by Ember Casey
“I’m standing right here,” Nicholas says. “And I’m not concerned with her sex life, but you’re a fool if you think I’m going to stand by and—”
“Enough,” says Sophia, sounding exasperated. “Geez, you two never stop, do you? I’m sleeping in the second bedroom. Everything’s settled.” She glances at her brother. “And since I’ve agreed to sleep apart, can you give me a moment of privacy to say goodnight to him?”
“I’d rather not.”
She rolls her eyes. “Seriously, Nick?”
With a grumble, her brother scratches the back of his neck. “Fine. I’ll go…get a glass of water in the kitchen. You have one minute.”
The moment he’s gone, I pull her back into my arms. “I mean it, Sophia—why do you let him tell you what to do?”
“Don’t waste your breath,” she tells me. “We only have a minute.” And before I can say more, she pulls my face down and kisses me.
As warmth floods my body, my arms come up instinctively, wrapping around her and holding her against my chest. I can’t be close enough to her. My entire body aches for her. Normally this intense longing fades after I’ve fucked a woman, but not with Sophia. With Sophia, it only seems to grow.
All too soon, she pulls away. Her cheeks are flushed and her eyes are sparkling as she looks up at me.
“I mean it,” I say, my voice ragged, “we can’t let your brother keep us apart—”
“And we won’t,” she says sweetly. “You’re clever. I’m sure the two of us can find a way around him.”
Nicholas steps back into the room, a glass of water in his hand.
“Time’s up!” he says.
Sophia gives me one more peck on the lips. “Goodnight.” When she pulls back, she winks before releasing me.
I’m still standing there, stunned, as she practically skips into the guest room. Nicholas stands and glares at me until I retreat to my own room.
So much for ‘getting around’ him tonight, I think, shutting the door behind me.
But maybe I’m giving up too fast—after all, the stuffy idiot has to sleep sometime, doesn’t he? And when he does, I can sneak into Sophia’s room and we can finish what we started. Judging by her words—and that wink she gave me—that’s exactly what she intends.
Grinning, I prepare for bed. Nicky Ol’ Boy might be determined to keep me away from his sister, but not as determined as I am to spend another night with her in my arms.
Determined enough to invite her to meet your mom, I think, shaking my head. Now that I’m not trying to win an argument, I realize how ridiculous that was. My mom hasn’t met anyone I’ve dated since high school, when my girlfriends and I still needed our parents to drive us around sometimes. I like Sophia a lot, but we’re not in meet-the-parents territory yet.
But if we’re not, then why did you even suggest it? Honestly, I wasn’t lying when I said the two of them would like each other. My mom would love Sophia, and she’s been begging me for years to meet a nice girl and—
And what the hell am I thinking? What the hell am I doing? As much as I like Sophia, she is—and will remain—just another woman. One who’s captured my attention a little more deeply than usual, but still just a woman. If I introduce her to my mom, even just for show, then I’ll be giving everyone involved the idea that this is something more. The sex tape already complicates things enough.
With a sigh, I flop down on my bed to wait. As the minutes creep by, I can’t stop thinking about what a mess this has become. Maybe I should cut and run while I still can. It would certainly be easier. And make Sophia’s family happy.
But even though the possibility is tempting, I know better. As much as I’d like to tell myself otherwise, I know I can’t walk away from her, not yet. The pull between us is too strong. I can’t let her go yet.
Stupid cock, I think. Always fucking things up for me.
Finally, an hour and a half after we all went to bed, I decide it’s safe enough to try and sneak across into Sophia’s room. I stand at my bedroom door, listening for the sound of movement out in the living room, but everything is quiet and still.
It’s now or never.
Slowly, I twist the doorknob, trying to open it without making a sound. I mostly succeed. Exhaling the breath I’ve been holding, I take one careful step into the darkness beyond. Then another.
Three steps, then four. By the fifth, I’m starting to relax a little. Clearly Nicholas is sound asleep on the couch. My plan is working. As long as I can open Sophia’s door quietly, I’m free and clear—
Suddenly my foot catches on something, and with a cry, I tumble forward. I land on something hard and lumpy, and with a curse, I try to scramble back to my feet.
But it’s too late. A hand reaches out and grabs my ankle, holding me. The hard, lumpy thing I landed on was Nicholas. And now he has me by the leg.
“What the hell are you doing?” I ask, kicking my leg free.
“I could ask the same of you,” he says calmly. “What are you doing outside my sister’s door?”
“What are you doing outside her door?” I demand, climbing to my feet.
“I was sleeping. At least until someone tripped over me.”
“I thought you were sleeping on the couch.”
“And I knew better than to leave you a clear path to Sophia’s door.”
I can hear the smug smile in his voice, and it takes all my energy not to punch him.
“I’m not a fool,” he tells me. “Now get back to bed. You get a pass this time, but next time, I won’t be nearly so lenient.”
And his smug laugh follows me all the way back to my bedroom.
Sophia
I can’t help but think how unfortunate it is that things have unfolded the way they have with Pax. Though, I’ll admit that having to try to sneak around my brother to see him again has added an element of fun that I hadn’t imagined.
If only our one night together hadn’t been recorded… We might still be able to enjoy ourselves now, at least for a short while. And though I know my brother is trying to protect me, he is frustrating me to no end.
I’ll not be a prisoner here, I think, getting out of bed. It’s late enough that Nicholas should be fast asleep, and even if he isn’t, who cares? It isn’t as though he can stop me from doing as I please. And what I’d like to do right now is…Pax.
The memory of the kiss at dinner tonight still sends a warm thrill through my body. Surely his door has a lock on it—if I can just make it to his bedroom, we can bolt the door closed. Nicholas wouldn’t break it down, just in the name of protection.
I open my door slowly, stopping to listen. I don’t hear anything, and I begin to tiptoe down the corridor before I trip over something in the darkened hallway. I land on it with a thud, and it only takes a moment for me to realize it’s my brother, lying on the floor, effectively blocking the entire corridor.
“What are you doing?” I try to roll away from him, but he grabs me by the wrist.
“I should ask the same of you, but I already know the answer.” His voice is groggy—he must have actually been asleep here on the floor.
“You don’t know anything.” I try to twist my arm away, but he only holds it tighter.
“Your boyfriend was out here a while ago, too.” My brother clucks his tongue. “I suppose I was wise to make my bed where I did.”
“He isn’t my boyfriend.” I finally wrench my arm from my brother and turn to sit beside him. “And even if he was—”
“If he was, Father would have him castrated. And then I suppose there’d be no point in my lying on the floor to keep you from him.” He sits up, and I can barely see him grinning at me in the dimly lit hallway. “Come to think of it, that might not be such a bad idea. It would certainly make my sleeping arrangements more comfortable.”
“Go to hell, Nicholas.” I glare at him, though he probably can’t see it. “Why do you care so much, anyway? I’ve never tried to keep you from any of your girlfriends.”
“So you admit it? That he’s your boyfriend?” He chuckles. “And Sophia, you have kept me away from plenty of women. Don’t even get me started on how many potential suitors you’ve driven away—”
“In your best interests only.” I’m sure he can hear the exasperation in my voice. “You really think you would have been happy with that Duchess Grace woman?”
“I think I never had the opportunity to find out.” He’s silent for a moment. “And do you think I’m here, lying in the hallway of a man I despise, because I don’t have your best interests at heart?” He clucks his tongue at me again. “Believe me, I’d rather be anywhere else at the moment. Anywhere—”
“Oh, really? You’d rather be back in the military?” I know I shouldn’t go there, but I can’t seem to help myself. “You’d rather be—”
“Don’t.” There’s something hard in his voice, something angry, but almost broken at the same time. “Just…don’t. You know very well what I mean. And if you’d rather have Father or Andrew here to protect you, just say the word. I’m sure either of them would be on the next flight here.”
He has a point. Things could certainly be worse. But his interference in whatever it is I’m starting to feel for Pax isn’t helping matters.
What I’m starting to feel for Pax? What has gotten into me? And when did I ever start to feel anything but lust?
I shake my head, though no one can see me in the darkness. Could that really be why I’m so desperate to be alone with Pax? To see if I feel something? I hadn’t really considered it before. We certainly have the requisite chemistry, but I hadn’t let myself think anything much beyond that.
He asked me to meet his mother, I think. Maybe that’s why I’ve allowed myself to start thinking we could be capable of having more than just amazing sex. Of course, things are complicated—things would have been complicated without a sex tape making its way around the internet. And of course, there is still the question of what those lyrics are really about. The more I think I about it, the more I might like to uncover some of Pax’s buried secrets.
“I think…” I sigh. I’m not sure how to tell my brother that there might actually be something real between Pax and me. How to explain to him that I need to have some space to figure it out. “I think—”
“I think you need to go back to bed.” He lies back down, his blanket rustling. “In your room.”
“You need to give him a chance.” If anyone in my family would be open to doing that, it would be Nicholas. “You need to give me a chance to figure out—”
“There’s nothing to figure out, Sophia. You’ve had your fun with him.” He rolls away from me, his voice muffled. “There’s already too much proof of that.”
“Forget about the tape for a moment, Nick. If you’d just give me a chance—”
“As I’ve said, you’ve had your chance.” He turns suddenly onto his back, sitting up again. “You did have a chance. You could have had your fun and come back home like you were supposed to. Don’t you see? I don’t need to give either of you any more chances. You want me to forgive your boyfriend for fucking you on camera? Fine. I forgive him. But you need to own your part in it, Sophia.”
“My part?”
“Yes, your part. Forgive me for parroting Andrew, but you’re a member of the royal family. You have responsibilities whether you want them or not. And you have a duty to represent our country. And nowhere in those duties is the making of a sex tape mentioned. Don’t you see what you’ve done? Don’t you see how you alone are responsible for this entire mess?”
I suck in a breath as tears fill my eyes. I suppose I really hadn’t seen how any of this was my making. I’d only seen it as an unfortunate event—an embarrassing one at that, but I hadn’t really considered that it was my own doing. The poor choice I made that caused all of this.
“Go back to bed, Sophia. I’m exhausted. Guarding doors is a lot more tiring than it seems.”
“I’m…sorry.” I press my lips together, trying to hold back my tears as best as I can. “I…I don’t know what’s wrong with me. But…”
“But what, Sophia?” He sighs. “Just…just go back to bed. I want to go to sleep. I don’t want to deal with this right now.”
“I like him, Nick. I really…I like him. And I know you’re trying to protect me, but…”
“But nothing.” He almost growls. “I can’t take this right now. I really can’t. I thought I was coming here to fetch you and bring you home. I didn’t sign up to play chaperone. I’m not going to sit around while you two court each other—particularly since you skipped over the whole courting process and went right to sex tape.”
Pax’s voice cuts into my brother’s diatribe “I’m…” He clears his throat. “I’m willing to court her. If she’s willing to let me.”
Pax
Judging by the silence that greets me, I’d say my outburst seems to have surprised them as much as it has me. I’m not sure what’s come over me, but I’ve suddenly become that guy who blurts out that he’ll “court” a woman. Court her. What century is this, anyway? Did I die and wake up in the middle of one of those cheesy historical soap operas?
“Well?” I say when the silence stretches uncomfortably long. “Don’t act so excited, you two. I might get a big head.”
There are two black silhouettes in the darkness in front of me, and one of them moves toward me. I’m not sure whether to anticipate a punch or a kiss, but either way, I hold my ground.
When the figure gets closer, I can tell it’s not Sophia. Way too big. I raise my arms into a boxing stance, ready to ward off a blow.
“Nick, wait,” says Sophia. She darts around him, sliding between us before her brother reaches me. “Let me handle this.”
Oh boy, I think. A tag-team rejection. Never had one of those before, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. If it’s particularly humiliating, I might even get a good song out of it.
My humor only does so much to hide the sinking feeling in my stomach, though.
Sophia turns around to face me. She’s close enough now—or maybe my eyes have just adjusted enough—that I can see her face, more or less. I can smell her, too. It’s not one scent in particular—she doesn’t wear perfume, as far as I can tell—but even after a handful of days, my body recognizes it.
Fuck, dude. You’ve got it bad.
She stands there for a moment, just staring at me in the darkness, and I start to get all twitchy again.
“Well?” I ask her again, trying not to sound casual and not at all impatient.
“I’m trying to decide if you’re being serious,” she says. “About the whole courting thing.”
“Of course I’m being serious.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time in history a man has over-exaggerated his interest in a woman,” she replies lightly. “Why should I believe you, a man I’ve known for only a few days, over my brother?”
Because I’m not some snooty psycho prince who really, really needs to get laid, I think. But I know better than to say that out loud. I’ll have to come back to that whole ‘Nicky needs to get laid’ thing, though, because I feel like I might be onto something…
I clear my throat. “I could talk myself blue in the face, but I don’t think it’ll do me any good. Pretty sure the only way I’ll prove anything to you is by showing you.”
“And how exactly do you plan to do that?” she asks.
How exactly do you court someone in this day and age? God, I hope ‘court’ means what I think it does, otherwise I’m in even more trouble than I thought.
“Well,” I say slowly. “I’d probably start by taking you out on a date. A real one, not a staged one. And preferably with just the two of us.”
“Not happening,” Nicholas says from behind her.
I guess I saw that coming, I think, shifting my weight from one foot to the other.
“Okay,” I say. “Then I’ll take you on some royal-approved date, whatever that is. Maybe we can, I don’t kn
ow, go for a nice chaste stroll down the beach. Or go to a concert—the Los Angeles Philharmonic has a performance this weekend. Or the opera. I don’t know—what’s considered appropriate for courting a princess? Sorry, but there aren’t a lot of royal balls or whatever around here.”
“He’s treating this like a joke,” Nicholas grumbles.
“I’m not trying to,” I cut in before Sophia can say anything. “I just don’t know what’s expected here.”
“What would you do if I weren’t a princess?” Sophia says.
It wouldn’t be ‘courting’ if you weren’t a princess, I think. And honestly, I’m a little rusty when it comes to the whole dating thing. But I’m drawing a blank about what either of them is looking for here, so I just decide to be completely honest.
“Food would definitely be involved,” I say. “But most of the fancy restaurants around here are too stuffy and way too public. I’d take you to this little hole-in-the-wall Thai place I know of. It’s tucked way back in an alley—honestly, I have no idea how anyone finds them—but it’s the best damn food in the state, if you ask me. But if you don’t like Thai, there are a couple of other places I like—there’s this kick-ass Mexican restaurant near the studio. And one of the best-kept secrets is this little sandwich shop attached to a gas station just down the street. Their banh mi—”
“Sandwiches?” Nicholas says. “From a petrol station? Sophia—”
“Shh,” Sophia tells her brother. To me, she says, “Go on.”
“Well, uh, after that, I’d probably take you to see some music. When I’m in town I like to hit a couple of bars that host up-and-coming talent. You’ll never believe how many famous musicians have gotten their start there. Or if we had the whole day, there are some great trails in Joshua Tree National Park, really close to where my mom lives.”
“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned your mother tonight,” Sophia says. “Were you serious when you said you wanted me to meet her?”
“I mean, if we were ‘courting’… You probably should, right?” And Ma would never forgive me if I was having a very big, publicized relationship with someone she’s never met. My mom still thinks she should get final approval on anyone I date. “Yes, I’m serious about you meeting her.”