "She doesn't look happy with the conversation, does she?" Harrison spoke from beside Chloe.

  Smiling, Chloe looked at him. "No, she doesn't." Tatiana stood ramrod straight and her jaw was tight enough to be wired. Now what was up with that?

  "I never liked her much," Harrison whispered.

  "She doesn't like me much, either," Chloe confessed, glad he wasn't taken in by Tatiana's lush, sultry looks.

  "Ryan's departing the fix," he said, using lingo from the agency. "Does that mean you're free for dinner after all?"

  Chloe smiled up at him. "It does."

  His eyes twinkled. "Will you join me?"

  Her heart rate kicked up a notch. It shouldn't, considering Jack, but he'd wounded her pride and hurt her heart, and both reacted warmly to a gorgeous, appreciative man. "I thought you had to work."

  "Even I get time off to eat."

  "In that case, I'd love to." Chloe walked to the ballroom door with an improved attitude. Jack could make all the accusations he liked. Harrison worked for the Governess. He'd passed the most rigorous security check known to God and man. Chloe didn't have to trust him; the Governess did. And clearly he hadn't hated Chloe's kiss or he wouldn't be interested in dinner. That was a fringe benefit. Minutes ago she'd dreaded dinner. Now she was looking forward to it. She could relax.

  Lucas had set up a private dining room for her and her date, and if he was surprised that she wasn't with Ryan Greene, he didn't show it as he escorted them to their table.

  "I hope you don't mind," she told Harrison. "Since I'm the function's sponsor, I have to stay on the premises— in case there's a challenge."

  "Not at all." He walked at her side. "I eat here often."

  Expensive tux, expensive food. Harrison couldn't be living on his agent's pay. The Governess might pay him well, but she was a government employee herself. She couldn't possibly pay him that well. Who was this man?

  Lucas stepped aside. "I hope this room will be satisfactory, Princess Chloe."

  She looked around. The walls were covered with antique tapestries that well might have hung on medieval castle walls. The candlelit table and its matching two chairs were hand-carved, the wood rich and gleaming. An opulent chandelier hung in each corner of the room, and a night-sky painting covered the ceiling. "It's beautiful, Lucas."

  "I know you love the tapestries. I thought you'd enjoy them." His smile grew broad. "Of course, at the time, I worried you'd be bored to death with one of those silly men. I didn't know you'd be dining with Mr. Howell."

  "Neither did I, Lucas." So he knew and liked Jack and Harrison. "My good fortune.
"

  Lucas chuckled softly. "Michael and Andre will be taking care of you tonight. If you need me, they'll let me know."

  "Thank you." Harrison seated Chloe then took his chair.

  Dinner was relaxed and the conversation was warm and friendly and strictly personal, which was an unexpected treat. When the Perrini's specialty dessert of chocolate fudge cake with raspberry sauce was served with piping hot cups of coffee, Harrison introduced an unexpected topic.

  He lifted his cup, seeming somewhat pensive. "Did you notice that Renee seems really upset tonight?"

  It was a test. There wasn't a doubt in Chloe's mind. "Yes, I did," she confessed. "But she didn't wish to discuss it." Should Chloe disclose what she'd noticed? She debated and decided she should. After all, she and Harrison were on the same team. "She grew particularly upset when looking at Julio Greene." Turnabout was fair play. "Do you have any idea why?"

  "Probably an emotional reaction to his injuries. She's a very compassionate woman."

  Renee was extremely compassionate. Yet something undefined niggled at Chloe. "Do you know anything about him?"

  "A little," Harrison said. "His injuries were caused by a drunk driver in Colombia. His father was killed."

  "How horrible."

  "He was really young at the time."

  "How did he end up with Franklin Greene?" she asked, trying to fit the pieces together.

  "He and Julio's father were friends and business partners in an emerald mine. Franklin was Julio's godfather." Harrison removed a cake crumb from the table and put it inside his napkin. "After the accident, Franklin took over Julio's care and eventually adopted him."

  "Medical care is so much more advanced in the States."

  Harrison mumbled his agreement.

  "But what about his mother?"

  "She disappeared. Franklin spent a fortune looking for her, but…"

  How terrible. "Did they get the drunk driver?"

  Harrison scanned his memory. "I don't believe they did."

  Chloe frowned. Colombia supplied seventy-five percent of the world with cocaine. Drug lords, not law enforcement, meted out justice. Of course they hadn't gotten the driver. "That must have been hard on Julio and his family."

  Harrison stared across the candlelit table at Chloe, an odd expression in his eyes.

  "What?" Had she dripped raspberry sauce on her chin? She dabbed at it with the napkin.

  "You constantly surprise me, Chloe." The timbre of his voice said that the surprise was in a good way, not a bad one. "You're not what I expected."

  "What did you expect?" she asked, but she wasn't at all sure she really wanted the answer.

  "Honestly?"

  She nodded.

  "A partying rich bitch, living off her inheritance and playing off her title."

  Not very flattering, but it's what most people expected from her— and what most people, including her mother, believed she was doing. "I do love to party," she confessed. "But I love to dabble in businesses, too."

  "Dabble?" He chuckled. "Chloe, don't peddle that nonsense to me, okay? I've read your dossier." The teasing light left his eyes. "Why do you buy property?"

  "Madison is very good at it. I learned from her."

  "Yet other than Eleanor Towers, you don't buy in New York."

  "No, I don't." She shifted on her seat, uneasy. "It wouldn't be right to become Madison's competitor. Pruitt & Pruitt is extremely active here."

  "Pruitt & Pruitt owns the local market," Harrison said, "but that's not why you don't buy here."

  "Isn't it?" She hiked her chin, challenging him.

  "You don't want your mother to know you're not living off your inheritance," he said softly. "You have no partners in your property ventures. My guess is that you don't want her to know anything about your business life."

  He had intuited far more than he'd read in her dossier or heard at her apartment that morning, and that had been too much. Feeling uncomfortably vulnerable, Chloe schooled her breathing, slowed it down. "I buy properties, improve them and then sell them." Largely to single mothers, trying to build lives for themselves and their kids. "It's fun, productive and profitable."

  "What other businesses are you involved in?"

  He already knew. This was yet another honesty test, and while she was growing weary of the grilling, she understood his need to know the character of the woman with whom he was dealing. "I own a line of skin care products and, as you already know, I'm a silent partner in Adelphio, and elsewhere in a business I'm not at liberty to disclose."

  "Perrini's," Harrison said.

  Chloe looked him right in the eye and said nothing.

  "What possessed you to support the Adelphio label?"

  "I don't. I support Adele Phillips," Chloe said. "When I met her, she was a gifted designer with amazing vision and talent, no money and an abusive ex-husband. She divorced him without a dime, without a roof over her head and with two children to support. I figured if she was willing to take that kind of leap of faith on herself, then she deserved someone to believe in her."

  "So you did."

  "I did, and I do." Chloe smiled, still thrilled for Adele and the boys. "Now she has a house on Long Island that is solely hers, a restraining order against the jerk and a very good lawyer on retainer in case he acts up, and we both have a great deal more money."

  "There you go again." Harrison guffawed. "Surprising me." He rested a hand on the table. "That was a significant leap of faith for you."

  "Adele has two little boys, and she's a very devoted mother."

  "Unlike yours."

  That hurt. It shouldn't; it was true. But it did. "My mother is devoted," Chloe said, trying to hide how deeply that comment had cut. "Only it's about what she wants for me, not about what I want for me."

  "It was a good thing— what you did for Adele."

  Chloe shifted the topic. "So, now that I've spilled my secrets, tell me yours. Who are you, Harrison Howell?"

  "Just a representative of the Governess," he said. "That's about all there is to me."

  "You have on a Hugo Boss tux, Italian leather shoes that cost more than a government employee's monthly salary, and you frequently dine at Perrini's." She didn't have to mention that prices weren't printed on Perrini's menus. If you had to ask, you couldn't afford to dine there. "You're not just anything. Now, be fair."

  "Okay." Harrison removed his glasses, tucked them in the inside pocket of his jacket. "Like you, I inherited. And like you, I invested. I got lucky."

  "How lucky?"

  He frowned. "I didn't start out with as much money as you, but I've caught up."

  "Really?" Well, well. He surprised her, too.

  He nodded.

  "But you're not involved— socially, I mean."

  "No, I'm not." Harrison looked her straight in the eye. "My blood isn't blue, and I'm not interested in the games these people play, Chloe. Life is serious business, and I mean to make mine matter."

  "So you want to make a difference." Many in her circle did, too, but there was a disproportionate share of superficial people, and she couldn't honestly deny it.

  "As do you," he said, "or you wouldn't do what you do."

  She'd been working up the courage to ask him something since that morning. It had taken all day, and she wasn't sure her voice wouldn't crack even now. "Are you married, Harrison?"

  "I divorced about two years ago." He sighed. "The job takes everything, you know? And considering the secrecy issue, being involved with someone outside the loop is just too complicated."

  "That's true." Becca Whitmore had broken an engagement to a man she cared about to protect him from her job. He'd come dangerously close to discovering that she was an agent. Of course, he now thought she was a snobby rich bitch, and Becca had chosen to let him.

  Chloe recalled the man who'd bought Becca at the date auction. There'd been something about the way he scanned the room…perhaps Becca had found a man who understood secrets.

  Harris
on sipped from his wineglass, ignoring his coffee. "You know we're going to have to look at all the Roses to expose the leak to Rubi."

  "I know." What else had been leaked? And about whom? Chloe frowned. "But I don't have to like it."

  "Considering many of them are people you call your friends, I'd be disappointed if you did." He looked at her and his expression softened. "I like you, Chloe. I know relationships don't work, but I swear, you make me wish they could."

  She smiled from the heart out. "Every once in a while there's an anomaly. Who knows? Maybe you'll be part of one."

  "With you?"

  Her breath caught. "Tough odds," she admitted. "I have a broken heart, remember?"

  "Ah, Jack," Harrison said. "The reporter who's deduced that I'm connected to the Duke."

  She shrugged. "He has more information than he should."

  "Apparently, just enough to really get things screwed up."

  "Yeah, but his heart's in the right place."

  Harrison frowned. "I'm not so sure, Chloe.

  She stared at him, afraid enough of saying the wrong thing to say nothing.

  "How does he know so much?"

  He was questioning her about breaching security? She tried not to be angry. It was a legitimate question. "I don't know."

  "Well," Harrison paused, thoughtful. "If he isn't on our side, then it stands to reason…"

  Surprise rippled up her back and set her skin to crawling. "You think he's working for the Duke?"

  Harrison looked her right in the eye. "It's possible."

  "No," she denied it. "Jack is a good man, Harrison."

  "You love him," he said. "You're not objective."

  There was truth in that. She couldn't dispute it.

  Her cell phone rang. Two rings, and then it stopped. Immediately, it rang again. Two rings, and again it stopped.

  "Oh, God." Chloe stood up.

  "What's wrong?" Harrison pushed back his chair.

  "Emma's in trouble." Chloe snatched up her purse, tossed her napkin onto the table.

  "What kind of trouble?" Harrison asked. "The I-broke-a-nail kind of trouble, or the— "

  "Stop it!" Chloe shouted. "Someone is trying to kill her!"

  *