Royal Bastard (29 page)

“
S
hit
.”

I sprinted after her, the rain coming down in waves, blinding me as I tried to look for any sign of April.

I’d been in the midst of telling the reporter to back the fuck off and leave us the hell alone in the nicest way possible, worried that April’s name was about to get dragged through the mud all because of me, and the fact that that damned photo of our first night at the restaurant, kissing, had been leaked online. No doubt one of the staff members was responsible, but I’d deal with that later.

The reporter had done her homework, though, I had to give her that, and I’m sure Crystal probably hadn’t helped the situation back home. God knows what was going on in the tabloids at the moment, and to be honest I really didn’t care about how it looked, I was more worried about April than anything else. But the threat was still there. Miss Richards, journalist for E! Magazine, wanted to expose everything and get the exclusive. She already knew that the woman with me on this honeymoon trip was not in fact my fiancée, and she seemed adamant to get April’s name no matter what the cost.

“You didn’t cover your tracks very well, Connor,” she’d said, those lips in a twisted rueful smile. “I wonder how much I could get for just a tiny picture of you two together? But then again, that would be small potatoes compared to what I would get for the full story… and if you co-operate, I’ll make sure you are both reasonable portrayed in a decent light. So who is she?”

I grabbed Miss Richard’s wrist and yanked her close. “Like I’d tell you. And if you print one word about her I will end your career. Now, go to hell before I get you kicked off the island,” I’d hissed close to her ear, right before I caught a glimpse of April’s broken expression. I knew immediately how bad it looked. My head was bowed, my seething breath close to the other woman’s face, we were almost touching;
fuck it looked bad.
Like a typical playboy getting it on, not that she could have known I was trying to protect her.

“April!” I shouted, the rain and wind making it impossible to see or hear anything. What if she couldn’t find her way back to the hut? What if she was blown off the side of the deck? The mounting possibilities of ways I could lose her tonight were endless, and my heart twisted at the thought. I couldn’t let anything happen to her. This was all my damn fault for even dragging her into this mess just to win a foolish bet. I was such an asshole. “April!”

My shirt and pants were plastered to my skin, and I fought against the wind, angling my body forward and driving into it like I was on the football field. I went down the path that I thought would take me to the hut. Maybe she had found her way back and I could explain all of this mess to her, tell her, well I didn’t know what I was going to tell her. She was a fucking amazing woman. I kept making a little progress, but soon I realized I was all turned around; this wasn’t the way back to our living quarters.

I wiped the rain out of my eyes, though it didn’t do much good, and I suddenly felt sludge-like sand beneath my feet. I’d gone too far.
Oh, god, where was she?
An emerging structure came into focus and I spied a shack they used for storing equipment close to me, the door slightly ajar.

Without a second thought, I headed toward it, pulling the door open and stepping inside, grateful that the wind and rain were no longer trying to peel my skin off, but a lot more thankful when I saw a pale face staring back at me.

She was sitting amongst the chairs and umbrellas, her knees drawn up with her arms hugging them to her chest. She was soaked, shivering, but she was alive and safe.

“Go away.” Her words were sharp even though her teeth were chattering.

“You’re cold.”

“One point for Captain Obvious. I’m fine,” she bit out, turning her face away from me. The wind and rain howled like it was being slaughtered outside and I fought to close the door, shutting us in the small space. “I don’t need your help.”

I shook my head, sending droplets of rain in all directions. “I disagree. Move over.”

She scowled and remained in her place.

“April, come on.”

She sniffed but then scooted as far as she could to the left, leaving maybe a few inches for me to fold my large frame into. Stripping off my soaked shirt, I laid it on one of the stacks of chairs. I couldn’t do anything about my pants and I doubted that April would be up for me to take them off. “Come here,” I said softly. “Let me warm you.”

A bitter laugh echoed around the room that hit me straight in the gut. “I don’t think so. I don’t want you near me.”

“It’s not what you think,” I tried again, frustrated that she had jumped to that conclusion. “She wasn’t—”

“What? A woman?” April scoffed, turning to face me. I could see the hurt in her eyes and it made me want to punch the wall, hard. I never wanted to see that pained look she was giving me, or the betrayal she was no doubt feeling. I wanted to throw my hands up into the air and scream. Just when I thought there was something real between us, this shit happened and I never wanted to fix anything more. She didn’t deserve this.

“Please hear me out, April,” I started. “She was a reporter. I was telling her to leave us alone when you walked in.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she was. What a convenient excuse… you two looked pretty cozy from my point of view.”

I shook my head. What could I do to make her believe me? What could I say? “It’s the truth. And if you don’t believe me then fine.”

In the shadowy shack she stared at me for the longest time, scrutinizing me, till I almost thought she could read my mind, then her eyes softened and silently cursed under her breath.

“You better not be lying to me, Connor. I swear to g—”

“I swear to you I’m not lying. She was fishing mostly. Wanted to know your name.”

“Crap,” April breathed, rubbing a hand over her face. “Are you sure?”

I nodded.

“But how did she find out we were here? How do they know I’m here with you?”

“The photo of us, kissing, on our first night. A staff member must’ve put it on the Island’s website or leaked it…”

“Oh god, oh god. This can’t be happening.”

“It’s okay, April, calm down.”

“It’s not okay! Don’t you see, if they find out who I am, that I was your freaking wedding planner for the wedding you didn’t go through with—fuck this is not happening—my career will be ruined, I won’t even be able to start the new party business cause everyone will know I was the wedding planner who ran off with the groom!”

“So you ran off with me did you?” I said with a slow smile, hoping to calm the situation a little bit.

“Don’t you joke about this! You’ll come off okay, you’re a playboy after all, it’s practically your job to fuck anything that moves!”

Ouch that stung… Her hand moved to her mouth. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

I shrugged. It was the truth after all, but it didn’t mean I had to like who I’d become. And with April I was beginning to think there was another way.

“Connor, talk to me, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, April. You’re right. I’m scum, but when I’m with you…” The words wouldn’t come, she would think it was just another line, a line that would lead me straight into her pants.

We sat side by side in silence, listening to the howling wind. Her body shivered next to me and before I knew it was pulling her close.

“Where is your damn jacket?”

“I left it behind,” she said, her body melting against mine as I wrapped an arm around her waist. “I was worried.”

“About what?” I asked, rubbing my hand against the wetness of her clothing to cause some friction. She sighed and leaned against me, her wet hair making a puddle on my shoulder. “You. I was worried you’d fall off the deck and drown yourself.”

I grinned, touched to hear that she was so concerned about me to come out and try and save me. And fuck, did I need saving. “You thought I would commit suicide because you wouldn’t have that drink with me?”

She reached over and slapped me lightly on my thigh, her hand resting there much to my surprise. “No, silly. I thought you were getting drunk and wouldn’t be able to find your way home.” I swallowed at the word home, thinking that coming from her, it sounded pretty fucking nice. What would she be like to come home to every night?

“Well, I appreciate you worrying,” I forced out, the lump in my throat growing. Now I was thinking about having her home with me every night? What the hell had this woman done to me?

Her hand warmed my thigh and I sucked in a breath, my cock rising to the occasion that her hand was so near. I should make her move it, but the horny devil inside me refused. She was killing me, little by little.

I could have her stripped bare in seconds, warming her up, pounding so hard into her, making her mine, that I could imagine us bringing down the structure around us. And god, did I want to; I needed her like I needed the blood pumping through my veins.

Swimming in her chocolate eyes, I brushed a strand of wet hair off her cheek. She tensed a little under my touch, taking a sharp breath.

“Why on earth are you still single?”

I
knew it was coming
. I’d been able to dance around any personal questions related to my love life, but we’d now been in each other’s company long enough for Connor to notice I hadn’t given him any type of answer. I knew all about his love life, naturally, but he knew nothing about mine. Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to answer him.

“Who knows?”

“I don’t believe that for one second. You should have a string of men wanting to have you. There’s something else.”

He smoothed a thumb over my cheek and I tilted my head against his palm. Was I really going to open up to him, let him know about my past, my vulnerabilities? His green eyes flashed, imploring me to share.

“I don’t date anymore. There’s no point. But I haven’t always been single,” I said with a sigh. “I was actually engaged once.”

“What did the bastard do?” he asked, surprising me. Was it that obvious that I had been hurt? I thought I’d hidden it well, throwing myself into my work and avoiding the chance of it ever happening to anyone else, with the exception of my most recent job, including the man next to me, a man that I was intimately cuddled up to. He must have noticed my tenseness because he forced me to look at him again, his beautiful eyes tender as I stared at him. “Hell, any man would be an idiot to leave you, April.”

His words made my heart race and I turned away. “It wasn’t his fault, not really. My parents had just died,” I started again, my voice thick with emotion. “We’d been dating forever so it was only natural for us to talk about our futures. He proposed not long after the funeral and I threw myself into the wedding planning to hide my grief. I think he was, in his own way, trying to make me happy.”

“You don’t have to tell me this,” Connor said quietly, his grip on my waist now like a vise, but safe. I shook my head and looked up at him, seeing his troubled expression.

“No, it’s good to talk about it again. I’ve made peace with this part of my life.” Though, I didn’t tell him that his presence was making me feel things I had also buried long ago. “It was going to be a beautiful wedding, in the same place my parents got married in. There was this cute little wedding chapel not far from my hometown, situated on a lake where the most gorgeous sunset was going to be shining through the windows as we said my vows.” I thought back to that day, back to the man I hadn’t given much thought to in quite a few years. “Derek was my high school sweetheart. I was so proud at the thought of becoming his wife. My wedding day was the perfect everything: weather, time, simplicity. You name it, I couldn’t have asked for anything else.”

Connor shifted and pulled me with him, content to keep me glued to his side. “What happened?” he asked softly, reaching down to grasp my hand that was lying on his thigh. I took a deep breath then, surprised to not be seized with overwhelming pain like I had in the past.

“He came to the door of the room I was getting ready in and asked to speak to me.” I gave a little laugh, thinking of how my bridesmaids had insisted that it was bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding. Looking back, we didn't know exactly how bad that luck was. “He broke it off minutes before we were due to say our vows. He’d gotten cold feet… but there was more to it than that. Said I’d changed after my parent’s had died, actually said I was a shell of a person, and I guess he was half right, cause I felt lost… though I thought I had him to support me, when it was nowhere near the truth. I found out later that he’d cheated on me, met someone else.”

“Bastard,” Connor muttered, clutching my hand. “Why the hell did he wait until the wedding day?”

I looked up and met his eye, feeling the air shift around us. “I don’t know,” I said softly. “Why did you wait to tell Crystal?”

“Hell, don’t compare me to him,” he said darkly, his eyes blackening in anger. “My situation is different.”

I sighed and untangled myself from his grasp, ignoring him as I pushed myself off of the floor. “How is it any different? You abandoned your fiancée practically on her wedding day, the most special day of her life. All of that work, all of that time spent planning that day to have it ripped from you because someone decided after promising themselves to you that they weren’t ready.”

“Come on, that’s not fair,” Connor challenged as I opened the door to the shack, glad to see that the storm had cleared for the most part. “You can’t compare my situation to yours. He’s an asshole, a bastard for doing that to you.”

I looked back at him sadly, knowing that he wasn’t seeing the correlation. It was there, he just didn’t want to admit it. “I’m no different than any other woman.”

I slipped out. It didn’t matter that it had stopped raining, tears were blinding my eyes anyway as I calmly put distance between us. It was then that I knew Connor was going to break my heart.

Maybe he had already.