Royally F*cked

by Ivy Blake

  As the bus drove back towards the hotel, I unzipped her bag and grabbed my cell phone. I clutched it in my hand for several minutes, just feeling it, glad to have this little beacon to the real world back in my possession. It was funny how much she missed having the phone, but by the second day, I had forgotten about it. I still had thoughts about Cort, but I was able to push them aside to focus. And now that I had it again, I was a bit nervous about what I would find.

  I opened up the cheap little flip phone and was excited to see I had a few missed phone calls and had two voicemails. The phone suddenly felt slippery in my hand as my palms began to sweat. My nerves started to get the best of me, and I felt a bit dizzy. Closing my eyes, I tried to get a grip on myself, but a small giggle escaped my throat. Mira, a young woman sitting across from me, gave her a strange glance. I smiled warmly and then went back to her phone, blocking out the rest of the world.

  I saw the missed calls were both from a number I did not recognize, but they were both the same number. It had to be Cort. I wiped a few beads of sweat from my forehead and watched the screen so long it began to grow dim until I pushed the home button to bring it back.

  What was I waiting for? I wanted to listen to these messages. It would be so good to hear his voice again. Had it really only been four days? Why did it feel more like four months?

  And why was I still waiting?

  I selected the first voice mail and held the phone to my ear. It was Cort! The sound of his husky voice sent ripples of goosebumps up and down the back of my neck. Soon my whole body was tingling. How did this man have so much control over me when we barely knew each other? What started off as just a chance encounter with a sexy, fun stranger and passionate sex had somehow become so much more.

  I was falling for Cort; I knew that. I somehow felt closer to him than the men I had serious relationships with. And that scared me. It wasn’t normal, was it? To feel so close, so desperately needy for the touch of someone I barely knew?

  A small voice inside my head told me to not care. To allow myself to feel how I wanted to feel and not worry about what other people would think. I felt the way I felt, and I had made a decision long ago to give in to my desires and feelings. There was no sense in hiding who I was or what I actually wanted. This was my life. And I was damn sure going to live it.

  As I listened to both of Cort’s messages, I began to get a bit worried. I detected a bit of frustration in his second message. He didn’t sound as confident and relaxed as he normally did. Was it because of me?

  No, it couldn’t be… unless he felt the same way, I did? Was that possible? I thought he probably wouldn’t even call me, and here I had two voicemails from him within four days. That meant something, didn’t it? If he weren’t that interested, he probably wouldn’t have called back, right?

  I felt the tingling sensation move through my stomach and turn into butterflies. It was like I wanted to jump out of my own skin. I wanted to explode with the excitement I was feeling right now, but I found the restraint to stay seated. The bus trip could not possibly be short enough. I wanted to call Cort the first chance I got and talk with him. Part of me was tempted to call him right there sitting on the bus, but I knew I needed to talk to him somewhere private. I didn’t need an entire bus full of my colleagues hearing my conversation.

  I explain why I hadn’t called him back. Now, he probably thought I was just messing with him and leading him on. The thought made me sick, that I might have blown it again with this amazing man.

  But the timing was just wrong. Surely, he would understand that. If I ever got a chance to speak with him, that was. What if he didn’t want to talk with me now? I took a deep breath. All I could do was try. I had his number now. I would give him a call and see if he answered.

  Ugh why was this all so complicated?

  I spent the rest of the bus ride going over different scenarios in my head. What would I say if he answered? What would I say if it went straight to voicemail? My nerves were getting the best of me and I worked the rest of the way to calm myself down.

  When the bus dropped us off, I decided that I needed a drink to calm my nerves before she called Cort. I was a nervous wreck and would have probably have ended up speaking a-mile-a-minute and sounded like a crazy person, if I didn’t take a moment to fully collect my thoughts.

  I found a quaint little bar not far from my hotel and ordered a cocktail and a sandwich. I was suddenly starving.

  The place was pretty busy for a pub during the midday of a weekday. It was filled mostly with business men and women grabbing a quick lunch and a few drinks before heading back to the office. I quickly wolfed down my sandwich and finished my drink. It was a delicious version of a Manhattan but it had a name I couldn’t pronounce.

  I took a deep breath and pulled out the phone from my purse. I was about to press send to dial the number when my eyes landed on the television above the bar. I was just able to hear the reporter, and I dropped my hand down to the counter.

  “The council has reached a final decision on the appeals of the prince and his desire to secede his father to the throne in the upcoming month. The prince must choose a bride before his thirty first birthday, which is just three weeks away, or he will have to forfeit the throne to his uncle.”

  Wow, I thought. I had thought that Ronovia was a forward thinking country, but apparently I was wrong. I closed my phone, as I became more intrigued by the new story.

  “It would appear that some lucky lady out there is about to become a bride and queen all within the next month. Unless the Prince has other plans. According to his advisors, he is still reluctant to choose a bride, and he is fighting this decision tooth and nail. We will bring you more on this as soon as we have more news.”

  I laughed at the idea. That sounded like such an old-fashioned and silly rule. But it was going to make some girl pretty happy to marry a bona fide prince and become the queen.

  I started to glance away from the TV and make my phone call, taking another deep breath to steady my shaky nerves when the image on the screen flashed over to a picture. The image was striking. It appeared in the corner of my eye.

  She recognized the face immediatley. On the screen with a big smile was Cort. And underneath the picture was the words “Prince Cort Monreau”

  Cort was the prince?

  I couldn’t breathe.

  CHAPTER 12

  Cort

  “I’m afraid we are out of options,” Alex said with defeat in his voice.

  I glanced up from the book I was trying to read. My head was starting to throb with the nonstop stress and strain of dealing with the council. The council was standing firm by their decision, and I knew it was only a matter of time before they would try to get the parliament on their side. Normally this issue was not a government matter, however, I was tempted to bring it to parliament myself and have the people decide what they wanted.

  “Keep searching,” I said.

  Alex sighed heavily. “My Prince, there is nothing else to be done. You will have to find a bride and do it soon if you hope to accept the throne. You are trying to cram years of constitutional debate and amendments within the span of a few weeks. It can’t be done. The only ones who can make exceptions to this are the council, and they’ve made it clear that they are not budging.”

  I threw the book across the room, narrowly missing Alex’s head. It slammed into the wall and scattered across the floor. I hadn’t meant to get that close to my trusted advisor’s head, but the frustration was overwhelming. I wanted to scream and tear something up. I wanted to grab every member of the council and beat some sense into their old heads.

  “I’m sorry,” Alex said. “We tried.”

  With that, he left the room.

  I laid on the couch for several minutes trying to collect my thoughts. My mind was racing, and I felt like he was going to fall into either a full-blown panic attack or an anger fueled rage. Why did it so often feel that the entire world was against me? My moronic uncl
e was going to be in charge in a few weeks unless I went against every single instinct and married a woman out of convenience. I would probably have children with her, while always resenting the decision I made. Would I even be able to bring myself to have kids out of a marriage of convenience? A marriage born out of nothing more than politics? Deep down I knew I would love the children no matter what, but I doubted I could ever force myself to love my wife.

  The only woman I ever felt truly close to was Teagan.

  The thought flashed in my mind, somehow cutting through the mess of chaos and confusion that surrounded my thoughts. Teagan… A woman I’d known for only a few hours before she basically blew me off. A woman who would not answer my phone calls. Who might have even been back in America now, never to be seen again.

  But was she the one?

  I rubbed my eyes in anger until my vision was momentarily blurry. How could I be that in love with a woman who was a total stranger? The logic of it was absurd. It was like something out of a Shakespeare play, and everyone knew how tragedies played out.

  “I feel like I’m living in a tragedy,” I muttered to myself.

  It was true. I was being forced to marry someone I did not love, meanwhile I was pining for a woman who I didn’t even know and didn’t know how to get in touch with. Of course, I could find her, if I used everything I had at my disposal. But what was the point? She’d made it abundantly clear that she did not feel the same way I did by not answering any of my calls. I hated to think that she’d just used me, but it did feel that way.

  Oh, if Teagan were there with me right now…

  Maybe she would be interested if she knew who I really was? Or would she be angry that I lied to her? She would probably laugh in his face if I tracked her down and proposed marriage to her so that she could become queen of a country she knew very little about. The whole idea was laughable.

  But it was possible…

  I could imagine her sweet body on top of him right now riding up and down on his hard cock, pushing deep inside her. I wanted to taste her again, to feel that tightness that fit him perfectly, wrapping around his body as if they were designed for each other.

  As I closed my eyes, the fantasy took me over completely. I could literally feel her quivering over top of me, calling out my name.

  I awoke covered in sweat suddenly, my whole body shaking. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been asleep. The dream was so vivid, and it felt so real. Tears threatened to sting my blinking eyes, and I fought them back with fiery passion. My world felt as if it were all crumbling down around me.

  I knew then what I had to do. It was so obvious. I’d known all along what was going to fix everything. I just had to get out of my own way and do it.

  I wouldn’t be able to rest until I had Teagan in my arms. She had to know how I felt about her. I had to be with her.

  If it was the last thing I did, I was going to talk to her.

  CHAPTER 13

  Teagan

  I splashed some water on her face. As soon as I saw his picture on the TV, I quickly rushed to the bathroom. I couldn’t believe what I just saw.

  Cort was royalty. And not just any royalty. He was the prince, and next in line to be crowned king.

  He’d lied to me.

  Hell, he probably lied to me about everything. Was it some sort of scam that he used to get girls into bed? Was it some kind of a game he liked to play to see if he could seduce women without using the title of prince to his advantage?

  I was so angry that I left the bar and instantly deleted Cort’s number and the voicemails he’d left me. There was no point in dwelling on those memories.

  “You bastard!” I yelled when she got back to her room. I threw the phone hard onto the bed and sat down, burying my head in my hands.

  It was the worst kind of betrayal, and brought back all of my frustrations and fear from Cory. I couldn’t stand being lied to. Here I was thinking about for the past several days, and it turns out that it was all just a big joke. He lied about everything probably except his name. He was probably calling me just to set up some sort of a booty call, to see if he could nail the American girl a second time. Did he really think I wouldn’t find out about him eventually? Hell, all I had to do was google him, and it pulled up hundreds of hits with his image and who he was.

  I felt so stupid.

  I should have googled him. On the bus ride there, I should have used whatever service I had left to see who he was. I should have known better. After everything with Theo I should have protected my heart more.

  I didn’t expect to fall for him. But I had. That was the most frustrating part of it all. I knew that he’d touched something deep inside of me, something inside my soul. Even though we had just met, I had really cared about him. And I was holding out hope that he might care for me the same. I shook in anger at the thought of how excited I got when I saw two messages from him.

  A harsh pang went through my chest. Was Cort calling me because he needed a wife? Did he want her to become queen, just so he could be king?

  I sat down on the edge of the bed. My hands were shaking as I clutched at the small flip phone in her hand. It couldn’t be… he was calling her because he wanted to meet up again. There was no way…

  I was American. Was that even going to be legal here? Didn’t I have to jump through some sort of crazy hoops to become a citizen or something?

  I flipped open my phone and scrolled through for his number.

  “NO!” I groaned realizing what a stupid mistake it had been to delete Cort’s info. I had even deleted the incoming calls so she had no idea what his number was. What the hell was I thinking?

  Deep down I knew why I did it. The pain and the anger of being lied to had forced my hand in the moment. I’d been lied to too many times before and I wasn’t about to stand for it again.

  But was this time different?

  Did I love him?

  A wave of realization washed over me. Holy shit, I loved Cort Monreau. It was insane. It made no sense whatsoever. I was faintly aware I was losing what little common sense I might have had left, but after I combed through all the garbage in my head, all the stupid excuses for not being with someone, I knew that it was true.

  “Teagan, you are so stupid!” I moaned.

  I felt like I was going to puke. The room was teasing me, swaying left and then right as full-blown panic set in.

  “Easy,” I told myself. “What are you getting yourself into here?”

  She grabbed a water from the fridge and sat back down on the bed. I took a long gulp and tried to relax. There had to be a way to make sense of all this. I had to talk to someone. And I knew exactly who.

  “OH, MY FUCKING GOD!”

  Ellie’s voice practically shattered the screen on my laptop through Skype.

  “I know,” I said. “Am I just getting my head messed up over nothing? I feel like I can’t form a coherent thought.”

  “You had sex with a prince! A real, actual prince!”

  I laughed. “Stay focused. There are more important issues here.”

  “What are you talking about? You had sex with an honest-to-God prince!”

  Ellie screamed again and jumped up and down on her bed.

  “Tell me everything!” she squealed.

  I rolled my eyes, trying not to laugh. I had been too panicked to really let that thought sink in. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, it was pretty cool. But what was I going to do? I had to get Ellie back on track here.

  “What do you think I should do? Should I figure out a way to call him?”

  “Of course, you should! What are you even talking about?” Ellie asked.

  “But he lied to me. How can I believe that he really likes me or if he just wants me to be some fake wife? He will get rid of me the second he can. Hell, he might even have me killed!”

  Ellie rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Are you serious? You’ve been watching too much Game of Thrones.”

  “Hey! Not fair,” I repl
ied. “Well, this is all assuming he is even interested in that. From what the news was saying, the big issue is that he doesn’t want to get married. But it is the only way he will be king.”

  “Well, find him and convince him to marry you,” Ellie said.

  “It’s not that simple,” I replied.

  “I thought you said the guy was amazing? Aren’t you having all sorts of gushy feelings for him? That’s what you told me. Which is it?”

  I sighed. “Yes. I do have feelings for him. Ugh, it doesn’t even make sense. I hardly know him. And it turns out what I thought I knew about him was a total fabrication!”

  “So? Put yourself in his shoes. Maybe he doesn’t like girls who only want him because he is the prince. You know it is possible that he was trying to hang out like a regular person under the radar and just happened to meet you. I mean he called you twice didn’t he?”

  “Yeah, but I have no idea why.”

  “That’s because you are too insane to talk to him. The only way you will know if you talk to him.”

  I let out a long sigh. Ellie was right, for once. The best thing for me to do was to talk to him. Give him a chance to explain himself and then go from there.

  “Ok, what do I do? I deleted his number like the colossal fool that I am.”

  “Yeah, that wasn’t one of your brighter ideas, girl.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “You are quite the cheerleader.”

  “Wait,” Ellie said throwing her arms up in the air.

  “What?”

  “I just had a thought,” Ellie replied. “With the whole country talking about this on the news he has to figure you’ve seen this, right?”

  “I guess… for all he knows I’m back home now. I gave him nothing to go on.”

  “True, but I have a better idea. Why don’t you just go to the palace and meet him in person?”

  Meet him in person? Could I actually do that?

  “What? Are you crazy?”

  “Come on,” she said. “Think about it. You show up there and tell them who you are. Maybe not tell them everything; you have to hold some of your naughtier moments together back, but tell them to give Cort your name. It’s that simple.”