Finding My Prince Charming (15 page)

I clicked back on the computer screen and brought up the page I had just been reading before he’d walked by and given me his credit card.

***

“H
ave you booked the hotel yet?”

“What hotel?” I frowned at him as he walked back into the room.

“The hotel in Paris.”

“Uh, yeah. I’m doing it now.” I quickly pulled up a website and clicked through without looking properly.

“I expected you to do it as soon as I left.”

“I expected you to be gone for a longer amount of time.”

“Why do you talk back to me, Lola?”

“Why do you treat me like your slave?” I snapped back. Xavier had a way of getting under my skin.

“I don’t think you should throw that word around.” He gave me a solemn frown and I felt very much like he was telling me off. “However, I think I can forgive you if you want to bend over and give me a little show.” His lips twitched and my eyes narrowed.

“Excuse me?”

“For what am I excusing you?”

“You’re a pig.”

“Is that higher up or lower than an ass?” He smirked.

“Can I go now?” I quickly typed in his credit card information and grabbed my bag and stood up. “My boss just told me I have to go on a last-minute trip for work and I’d like to go home and pack.”

“What if your boyfriend decided to take you on a last-minute trip? Would that have been better? Would you have been more excited?”

I stared at him for a moment, not sure if he was asking me to be his girlfriend or what. A feeling of hope surged through me, and I was about to answer when his expression changed to a look of horror.

“Oh shit, I don’t mean if I was your boyfriend and asked you. I just meant if you had a boyfriend and he asked you. General random boyfriend, not me boyfriend.”

“None of your business.” I turned to the table and sorted out some papers so he couldn’t see the embarrassment burning on my face. Trust Xavier to get my hopes up for a minute. Not that I wanted him to be my boyfriend. He’d make an insufferable boyfriend. He was someone I had no interested in dating. Not at all. Not even if he paid me one million dollars. Okay, maybe if he paid me a million dollars. Or even ten thousand. Or even if he didn’t pay me. I sighed inwardly. I was falling for Xavier. I couldn’t help it and I didn’t want to. He was such a pig. But he was so handsome and so funny when he wanted to be.

“So what do you say?” Xavier’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

“Huh?” I turned around feeling flustered, not knowing what he’d just said.

“I asked if you wanted me to take you shopping,
Pretty Woman
-style?” He cocked his head and laughed gently.

“Is that meant to be funny?”

“Lola, you do know that I’m joking with you, do you not?”

“I don’t think it’s a joke.” My eyes narrowed. “How many times are you going to suggest I’m a prostitute?”

“I would never even suggest that. High-class escort at worst.”

“I guess you’ve dated a lot of them.”

“One doesn’t date an escort.”

“One doesn’t screw an asshole.” I grabbed my bag and walked to the door. Then I turned around and smiled at him sweetly and continued, “A second time. Smart girls learn from their mistakes.” I walked to the front of the house and out of the door with a smug smile on my face. I pretended to ignore his loud laughter as I walked out. I preferred to believe I’d stuck a knife in where it hurt, even if that wasn’t the case.

***

“Y
ou’re so lucky.” Anna sat on my bed as she watched my pack. “I wish I was going to France.”

“We can go when I get back.”

“With what money?” She sighed melodramatically and leaned back on my bed. “Why does nothing awesome ever happen to me?”

“Anna, we’re in London. Something awesome has already happened. Plus, if we stop eating out so much, we can definitely go to France. The train tickets weren’t that expensive.”

“Oh, I wish I was going on the Eurotrain.” She sighed again. “And to Paris. Gay Paris, where have you been all my life?”

“I’m going to work.” I rolled my eyes at her as I packed my underwear.

“With your lover, who’s a prince?” Anna sat up on my bed and grabbed the underwear out of the bag. “You cannot take these granny panties. Take some pretty things.”

“First off, we slept together once, that doesn’t make him my lover. Secondly, I’m not taking a thong with me to Paris.”

“You do not want to get down and dirty with a prince in granny panties.” Anna threw them on the floor. “No way am I letting you go to Paris with grey and green striped panties.”

“There’s nothing wrong with them.” I bent down and picked them up.

“There’s nothing right with them either.” She grinned and looked at me. “Okay, fine, answer me this question. If Xavier makes a move on you and sneaks into your bedroom for some midnight fun, what would you say?”

“I would say ‘hell no, it’s time to go.’” I grinned, pleased at my little rhyme.

“Really?” Anna raised an eyebrow at me.

“Well ...” It was my turn to sigh. “I would say that at first, but if he decided not to leave I wouldn’t make him.”

“Exactly.” She grinned. “What if he pushes you down on the bed and rips your PJs off and then he sees your panties. You’d be so embarrassed.”

“That’s not going to happen.” I shook my head, but I did go back to my wardrobe and pull out three black silky thongs.

“That’s what I’m talking about.” She grinned and lay back down on the bed. “This sucks. What am I supposed to do this weekend?”

“Why don’t you hang out with Jason?”

“I wish.” She made a face.

“What about Sebastian?”

“Who?”

“You know, Sebastian that we met at the pub. Xavier’s brother?”

“Oh, him.” She made a face. “He’s not really my cup of tea.”

“But at least he’d be someone to hang out with.”

“I suppose I could hang out with him if he really needed someone to chill with.”

“I don’t think ...”

“Fine, fine, tell him I’m willing to spend time with him on Saturday. He can take me to lunch or something.”

“Anna, I don’t even know if he’s free on Saturday.”

“If he knows what’s good for him, he’ll be free.” She jumped off of my bed and laughed. “Okay, I’m going to go and have a Jammie Dodger, want one?”

“No thanks.” I laughed. “You’re addicted to those cookies.”

“You mean ‘biscuits.’” She faked a British accent and we both laughed.

“You’ll be okay this weekend, right?” I gave her a small smile as she left the room and she nodded.

“I’ll be fine.” She smiled back at me. “I’m a big girl. I’ll find something to do.”

“I’ll buy you something nice in France.”

“Just bring me back a hot French man who knows how to French kiss and make pastries.”

“Sure, I’ll bring one for me and one for you.”

“You don’t need one. You have Xavier.”

“Anna, I don’t have anyone, let alone Xavier.” I rolled my eyes at her. “Plus, I don’t want him. He’s an ass.”

“An ass that’s good in bed.”

“Well, he wasn’t that good.”

“So you’d say no to seconds?”

“I don’t know.” I giggled and gave her a quick hug. “I’m going to miss you this weekend.”

“I’ll miss you too, but I expect you to have lots of fun and to tell me all about it. Even the orgasms.”

“Anna!” I exclaimed, shocked, and she just laughed. I sat down on the edge of my bed and closed my eyes. I had no idea why I had agreed to the trip so easily, but I did know that I was excited. I enjoyed spending time with Xavier and I was hopeful that this weekend would see us growing closer. I wanted to get to know the real him. The man behind the mask.

***

His View

I
hung up the phone with the hotel and grinned to myself. Everything was going according to plan. All I needed to do now was call the press. I groaned as I thought about what I was doing. When did I ever call the press to alert them where I was going to be? But desperate times called for desperate measures. I needed the paparazzi to be there, if my plan was going to work.

“Max,” I spoke into the phone slowly wanting to make sure that he understood exactly what I was going to say.

“Prince Xavier, I wanted to apologize once again about what happened.” He began but I cut him off.

“I need you to get in contact with the press. I’m going to France. I’m staying at a small hotel in Giverny. I need you to make sure the paparazzi are there on Friday night.”

“Prince Xavier?” He sounded shocked. “Are you sure?”

“I’m not out of my mind, Max.” I closed my eyes and Lola’s face appeared. “At least, I don’t think I am.” I groaned.

“So you want me to call the press?”

“Yes.” I paused and took a deep breath. “And I need another favor.”

“Yes, sir?”

“I need you to get someone to barge into the room on Saturday morning. They need to pretend they are room service and they need to have a camera.”

“Sir?”

“Don’t question me, just do it.”

“Yes, Prince Xavier. Anything else?”

“That’s it for now.” I smiled as I hung up the phone. If everything went according to plan, I’d have Lola in Romerius before she knew it. Then I’d finally be able to get her out of my system. All I needed was a week. One week and I could go back to the way my life was before she came into it.

“S
o this will be your first time on a train?” Xavier was surprisingly jovial when he picked me up on Saturday morning.

“On the Eurostar, not a train, period.”

“This will be my first time on the Eurostar as well.” He winked at me as we got on and took our seats.

“You’ve never been on the Eurostar before?” I looked at him in surprise.

“Oh, of course I’ve travelled on it before. This will be my first time having sex on it.”

“Sex?” My jaw dropped and I noticed an older lady giving me a disapproving look.

“Don’t advertise it to the world, Lola.” Xavier winked at me as we settled in.

“Advertise what?” I hissed at him.

“That this will be our first time.”

“I’m not having sex on the train with you.”

“Oh?” He leaned over and ran his fingers down my arm. “I thought that’s what we were talking about.”

“You are so inappropriate.” I shook my head at him. “You are my professor and my boss. You should not be making such comments.”

“What comments?”

“Comments suggesting that we’re going to have sex on the train.”

“Don’t you want to?” His fingers moved to my leg and I stilled.

“No, I don’t.” I whispered.

“I’ve always thought it would be an exhilarating experience to make love on a train.”

“Xavier!” I exclaimed loudly as his fingers ran up and down my thigh.

“Relax,” he laughed and pulled his fingers back. “We shall not break our train-ride cherries today.”

“You’re disgusting.” I shook my head at him. “And wildly inappropriate.”

“I’m just a man who likes to have fun.” He smiled at me. “And we’re not in the classroom now.” He winked at me and leaned back in his seat. “I think I’ll have a light nap. Wake me up if you change your mind.”

***

“T
he hotel looks ...” Xavier paused and looked around the lobby of the hotel we’d just entered, “... nice.”

I cringed at his sentence. The hotel looked like a dump and I knew it. The wallpaper was peeling and the floors were dirty and old. This wasn’t the place for a prince, and I wasn’t sure that I would have stayed here either.

“It’s fine, you can say it’s a dump. I can look for somewhere else if you want.” I asked hopefully.

“It’s fine.” He shook his head. “We won’t die from a little shabbiness.” He walked up to the front desk. “I’m here to check into the Presidential Suite.”

“The what, monsieur?” The man behind the desk frowned slightly as he spoke in a heavily accented voice.

“My assistant here booked a suite?”

I bit my lower lip as Xavier spoke to the front desk clerk. To be honest, I hadn’t paid much attention to what I’d been clicking when I’d made the reservation. It had been in French and I hadn’t had time to look at a translator to make sense of what the website had said.

“You made a reservation, right, Lola?” Xavier questioned me and I nodded indignantly.

“Yes, for two rooms.” I handed him the paper I had printed out. He then read it and handed it to the front desk clerk, who nodded. They then spoke rapidly in French, and I didn’t understand the conversation until Xavier said ‘
merci
.’ I knew that meant ‘thank you.’

“
Merci beaucoup
.” I beamed at the front desk clerk as Xavier and I left the lobby. I felt proud of my accent, even though that was one of only a couple of phrases I knew in the language.

“Did we get a suite then?” I frowned as I followed Xavier to the elevator.

“No.”

“Why do we have one key for two bedrooms?” I stared at the card in his hands.

“Because we have one bedroom.”

“Oh no, did I get one room with two beds instead of two bedrooms?”

“No.” He stopped outside of the door and looked at me.

“What do you mean no?” I frowned at him as he opened the bedroom door and my jaw dropped as I looked in the room and saw the single bed. And it wasn’t even a king. “You need to go and tell them that we need another room.” I gasped.

“They’re booked for the weekend.”

“They don’t have one extra room?” I looked at him and frowned.

“No.”

“What about another hotel?”

“The whole town is booked this weekend. There is some event.”

“Oh.” I bit my lower lip and looked at the bed again. “What are we going to do?”

“We’ve shared a bed before, Lola. Tell me you’re not scared of me?”

“Well, it’s not like you’re innocent.”

“I’m the big bad wolf?” He grinned, his teeth showing and making me shiver.

“You could be.”

“Are you a piggy or a girl in a red hood?”

“Which one would be safer with you?” I whispered.

“Neither.” His eyes laughed at me and he put his bag down. “Come now, Lola. We’re here to work. I shall not touch you, if you do not wish me to.”

“I don’t wish or want you to touch me.”