The Reluctant Prince

by Candice Gilmer

  “Fine,” I said, admiring the stuffing job on the bra. “The bra is good now.” The boobs popped up in the bra, creating a touch more cleavage. Not super fake cleavage, but natural, look-I-have-boobs cleavage.

  “Good. Now the shoes.”

  I grabbed the black flip-flops and tossed them in the sink, using the hotel body wash to quickly wash off any excess dirt, and dried them on a towel. All the while, I thought to myself that I’m actually washing my flip-flops. I felt like a total nerd. “Shoes done.”

  “Great. You’re not wearing any glitter powder, are you?”

  “No. Marilyn eyes and lip gloss.”

  “Perfect. How’s the hair? Why am I asking you, you always have good hair. How’s the blue staying in?”

  “Decent. Faded a bit, but not horribly.” I looked at my watch. “Hey, Bella, I have to get going, I’m supposed to meet him downstairs in like five minutes.”

  “’Kay. Call me tomorrow. I want all the smutty details.”

  I shut off the phone, and it started to ring again. “What? Did you think of something else for me to wear? Pierce my clit or something?”

  “Uh, not that that wouldn’t be interesting, but not on my mind,” Hadrian said.

  “Oh my God,” I said through a burst of laughter. “Well, I guess that’s payback for the hooker thing.”

  “Yeah, I think so.” Hadrian laughed. “Was someone consulting you on your appearance tonight?”

  “My girlfriend Bella called. The one who actually watches your show? She wants a picture. She has some thing about getting a picture with an autograph, to authenticate or some such thing.” I grabbed my purse and my room key. “I sure hope you aren’t canceling on me.”

  “No I am downstairs, and you’re late.”

  “No I’m not, I have…” Six thirty-five. “Crap, I am late. I’m leaving my room right now.”

  And five minutes later, as I entered the main lobby, I saw Hadrian was talking and posing for a picture with another young fan, while a second took the picture. As soon as he saw me, though, he waved and stepped away from the girls.

  “Any longer and I probably would have been mauled.” Hadrian put his arm around me. Shivers ran up my back stemming from where his fingers grazed my side, up my spine and creating a heady feeling in my brain.

  But what gave me pause was not the sensations themselves, but I was reveling in them so much that I was cataloging them.

  Geeze, I seriously needed to get laid.

  “Bad, huh?” The fans were walking away, staring at me like I was a bug to be squashed. Or maybe they were staring at him and scheming. Maybe at both of us and scheming.

  To deal with that every single day, man, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

  “Groping, I think one of them was going to try to cop a feel. The one—” he gestured to the one holding the camera, “—kept grabbing my ass while her friend snapped the picture.”

  I burst out laughing. “But it’s such a good ass.” I had to take the chance to observe his well-shaped rear in the nice Eddie Bauer jeans. I licked my lips.

  Who wouldn’t want a handful once?

  He paused, tipping his head to the side. “What are you thinking about?”

  I grinned. “I don’t blame them for wanting a handful of that ass.”

  He burst out laughing. “I guess I asked for that.”

  “You did.”

  He grabbed the outer door, holding it open for me. “You, my dear, can grab it all you want.”

  “Promises, promises.”

  As the door shut behind him, he stepped close behind me, his hand on my shoulder. “Baby, it’s a guarantee.” His sultry voice sent shivers down my spine.

  I tried to keep my voice neutral. “Feeling a bit horny tonight?” I thanked God my voice didn’t shake when I spoke, because inside, deep inside, his sultry voice started a burning desire deep inside me I couldn’t begin to quench. Not without him, anyway.

  His eyes ran over me as the valet brought a large black SUV around. My heart stammered in my chest. He didn’t have to answer, the primal look in his eyes said enough.

  I let out a laugh, trying to diffuse the electricity running through me like I was plugged into a freaking power line. His look was working my libido into a frenzy it hadn’t felt in years.

  The valet came up to him and handed him a set of keys.

  “This is yours?” I blinked at the SUV. Had I not gotten an outline of Hadrian’s boy parts this morning, I would have wondered if he was compensating for something.

  “You like?” Hadrian asked. The valet opened the door for me, and I felt weird, like I was some kind of royalty or something.

  “It’s a Yukon, right?” I asked, climbing inside.

  “A Yukon XL Denali,” Hadrian said as he entered the vehicle on the other side.

  “Oh, look, OnStar.” I spied that oh-so-famous blue button.

  “I made my hotel reservation while I was driving out here.” He fastened his seatbelt as he spoke.

  “Okay, that’s way too lazy.” I adjusted the seat belt strap so it didn’t chafe against my shoulder.

  “Nah.” He pulled the SUV out of the parking area and into the traffic. My heart hammered at this—I was going on a date.

  Butterflies flew around in my tummy.

  This was pretty darn cool.

  I couldn’t help but notice Hadrian’s incredible legs. They strained against the denim of his jeans, and the hard muscle lines made little parts of my body squeal in delight. He wore an Eddie Bauer long sleeve shirt, the dark evergreen color setting off his dark hair, amber eyes and sand colored skin perfectly.

  “I see you’re an Eddie Bauer fan,” I said as he weaved through traffic.

  “I like their stuff to Alicia’s great dismay.”

  “Why would she care?”

  “Well, I’m a celebrity now, and I need to look the part.”

  “Oh, so you need to wear hundred dollar shirts instead of thirty dollar ones?”

  “She seems to think.” He let out a sigh. “She keeps telling me to hire a stylist to ‘get my look worked out.’”

  “Well, Hell, I’m a stylist, and I’ll work for you long enough to tell you your style’s working for you.” Working overtime. I fanned myself a bit in the car.

  Hadrian grinned as we pulled off the strip through some side streets.

  I gawked at the old dilapidated mobile homes filling the side streets a block from the strip.

  “Where are we going? And why are all these trailers out here? I swear it looks like home.”

  Hadrian laughed. “Well, you said you liked sci-fi right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How well do you like Star Trek?”

  “Decently. Liked old stuff. TNG was great, DS-9 decent, but Voyager was my favorite.”

  “Let me guess, because there was a female captain?”

  “Of course.”

  “Figures. You’re such a girl.”

  “You like it,” I said, patting his leg. I jerked my hand away as soon I did it, realizing even though he’d put his arm around me, even gave me kisses, I hadn’t really reached out for him.

  Well, except last night, but that doesn’t really count, because I was suffering from jet lag and exhaustion. I can use that excuse, right?

  Not that I didn’t want to jump his bones. God knows I did. It was just…well… Even though I hadn’t had a guy in over a year, the thought of it was so weird.

  So reckless and wild and spontaneous—something I hadn’t been in a very long time. The most wild and reckless I got was getting my nipples and belly button pierced right after I left the ex.

  I clenched my hands and found myself caressing the spot where my wedding ring used to sit.

  I still wasn’t used to it not being there.

  “So what did your ex-husband do that was so horrid?”

  “A lot of things.”

  “Such as?”

  Even though Hadrian didn’t take his eyes off the road, he
reached over, grabbing my left hand and gently squeezing it. As if the squeeze had magical powers, I started talking about my ex.

  “He was a bit obsessive.”

  “What do you mean a bit?”

  “He was attentive at first, and I thought it was sweet. Caller ID was still relatively new to me. I’d never bothered with it when I was single, until I started dating him. There was some great deal to get it with my phone service. Anyway, when I’d come home, I’d see that he’d called ten, fifteen, twenty times in a day. I thought it was hilarious at the time.”

  “Twenty times in a day?”

  “And there was the answering machine.”

  He raised an eyebrow, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye as he drove, prodding me on.

  “He bought me a simple answering machine. At first, he wouldn’t even admit it was for me, took me with him to Best Buy, and asked me what one I’d want. I picked the cheapest. He bought one. When we got back to my house, he hooked it up to my phone so he could leave me messages.”

  “That’s nice,” he said.

  “Not when he took the access code so he could check the messages when I wasn’t home.”

  “Wow.”

  “I didn’t realize he did stuff like that until after I married him. Occasionally my girlfriend would call, leave a message and I wouldn’t get it. I wrote it off to a cheap machine. Turned out he’d check my messages and delete the ones he didn’t want me to get.”

  “How did you figure it out?”

  “I had come home early from work, migraine or something. Anyway, the phone rang, but I ignored it. Then I heard him checking it. I heard all the messages, including one from my girlfriend, and heard him delete it.”

  “Wow. What did you do?”

  “Oh, you know,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “I couldn’t believe it at first. So I did some test stuff. Had certain people call my house and leave messages at different times in the day. Some of the messages I got. Others I didn’t.”

  “Is that when you left?”

  I laughed out loud. “This was the tip of the iceberg with him. Let’s just say these were the warning signs I should have saw from the beginning.” I glanced out the window.

  “Was he unfaithful?”

  “Very,” I replied.

  “How long did you put up with this stuff?”

  “Too long.”

  “But now he’s gone.”

  “For good. Forever.” I didn’t mention Jim tended to always know where I was going—so much I had gotten to the point of not even going out with my friends.

  I hadn’t been out to sing karaoke in months. Last spring had been the last time, as a matter of fact.

  Bella had been begging me to join her for quite a while—especially since I was now single.

  I could never justify it though. Money I couldn’t afford spending.

  Pretty sad.

  I didn’t realize Hadrian had pulled into the valet parking until the car stopped and the valet opened my door, scaring the crap out of me. Realizing the verbal diarrhea I’d had, I wanted to go bury my face in the nearest blanket.

  “Geeze,” I muttered. “I must sound pathetic.”

  Hadrian didn’t say anything as he got out of the SUV and escorted me into the building. He tucked my arm into his, our fingers tangling. He looked deep into my eyes, brushing a stray hair out of my eyes. I forced a smile on my face, and his finger trailed down my cheek, falling off my chin. In a weird way, I knew this was a sign of everything being okay.

  Well, yeah, that, and the electricity running through me was practically tangible, and I wanted to glance around for sparks, but I couldn’t seem to move.

  “I’m glad you left,” he said, placing a soft kiss on my forehead.

  We walked inside, and I realized we were at the Hilton. I figured we were going to some fancy-smancy restaurant somewhere, at least until I turned to the left, him guiding me down a large hallway.

  “Oh my God,” I said, coming to a dead stop. I started grinning like a lottery winner and stared at our destination.

  “Well, you had a Star Trek book in your bag.”

  I smacked him on the arm. “You could have warned me.” I grinned like an idiot.

  We stood outside the Star Trek Experience in the Las Vegas Hilton.

  “Well, come on,” Hadrian said, tugging at my arm.

  When we entered the doorway, I couldn’t help my jaw hanging open. It was a replica of Quark’s bar on Deep Space Nine. The bar was lit up with dozens of bottles, some of which I recognized as typical bar paraphernalia, Jack Daniels, Southern Comfort, Quervo Gold and Bacardi, but others were blue, green and red bottles that glowed like the alien drinks that were supposed to be in them.

  Near the doorway stood a stack as high as me of six packs of Romulan Ale. The bluish liquid looked rather nasty in the shaded lighting.

  To my right was a ramp leading up to some kind of museum of Star Trek paraphernalia. Further inside, to the left, were three gift shops, and from the windows, the closest one was the expensive shop, then the moderately expensive shop, and the furthest away was the cheap shop.

  I knew I’d be shopping in the cheap shop.

  Though I’d have to gawk at the cool stuff in the expensive shop.

  Hadrian led me into each shop individually, and I couldn’t get over all the crap I could buy. There were pewter chessboards with the Federation versus the Klingons, a massive collection of replicas of Klingon bat-leths, and other weapons. When we entered the cheapest shop, I giggled at the little baby onesies with the Star Trek logo on them, and picked up a small fuzzy ball.

  “So, you like the tribbles?”

  “They’re cute.”

  “Do you want one?” Hadrian asked taking the one from my hand.

  “I can get it.”

  “Let me.”

  “Really, I can get it. You haven’t let me buy anything since we met.”

  “Like a gentleman should.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Babe, this is the new millennium.” I plucked the tribble out of his hand and picked up a couple of shot glasses. I paused at one of the onesies, thinking I wished I knew someone having a baby.

  But, I rationalized, someone would eventually, right? I snagged a black one and took it with my other stuff up to the counter.

  “So when you shop, you really shop?”

  I laughed as I laid my purchases on the counter. A guy dressed as a Vulcan in a blue Federation uniform stood behind the counter, and figured up my purchases. From deep in my purse’s rat hole, I pulled out one of the hundred-dollar bills I had saved up for the trip.

  Hadrian looked at the guy behind the counter. “Women scare me,” he said, shaking his head.

  “They can be illogical,” the Vulcan-dressed clerk said.

  We laughed as we left.

  “Shall we get something to eat?”

  “Absolutely.”

  A human waiter took us to a table. There was only one other couple there on this Monday night, but several Star Trek aliens roamed around, including a Romulan, a Klingon and a Ferengi. The costumes were elaborate, more authentic than anything I’d ever seen up close, and I gawked at them.

  The Klingon was the closest, and I swear the guy had to be close to seven foot tall. He was massive. I took an involuntary step backwards, picking my jaw off the floor. They were intimidating on TV. In person? They were massive.

  “Do you like?” Hadrian wasn’t as awestruck by the place as I was. He held out my chair so I could sit. And I surprised myself and was actually able to negotiate him scooting my chair in for me.

  “This is awesome,” I said, smiling as a different Star Trek alien walked by. “Was that a Cardassian?” I ran my hands over the menu lying on the table.

  “Think so.” He followed my gaze and smiled. “Know what you want?”

  I scanned down the menu, and decided, after seeing the prices I would stick with a good old burger. Can’t go wrong with that. “I’m considering,” I told him.
The burger sounded good, but the B’jorian Summer Feast, a chicken dinner, sounded good too.

  Still, a burger seemed safest.

  The waiter brought our drinks, him a coke and me an iced tea, and then set down two glasses of Romulan Ale. The waiter asked if we were ready to order, and Hadrian glanced at me. I nodded, and he rattled off his order. I tried not to smirk when he ordered the B’jorian Summer Feast, confirming I was going to get the Kirk Burger.

  He took a sip of his Romulan Ale, smiling at me, but then he grimaced.

  “What?”

  “Sweet.”

  I smirked. “Oh.” I couldn’t help gazing at everything. “You been here before?”

  “Once. It’s fun. The food’s not bad, but it’s not about the food,” he said with a grin.

  “True.”

  He stood. “I’ll be right back. Bathroom break.”

  I smiled again as he walked away, giving me a great view of his backside. I wished I had worn something more elaborate than my sweater and jeans. This place called for costumes.

  Bring. Bring. Bring.

  Hadrian’s cell phone was ringing. I hesitated answering it, for one, because I wasn’t sure exactly how to answer a Blackberry, and two, I didn’t want to say the wrong thing to the wrong person.

  Glancing at the screen, it said “Mom” so I looked around to see if he was close enough to come back, but he’d disappeared.

  “Answer it!” the huge male Klingon screamed at me. “Answer your mate’s communicator, or I shall!” he snarled in my face.

  I stared at the costumed guy, his wild wavy black hair falling around his head, making him look much larger than he was. God, he was massive. I almost screamed as he leaned down into my face.

  The heavy Klingon armor he wore was enough to scare the crap out of me. He loomed so close to my face as the phone rang again, I grabbed the edge of the table, afraid I’d fall over.

  “Answer!” he bellowed again, slamming his hand on the table. Everything on the table jumped, even the plates.

  My heart hammered in my chest as I fumbled for the phone. “Hadrian’s phone,” I said, trying not to let my voice waiver in the phone.

  The Klingon stood and walked away, a swagger in his step like he was pleased with himself. He probably was.

  Jerk.