Max and the Prince (6 page)

A ping indicated a near instant reply from Ross. He’d
tracked down the guy that Lucien had kissed, the one who’d left Cardiff, Tommy.
Apparently Ross had it on his list to chase up on Tommy, but wasn’t hopeful
there was any connection to Lucien’s letters.

Max locked up when they left, and the two of them walked to
the pool, Cardiff waking up around them. They crossed paths with students
hurrying this way and that, which kind of belied the idea that all students
slept in. The small Tesco Express was busy, the bins out for collection day,
and Max collated all the information he could to build a picture of the kind of
things that happened in and around these roads of mostly student houses.

The water was cold, which was a minus, but Lucien remembered
to use a locker, which was a plus. Kev was there and monopolized Lucien’s time,
which was a minus, but the plus was he didn’t touch Lucien again.

When they left, the sun was low in the winter sky, the
frosty sparkles on the ground like tiny crystals reflecting the light, and the
cold tugged at every spare inch of exposed skin. Lucien’s hair was towel-dried but
still damp, and he’d pulled a beanie down over it. Even though Max was on the
job, observing and alert, he couldn’t help but think just how damn cute Lucien looked
with the beanie and the flush of scarlet in his cold-touched skin.

Max closed his eyes briefly. Cute was good, but way too
tempting.

They settled into the routine of swimming daily, and quickly
a few days became a week, then became two. Max didn’t have to attend any lectures
as Lucien was busy on his thesis, something about semantic pragmatic disorders
in language acquisition, which sounded way too clever for Max to even begin to
understand.

There were no more letters, and Ross had reported that
nothing came back from forensics. Jamie didn’t spend much time at the house,
and for that Max was pleased. Drugs near Lucien was not on his list of good
things. Nothing had turned up on Jamie in the background check—seemed he was
typical middle-class student with too much money and too much time and failing
at his studies. He had been in a car accident at seventeen, the only survivor,
and had a history of being involved with drugs of the prescription sort. A
quick search when he was out of the house turned up a packet of small white
pills that Max took photos of to send to Ross. All Ross could give back after a
few days were that they were hard painkillers and would explain the wide pupils
Jamie had whenever Max saw him.

He also said he’d made contact with the nanny, the tutor,
and was emailing with Tommy the kissed-ex. Max wanted answers now, not later,
but he knew Ross was working hard to get them.

Max made his way down the stairs to a quiet hallway. He
could hear Lucien moving around in his room but there was no sign of Jamie. Pale
against the dark mat was an envelope. It was simply addressed to
Prince
Lucien
. Max picked it up as recognition hit him, pocketing it as he immediately
opened the front door, scanning left and right.

“Everything okay?” Lucien asked from behind him, halfway up
the stairs.

“Yeah, just thought I heard something outside. Nothing to
worry about,” he lied. He locked the door again and turned to face Lucien.

“You’re sure?”

Any idea of telling Lucien about the letter disappeared at
seeing the look of anxiety in Lucien’s expression.

“I’m sure.”

“You don’t look sure.”

Lucien took a few more steps down and joined him in the
hall. “What did you hear?”

“Kids,” Max said.

Max could list the emotions he saw in Lucien: nerves, fear,
moving on to acceptance, then dismissal. “Okay,” Lucien said. “If you think
so.”

He turned to leave the hall, but Max stopped him with a
strong grip to his arm. He didn’t want Lucien to do that, to take the fear and
put it in a box, he wanted Lucien to feel he didn’t have to fear at all if Max
was here.

“There’s nothing to worry about,” he reassured Lucien.

Lucien nodded slightly. “Okay.”

For the longest time they stared at each other. Max could lose
himself in the dark depths of Lucien’s eyes. All Max wanted to do was lean in
and kiss Lucien, to gather him close and promise him he’d be safe and that
nothing would hurt him.

“Will you let go?” Lucien asked with a hint of a smile on
his face.

“Huh?” Max asked, then realized what he was doing and
released Lucien’s arm. “Sorry.”

“I’m making toast. You want some?”

“I’ll be back down in a second.” He was up and around the
corner on the first landing opening the envelope, and any momentary flash of
attraction disappeared when he read the words.
Good luck at the meet
tonight. I’ll be thinking about you
.

He followed the same procedure with this letter as the last
and opened his laptop to access the surveillance files. He had a whole night to
get through, from just before eleven when he and Lucien went to bed, to just
after six in the morning. He fast forwarded to get an overview, and there it
was, the image of someone walking up to the house and posting the envelope
through the letter box. Time stamped at oh five twenty, it didn’t give up
anything else. Whoever it was—tall, skinny, fitted coat, hat pulled low over
his or her face—wasn’t easily identifiable.

Maybe Ross would know who to send this to. He emailed the
office with details, then sat back on the edge of the bed. This was someone
playing, someone who had insinuated themselves into a life that was nothing to
do with them.

There was nothing overtly sinister about the message. But… “I’ll
be thinking about you,” sounded concerned. Maybe a wannabe lover? Tommy the
kisser or Ed the government guy? Something about this wasn’t sitting right. The
letters Lucien had received before these, the ones from the now-dead OS had been
rambling and mental, then these letters were concerned missives. What did that
mean? Did Lucien have a benevolent watcher who was going to kill anyone who
upset Lucien? Was this some kind of sick game?

“Ready to go?” Lucien said from the door. He held out a
plate of toast, which Max took readily.

“Sorry, I had to check in with the office.” He gestured at
his laptop.

“Has something happened?”

Max shook his head and concentrated on the toast dripping
with butter. “Just the usual emails.”

“Nothing new?”

“No.”

Lucien showed one small moment of concern, then covered it
with a shrug of indifference.

“C’mon, we’re late.”

That morning’s practice was more a relaxing session of
stretching and long slow swims getting ready for tonight. Max could even keep
up with Lucien, which in itself was a feat worthy of praise. He hoped to hell
his reserve position tonight was nothing more than that.

Kev caught them as they were leaving. Max instinctively put
his arm around Lucien.

“Can I have a word with you?” Kev looked down at his feet.

“Of course,” Lucien said.

“Alone?”

Max tightened his grip, but Lucien looked at him and nodded
that it was okay. He backed away enough to be just out of hearing distance, but
still close enough if Kev tried anything.

The two of them talked. Lucien at one point looked agitated
and there were raised voices with Lucien saying something about personal space.
But then Kev pulled him in for hug and Lucien returned it, so the personal
space issue had to have been sorted..

When they parted, Kev’s demeanor was awkward and only
relaxed when Mickey walked up to stand beside him and Lucien. That was Max’s
cue to return to the small group.

“So, Mickey and I are… y’know… and he says that I should…”
Kev cleared his throat.

“Go on,” Mickey encouraged. The two weren’t standing closely,
but the way Mickey looked at Kev, all encouraging and supportive, made Max
suspect the friendship had changed. Was this what Lucien and Kev had been
talking about?

“I wanted to apologize to Luke, for using him to try and
make Mickey jealous. I know it was shitty.” Kev looked at Lucien the whole time
he said this.

“And I said it was fine,” Lucien replied, although he was
looking directly at Max.

“I’m wondering if you’d like to double date one night?” Kev
asked in a rush.

Max held back the snort of amusement. The last thing he’d
expected on this case was to be double dating with Kev and Mickey.

“That would be good,” Lucien answered for them and stared at
Max, daring him to say otherwise.

“Great,” Kev said with enthusiasm. “Maybe the weekend after
next? Pizza Express are doing a two for one with free wine?”

“Text me the details,” Lucien said.

Kev and Mickey left, and Lucien glanced sideways at Max.
“We’re double dating.” He wasn’t smirking, he looked genuinely happy. Then he
wrinkled his nose a bit. “I hope the pepperoni volcano is in the special offer.”
He walked away, and Max watched him for a moment before jogging to catch up. Something
natural had him slipping his hand into Lucien’s. When Lucien frowned, Max
leaned in.

“PDA,” he whispered.

Lucien half smiled but punctuated it with a roll of his
eyes.

“You want to get a coffee?” Lucien asked as they turned into
the high street on the way home. The air was cold with the promise of snow and
the idea of stopping and grabbing a dark hot coffee had Max agreeing readily. Coffee
and seeing Lucien relax a little were both good things.

Kev had never commented on the lack of PDAs between him and
Lucien or the fact that Lucien and Max hardly spoke at the pool past exchanging
swimming techniques, but someone would notice if they didn’t step it up.

Besides, if Max’s nebulous idea that the letter writer would
see and act on what he saw was going to work, there had to be something for
them to see. It didn’t help matters that Max enjoyed these little excuses to
touch Lucien. There was a pull there between them and Max had already resolved
to contact Lucien after the case, if only for more coffee.

Lucien ordered Max’s coffee and a black forest hot chocolate,
and together they chose a table at the back of the shop. Instinctively Max
positioned himself where he could see the door to the outside and the other
exit to the small kitchen. He did his usual checks, then finally allowed
himself the time to consider his coffee.

“When you’re not on a job, do you still watch everything?”

“Yeah, mostly.”

Lucien sipped at his chocolate and licked away the cream
that collected on his upper lip. Max swallowed a healthy swig of the black
stuff to get his head back in the game. He’d been Lucien’s shadow for a while
now, and goddammit the man was playing with him. Walking around the warm house
without a shirt, sometimes with a towel the only thing covering his ass. Then there
was the whole Lucien-swimming thing.

Max had seen a lot of naked guys in showers over the years; he’d
looked, of course he had, but he’d never focused on any one guy. But Lucien had
this way of hoisting himself up and out of the pool, water cascading from his
body, shimmering on his skin, collecting on hipbones, and sliding down his
legs. The tight Speedos left nothing to the imagination, and from the back his
ass was tight and muscled and caused Max to lose all thoughts of propriety. His
brain was short-circuiting; that had to be the reason.

“What’s wrong?” Lucien asked, snapping Max from his
thoughts.

“What?”

“You look miles away. Is there a problem?” Lucien looked
over his shoulder at the door, and Max saw the flicker of concern in his
expression.

“No.”

Lucien turned to face him again. “Just no?”

Max imagined Lucien wanted him to expand on what he was
saying, to include some explanation as to why he was distracted. That was not
going to happen.

“Just no. What did Kev talk to you about?”

“He wanted to apologize for being a pushy bastard—his words not
mine. He realized he was only doing it to look good in front of Mickey and
apparently Mickey called him on it.”

“You looked pretty upset at first.”

“He said some stuff at the start. He was tripping over his
words, said I made him nervous.” Lucien concentrated on his chocolate.

“What did he say that upset you?”

“Why do you want to know? So that you can add it to your
report on him?” Lucien challenged him with a focused gaze.

“No, like I said, you looked upset.”

“He said I was a challenge because I was icy and closed off,
which he immediately apologized for, but he’s right.”

“Self-preservation is not a bad thing,” Max pointed out. He
decided to nip this in the bud. There was nothing icy about Lucien, but he
needed to move the conversation away from this reveal.

“So tell me about the meet,” Max said.

“Oh God, the meet, I’m so sorry about that, I never expected
you’d be added to the reserves.” Lucien pressed his lips in a tight line. “I
told them you were just wanting to keep your hand in, not actually be part of
the team.”

Max shrugged. He didn’t really care much about being added
to the reserves for the uni swim team, he was about seventh on the list so it
wasn’t likely he’d be called up to actually participate, and it gave him the
perfect excuse to stay close to Lucien.

“What will you do if you’re called up?” Lucien asked. He
worried his lower lip with his teeth—he really had the most mobile mouth.

Max gave what he thought was an obvious answer. “Swim.”

That made Lucien laugh, and just the sound made Max happy.
Stupid really, but Lucien was a quiet guy who avoided the teasing and joking from
the rest of the team at training. And it wasn’t as if Jamie was the most
talkative or happy man in Cardiff to encourage Lucien to smile.

“Well, duh,” Lucien deadpanned.

“What about the party after? We need to consider logistics.”

Lucien shook his head quickly. “You don’t need to, I don’t
do the parties.”

The words made sense in Max’s bodyguard mind. Lucien at a
party was a logistical nightmare, but there was an air about Lucien, like he
was sad he wasn’t going, a hint of resignation in his voice.

“Why?” It had to be asked. At the end of the day, if
something was making Lucien uncomfortable, then Max wanted to know.

Lucien glanced around him, scraped at the chocolate left in
his glass, then sighed. “I can’t trust myself. What if I drink—which I try to
avoid—and I say something stupid, or worse, do something stupid? And it’s not
like the team are my friends as such, and if I can’t be their friends when I’m
Luke and sober, how could I trust them if I was drunk and revealed I was… the
real me?”

Max pushed his coffee cup to one side and leaned forward,
very aware when Lucien leaned in as well. “The rest of the team like you. Yes,
I get that Kev is a bit in your face and his friend Mickey is a bit of a follower,
but they actually make a good couple and we might even have fun.”

Lucien lifted an eyebrow. “Yeah, right.”

“Lucien, they wouldn’t have invited us to double date if
they didn’t want to, and they wouldn’t keep asking you to the swim team socials
if they didn’t want you to go. They like
Luke
as he is. And you can have
fun without drinking if that’s what you are really worried about.”

“You make it sound so simple.”