The Proposal Problem: A Billionaire Royal Hangover Romance

by Natalie Knight

The way Leo looked at me…so angry and judgmental. The way his voice practically dripped with condescension. Who the hell is he to judge what I’m doing?

  Instead of feeling anticipation about where the night will lead like I did only moments before, I feel a heavy weight settle in the pit of my stomach.

  As Roger leads me around, his hand resting on my hip, Leo's hard gaze bores into me from across the room. Wherever I go, his eyes follow. I don’t even have to look to know it’s true—that’s how aware I am of his commanding presence.

  I can only imagine what he's thinking right now seeing me like this, dressed up with the sole purpose of attracting a client.

  Though I don’t really have to imagine what he thinks.

  He made it clear, practically coming right out and accusing me of being a whore. Sure, he didn’t say those words, but the implication was heavy.

  What did I expect? He only knows the girl I used to be, and I’m not that girl anymore.

  My fingers are tingling from where I rested them on his chest. The way he looked at me when I did that, I swear I saw a flash of heat cross his eyes.

  Right before they blazed with fury when I talked about pleasuring my clients.

  What I really wanted to do was curl my fingers around his shirt and pull him to me and show him just how much I’ve changed in the past ten years.

  I’ve learned what I like and I know how to ask for it. When I looked at him, I was ready to do more than ask. I was ready to take, and see where it led.

  I try to collect myself and not think about Leo, who treated me like shit at our little reunion.

  You’re better than this.

  Still, his words echo in my head.

  It’s not like I’ve chosen this because it’s all I ever dreamed of. I've been thrust into this life by default because of my family's financial ruin.

  Once the socialite and part of the upper echelon of society, now I’m the pauper instead of Leo. The help’s son…the tables have certainly turned.

  "Sienna? Are you listening?" Roger is saying to me.

  I blink, pulled from my thoughts. "What? Um, yes. Yes, I am."

  "Okay good. Now, that's Mr. Peterson over there at the blackjack table. He's a regular patron, so make him feel special if he talks to you."

  The man looks our way and raises a glass to me, and I nod my head and smile, slowly, seductively, in acknowledgment.

  "Okay good, he's seen you. He's one of our clients with the deepest pockets, Sienna, so use this chance to shine." He gives my hip an encouraging squeeze, then lets it fall away slowly as he nudges me toward Mr. Peterson.

  I'm here to work and I want to work. I am not here to worry about the ghost of an old life.

  I can do this.

  I smooth my hands over my dress and try to appear confident. Try to draw on some of that empowerment I was feeling before Leo swooped in and left me staggered.

  I leave Roger's side and make my way over to the blackjack tables. If all goes well, this evening could end with a big paycheck coming my way.

  "Hello, sir,” I say, pitching my voice low and seductive. “I'm Sienna."

  I turn on the charm, going for an air of mystery.

  If there's one thing I can do, it's make men swoon. When you grow up in a patriarchal household like I did, you learn the ropes of how to get your way as a woman, sometimes with nothing more than a touch and a smile.

  My father had hundreds of elite parties over the years. More often than not I’d blow off his rich friends and their sons because I could afford to be snobby.

  Now I’m at the beck and call of the very same type of men.

  When Mr. Peterson reaches for me, it’s a bit more unnerving than I expect it to be.

  I keep the smile firmly in place, though. "Mr. Peterson is it? I must say, you know how to wear a suit.” I want to laugh at the ridiculous statement falling from my lips, but instead just let my hand glide along the rich fabric as I take his arm. "Please, can you show me around? This is my first time here."

  His eyes spark as he hears this, like he can’t wait to sample the newest item on the menu. "Of course. Sienna, is it? Let me get you a drink. A woman as beautiful as you should never be without a man waiting to provide you the very best."

  Cue the inner eye roll.

  He waves down one of the cocktail waitresses.

  I envy her job right now. She doesn't have to schmooze this man who's twice her age. She can breeze right by and do her job without wondering what the patrons might ask of her later.

  Me? I'll be stuck with him all night. With that thought, my mind races with a singular worry. What happens next?

  As I take the glass of champagne from her, I look up and find Leo still staring at me with a dark look in his eyes.

  He’s still brooding and I wonder why. Is it really about me taking a job with Roger?

  Why the hell does he feel like he has any right to care about what I do? He didn’t care before when he left me heartbroken and alone.

  I’m suddenly angry. He has no right to say the things he did. He obviously wanted to get under my skin with those comments.

  Now I decide it's time to turn that around and to have a bit of fun with Leo. I ignore Leo and turn back to Mr. Peterson, turning up my flirting a few notches.

  Let’s see what Leo thinks about that.

  "Mr. Peterson, you look so dashing tonight.” I bat my eyelashes and look at him adoringly. “Please tell me you don't have plans. I'd love to spend the evening with you. Maybe you could teach me how to play poker?"

  I know damn well how to play, but nothing gets men like this wrapped around your finger more than playing dumb.

  It's how I got my father to do everything for me.

  Though it’s a little disturbing that I think of this man like I would my father…and my mind travels back to the comments from the girls about Roger thinking of the girls as his daughters.

  That’s what Leo thinks of me. As some girl with daddy issues now.

  Whatever. It's go time.

  This is supposed to be the new me, empowered and ready to do what I want with my life. I have to push any negative thoughts out of my mind and just do this.

  If for no other reason than to make Leo jealous and prove to him that I don't care. That I'm over him. I want him to be the one left with want and regrets.

  I refuse to go there again.

  Not with him. Not for him.

  Mr. Peterson leads me to the high roller poker table. I make sure to stand where Leo has a clear view of me and my new date.

  It's five-card draw but I pretend not to know that as I lean over Mr. Peterson's shoulder. I make a big show of not understanding his cards and what they mean. And then I gush ridiculously when he makes a huge bet for me.

  He eats it up.

  "Oh, this is so exciting. Maybe a kiss for good luck?"

  I bend and plant a kiss on his cheek, leaving a visible red lipstick mark. As I do, I peer back towards the bar, but Leo's gone.

  Fuck. Where'd he go? I wonder if he saw my show of affection or if it was all for nothing?

  I stay with Mr. Peterson all night, and make more money in those few hours than I could have in a week anywhere else.

  Leo's still not around by the time the evening ends, and I don’t want to admit to myself that I’m disappointed.

  I liked the feeling of him watching me, even if he was angry about it. I want his eyes on me.

  Eventually, I call it quits and take my leave. Mr. Peterson was a total gentlemen and requested little more than a few kisses and for me to sit on his lap...a lot.

  I’m struggling a little with my feelings about this new job but I refuse to dwell on it. It's a small price to pay for the wad of cash that I stuff into my Louis Vuitton.

  My heels click on the marble floors as I make my way back to the elevators that will take me to my room.

  It must be four in the morning, and though Vegas is still humming, it's a lot quieter now.

  Someone grabs me fr
om behind a giant column, and I see familiar dark eyes blazing with fury.

  "What the fuck are you doing, Sienna? You spent all night with that creep?"

  "Oh, hello, Leo." I pretend not to care about his indignation as I twist out of his grasp.

  Inside, I'm screaming. What is he still doing here? How did he find me?

  My skin is hot from his hands on my body, even though they were only on me for seconds. Just being in his presence makes my body feel like it might spontaneously combust, but I have to play this cool.

  "You can't do this," he says, all authoritative dominance.

  "The hell I can't!"

  He's got some unbelievable nerve to think he can tell me what to do. "You stopped calling the shots a long time ago. I answer to no one. Can't you tell, Leo? I'm all grown up."

  “I see that.” He rakes his eyes over my body. "But it's fucking dangerous, Sienna. Don 't you know anything about the business?"

  "Listen, it's none of your concern, but I happen to have a very nice boss. And hey, I gotta do what I gotta do for money right now."

  He actually looks sympathetic for a moment. "I heard about what happened to your dad."

  "Yeah, well, he didn't plan very well," I reply, but I don’t want to talk about that. "What more can I say?"

  I don't plan to get into my family heartache with him. Not after he left me alone to deal with the aftermath without a single word in ten years.

  He takes my arm again like he has some right to touch me.

  "You don't have to do this," he says.

  I turn towards him and catch his eyes, anger vibrating within me. "Leo, you don't know the first thing about what I need or who I am. Not anymore. I'm a different person now and I don't owe you anything. This may be happening in your casino, but that's the extent of your involvement."

  My words are biting but true. He hurt me in the past. I really don't owe him a damn thing.

  He lets me go abruptly.

  "Now, I've had a long night and I'm going to bed," I say, ready to just get away from him and the storm of emotions he dredges up.

  I walk away, head held high, and don't look back, but I know his eyes are following me. I can feel it, just like earlier.

  Once inside the elevator, I slump against the wall and try to catch my breath.

  It took everything in me to stand up to Leo Asher like that. He's gorgeous. Even more than before because he’s all man now.

  I'm not interested in him breaking my heat again. I have to keep my distance from him. No matter what my body says, my mind knows better.

  I pull off my wig and let my blonde waves fall loosely around my shoulders as the glass elevator takes me up to my room.

  How am I going to do this every single night? My only hope is that Leo won’t be around as much as he was tonight, staring me down while I flirt with other men.

  Otherwise…this is going to be harder than I anticipated.

  I look down as the elevator rises higher, and there he is.

  Leo's just standing where I left him, watching me even in here.

  Our eyes meet for a second, and then I'm gone, too high for him to see.

  I'm grateful for the escape because the nervous energy that races through me overwhelms. I'm happy to be away from him because I can breathe again.

  At least that’s what I keep telling myself hours later as I lie awake in my bed, thinking about what the next night will bring.

  4

  Leo

  Golden eyes float above me, equally golden hair cascading down around my face as my girl hovers over me, her mouth open in ecstasy as she sinks down onto my throbbing cock.

  Fuck.

  Not again.

  I slam my hand down on my desk trying to rid myself of the images.

  I'm in my office going over some detailed paperwork. My executive assistant has cleared my schedule for the afternoon because she knows that it's urgent business. My head should be in the game but all I can think about is...her.

  I never expected to see Sienna again. Last night was the shock of my life. Now that I’ve seen her, heard her, felt her, she permeates all of my thoughts.

  As much as I try to put her out of my head and focus, fantasies like this keep invading my mind. I’ve been rock hard all day, and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.

  Just as I’m about to try for the eighty-seventh time to get this paperwork wrapped up, my phone buzzes.

  "Mr. Asher, I have Mr. Jax Reid waiting for you," my assistant, Carly, says.

  I stare at my phone in shock. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

  Not only did Sienna walk back into my life last night and throw me into a tailspin, but now the last person I thought I’d ever see again is here to further shake up my world.

  Carly knows not to bother me unless the person is really important, and considering Jax's face has been all over the news as he's up for reelection, she must have deemed him important enough to disturb me.

  Little does she know that he's the last person on earth I want coming into my office. With our history, things are strained. And that’s putting it mildly.

  "Hello there, Leo." Jax strides right in before I can even tell Carly it’s okay to send him back.

  "Jax. Still a presumptuous asshole, I see. What the fuck are you doing here?" I say, barely looking up from my paperwork. He doesn't deserve the time of day from me.

  "Still grouchy about the past, I see.” His cocky attitude hasn’t changed, that much is clear.

  This infuriates me, and I lift my head to meet his gaze now. "I think you’re the one to blame for that, if I remember correctly."

  "Me?" he scoffs. "Excuse me, but you slept with my sister. You tricked her, stole her virginity and then ran away."

  This enrages me further. It takes superhuman effort to keep myself from jumping over the desk and grabbing him by the throat.

  I practically bark, "I did that for you, and you damn well know it. I stayed away because you wanted me to. I would never have abandoned Sienna."

  It doesn’t take much for our history to come up from the depths in which I’ve buried it. Memories flash through my head as I stare at the man my old friend has become.

  Yeah, we were friends, the best of friends, but when Sienna and I slept together ten years ago it made Jax crazy and we got into a huge argument over it. The things he said were unforgivable. It destroyed a friendship that had felt more like a brotherhood.

  Ten years, and I haven't seen either of them. Until she walked back into my life last night. Upending everything.

  When I saw that Sienna’s working as an escort, I took it upon myself to text her brother and tell him.

  It doesn't matter how many years of animosity we have between us. Someone needs to protect her from herself. If she refuses to listen to me, which obviously she is, I don’t have a choice.

  Jax needed to know.

  Though the last thing I expected was for him to show up at my office.

  "I know why you're here," I say calmly, deciding to avoid a rehashing of the conversations we've had in the past. It would be futile. "But I don't know what you think I can do about it."

  He takes a seat, though I don't offer it. Bastard.

  "I think there is something you can do, Leo. And at the very least you owe me this favor considering you were the one to steal her innocence, which probably led us to this point."

  Unbelievable. He just has to make one more dig. I get up and walk to the floor-to-ceiling windows of my office that overlook the Vegas Strip. It's nice to have money and literally be at the top, but I guess it doesn't spare you from drama.

  I almost want to laugh at the absurdity of it. Jax wants to make Sienna’s choice my fault because I took her virginity ten years ago?

  Shaking my head, I turn towards him. "What is it Jax, huh? What do you want from me?"

  Staring at my old friend, I see how distant we've become. It's weird to look on his face again, this man that I used to trust as a brother. He's come
far in life, and so have I, yet we've each done it alone. We had plans, aspirations. We were going to take on the world together. Now I can't imagine trusting him the way I once did.

  "I have a proposition that I think you'll like, considering the feelings you have for my sister." He sneers.

  It infuriates me further with the emphasis he puts on feelings, like they weren’t fucking real. There’s nothing more goddamn real than the way that I felt for Sienna and that’s why it has been torturing me all day.

  If I couldn’t focus then, him dredging up the lingering frustrations is making it all that much worse.

  How can I maintain control when Sienna is always the key to me stopping everything and thinking about nothing but her soft body?

  I slam my fists down on the desk and say, "I don't feel that way anymore. God, man, it's been ten years. But fuck you for minimizing what it was."

  He looks at me suspiciously like he doesn't believe a word I'm saying.

  I am over her. We slept together once, and then Jax swooped in like the foreboding older brother and kept me away.

  Sienna’s fucking gorgeous and that distracted me. This isn’t anything more that I’m hung up on and Jax doesn’t get to make goddamn judgements about any of it now.

  We’re not friends now and I can barely fucking stand him. He shouldn’t have come here.

  Now he's asking for my help? He can't be serious.

  "Fine, whatever you say, Leo. You loved her once.” He waves his hand dismissively. “But it's good if you're over her because my position on the two of you still stands. And what I’m about to propose doesn’t change a thing."

  "Wow," I say sarcastically. "You're really good at buttering someone up to get your favors done. Aren’t politicians supposed to be better at that shit?"

  He ignores my statement. "Now that I know Sienna's working as an escort, I need to handle it. I'm up for reelection and I can't have this news getting out about my sister."

  Of course this is about him. Why would I think he was here because of what was best for Sienna? Nothing’s changed there.

  "Yeah, so what's that got to do with me?"

  "I want you to hire her permanently as your own personal escort. Then she'll still get paid for her sham of a job, but it will also remain a secret."