Perry and Her Princes (Kingdom of Veronia Book 1)

by Serena Akeroyd

  He scowled. “It’s a lawn.”

  “Do you have any idea how much water is wasted on unnecessary ornamental gardens?” She shook her head. “Before his renovations, the palace yards were used for vegetables or fruits. Where the rose garden is now, it used to be a herb section.” She pointed her spoon at him. “That was functional. Useful. The produce you grew was used in the kitchens. And don’t let me get started on the kitchens.”

  “Why not? If you have something to say, say it,” he retorted stiffly.

  “Do you realize that whatever I want, I can have?”

  He blinked. “Excuse me?”

  “If I fancied sticky ribs Korean-style or a goddamn Jell-O salad, your kitchens would find a way to get it for me?”

  “They serve the most powerful people in the land!”

  “Am I one of those people?” she retorted. “I’m just staff. I have no idea why I’m even in your private quarters, and hypocritical though it might be, I’m really glad I am. But… that’s a level of production that’s entirely wasteful and unnecessary.”

  “Are you trying to tell me that economizing in the palace will pay for this new dam you say we need?”

  His exasperation had her glowering at him. “I’m saying, it’s an attitude shift. Everyone needs a lawn now, when before, they didn’t.

  “Look, not everyone in your pretty country is rich, you know? There are a lot of people who still live hand to mouth. Just because you’re a tax haven for the bone idle, doesn’t mean you don’t have to implement changes that will affect life from the top to the bottom. If anything, to prove to the bottom they can convert their useless yard back into something functional should start from the top.”

  He reared back. “You can’t be serious?”

  “Why not? Why have something pretty but useless, something that drains a resource you’re struggling to conserve, when you could make the land work for you? Makes sense to me. But then, I’m not constrained by decades of antiquated rule.”

  “Did you just say what I think you said?”

  She smirked. “Yup. George didn’t tell you I have a mouth on me, did he?”

  Edward’s nostrils flared. “No, he didn’t.”

  She jabbed her spoon in the air. “I’m not a yes man. Never have been, and never will be. I’ve spoken to key staff at that dam, and all of them tell me about how they’re having to patch it up more and more, and that twice, they’d had issues with conserving the little water they contain. One of the walls started to crumble last year!

  “I’ve spoken to your Environmental Agency which is absolutely useless, by the way. They barely realize that solar power is even a thing.” She rolled her eyes. “I mean, who did you hire? A friend of a friend of a Duke? I mean, Jesus.”

  Edward scowled at her, then, he stopped squinting and asked, “Can I sit down?”

  She shrugged. “If you want.”

  He surprised her by sitting on the sofa opposite the unlit hearth, and not in front of her desk. The move put his back to her which meant she had to shift over to the sofa too.

  With a huff, she did, but she didn’t sit beside him on the couch; instead, she went to the armchair and perched on there. Curling her feet under her, she carried on eating, watching him watch her.

  The weird thing was, she wasn’t intimidated by him.

  Perry had figured she would be, especially after George had messed with her head where the brothers were concerned.

  But, he was just a man. Philippe was too. Maybe she was too American to understand the concept of royalty. Either that, or she was just too difficult.

  As far as she was concerned, they both used the bathroom like she did—just because theirs had fancy gilt flushers didn’t mean their clichéd shit didn’t stink.

  Sure, it made them richer. And yeah, they had more power. But better? Nuh-huh.

  “What did George tell you about me?” That probably wasn’t the wisest thing to ask, but she was curious.

  He’d been surprised by her comments, by her outspokenness. Considering that was half her personality, George couldn’t have told Edward that much.

  “He told me enough.”

  She heaved out a sigh. “Well, that’s informative.”

  He shrugged. “It wasn’t as though he told me a great deal about you, but about your interactions with him, yes. I learned a lot about you that way.”

  “So why were you surprised that I have a voice?”

  “I’m not.”

  “Liar.”

  His mouth firmed at her retort. “I’m not lying. I wasn’t surprised at that. I just thought you’d be uneasy around me… too uneasy to be so outspoken.”

  “I am uneasy around you.” She wriggled her shoulders. “If anything, that makes me more vocal. Defense mechanism,” she admitted.

  He perched his elbow on the armrest then propped his head up on his fist. “George just had to force the issue, didn’t he?”

  Perry’s lips twitched. “George does that.”

  Edward frowned. “Excuse me?”

  “He’s like a bull in a china shop. I don’t know how he gets anything done.” When Edward’s eyes widened in surprise, she smirked. “You can’t tell me I’m the only one who realizes what he’s like?”

  “It’s been a long time since he’s been home.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” she demanded. “This can’t be a new trait.”

  “Maybe America changed him,” came his cold retort.

  “What? Gave him a personality transplant?” Perry grunted. “He’s delicate when it comes to work, but in everything else, he’s way too ebullient.”

  Edward pinned her with a stare. “You’re attracted to him.”

  “Very.” Her confession came without artifice.

  He scowled at her. “Then why do you want me?”

  “I don’t know that I do,” she told him with a huff, that had his scowl deepening. Feeling mean, she grumbled, “Okay, well, that’s a lie.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean,” she said slowly, “I didn’t want you because I didn’t know about you. And now George has opened up this world of endless possibilities and he’s messed with my head.” She used the handle of the spoon to scratch her temple. “You haven’t made it any easier by telling me you want me too. Oh, and then backing off. Shit, you might as well have gone on a state visit to Switzerland, Mr. Neutral.”

  Her retort had him blinking. “You need to watch your mouth.”

  Her shoulders stiffened at that. “Excuse me?”

  He wafted a hand. “If you’re going to be my girlfriend, you can’t be as blunt as you’re being now.”

  “Who said I wanted to be your girlfriend?”

  A laugh escaped him, and it wasn’t a particularly nice one. “The minute there’s even a whiff of my interest in you, it will be all over the papers. Not necessary in Veronia, but around the rest of the world? Definitely. You’ll be pulled apart and dissected until all your secrets are revealed to the hungry maws of the public. They’ll want to know your shoe size, your favorite designer, and how you intend to win world peace—”

  He broke off, nostrils flaring, and Perry could tell his own words pissed him off.

  In fact, it was like showing a red rag to a bull. Cliché, she knew, but the truth regardless.

  He was pissed off. Genuinely. On her behalf. The notion had her taking her spoon and digging deep into the ice cream. When she pulled it out, loaded with gloopy goodness, she offered it to him. “Do you want some?”

  He blinked, smirked. “Peace offering?”

  “I don’t know. But it’s good. Shame not to eat it all.”

  A sigh escaped him as he leaned forward to take the spoon from her. He slipped it between his lips, humming a little at the taste, then pulled it out and handed it back to her.

  To pass him the spoon, she’d leaned forward so she could reach him. She’d stayed in that position, not because she was stuck, but because the sight of him licking th
e spoon, of his strong throat working as he swallowed had glued her in place.

  Sweet Lord, what had the DeSauvier family done to earn not only a kingdom but the kind of genes that could get a girl hot when one of them was eating ice cream of all things.

  “Perry?”

  Hearing her name repeated at least three times had her jolting in place. She cleared her throat, accepted the spoon. “Want some more?”

  He shook his head, but his smile was kind. “Thanks, but vanilla’s not my flavor.”

  She chuckled at that. “I’d never have guessed. Ya know, what with the fact you like sharing your girlfriends with George?”

  His lips quirked into the first genuine grin she’d seen from him.

  Sure, she’d seen him smile. She’d even heard him laugh, and his chuckle was so nice, even thinking about it made her warm.

  But this grin?

  It was genuine.

  It hit his eyes, made them sparkle. The lines at the side of them crinkled in response, and his grin revealed sparkling white teeth that spoke of a great dentist.

  He shook his head as he finished laughing, and then murmured, “You definitely need to watch your mouth.”

  “George wouldn’t like me if I did that. He says I’m the only woman he knows who isn’t a bottom feeder.”

  “That sounds like something George would say.”

  “He gets a lot of pussy that way, so I’m not sure why he complains.”

  Edward sighed. “Are you doing it on purpose?”

  Her eyes were twinkling as she looked at him. “Doing what?”

  Her innocent tone didn’t fool him. “I didn’t come here to talk about personal matters,” he confessed.

  “No, you came here to question my professional opinion.” She pursed her lips, pointed her spoon at him, then jabbed the air. Twice. “You can question many things about me, but never that. Conservation and preservation is a subject close to my heart. I’d never suggest anything because it was politic to do so. The earth deserves more than that.

  “We’ve already spent generations wrecking it with our crazy advancements that rape our resources and damage our wildlife.” She shuddered, the subject matter hitting her square in the gut.

  “I’m sorry,” he told her softly, apparently seeing her passion and realizing it was genuine.

  She shrugged, but unease still slipped through her. “Everything in there is my opinion. You can have it backed up by someone in my field, and they’ll tell you the exact same thing. I haven’t come up with those figures out of a hat. They’re all from reports separate agencies in your government made. I’m using statistics that are home grown.

  “You need a new dam. Hell, you need several. But that’s the good news. Your drought isn’t as severe as you feared. You’re not going to be waterless unless you don’t heed my advice.”

  He pulled a face. “You just want me to find, what is it? Ten billion euros?”

  She grinned. “Yeah. Small fry for you, huh?”

  “Sort of. We have the funding but it’s getting the government to back your findings and act on them.” He lifted the file and used the edge to scratch his chin. He fell into a contemplative silence, then, as he watched her, asked, “Would you have dinner with me again?” When she froze, he sighed. “Perry?”

  Biting her lip, ice cream now forgotten, she stared over at him, and at that moment, felt so acutely vulnerable, Perry wasn’t sure what to do with herself.

  Truth was, this man was attractive to her. He was. There were no two ways about it.

  He was gorgeous, he was studious. He was mature, and he cared…and yeah, he was a Crown Prince, too. And she guessed that for many women, that would have been the icing on the cake. Or, maybe the cake itself, she wasn’t sure.

  For her, it wasn’t. He’d said it himself; she’d be under scrutiny if she was with him. But, to be fair, she would be if she was dating George too. Maybe Xavier as well.

  All three of them lived in the public eye, and even if Xavier and George avoided it as much as they could, they still had to do the whole function thing. Hell, that’s how she’d met Xavier, after all. At a function he hadn’t wanted to attend.

  These were not nobodies, and to live this kind of weird ass lifestyle, didn’t the member of said lifestyle have to be nobodies?

  She gnawed at her lip, graduating from biting to grinding her teeth into the tender morsel.

  “What are you thinking?” Edward asked, breaking into her thoughts with the accuracy of a bull’s-eye.

  “That I find you attractive, but things got complicated because George has given me an option. Apparently, it’s not good to give women options over these things.”

  Edward snorted. “There are always choices.”

  “Yeah, but some break the bounds of society. If George and I had started dating then I’d met you, I wouldn’t be thinking about the potential between us. People don’t do that. Not normal people anyway.”

  “What’s normal?” Edward questioned, and when she scoffed, he scowled at her. “No. Seriously. What’s normal? I’ve never known normal. My life is anything but.”

  “Not in a good way.”

  He cocked a brow. “You don’t think?”

  “Nope. Sure, you can eat some weird food at four AM because the kitchens are open, and you get to wear a crown and stuff, but I mean, it’s really not that great.

  “George dismissed most of his security a few years back but before he did, I saw them. They were always hanging around. It was invasive, and they were so obvious too—” She broke off when something in his eyes had her frowning. “What? What did I say?”

  Edward’s gaze was slitted. “Nothing.”

  “What?” she demanded, aware that she’d missed a nuance in this conversation and she had no idea what it was.

  “If you tell George what I’m about to tell you, I’ll deny it.”

  She reared back. “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me. I’ll deny it.”

  Her mouth rounded. “Why?”

  “Because it concerns his safety.”

  She gulped. “Seriously?” His nod had her nodding in return. “Okay, then. If it’s for his safety, I won’t tell him. I promise.”

  He eyed her a second, then trailed a finger over the file in a random pattern that had all her nerve endings leaping to attention.

  Oh, to be that file, she thought whimsically.

  “If you think we allowed George to cut his trail, you’re both deluded.”

  Her shoulders stiffened. “But they dropped out of sight.”

  “Exactly. Out of sight, not mind. He’s being guarded by a different team that’s all.”

  She blinked. “But security is more effective when it’s obvious, surely?”

  “Effective, yes and no. When you have an idiot for a brother who spends most of his time skipping out on his guards then efficacy gets called into question,” he said wryly.

  She pondered that a second, thought about how, when George had thought he was free, he hadn’t been.

  Or had he known? Deep down?

  When she’d helped him recuperate from the flu, that first time they’d really met, he’d demanded to use the phone when he’d been well enough to do more than just puke. His family hadn’t been his first call, but a man called Drake.

  Almost like he’d read her thoughts, Edward murmured, “George will know, Perry. I just don’t want to rub it in his face.”

  She bit her lip again, then because it was starting to hurt, picked up her spoon and slurped down melting vanilla sauce.

  It curdled in her stomach, though.

  Poor George.

  “Do you know somebody called Drake?” Perry wasn’t sure why it was important, it just was.

  Edward’s brow puckered. “Yes. He’s the head of our security. Why?”

  “You must think I’m a real idiot,” she whispered, her voice hoarse. So, George had known about the guards being there. She’d almost caused a diplomatic incident and hadn’t even r
ealized it.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

  He frowned. “Why must I?”

  “Because I believed they’d gone when he said so.”

  “That’s not idiocy; that’s just a different mindset. You’re American, Perry. Security comes with a price tag. You figured if you cut off the source of the funding, you cut off the end product. But we’re not a CEO or a Billionaire magnate… we’re royalty. We have whole bodies of agencies set up to protect us.

  “If my father had tried to gain their cooperation and have the guards removed, those agencies would have ignored him. There are protocols in place.

  “As much as the government would like to avoid believing we’re of any use, the Prime Minister in particular, a lot of key parliamentary acts only occur with our approval.” He shrugged. “If anything happened to me, George would be Crown Prince. Do you think he could avoid that fate?”

  She’d never thought about it. Not really.

  George in Boston wasn’t…

  He wasn’t a prince.

  Sure, she knew he was. At the back of her mind. But when they were doing day to day shit like watching movies or hanging out and watching the newest Star Trek episodes…?

  Everything just blurred.

  “He’ll have to come home eventually,” Edward pointed out softly, and she lifted her eyes to catch his.

  “Why?”

  “Because this is his rightful place.”

  “He’ll never rule.”

  “No, but he has duties.”

  “Like what?”

  “He does. It’s a fact of life. Well,” he said on a sigh, “a fact of our lives.

  “If anything happens to father, I’m the next King. Until I have an heir, George is the heir. That’s why he has to come home at some point. When the inevitable happens, and I hope it isn’t for another four decades at least, he has to be ready,” he commented, sadness filling him. And her, if she were honest.

  Imagine having to actively think about your father’s death and what it meant for you? Perry thought.