Prince's Proposition (The Exiled Royals #3) (5 page)

“Damn him!” Paula swore, running to her bedroom. She dressed in double time and hurried to her car. If Xavier thought he could use her and her charity with impunity, then he had another thing coming.

***

“What a pleasant surprise, P,” Xavier purred.

It was almost eleven in the morning but he was dressed in his default three piece suit, one that probably cost more than her car. Even exiled, he still had access to funds that would leave Oprah jealous.

The rich didn’t even go so-called “broke” the way that others did. It didn’t surprise her. Queen Mina might not want him having access to the Royal Bank or be actively in line for the throne, but it would embarrass the Rostov family line if Xavier went anywhere dressed like a pauper. The custom Italian silk suit was certainly anything but poverty chic.

She strode in through the open door and rounded on him, in no mood for his grin and not paying attention to his delicious dimples.

Okay, maybe her eyes glanced over them a little.

Just twice.

All right, four times. Dammit!

Five, now.
Oh, this is impossible.
“You’re an asshole!”

“Yes, you’ve reminded me of that every day since the 5k. What exactly did I do now?”

She shoved her phone in his face. Paula had already pulled up the article on the screen. “You didn’t do a damn thing last night to help the fund. All of it, every single hand shake and discussion was about
Rostov Investments
only. How dare you!”

“I’m sorry. All right? It was a mistake, and once I realized what I was doing, I stopped. But you can’t blame me, P. You set up a mixer with all the collected true wealth of Las Vegas. Of course I was going to talk about what mattered to me.”

Disgusted, she moved her phone away. “That’s it. This was a stupid, last-ditch attempt. There has to be a celeb
outside
of Vegas that we can work with. Because this has only humiliated us so far and turned off donors.”

“I don’t know. I was curious and called your chief financial officer. You actually received more donations last night and this morning via your PayPal than you received even after the 5k.”

“
What?
”

“We made ten thousand dollars last night, all told for about three hours of work,” Xavier said, shrugging. “What can I say? I’m very popular.”

No way. Paula couldn’t believe it. But…“You’re a jackass.”

“Maybe so, but the last two events have raised the most of any venture you’ve planned, and together, they’re a gold mine. Look, leave me, kick me out. Hell, you can quit working as my COO.”

She gritted her teeth. “You bet your sorry ass I will. The last thing I want to do is deal with
Rostov Investments.
I’d rather be kicked in the face.”

Xavier flinched, the first sign she’d seen that she was affecting him and that he was not nearly as confident as he wanted her to think. How much of his life was smoke screens and illusions, even lies, just for himself? Paula shook that thought away. Sometimes she cared, but now was not one of those times, not when he’d betrayed her like this.

“Fine but if you leave me, then our lucrative relationship stops.”

“I…,” she hesitated. They needed to survive and his appearances were gaining steam for them. She just couldn’t replace him on this short notice. “Damn it. You know you have me.”

“I do.” He gave her a cocky smirk.

“Then we’ll stay with it, but if you ever use a
Lillian’s Fund
event to shill your bank again, then, so help me, you will live to regret it.”

Xavier nodded and his tone wasn’t as triumphant as it had been before. “I’ve regretted so many things with you, P. What’s one more?”

The month passed faster than even Xavier could have anticipated. There were slow moments---torturous ones---that tested all his resolve.

They’d be working late nights and he’d see her lean over and catch a glimpse of her marvelous cleavage and want to make out with her instead. Then there was just the slightest touch of her hand on his or the trilling chirp of her laugh after she told a joke.

All of it enticed him more than ever before, maybe in part because loving her was so forbidden. Still, they were a great team. He’d been working hard to concentrate less on
Rostov Investments
, to an extent. He no longer directly talked about it at charity dinners or race events.

However, if he could use contact emails from donors a few days after an event to privately to reach out, then he was not above that in the least. Similarly, even if he was on the clock at a night function, Xavier had mastered the art of sneaking off to a private corner or corridor to get in key calls and emails. He felt like a kid cutting class, but it worked.

Things were going better almost than he could have expected or hoped for even in his wildest imaginings. He had successfully corralled Huang and his holdings with Paula’s beautifully written contract, one rife with more legal loopholes than he could even count, all of them balanced out to weight solely in his favor.

He was also close to having a second no-strings-attached source of Far East funding added to his coffers, this time a tech billionaire from Tokyo. It was an even exchange, too.
Lillian’s Fund
had received close to a hundred thousand dollars this month alone, a record-setter for the charity and close to all it was able to bring in during its first year of existence period.

They were on a roll.

Except everything was about maintaining distance, about keeping it professional. They hadn’t come close a second time to making out as they had in his limo that first real night as a team, but he desperately wanted that to happen. The kiss had been his idea, so he only had himself to blame.

But once he’d had the taste of her on his lips after three long years, the larger the fire it stoked within him. He needed her, and he needed her badly. The things he’d fantasized about while showering or those enticing wet dreams had been pale imitations. Nothing felt like Paula actually alive and vibrant in his arms.

But since his one negative review, based on an action he had yet to repeat, she’d stared at him like she wanted to taze him.

He’d tried to flirt, tried to disarm her like the first time, but she was as stubborn as ever, and her “no flirting” rule had remained in effect.

“So, I think that we’re almost done here,” she said across the table.

He blinked.
Shit!
Had his attention wandered that badly? “Uh, yes. I think that I need to go and put a bit more of a hard press on Nate Taperton. He’s the one with the most profitable new casino in town. He’d be a great friend to
Lilian’s Fund
in the years to come if his luck continues.”

“Great, and I want to say hey to Sylvia as well,” she said, surprising him by reaching across the table to squeeze his forearm. “Xav, I do appreciate the professionalism you’ve shown since we talked.”

His throat tightened. She hadn’t even realized that she’d fallen into pet names, had she? That hurt more than her casual contact. It wasn’t that she fell into the rhythm so easily. It was more than she had no idea at all how badly that affected him, how much it stirred his love and left his pants far too constricting.

He decided he’d give it another try. Maybe working together like this and having successes would somehow loosen her defenses. They’d had a conference call to Singapore this night. Usually she insisted on driving to places or ordering a cab for herself in venues where parking was a bitch, but she hadn’t been able to maneuver that tonight. The limo made her nervous but it was at least his ace in the hole. If it had gotten through her defenses once, then he was positive it could do it again.

“I know, so let me go and get to it, and then we’ll take the limo home.”

“I…all right,” she said.

Xavier kept smiling at her until he ducked around the bar and toward the last place either of them had seen Taperton. It was
also
near the side hallway for the bathrooms. Ducking seamlessly in that path once he was certain Paula couldn’t see him, Xavier slipped into the men’s room and holed up in a stall. He activated his brokerage app and started buying up subsidies and oil now that the Indonesian company he was eying had opened.

It was still a young night, and there was always business somewhere.

He lived by that motto after all.

***

“You really are amazing,” she said, grinning back at him even if she was frustratingly as far from him on the limo’s bench seat as she could get. If he’d been hoping for a repeat performance of the night after their first charity event, Paula’s actions dashed Xavier’s dreams. In fact, he was pretty sure that if she could cling to the
outside
of the car to get home, she would have.
Some gratitude.
“I mean, you were great with everyone and they all complimented me on you. So many people just love you, Xavier. You know…I bet we could hold a special bachelor auction, with you as the most biddable star!”

He groaned and rolled his eyes. Not only was
that
beneath a man of his stature, but there was no woman he wanted outside of Paula. “Oh, please. You’re not the type to do that. Wouldn’t that be against some feminist, rah-rah sisterhood code?” he asked, trying and failing to keep the tight annoyance out of his voice.

“It would be, maybe,” she said, and then she winked at him. “Maybe not. Depends on how much you’d be worth.”

He wanted to ask her what she’d pay to keep him for the night, and was ready to offer to give himself to her for free. But he knew that would have the opposite effect of what he desired, so he gave her a smile and shrugged.

Paula went on, “Still, you’re quite the charmer and I couldn’t even have hoped for how well our partnership is going.”

“I could say the same thing,” he said.

“Then I’m glad. Hey, so what did Taperton say? Was he open to maybe a joint fundraiser or party at his place?”

Xavier stilled. He’d been so busy making key market purchases from the bathroom that he’d missed his chance to talk to the casino magnate. He had to hope she would just let it rest and let her follow up with him. He didn’t want to incur her wrath in any fashion. He settled for a lie or a bit of misdirection. The key to that was always to mix as much truth in with the falsehood as one could, to keep it direct even in the factual twists and turns.

“He wasn’t interested yet, but I’ll call him and take him to a round of golf this week.”

She frowned, the bright light of her gorgeous blue eyes dimming a little. “Well, you can’t crack every nut. You’re great but not a god.”

“I could be, you don’t even know.”

“Oh, trust me, Xav, you’re not a deity. However, you’ll have to schedule the eighteen holes for a bit later. We have that event in India this week.”

“What?” he asked. How had he forgotten anything as huge as international travel? “There’s a massive summit here
this
week for financiers. We were going to hit that.”

“No, we discussed this out on the calendar. The India trip was a special invite from Sylvia herself. It’s a way to talk her into a million dollars if we play this right. We cleared our calendars on day one. Could you really forget?”

Apparently he had.

Sighing, Xavier ran a hand through his hair. The summit had been on his mind for months, long before he’d come back into Paula’s life. It was one of the things buoying him up, that chance to build his company to even loftier heights. She was helping him master the Asian markets and investment opportunity with her quick skills, but he still needed land developers on his side, and still craved the idea of having them working side by side with him. The dollar signs from that summit had blinded him, made it impossible for him to remember, care or keep track of other deals and looming obligations.

Still, he’d promised and perhaps he could wait. After all, Sylvia had been charmed by him before and if she gave a million just to cancer, then he could offer her so much more when a return and profit margins were in the mix. It would pain him to miss the summit this week, but he’d milk his trip to India for all he could, for whatever he could do to get Sylvia in
Rostov Investments’
corner.

“Very well, as you wish,” he said. “But I’ll be sure to go out for golf with Taperton the following week. Always have to pursue the right leads, don’t we?”

Besides, I can’t let you know truly how much I’ve actually been ducking out. I can’t bear your disappointment even if I keep earning it…

***

The next day was Saturday and he did something completely self-indulgent---he didn’t work. It felt unnatural to take a full, twelve hour stretch where he did nothing at all but, frankly, he needed to prepare and pack for the India trip. Besides, his cousin, Raymond, insisted that he go jogging with him. It was hard to say
no
to his overeager cousin. Raymond was the type to not just call or email incessantly.

Oh no, that would be easy to ignore, and his asshole cousin knew that well.

Nope, his plans were more ingenious than that. Raymond Kharmin was an artist of direct harassment, and it showed. Yesterday, he’d come over and sung twenty off-key rounds of “The Song that Never Ends” until Xavier gave in. He was losing more time trying to work through the racket than he was going to lose on the actual jog. So he assented. After the run, he’d be packing quickly. He and Paula were booked on the first flight out of Vegas on Monday; it would leave by six a.m.

He groaned at the thought of a morning that early and the annoying gauntlet of the TSA.

“So,” Raymond said as they fell into step together. “How’s the partnership working out? We’re way ahead of our donation goals. Thanks to you.”

“I’m glad that my presence has made your charity actually successful.” At least there was that.

If only it had worked to get Paula back.

“It was surviving before,” Raymond bit back, his tone short. “I know that Paula was finding her feet, but it’s hard to be a new non-profit.”

“Get real. You were on life support.” He blinked as sweat rolled down his forehead into his eye. “She’s good at what she does for you. She is great working in the private sector. You know it, and I know it. Working for you is a waste of her best talents.”

“Paula’s trying and
has been
trying to do non-profit work for over three years. It matters to her to do well in the world. Speaking of which, cousin--I think her being
with
you is great
for
you. You know, you’ve been smiling more?”

“That’s not because of Paula. That’s because I’m enjoying the success of my company.

Raymond made a derisive sound. “Success isn’t everything.”

“All right, then. Respect. Xavier huffed.

“How about love.”.”

“Oh, please. Really? Come on. That’s endorphins talking.”

“I didn’t believe in love till I met Melissa. Having one woman after another lost its thrill. Then there was only being obsessed with the luxury, and getting home too.”

“Seriously.”

“I am being serious. You were a prince, now you’re not. You used to speak to Aunt Mina and even poor, ailing Uncle Ivan.”

“Don’t talk about my father.”

“Stop it, Xavier. The point is, you lost your family. Then you lost Paula’s love, which you’re still desperate to get back. Why don’t you work on recovering treasures that are actually worth it?”

“It’s a business arrangement, Raymond. Don’t be daft enough to think it means any more than it does,” Xavier said. His cousin had no right to judge him this way. Or psycho-analyze him. “Who are you, Dr. Phil?”

His cousin shook his head and started into a much faster run. “No, but I think I could be. Think about what I’m telling you, Xavier. Someday, you’re going to look back and realize what you thought meant success was nothing but a smokescreen for what’s really important.”

And with that, he started to fully race off, a dot on the growing horizon.