I sit stunned. This man that held me in his arms - he wasn't the Prince Player or Prince Party that he made himself out to be. He was a saint. With the body of a God. And he had protected me. Protected me from the media firestorm because he knew I was introverted. Protected me from the shield he had built for himself because he used it do good works.
Silas wasn't just hot. He wasn't just a great lover. He was truly a prince among men. He had protected me to the very end.
And he had definitely atoned for his mistakes.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Your Highness," Clara says, looking at her messages. "The Palace received a flash alert. The Prince's plane will be touching down in about five hours."
Good, I thought to myself. I had a few things to say to him. Starting with telling him how wet I was becoming just thinking about him.
15
Silas
Had I been in that room two months ago, having the conversation I had with the King, all I would have wanted to do is having a fucking bottle of scotch opened and dripping through an IV into my veins.
"I'm so glad you've understood the responsibilities placed on you, son," Father said. "I've taken the liberty of updating the files on suitable marriage candidates."
He gestured to the file that was sitting in front of me. I opened it.
"Lady Eythera Billington," he said aloud, "Hails from one of the oldest families in the Kingdom." I fucked her in the back of the limo. She moans like a whore when she comes, I thought.
"Lady Galadriel Tormin," he went on, "Her father is one of the wealthiest ship developers and their operations are in North Africa and the South of France." She sucked my ten-inch cock in my nightclub. She was wearing a white thong and after I came all over her face, the black light in the club showed her exactly where on her tits she needed to wipe. She used her thong for that, and left it to me as a souvenir. I threw it away.
It went on and on. Father mentioned Lady Tamsin, who had the eyes of a frog. Lady Vei, who had a personality of a snail. Lady Melissa who was addicted to cocaine and had been in and out of rehab five times so far. Lady Jasmine who was a lesbian.
There was one name on there that I never heard, and that I would have gladly accepted if Father had mentioned.
Princess Becca Ewing-D’Avington. The love of my life. No longer clouded by scotch or cheap pussy, I knew that my life ran through Becca. I knew that I could talk to her. She was mind-blowingly hot, but even if I had never seen her, the banter that we had, the way she made me feel when I was with her, the urge I got to protect her, was like nothing I had ever felt before. I had lived in her house for a month and I had seen her operate. She was good with kids, she knew how to handle me, and she had a smile that made my heart melt.
Fuck all, Silas, what are you doing sitting here then?
"I'm sorry Father," I interrupted him as he was going over the details of Lady Joan, who I knew had gotten drunk in Greece last year and had jerked off six guys on a yacht. I wasn't judging what someone did on vacation, but ever since she'd gotten back, I had seen her in the nightclub getting more and more extreme each time. The bouncers had orders nowadays not to let her in because she goes completely nympho whenever she starts drinking. "It's been a long flight. Can we catch up on these at a later time?"
"You won't need to," the King said with a gleam in his eye. "There's a ball tonight. They're all invited."
"A ball?" I asked, shocked and disappointed at my spectacularly bad timing. "What for?"
"Well, for you, of course," the King said with a chuckle. "Consider it a welcome home party, son. Also, the Prime Minister of India is here, thought it might not be bad to kill two birds with one stone."
I thought Indians were supposed to be vegetarians anyways, I thought darkly to myself. Outwardly though, I maintained a composed face. "Then we'll be able to evaluate them all during the ball," I said neutrally.
My father nodded his head in agreement, "Exactly. I'll look forward to hearing any thoughts you have on the matter tomorrow morning," he said getting up. "Until then, I think I deserve an hour or two to get ready. See what Samantha is up to. Oh, I heard your stepsister is in the Palace as well."
That was what I was looking for. "Is she in the Palace now?" I asked getting to my feet and ready to bound for the door.
"I believe she was talking to her mother, but I'm not sure where she is exactly right now. She's coming to the ball tonight too, I hope."
I thanked my father profusely as I headed out. If I couldn't find her during the day, I had to find a way somehow to talk to Becca during the ball. If she wanted answers, I was ready to tell her everything. I couldn't live without her.
It seemed that day I was one step behind Becca.
"Someone has accessed the public filings on your time in the Army, sire," Pearson informed me when I got back to my chambers after my meeting with father.
I scowled. "Another media inquiry?"
"No, sire. It seems to have originated from the Palace itself," he said, looking at me directly. We both knew who that could be.
I walked over to Becca's suite, my heart beating heavy. I knocked on the door.
"Sorry, sire, she's gone into the city," her new assistant, a young woman whose name I remembered was Clara informed me. She looked at me with wide eyes and a knowing smile. I wondered why she was looking at me like that until Pearson showed me afterwards a report that she had been transferred from the PR team to Becca directly by the Queen yesterday evening.
On a lark, I walked into the Royal Press Office. The man there, Charleston, was more than familiar with my antics, since as the Press Secretary, he had been the one who usually explained them away. He didn't seem that surprised to see me.
"Did you get have questions on the press packet, sire?" he asked.
I looked at him like he had spoken Swahili. "What are you talking about?" I asked.
He informed me how Clara had requested all the press that I had received over the last several years. How she had requested that it be broken and collated by news organization and date. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Becca was craftier than I gave her credit for.
I placed a call to News of the Times - the tabloid that had first reported on my shenanigans. I got connected to a reporter, Michael Jones, who I knew well enough.
"Mike, this is completely off the record," I said by way of greeting.
"I don't doubt it," he said into the line. The tabloid he was speaking from was based out of New York City and I had to do this by phone, otherwise I'd have stormed into his office to sit down in front of him. Although, that might not be the best thing to do. Prince Player walking into the offices of his chief tormentor. "What's going on over there today anyways? This is the second phone call I've had from St. Penares."
Holy fuck.
That sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach returned as I asked him who else had called.
"It was your stepsister's office actually," he said. I nearly fell out of my fucking chair. Since when did Becca have an office? "She got on the phone with me directly. Seemed to know everything about our arrangement - how you feed me stories from time to time and give me exclusives. She was nibbling at the edges."
"What did you tell her?" I asked, my throat suddenly dry.
"Well, I told her what our arrangement was. What I cover and what I don't cover. Since the stuff I don't cover doesn't sell much news anyways, it's no skin off my back, but why is it that she wants to know, Prince?" he asked. That bastard was feeling a story in the background. I knew it.
"It's nothing," I lied, hoping to myself that I was believable. "Becca's just acclimatizing to coming back to the Royal Court."
"I don't know, Prince," Michael said, his tone not convinced. "It was almost as if she was searching for something. She wouldn't tell me what. What's the deal with the two of you, anyways?"
Shit. That's the last thing I needed. For my attack dog to focus on me. I had to squash this now.
"Listen, Mike, just h
old your horses, okay?" I said into the phone pacing. "And I guarantee you I'll give you a story that'll sell a million copies on publication in the next few weeks. You'll be at the right place at the right time, based on my intel."
There was a long pause and finally Michael spoke, "Two weeks, Prince. Our deal was for you to keep doing antics that I could write about. You've gone dark for about a month."
After Mike, I got Pearson to drive me over to the D'Avington Foundation, where I scanned in and went up to the top floor.
The D'Avington Foundation was located in the CBD on the 46th floor of an office tower overlooking the marina. For everything that St. Penares was, one of the things I most appreciated about it was the economic planning it had had the foresight to do after the Second World War. It's society and economy were First World, and it allowed me an opportunity to leverage the existing infrastructure to run my foundation. I passed Cherry, my Executive Assistant for the short hours I did visit the office.
"Oh, hello, sire. You just missed the Princess by fifteen minutes," Cherry informed me as soon as I walked in past reception.
I froze in my tracks. If Becca had made it this far, then there was very little for me to tell her when I found her. But that meant if she hadn't gotten a hold of me yet, that she was still upset at me for leaving her.
"What did she want?" I asked, knowing the answer that was going to come out anyways.
"Not much. She was just looking for the consolidated project listing for the year and for last year. She already had the figures so it was just putting them in their appropriate boxes. She seemed really interested particularly in the US scholarship program from several years back and that's where she spent most of her time," Cherry said, pulling out the papers.
"Let me see," I asked, and Cherry handed me the file. I flicked through it as I went to my office with its floor to ceiling glass windows overlooking at marina.
Well, fuck me.
I looked at the report from several years earlier and saw the list of scholarship recipients in the United States. The scholarship program was a merit and needs-based scholarship designed to pay for college tuition, distributing $10,000 each to eligible women in single parent households. Ten scholarships were awarded each year. I looked at the names.
Becca Ewing. That was my stepsister's name before her mother married my father, the King. I had just returned from Afghanistan and it was still early in the life of the D'Avington Foundation. I was on my way to building the playboy lifestyle and I think that was the year that the media - Michael to be exact - started calling me Prince Of Pleasure.
I looked through Becca's file. Single mother. Low income. Father killed in a car accident. Bills and debt piling up. Becca's dreams of college were incumbent on her receiving enough financial aid to be able to attend. It looks like that scholarship had done just that.
I looked at the clock.
Shit, you've got to get back.
The fucking ball was sitting there like an elephant in the room that I had to get back for.
"Thanks, love," I said to Cherry as I walked out. "Let me know if she stops by again."
But she wouldn't. She had all the information she needed. Now it was up to her that to connect the dots together.
When I came down to the Grand Entrance to the Main Ballroom, Becca wasn't there. Father and the Queen had already entered and were greeting guests. Becca and I had no such duty tonight and stood for a minute taking in the ball that had already started.
Big mistake.
I got hit up at least a dozen times by different women trying to get me to dance, sit down with them, buy them a drink, or whatever else they wanted. I don't even know who it was that leaned in and whispered that we should go out onto the beach for her to show me her 'skills'.
Jesus Christ, it was going to be a long night. I finally got away from them, all the while looking for Becca. I sidled over to the bar to get myself a glass of scotch
Easy on the sauce tonight, mate, I told myself. In reality, having to bear through a million noble ladies trying my cock on for size was enough to make me want to jump out the fucking window. I took a sip of the scotch instead.
"Silas, I'd like you to meet Lady Tessa Arborville and I think you know Lady Nadia Moore already," Father said, bringing two maidens to the bar where I was standing.
"Pleased to see you both again," I said formally, kissing the back of their hands.
"Silas, care for a dance?" Nadia asked me, her eyebrows arching. "For old time's sake?"
I gulped. Nadia and I had fucked a year ago. We had been sent on a Royal Mission to Utah, of all fucking places in the world. There was precious little else to do out there, except for Nadia. I had told her it was only for that trip, that I didn't want to settle down, and the whole nine yards. A lot of people might call her beautiful, she had shoulder length blonde hair, a slender body, some nice jugs, but in my mind, there was only one girl out there for me right now, and she was not Nadia Moore.
Father had never known about Nadia an me, and truth be told, there wasn't much to say. We had sex, but it wasn't anything extraordinary. It wasn't the life-altering sex I had when I held Becca in my arms.
"Haven't seen you around for a while," Nadia said as I took her hand and we glided across the dance floor. "I was starting to think you'd run away from us."
I closed my eyes to will myself to stay civil. Nadia had done everything but try to build us up into a relationship since we had gotten back. "Nadia, there is no us," I said opening my eyes and looking at her calmly.
"Oh?" she asked. "Then why am I here right now, in your arms, at your ball?"
I didn't have an answer for her. "Admit it, Silas," she said leaning into me. "You and I are perfect for each other. We're meant to be together."
Until recently, I never really thought people were ever meant to do anything. I would have laughed in someone's face if they told me they and someone else were meant for each other. But that was until I had met Becca.
"Nadia, we're not meant to be together," I said slowly.
"You don't have to believe people can't be destined for each other, that's fine..." she said.
"No, no," I said, interrupting her. "I believe that now. It's just that I'm..."
"Excuse me," a voice came from behind Nadia and to the side a little bit. Hearing it, I stopped talking immediately.
There she stood. Becca Ewing. Resplendent in a black evening gown that clung to her like a second skin, highlighting her amazing tits and curvy ass. Her legs were lithe and her body was slender and I felt my cock twitch just looking at her.
"Mind if I cut in really quick with my stepbrother," she said directly to Nadia. "I haven't seen him in so long."
Nadia sputtered for a brief moment. I decided now was my chance.
"Not at all, love," I said, letting go of Nadia instantly and stepping over to her. Nadia stood there, fuming for a moment before she realized that several pairs of eyes were on her standing by herself in the middle of the dance floor and she walked away.
I held Becca tight, bringing her close to me. I could feel my cock, awakened and hungry tent through my trousers. I pulled Becca in even closer, my hungry eyes devouring her.
"Becca..." I started.
"Don't Silas," she interrupted me. "Before you start, just don't."
"Becca, I was a fool," I blurted out and this got her attention as we glided along the floor. "I should have never left you that morning. I should have never walked away."
"Then why did you?" she asked.
"I thought I was protecting you," I said, realizing how stupid it sounded when said out loud.
"By walking out of my life?" she asked, tears threatening to form. "I've never been so hurt in my life, Silas. I had to come out here to figure out who the real Silas was."
"I know," I said, and she looked at me sharply. "You've been busy."
She didn't say anything for a second. "Silas, I had no idea who you were, and I treated you harshly with my preconceived notion
s when you first, uhmm, landed, I guess."
I smiled remembering back to my entrance. She continued. "I have to thank you for being who you are. I would have never even been able to experience my time with you if it weren't for that college scholarship."
"Not a problem, love..."
Again she interrupted me. "But I just don't understand though why you couldn't tell me. What happened in Afghanistan that made you run away from life? Why did you run away from me?"
Afghanistan. A million fucking miles away from here. I was happy in this moment, even if I was in deep shit. My thoughts went back to the fateful mission that had nearly ended in disaster. To the men I had lost.
"Silas?" Becca asked. I snapped out of it and saw her looking at me with concern. "Are you okay?"
We had slowed down a bit, but I picked up the pace on the floor again. "Sorry, love, just having a tough night."
"I can feel," she said with the first crack of her lip. My cock was digging right into her body without any shame in the world.
"Is that a smile, Princess?" I asked with a smirk.
"No," she said still smiling. "I'm still upset, remember?"
"Listen, love, I'm sorry. I will never, ever leave you again. I swear," I said to her in all seriousness. "I was being an idiot thinking I was needed to leave you to shield you from the media frenzy that would happen."
"By walking out on me? That's how show affection?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.
My heart was beating fast. Fuck it, I thought.
"I was trying to protect the girl that I love," I said quietly to her, looking at her.
If possible, I could feel her heart rate increase. She came a bit closer to me, if that was even possible and whispered in my ear.
"Silas," she whispered wickedly, "That problem down below isn't going to go away on its own."
Now it was my turn for my heart to begin racing again.
"Why don't we go somewhere a bit quieter, and we can take care of it?" she pulled back and looked at me with those wide, innocent eyes of hers.
My Stepbrother, His Highness: A Royal Stepbrother Billionaire Bad Boy Romance Page 11