Lessons Learned (The Gifted Realm Book 2)

by Jillian Neal

“I’m gonna miss this room,” Emily sighed longingly.

  Rainer chuckled and brushed a kiss on her cheek before he hoisted her bags into his hands. “I’ll bring you back, baby.”

  “And we can do all of that again?”

  “I think I’ll skip the hickey, if it’s all right with you, but everything else… oh yeah.”

  Emily giggled as she shook her hips for him. He opened the door and carried their bags onto the elevator.

  He’d called an hour earlier to check out of the room. This turned out to be a huge mistake.

  As the bellman held the door open to the parking deck, they stepped out into a sea of photographers and reporters.

  “Did you elope?” they began screeching as soon as Emily was fully out of the hotel.

  “Why was the Governor not aware you were getting married, Rainer?” A male reporter ran alongside them.

  “We’re not married!” Emily gasped.

  “Will you be taking his name and crest, Emily?” a female reporter called.

  “Why did you come to New York for the wedding?”

  “Where did you elope?”

  “Are you running away from your parents, Emily?”

  The questions were relentless, and made no sense to either Emily or Rainer.

  They finally made it to the Hummer dodging reporters and cameras the entire way. Rainer opened the door for her and blocked her from view as he helped her inside.

  “Did you stay here or at the Waldorf last night, Rainer?” called a newspaper reporter from the Times.

  Suddenly, he remembered Tad had assigned the room to Mr. and Mrs. Rainer Lawson as a joke.

  Someone had gotten wise to the trick they’d pulled the evening before, and had called hotels asking for a reservation in their names. They had inevitably stumbled upon the joke.

  His stomach turned as he thought about the phone calls her parents must’ve gotten that morning.

  “Baby, check your phone,” Rainer quickly drove away from the Gansevoort.

  “Oh, I forgot to turn my ringer back on after last night,” she grimaced. “Oh no,” her tone turned panicked. “I have nine missed calls from Mom and eleven from Daddy.”

  “Yeah, we need to call them. Now.” Rainer quickly explained what he believed had happened.

  “Mom,” she hesitated. Rainer could hear Mrs. Haydenshire yelling. “We didn’t… Mom, stop shouting…Mother! You know why we’re here. Uncle Tad made the reservations for us, and he put them under Mr. and Mrs. Lawson as a joke. The press found out and went wild.”

  “Wait, what’s in the paper?” Emily demanded suddenly. She snapped her fingers at Rainer and pointed to a newspaper stand.

  He parked in the next available spot, which was a block away. Quickly glancing around to make certain they weren’t being followed, he hopped out of the Hummer. He immediately casted the car before sprinting down the sidewalk to purchase a plethora of papers and tabloids. He leapt back in a few minutes later.

  “I’m sorry, Mom. We did not get married. I would never get married without you and Daddy, and neither would Rainer,” she fussed while Rainer nodded his adamant agreement. “Okay, Rainer just got the papers. Let me go see. I love you.” With a quick “Bye”, she hung up the phone.

  As she pulled one of the tabloids from the stack, Emily’s jaw clenched tightly. Rainer panicked over whatever had been printed this time that had the Haydenshires so upset.

  She summoned and waved her hand over the newsprint. ‘Quite a Night,’ was the headline. Rainer’s stomach churned as he read over Emily’s shoulder.

  After reports earlier in the week that Rainer Lawson, son of beloved Crown Governor Joseph Lawson, has cut ties with his uncle, Stan Lawson, after his uncle’s arrest by Iodex the day after Rainer’s twenty-first birthday, it seems that Rainer is back on with his on-again off-again girlfriend, Emily Haydenshire. There had been speculation over the summer that Rainer had taken up with Samantha Peterson. The entire Haydenshire family was unavailable for comment but The Inquisitor caught up with Rainer’s estranged uncle, Joseph’s brother, Stan.

  “Oh great,” Rainer groaned as his eyes fell to that line.

  Stan didn’t have much to say about the love triangle, but Lawson feels his nephew is being recalcitrant and is only trying to keep the Lawson fortune out of Stan’s hands instead of sharing it.

  Although Stan did mention that Rainer seemed much closer to Logan than to Emily, and he wonders if there might be more to the story. He stated that when Rainer visited his uncle while he was growing up it was usually Logan who visited with Rainer instead of Emily. Sources closest to Miss Haydenshire have assured us that she was shocked and devastated to learn that perhaps Rainer and Logan had more than a friendship on the side. The Inquisitor wonders if the couple will survive. Just a few weeks ago, Rainer was linked with Samantha Peterson, and then Emily was seen here leaving from a party with her brother after a fight with Rainer.

  Rainer guffawed as Emily shook her head and rolled her eyes.

  “First of all, my uncle doesn’t even know what recalcitrant means, so I’m doubting that was a direct quote.”

  “Sources closest to me…” Emily spat. “So, that would mean, you told them that I was shocked and devastated that you and Logan were more than friends?”

  Rainer grinned at her adoringly. Of all of the things he’d been accused of doing in the past years, this was the first time he’d been labeled bi-sexual.

  “Wait, there’s more,” she turned to the next page.

  In effort to mend the crumbling relationship, it seems Rainer decided a weekend getaway was just the thing. The couple was seen here last night at New York’s premiere restaurant, Nightingales, where Rainer and Miss Haydenshire couldn’t seem to keep their hands off of one another.

  His heart raced. Rainer felt sick as he took in very grainy photographs of he and Emily at their table at the restaurant, from the night before.

  “Oh, no!” Emily panicked. There was a shot of her leaning her head into his shoulder in effort to bury the moans from her orgasm.

  “No one knew what I was doing,” he was feeling lightheaded suddenly. It was accompanied by pictures of the two of them kissing in the booth, and a few of him running his hands all over her and feeding her ice cream.

  The reporter went on to inform the readers of the dishes they’d eaten the night before. Rainer’s head fell with a defeated whimper, as he was yet again called abusive and controlling. The paper stated that he’d chosen Emily’s dinner for her, and then only allowed her to eat half of their shared dessert.

  After a dramatic eye-roll, Emily tossed that paper down and picked up another. This paper didn’t have shots from the restaurant, to Rainer’s great relief, but did have the two of them rushing from Nightingales and then exiting into the Waldorf.

  “Ah, here we go,” Emily pointed to the paragraph half way down the page.

  This reporter doesn’t lose a story once he’s on the chase. After being denied an interview with the power couple, I checked with a source at the Waldorf and found that the newly-minted Lawsons did not have a suite there. A suite registered to the new Mr. and Mrs. Lawson was found at the posh Gansevoort Hotel.

  I spoke to Samantha Peterson, who we still suspect that Lawson had a brief fling with just before academy graduation. She tells Gravity that she broke things off with Rainer because of his overly-controlling ways, which is what drove him back into the arms of Emily Haydenshire.

  Samantha commented that she wasn’t surprised that Rainer and Emily spent the evening at the Gansevoort. She explained that when she was with Rainer, she was shocked by his kinky preferences and stated that Rainer would prefer a more posh and overtly sexual locale like the Gansevoort to something as classy as the Waldorf. The Gansevoort is known for features like large whirlpool tubs in their suites and a rooftop pool.

  Rainer felt all of the blood in his body slither quickly to his feet. “What the hell?”

  Emily nodded but was too stunned to speak. The
article went on to say that the only way Emily would take Rainer back after his tryst with Samantha was if he agreed to marry her instantly, so they’d eloped in New York.

  “This is unbelievable!” Rainer shouted.

  “If I find out Samantha Peterson actually gave that interview, I’ll kill her!” Emily spat viciously. “Surely it can’t get worse than Gravity,” she picked up The Realm Times. The business section discussed ways Rainer could go about keeping Emily from ever getting her hands on the Lawson estate, and then invited Rainer to invest in journalism.

  “Right. That’ll happen.”

  After locating the Entertainment section, Emily sighed and took in the photos of them leaving the restaurant the evening before and then making their entrance into the Waldorf.

  As she began to read, she gasped.

  “What does it say?” Rainer had noticed that they were late for brunch so he had pulled back into traffic. He was still reeling from a paper reporting that Samantha Peterson had called him ‘kinky’.

  Emily read:

  Times reporter, Arnold Sherraton, interviewed the couple’s waiter from Nightingales, and he confirmed that the couple got very cozy at the restaurant last evening. He commented that Lawson couldn’t seem to keep his hands off of Miss Haydenshire/Lawson. The Times is still trying to confirm that the couple eloped while visiting the city.

  “There was a while there where we couldn’t even see his hands,” the couple’s waiter commented with a knowing chuckle.

  Rainer nearly drove into the car in front of him.

  The couple denied an ardent fan a photograph, but did agree to sign something for him. The pastry waiter commented that Lawson was rude and had upset Emily.

  Rainer sighed. He should’ve expected that. Emily continued.

  “The couple headed to the Waldorf after their dinner, but didn’t have a room booked at the Astoria. It seems the supposed newlyweds spent the evening at the Gansevoort Hotel. There was no one available for comment from the Gansevoort, but Rainer and Emily did not make another appearance anywhere else in the city last evening.”

  “There’s the coffee shop,” Emily pointed to a small, out-of-the-way shop in the theatre district, where Tad had instructed them to meet.

  Rainer began searching for a parking place. He located one a few blocks away and exited the Hummer. Pale dejection etched Emily’s beautiful face as Rainer wrapped her up tightly in an embrace.

  “You okay?” He knew perfectly well that she wasn’t.

  She shrugged and blinked back tears.

  “Em, baby, you know none of that is true.”

  “I know, but it’s hard to read sometimes, and I know Daddy always reads The Times so…” her protest drowned in her sorrow. She started again with renewed vigor. “And, I mean, I hate that people think that you’re…” she searched for an appropriate description.

  With a furious huff, Rainer supplied, “A kinky control-freak.”

  Emily nodded and then, to his delight, she began to giggle. “Why can’t they just tell the truth? You and Logan have been best friends since you were born, and you’ve said less than five words to Samantha Peterson in your entire life. And that you’re obsessive with taking care of me, and that you’re the greatest fiancé ever.”

  “Thank you,” he kissed her cheek as they walked. He noted a photographer had followed them from the Gansevoort and was setting up to snap a photo of the two of them.

  “They don’t say that because that doesn’t sell papers.”

  He was infuriated at the way that the press had no issue selling out his name and associating him with out-and-out lies.

  The Realm seemed to eat them up without thought. It was as if he and Emily weren’t real people with real feelings and real emotions.

  The two of them were simply a commodity to be sold. It didn’t seem to matter if the lies told about them might take away so much more than the few dollars people paid to read them.

  Blood is Thicker…

  They made their way into the coffee shop and smiled as Tad and Nathan waved them over.

  “My word, it’s like having brunch with the king and queen of the Realm,” Tad huffed as he shooed away several photographers from the front of the shop. “Sit and tell me what happened last night,” he demanded while they glanced over the menu.

  Emily began the story but left out several key pieces. Rainer nodded several times as he waited for Emily to stop the long, drawn-out tale before asking what she wanted to eat. She picked up again with what was in the papers after he’d ordered.

  “I saw the Times.” Nathan clicked his tongue. “It’s the most romantic restaurant in the city. What did they expect you two to be doing, shaking hands?”

  Rainer and Emily laughed and began to loosen up.

  “I just don’t understand when kissing became news.” Tad shook his head and thanked the waiter when he returned with their coffee and pastries. “I am sorry over the whole business with the Gansevoort. I just never thought.”

  “No, it’s fine, Tad.” Rainer reassured him. “You shouldn’t have to think about things like that. They must’ve been up all night calling every hotel in the freaking city. It’s ridiculous!” He pulled off a piece of his pastry and threw it in his mouth. Nathan and Tad both nodded.

  “And controlling? How absurd! Why don’t they interview me? I’ll tell them no one takes care of Emily the way Rainer does, even the Governor. As if I would let my one-and-only niece be with a guy who wouldn’t let her finish sorbet. She has seven older brothers. Do people ever think about that? If you were a horse’s ass, they would’ve beaten you into the ground years ago,” Tad scoffed as if that much should have been painfully obvious.

  “Thank you,” Rainer laughed. “I appreciate that…I think.” He was shocked at how much better Tad’s declarations made him feel.

  “And who does this Samantha think she is anyway?” he continued. “Have they looked at her and then looked at you?” He held his hands up in exaltation to Emily, who blushed violently.

  “You might be a little prejudiced, Uncle Tad. Samantha is very pretty.”

  Tad shook his head with a knowing grin. “Hony, bitches are never pretty, once they’re in the sunlight.”

  Emily gazed up at her uncle adoringly. She swallowed back the emotional energy that seemed to pulse very close to the surface that morning. “Thank you.”

  Rainer leaned and kissed her cheek. Tad and Nathan beamed just before they all heard cameras clicking outside the small restaurant. Photographers were positioned at the large plate-glass windows.

  “This is why we stay on the farm all the time,” Emily sighed.

  “And kinky? Please!” Nathan huffed as he threw his hand towards the reporters outside. “Honey, trust me, you should be so lucky, but money and kinky only fit in one set of trousers in poorly-written novels.”

  Rainer promptly choked on his coffee. He began coughing loudly as Tad, Nathan, and Emily all cracked up.

  They finished their delicious brunch, though Rainer hadn’t felt much like eating after everything he’d read that morning. “We’ll just walk you to your car.” Tad insisted, and Rainer understood that he was trying to give him the ring, away from the cameras’ ever-probing lenses.

  They chatted all well aware that several photographers were following them as they walked.

  “Now, once you get your dress, we’ll come to Arlington for a weekend, and I’ll get started on the jewelry,” Tad explained.

  “And if you want to do a lunch with Vera, you’ll let me know?” Nathan quizzed.

  “Oh, my gosh, yes!” Emily vowed. “I can’t believe you know Vera Wang!”

  Nathan tsked. “All for business, though she is a doll.”

  Suddenly the hair on the back of Rainer’s neck stood. He began studying the area around them closely as they came into view of a man sprinting away from the Hummer.

  His stomach clenched of its own accord as he reached and halted Emily’s progress. In all of the chaos, he had forg
otten to cast the car when they arrived for brunch. Her brow furrowed as she picked up on the panic in his energy streams.

  “What’s wrong?” She hadn’t seen the man.

  “Em, I want you to cast a shield again, ok?”

  “I don’t think it works like that, Rainer.” She clung to him nervously. “I think I have to feel like I’m in danger to draw on it like I did.”

  Rainer nodded. “Then all of you throw a shield over her, please.”

  Nathan, Tad, and Emily all summoned and shielded themselves, with Tad and Nathan adding their casts over Emily, though neither of them were Ioses predilects.

  Rainer summoned and held his hand outward. He began his radar scan at the front bumper and moved it back.

  Cursing, he sprinted to the car and reached under the driver’s side wheel well.

  Emily, Tad, and Nathan followed after him as he pulled a small device from the car.

  “What is that?” Tad demanded as Emily clung to her uncle.

  “It’s not a bomb?” She begged.

  Rainer shook his head. His heart raced as he tried to think of what to do next.

  “It’s a GPS tracker.”

  “Well did the press put it there or…?” Tad paused, “Or someone else?” Worry etched his features.

  “I don’t know.” Rainer choked as he debated with himself.

  “It must’ve been the press. I didn’t feel any dark energy.” Emily insisted. She sounded absolutely terrified. “I would’ve felt it.” Her vow held far more pleading terror than assurance.

  “Yeah, I’m sure it was, baby.” He lifted his cell from his pocket. “I’m gonna call Vindico and your dad just to be sure.”

  You’re Surrounded

  After he’d explained to Vindico what he’d found on Emily’s car, his boss was quiet for several minutes.

  “Ok, Lawson, listen up.” The command came a minute after Vindico had used his office phone to check something. The fact that Vindico was working on an early Sunday afternoon didn’t surprise him. “Carrington and Serena are in New York. They attended some charity gala last night.”

  Rainer wondered how that hadn’t made the papers. How were he and Emily’s evening plans more important than the Crown Governor supporting charity?