by Alexa Davis
“Got to keep this awesome body in shape somehow,” he smirked, and tossed his bag over his shoulder. “Need to give the ladies something, you know? You know as well as I do that women love themselves a bit of muscle!”
Oh, God, is that a dig? Is he trying to get me to confess? “Erm, yeah, you’re right,” I replied weakly. “They can’t resist it.”
“I hope those hotties are there today, I will definitely be asking the blonde out if they are.”
I was not going to make this. I didn’t stand a chance in hell.
***
“Can you spot me?” Cameron grabbed hold of my arm and sent me a strained smile. I still wasn’t sure where I stood with him, and it was putting me on edge. He hadn’t said anything, but I couldn’t help but wonder if he was waiting for me to address it. I wanted to, just to get rid of the tension in the air, but I didn’t know where to start.
“Yeah, sure.” I watched Cameron pumping his iron, the entire time my brain darting around nosily in my head. I needed to say something, even if I wasn’t brave enough to delve right in there. “So, is everything all right with you, Cam? You seem a little... stressed.”
He dropped the dumbbell and sighed deeply. “I don’t know... I think something is going on.”
Oh, God, here it is. My heart thumped anxiously in my chest, my mouth ran bone dry with fear, an ice-cold shiver raced up and down my spine. “You do?”
“Yeah, with Blair. I think she’s seeing someone.” I couldn’t speak; my throat had closed over. I simply stared at him like an idiot. “She was all weird about it on Sunday, but she wouldn’t tell me who it was or anything.”
Wait! Something about that sentence was important – I just needed my terrified brain to catch up. She wouldn’t tell him... That meant he didn’t know about us yet.
In all honesty, my heart sunk. I almost wanted to tell him, just to rip off the band aid, but Blair was insistent that she wanted to do it. It involved her friend, too, and I didn’t want to get in the middle of that. I was just going to have to wait until she was ready.
“Oh, look, the girls are back.”
I followed Cameron’s excitable gaze before chuckling at him. “Cam, they are different girls. Honestly!” Was I ever that bad? I would like to think I was better, but really, I knew that wasn’t the case. A lot of my life had been spent with a long list of interchangeable faces, too.
“That doesn’t matter. I’m off.” He didn’t even ask me to join him this time. He just bounded off alone like an excitable child. It was almost as if he’d totally given up on me ever getting over my so-called heartbreak. I didn’t know if I should be happy or pissed off about that.
I turned away from him and walked toward the cardio trainer, instead. Now that I was in the gym, I wanted to sweat the whole awful week away. I wanted to work my body until I forgot about how shit things had been over the last few days. I wanted to forget that Cameron was still none the wiser that I was with Blair. We still had that whole fallout coming our way.
“Hello, there, do you think you could help me with this machine?” A stunning redhead with a smoking hot body fluttered her eyelashes at me... and I honestly felt nothing. There was no skip of my heart, no bubble of excitement in my stomach, no fission. I could see that she was beautiful, that she was the sort of woman I would’ve gone for in the past, but now... I had no interest at all.
Maybe Blair had irrevocably changed me.
“Sure, the start button is here, the speed is here, and the program is here.” I showed her what she wanted to know without giving her a second glance, and then I continued toward where I was going, pleased with myself. I never thought I’d grow. I hadn’t come to America planning on changing everything about myself, yet it seemed like that had happened, anyway.
I just hoped that nothing changed that now. Blair and I were on very fragile ground, and I didn’t want to face the risks we’d inevitably have to suffer. Hopefully, we could make it out the other side relatively unscathed.
***
I almost didn’t even bother to glance at my phone when it rang because I had the horrible sensation that it was going to be my father again, but it was lucky that I did because that beautiful “B” was plastered across my screen, meaning it was the one person I wanted to chat with.
“Hello, Blair,” I answered happily. “How was work today? God, it feels like it’s been forever since I last spoke to you.”
“I know, I’m so sorry; it’s been crazy,” she groaned back. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise. The models have been driving me nuts today. I feel like I’m going insane.”
“I saw Cameron today.” I decided to tackle this head on with Blair, mainly because I couldn’t with her brother. “It’s lucky I didn’t say anything because he didn’t know about me and you.” I didn’t mean for my tone to be cold, but it came out that way anyway.
“I botched it,” she admitted right away. “I was going to tell you when I saw you. It felt too wrong to deal with it on my dad’s birthday. I will tell him, though, next time I see him. I promise.”
“It’s okay. I know how difficult it must be.” If I was finding it hard, I had to respect what Blair was going through. “I know you’ll do it when you can. So, do you think you’re going to be busy all week, or can I take you out at some point?”
“I don’t know. I hope so. I plan to be done by Friday at the very latest.”
“Okay, how about I cook for you on Saturday then? You can come over here, finally shoot some pictures of the New York skyline from my apartment, and I’ll cook you something nice?”
“That sounds fantastic – just what I need. If I know I’m going to see you on the weekend, I might just about make it through the week without killing anyone.”
“Try not to get locked up,” I teased. “It’ll be so difficult to hang out if you’re in jail.”
“But not impossible!”
“No, true, not impossible,” I said with a laugh. “Tell me some more about these awful models of yours then. I love hearing about your job; it’s completely fascinating.”
As she complained on to me about the girl who punched another female model because she kissed her boyfriend three weeks ago and the male model who had such a hissy fit that everyone had to go home, I cradled the phone in my hand and grinned to myself. Blair really was unlike anyone I’d ever met before, and I was so happy to have her in my life.
“Oh, my goodness, you really do have a nightmare on your hands.”
“I know, and the magazine is really pressuring me on the deadline. I can’t wait to get this finished so I can relax. I might have to give up ever dealing with models again. It started off fun, but it really isn’t anymore.”
“Well, I promise I’ll make sure you have a good time on Saturday,” I told her. “I’ll pull out all the stops.”
“No effort necessary. Just a nice relaxed evening on the couch with you, watching movies and vegging out sounds incredible.”
That was so coupley, the sort of thing that I’d never done before, and I was super excited about it. I couldn’t wait to just chill out with this most gorgeous woman that I’d ever laid eyes on.
“Whatever you want, princess.” That word rolled off my tongue. I didn’t even think about it as I said it, it was just a silly pet name, but as soon as it happened, I felt myself freeze up.
Cameron knew about my true status, but we never told anyone else in case they freaked out. We always just told people I had an English title of some kind. I had no idea if that lie extended to his sister, but I didn’t want to blow my cover just in case. “I’ll see you soon.”
Chapter 26 – Blair – Friday
I hummed a tune I barely recognized as I spooned cereal into my mouth, happiness flowing through my veins. After one of the toughest working weeks in my entire existence, I was glad that things were finally back on track.
Despite all the setbacks we’d had all week long, the photographs were finally done, and it was time to do the editing. I might
’ve hated that part of the process, but it was preferable to dealing with people.
The models had been horrendous this week. I’d had all kinds of drama, and I was glad for the peace now. I needed a day to myself to get everything sorted.
Plus, I had this weekend to look forward to.
I couldn’t wait to see Marcus again. My body was itching to spend more time with him. I’d missed him like crazy. It had been hard, but it would only make this weekend that much more special. I couldn’t keep him off my mind – he was there all the time, making me smile in my darkest moments... of which I’d had a fair few this week.
Knock, knock.
I jumped up excitedly, staring at the door, desperately hoping that it would be Marcus. I hoped that he was as thrilled as me to see each other, and that he just couldn’t keep away. If I couldn’t stand to be apart, then I hoped he felt the same way about me.
“Coming!” I dusted my clothes off and smoothed my hair into place, trying to make myself as presentable as someone who’d just got out of bed could. “One moment.”
I pulled on the door, but it wasn’t Marcus looking back at me. It was Maddie, reminding me of everything that I was doing wrong. Her happy face just made me feel worse for not telling her what I was doing behind her back. Even if she had moved on, it didn’t make anything that I’d done right. I was still going to have to deal with that at some point, which would be really hard.
“Hey, you.” Her face was flushed as she shoved past me and stalked inside, completely oblivious to my inner turmoil. “You will not believe what I have to tell you.”
Oh, God, that’s her gossiping voice. I hated knowing all that I did about other people, but Maddie always told me whether I wanted to know or not. “What’s going on, Maddie?” There was no point in trying to avoid it.
“Just you wait – this is huge.” I followed her into the front room and perched on the chair opposite where she was already sitting. I knew whatever she had was big because she bounced up and down like an excitable bunny. “This is massive, I mean this is... It’s life changing.” I clenched my fists together, growing increasingly irritated with each passing second. “This is just...”
“Will you just tell me, already?” I finally exploded, unable to take it anymore. What the hell was she doing being so cryptic? She seemed to be bursting at the seams.
“You know Lord Marcus?”
I nodded slowly, a million and one possible horrible sentence ends floating through my brain. He has a wife... He’s a drug addict... He’s been caught in the middle of a threesome with two supermodels... “I do.” Oh, God, she doesn’t know about us, does she?
“Well, he isn’t actually a lord.” Well, that isn’t too bad, I didn’t really care about that. What does a title mean in the grand scheme of things? “He’s the Prince... of England. The actual prince, as in royalty.”
I opened and closed my mouth a few times, rendered totally speechless by that statement. A lord didn’t mean anything. It was just one of those titles that didn’t relate to anything. But Prince... That was huge. “Are you sure?” I eventually managed to whisper.
“Yep, I’ve done some research. I’m very sure.” She leaned forward and beamed at me. “Do you know what this means for me? This could be my big break at work. If I bring the magazine anything personal about Marcus, plus some candid pictures of him here, then they will have to take me seriously. I can use this to make me an actual journalist. My dream is coming true.”
This was the sort of thing that the people she worked alongside did all the time, this was what she needed to get ahead, but it felt really wrong with Marcus. He was a part of our group, he was my brother’s friend, he was my... He was mine, not that she really knew about that part.
“I... I...” What the hell am I supposed to say? How can I stop her from doing this? “I don’t know what to say.”
“Luckily, I took some sly pictures of him on my phone when we were at the club that night.” She grabbed her phone out of her bag and flicked through some heart-stopping images of him standing by the bar on that night. I had felt a chemistry then, but I’d done my best to ignore it because I knew my friend wanted him.
I was a terrible person.
“Right, so what are you going to do?” I handed her the phone back, unable to look at them anymore. They hurt my heart as they reminded me of my crime.
“Oh, I don’t know yet, but something.” Her face was almost cracking she was smiling so brightly. This was the exact sort of thing she’d been looking for, and I hated having to take that away from her, but she couldn’t get up the ladder, not like this. “Isn’t this amazing? All this time I’ve been looking for something to get me started, and it’s been there all along. Well, for the last few weeks, anyway.”
“Let me find out from Cameron.” I finally jumped on the one idea that might just stop her. “Let me get all the details first. That way you can get the best story possible. There’s no point in going in with this, without the absolute best story.”
She pouted out her lip, not liking the idea of waiting, but eventually nodded. “Yeah, maybe you’re right. Do you think Cameron knows? He was sort of evasive when he said he had a title...”
“I don’t know, but I’ll ask him.”
“Do it now, do it now.” She yanked on my arm and cried out desperately. “Call him.”
I couldn’t – there was no way. I needed to put this off for as long as I could. “You know what Cam’s like. I need to speak to him face-to-face to get anything real out of him. But I will go and see him today once I’ve finished working. If he’s in and I can get anything out of him, I will call you right away.”
Maybe there was a way to get through this with everyone still happy. Maybe Maddie could interview him or something. I just needed time to work out the best angle. The only way I could do that was to get over this shock and get some time and perspective.
“Yeah, okay. For now, I’m just going to sort out the pictures I have, to see what I can do with them. Do you have a spare flash drive I could use?”
I pointed her in the direction of my pile of flash drives without even looking. I couldn’t believe it; I was absolutely stunned. Marcus was potentially a prince. However much I thought about that, it still didn’t quite seem real. If I was more up-to-date with current world affairs, then I’d probably already know all about this.
“Right, I have to go. I’ll see you later, Blair, okay?”
“Yeah... Bye...”
As Maddie clicked the front door behind her, I felt my body finally snapping into action. I jumped up and wandered aimlessly around the room, trying to plan my next move. I could have called Cameron, maybe if I asked him outright about Marcus’ actual title and he would just tell me, but I didn’t want to talk to him about Marcus again until I was ready to discuss everything.
No, I couldn’t speak to Cam, but I still needed to know. I grabbed hold of my laptop and turned it on, doing the one thing I probably should’ve done before I hopped into bed with Marcus. I was going to look him up online. Even when I knew that he was a lord, I hadn’t bothered. I didn’t care enough then, but now I needed every single detail.
I didn’t know what to type into the search engine as it appeared in front of me, so in the end I went with British Royal Family. I guess I wanted to see him in his real setting, with his family. I didn’t want to risk seeing images of him on the arm of goodness knows how many beautiful women. Cameron had warned me about that, so I wasn’t blind, I just didn’t want to see it. My heart couldn’t take it – I liked him too much for that.
“Oh... My... God...”
There he was, standing in the background of one of the photographs, looking pissed off, like he really didn’t want to be there. My heart raced as I stared at him in what was clearly his home territory. I was so used to him being the cool English boy in America, I’d almost forgotten that he had this whole other life. He was there on the lush English greenery, standing in front of a very grand old building, l
ooking like actual royalty.
Prince Marcus...
He was actual royalty. That warmed up my chest and sent an unexpected fluttering sensation right down to my underwear. Not only did I like the idea of Marcus being royalty, it actually turned me on. I shifted in my seat, feeling his hands all over me, wondering what it was going to be like the next time I saw him...
Why hadn’t he told me? He’d never spoken about anything back at home before, and now that I knew more about his life, I couldn’t help but wonder why. Was it because he was ashamed of me or because he knew this was all just a vacation, a holiday romance? I’d assumed before that he might have to go back because of his lord stuff... But now it seemed like he’d have to go back eventually.
Now I really needed to see him to find out what was going on. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to get through a whole day of working on the photo edits with this information swimming through my mind. How was anyone supposed to focus knowing the guy that they’d been seeing was someone unexpected?
I raced into my bedroom and threw some clothes on, needing to get started on my day before I went crazy. I’d done enough online research – anymore and I risked finding out stuff I didn’t want to know. I’d pretty much confirmed what I was looking for, what Maddie was undoubtedly looking for right now, and that was all I needed to know.
I was going to have to make some decisions quickly, before Maddie pursued with this without my permission. She didn’t have to wait for it; in her mind this was using the guy who’d blatantly rejected her to get ahead in her career. I could hardly blame her for wanting to do that. Maybe if I was in her position, I’d want to do the same thing.
There was so much riding on all of this, so much that could go wrong. Things were barely in my control, and they were slipping away with each passing second. I was just going to have to find a way to claw it back before it all blew up.
Chapter 27 – Marcus – Saturday