by Lia Lee
What he didn’t appreciate as much were the acting lessons that Nina wanted to force on him.
“You might be confusing me with my character, but I’m not,” Emrys objected. He lifted a large mug of coffee with both hands and sipped.
“Hm.” Nina stood and leaned over.
Emrys looked up at her dubiously.
“Show me how your character reacts to this.” She moved her arms closer together and flashed him a smile. The movement lifted her breasts into full, glorious view.
Emrys raised a brow.
“Yeah, see, that’s way too cool for your dork of a character. He needs to be more flustered. He needs to be at a loss for words, a loss for breath, even. So when that scene in the diner happens, and she’s above him and leaning in like this—” Nina touched her fingertips along his jaw and came in close. “He doesn’t know what to do with himself. She has the control. He wants it but can’t get it. He wants control in general—over his life, over his failing heart, but he can’t have that, either. But if he plays his cards right…”
Nina leaned in to whisper in Emrys’s ear. “He could have what she’ll give him.”
“You’re so dramatic,” Emrys complained. He gave her a shove and laughed. “But you are entertaining,” he admitted. “I’m really glad Jennifer porked up.”
Emrys smiled and checked his phone. Messages from Caitlyn. She’d been trying to get in contact with him this week, but the filming schedule had been grueling. They didn’t have a lot of time here, if they wanted to keep the film under budget, and that meant that he and Nina needed to be on their game at every moment. It also meant that he was sometimes too wiped out. Between his schedule, Caitlyn’s training, and the time difference, they’d fallen asleep on one another in the middle of a call twice now.
He trusted that his mother and sisters would keep Caitlyn occupied until he could get back, but it was vital to keep connected. This wouldn’t be the only time he was on location filming. Maybe he could convince his mother to release Caitlyn from manners school early, since he’d willingly given Caitlyn over to her. Caitlyn liked visiting new places so much that she would probably forgive his poor attentions over the last few weeks just for the chance to hit another place on her bucket list.
“Hello, darling,” Emrys greeted her. “Are you feeling well enough to come up to see the set?”
***
When caught between the prospect of fessing up to Emrys and spending another day in “Sébire Finishing School,” Caitlyn decided the former was marginally preferable.
The flight was incredibly long, but the private bedroom in the jet was comfortable. The jet took off midday so that Caitlyn could sleep through the tail end of the trip and arrive refreshed. From the jet, a private car took her to the hotel room where Emrys was staying, and all the way her heart thudded in her ears as she tried to think of what to tell him.
When she arrived at the hotel, however, the concierge informed her that Emrys had already gone to the set and left word that Caitlyn was welcome to join him. Although the driver would have taken her, she didn’t want to have this conversation with his coworkers watching. So instead, she settled her things into the room and decided that she could kill some time around the city. She’d never been to Seattle before.
After slipping on a pair of checkered leggings and a loose scarlet and violet striped sweater, Caitlyn returned to the car and had the driver take her downtown. There she got a large cup of tea and walked the streets for a while, taking in the ambiance of the city. Despite the cold, she liked the energy of the people bustling and biking by. She bought a bag of strawberry-glazed sweet rolls and munched on them as she wandered through a park and people watched.
It wasn’t a bad way to pass the morning, but eventually it began to drizzle. Caitlyn ducked into a shop for an umbrella. She pushed her damp hair out of her eyes as she looked. It was late enough now that she might be able to get Emrys to come out with her for lunch off-set, if they were on schedule. She shot off a quick text and then spotted the umbrellas. Unsurprisingly, the store stocked quite a lot of them, and the other customers who had walked in slightly wet seemed used to the rain. It was coming down harder now, and Caitlyn was glad she hadn’t tried to push through it. She could have her driver come pick her up, if the weather got too bad.
When she stepped into the line, she alternated between looking at the candy—tempting, if she hadn’t just eaten three strawberry rolls—and her phone. There were two people in front of her when her eyes lit on the magazines above the gum.
Blazoned across the cover was Emrys and a gorgeous woman with curly black hair and plump, pouty lips, which were nearly touching his as she leaned over him. “Things Heat Up for the Playboy Prince!” the headline declared.
Caitlyn covered her mouth, feeling as though she might throw up strawberry pastries all over the floor. Had she seen this woman before? She looked familiar, but Caitlyn wasn’t sure. She moved through the line mutely, picking up the magazine to buy with her umbrella. Once outside, she unfolded the umbrella and tucked the offending publication into her bag before storming down the sidewalk.
Not knowing the area, navigating in the rain with tears clouding her vision, Caitlyn was soon lost. She stopped at a proper café to get a cup of coffee and order some lunch. She had to think about this. The papers exaggerated, sure, and they got details wrong. But there was usually something connecting them to reality. Something there to spin. And that picture…it showed Emrys about to kiss that woman. And he was looking at her like she was a prime steak.
On her phone, Caitlyn searched the woman’s name—Nina Jones—only to find that the tabloids had caught them together once before. Having sex in the alley behind a popular European club. That was where she’d seen Nina’s picture before. She’d been mentioned in one of the articles a month ago that had rehashed Emrys’s “misspent youth.” And she was only more beautiful now.
Appetite lost, Caitlyn pushed her chicken Caesar salad aside. It was one thing to be caught by the tabloids in a compromising position. He might have been about to kiss her. He might not. But how could he go into this movie, knowing for months that he would be acting opposite his ex, and not warn Caitlyn about it? Deliberately not telling her that he planned to be in close quarters with this woman suggested that Emrys had thought something might happen between them, or that he had something to feel guilty about. If he were lying to her about this, he could be lying about other things. And she would fall for it, always. Every lie, every explanation or excuse, she would fall, because she had fallen for him so hard and never loved another man the way she had loved him.
It didn’t matter now whether she could fit herself into his world. She couldn’t be with him if she couldn’t trust him. He’d broken her heart years ago, with no warning or explanation, and despite his promises to regain her trust, he’d just done it again.
Wiping her eyes and trying to catch her breath, Caitlyn called for the driver.
***
Emrys arrived at his hotel room a bit irritated. He’d expected to see Caitlyn this morning but had been disappointed. She’d texted him for lunch plans, but when he’d texted her back, she had never responded. After they had lost the light for the day, the director decided to call it quits; these scenes needed a particular time of day, and they weren’t ready yet for another set of inside scenes.
Thus, Emrys entered the elevator still dressed in the tattered jeans and band T-shirt his character preferred. His shoulders were tight with annoyance and stress, but his heart was hopeful for the moment he would see Caitlyn again. It was a testament to how deeply imbedded she was in his heart that he couldn’t be away from her for a few weeks without feeling as though a part of him had gone missing.
But when he opened the door to his suite, there was no Caitlyn. No suitcase. Nothing to show that she had ever been here, aside from a stray tube of lip gloss on the dresser and something lying on the bed. Emrys drew nearer to investigate, but then drew back again when he saw himself
there on the cover of a tabloid with Nina. It had been the moment earlier that week when they had been talking about their characters. Had Caitlyn seen this? Was this why she had come and gone?
Underneath the magazine lay a letter stuffed into an unsealed envelope. Emrys opened it and read.
Emrys,
I have loved you since I was 19 years old. I have loved you with all my heart and to the best of my ability. Now that you’ve seen the magazine, you know that I know. I know that you’ve been with this woman, and I know that you’ve been working with her without telling me. I also happen to know that you sent me back to be “trained” by your mother and sister, deliberately and without telling me. I don’t know what you think would have happened if you had just let me in on the plan, since I obviously could have played the part you wanted me to better if you had simply told me. But like our engagement, you saw fit to keep me in the dark, trapping me into either following along or hurting you. Which I would never do, if I could help it.
I love you, but you are a liar. You manipulate me instead of letting me in, and whatever happened between you and that woman, things have come up that make it completely unacceptable for me to keep letting you do this to me. I might be able to play along in this love game of yours, for which the prize is a truly obscene amount of money, and maybe also the satisfaction of defying your father. If it were just me, maybe I would continue to let you hijack my life and trick me into your schemes, but it isn’t, and I can’t let this keep happening.
I hope you have a long and scandal-filled career. Fame and success suit you. I’m taking my life in a different direction.
Love,
Cait
Chapter Twelve
The letter fell from Emrys’s hands, and he cast a glance around the room, trying to think of some way to find Caitlyn before she disappeared. Where would she even go? Home, maybe? New York?
Emrys called the driver and quickly ascertained that she had gone to the airport, so he had the man bring the car around to take him. He had to find her.
Despite his orders to drive ever faster, it still took nearly thirty minutes to arrive at the airport. Not knowing where she intended to go, Emrys could only search the departing flights and wonder which she might be taking. Some had left since the time the driver had said he’d dropped her off. Emrys had yelled at him for not alerting him, but he had left no instructions for the man to alert Emrys for any reason, so Emrys could only blame himself.
Which airline would she have taken? How could he get to her?
Obviously, he was going to have to buy a ticket. After politely flashing a picture of Caitlyn on his phone to any person in a uniform who would look, the girl at the Starbucks counter told him that she had sold Caitlyn some peppermint tea, a sandwich, and a couple of cookies. While of course she didn’t know where Caitlyn was going, she pointed him to the right airline.
It cost him a few hundred to bribe his way through the ticketing line. One older woman asked him what his hurry was, and he told her that he was about to lose his fiancée, so she gave him his twenty back and shooed him on his way.
Finally, after a security line that he couldn’t bribe his way through—this was why he took the jet everywhere—Emrys went about searching every gate being used by Caitlyn’s airline. Every damn one. Seven gates later, and he spotted her hair. Caitlyn had woven it into a spunky pair of short braids on either side of her head. It was long enough for that now, since Emrys had insisted during her time at the palace that she not cut it.
He hesitated to approach her now. After everything he’d done to get here, he could still lose it all. He couldn’t force her to forgive him or to understand why he did things so backwardly and underhandedly. Could he make himself be the open, honest lover that she needed? He hoped so, but after his past failures, he couldn’t expect her to just trust that he would. And now there was no way for him to get her to come to him.
Emrys raked a hand through his hair, realizing that it still had the stiff hairspray and temporary dye that made it look grayer for his character. He could’ve cleaned up on the set but had been in a rush to get back to the hotel. He was at a disadvantage here. He could approach her now or track her down later and find a more opportune moment to win back her affections.
Caitlyn would be right to leave him, if he did that. He would be manipulating her, and she would only leave again the next time she noticed. Emrys brushed his hands over his scruffy outfit and went over to her.
When Caitlyn spotted him, her eyes widened, her brow furrowed, and then her eyes began to well up with tears. Just as she began to rise to get away from him, he dropped to his knees in front of her.
“Emrys, stop it,” she hissed.
“I have to explain. Please let me explain.”
“What is wrong with your hair? Is that co—”
“I haven’t changed from the set.” Emrys gestured to his hair, his clothes. “I rushed to get to you only to find you gone. The fault is mine, Cait, but please…”
Caitlyn flushed and looked away. She curled a hand around her waist. “If you talk, I’m just going to forgive you. That’s not right. It’s not okay, what you’ve been doing. Why don’t you just tell me what you want from me!”
They had the attention of everyone within earshot now. For once, Emrys had an audience he didn’t want at all.
“I want you to be with me,” Emrys said. “I want you to marry me, but you said no before.” He held up a hand when she started to protest. “I know you said that because you thought I didn’t mean it. I know you think that I cheated on you, but I didn’t. Nina’s an actress. She was talking to me about our characters, that’s all. And no, I didn’t tell you about her when I got the part, but that was only because she hadn’t even been cast then! I found out about her when I got to the set.”
“I want to believe you,” Caitlyn said in a shaky voice. “But you’ve lied to me so much. Why didn’t you tell me once you knew?”
“I suppose I don’t really think of Nina that way. But it was more that I was preoccupied with my work by that time. I truly regret that you had to see that picture, and even more that it caused you so much stress.” Emrys sat back on his heels. Caitlyn twisted her fingers in her lap and straightened her back, and it became apparent that she’d put on a little bit of weight since he’d seen her last. That was fine. He had preferred her with a few more curves, anyway. “As for the issue with my mother, I wanted to ease your transition into our family. They can be so picky about small details. The sooner Mother accepts you, the sooner Father will give in and finally grant us permission to marry.”
Emrys took one of her fidgeting hands. “And I want that, Caitlyn. It’s not just about the trust fund. The trust is an irritation, a reminder of the power my father holds over me, but I don’t need it! If I have my career and I have you, I don’t need it at all.”
Caitlyn covered her lips and valiantly fought to hold back her tears.
“As soon as you are ready, Cait, I want you to be my wife. I understand that you might want more time, but I’ve never stopped loving you, either. Though…I haven’t loved you to the best of my ability. I will do better—I swear it. If you’ll let me.”
“I-I, um…” Caitlyn stammered.
She let out a soft sob and tears trickled down her cheeks. Emrys reached up to wipe them away. Suddenly, she grabbed his face in both hands and kissed him fiercely. Applause from the other waiting passengers surrounded them.
“I hate it. I love you so much. I just…” She huffed and shook her head. “I haven’t been honest with you, either. I needed to find the right time, and there never was one!” Her hand took his and squeezed it. “I-I’m pregnant, Emrys.”
Ermys raised both brows high. He couldn’t breathe.
“I’m pregnant,” she repeated, moving his hand to a small bump at her middle, which was hidden by the large sweater she was wearing. “At first, I didn’t know what to think, and then you were out of the country, and I—”
Emrys
shot up and kissed her. He took her in his arms and swung her around. His heart was beating so fast and so hard that he thought it might explode, and he never wanted to let her go.
Caitlyn felt a huge weight lifted from her in Emrys’s arms. He wanted the baby, clearly. He wanted her. Even after he set her down, they couldn’t stop kissing each other for some time, until finally, Emrys grabbed her hand and then her bag, and took off.
Within a few minutes, they’d changed their tickets. They were off to Vegas.
Caitlyn managed to clean him up a bit before they found their chapel, and he’d bought her a gauzy off-white dress. She had never imagined when she’d set out the day before that she would be married within 48 hours. And there wasn’t a damn thing Emrys’s meddling parents could do about it.
Emrys carried her into their penthouse suite and placed her on the bed before turning to tip their bellboy. She could barely keep up with everything that had happened. She was deliriously happy, completely uncertain, and at the same time, utterly determined that no matter what, they would make this work.
“There’s my wife,” Emrys declared as he locked the door behind him and looked over her with a smile.
“Mrs. Playboy Prince.”
“Playboy Prince Impregnates Princess and Pisses-off Patriarch,” Emrys said merrily. He kicked off his shoes and strolled over to the bed to take her hand. “We’ve got them now, babe. Not just with that ceremony just now. Mother will absolutely insist that we be officially married in Cabeau.”
“Will it be in that church you showed me?” Caitlyn laid back on her elbows and looked at the slight bulge betrayed by the thin fabric of her dress. “That’s probably where our kid got his or her start.”
Emrys laughed. “I’ll insist on it. A royal wedding. A royal ball.”
“Don’t make me dance,” Caitlyn pleaded.
“You’ll be far too pregnant for that sort of thing. The princess is ‘in a delicate way,’” he said, providing her with her excuse. He leaned over and kissed her belly. “You only dance for me.”