Royal Bastard (9 page)

S
he was nervous
. I could feel her hand tremble as I took it in mine, leading her into the smallest ballroom, where the dinner would be held. Truthfully, I felt kind of like an ass for putting her through this. While I had grown used to coming to the palace and ‘crashing’ the party, per se, she was by comparison a woman who was about to have the experience of a lifetime, one that most people did not even dream of. That alone made me want to make this a good night for her. Perhaps it had been good to bring her along then.

Looking across the room, I noticed my father and Andrew standing to the side, as well as the steady stream of guests waiting for a chance to meet my grandfather, the king. I veered away from the line and headed straight for them, seeing the looks of surprise on their faces as we approached.

“Oh my god,” Rose breathed beside me, her hand clenching in mine. I felt the hesitation when I’d reached for it by the car, but she hadn’t said anything about it, and dammit I didn’t want to give it up. How did I ever think she wasn’t a knockout? That dress was every man’s wet dream, even though the hem of it skated along the floor. I wanted to peel it off her slowly, starting with the ties that were wrapped around her waist. The tendrils of the bow draped over that magnificent ass of hers. It was enough to make me go insane if this night did not.

“Edward.”

I pulled up short in front of my father, bowing my head slightly. “Father.”

“And who is this?” he asked, arching a brow at Rose, who was standing in awe of the future king of England.

“May I introduce Ms. Rose Mathis,” I replied, squeezing her hand lightly. “Rose, this is my father and my brother.”

“H-how do you do, Your Royal Highnesses,” she stammered, inclining her head. Thank god she didn’t curtsey. “Thank you for having us tonight.”

“Our pleasure,” my father responded, his expression immediately dismissing Rose and focusing on me instead. He didn’t look too pleased with me, and the scepticism gleaming in his eye was telling. “I daresay our talk has brought you around. Are you on your best behaviour tonight then?”

I knew he was going to do this. It wasn’t enough that I was simply here, but he had to rub it in. It reminded me of when I was younger, with very little knowledge of what I had been born into and the way he would berate me sometimes about the little things I did, like when I wanted to go outside and play with the rest of the normal kids. “You are royalty! You do not play!” he would shout, barring any access to my former life.

I clenched my jaw tightly and gave him a look, bowing mockingly at him. “Of course, Father.”

“It’s about time. You’ve disgraced this family with your antics for long enough. It’s about time you grew up to be a man, Edward. You need to earn my respect back, too. Just remember that.”

If I bit my tongue any harder I would draw blood, I thought. Rose tightened her grip upon my hand, gently tugging me away, and I would’ve let it be if it hadn’t been for what he said next. “And while I’m on the subject of respect, maybe next time you will think twice before bringing a date
.
Your stepmother is going to be displeased when she finds out.” From the way he said the word
date
, with a disgusted twist of his lips, I knew exactly what he was trying to imply. That Rose was some sort of high-class call-girl, paid to suck my cock, to cause a scene and embarrass the family. Well, in one respect he got what he wanted…

“And to think you believe that I’m the uncultured one, the one who has no manners? When you imply vile things like that… I’ve changed my mind. I no longer want to be in your damn presence.”

Rose gasped next to me, but I was far beyond feeling sorry. “Edward,” Andrew said softly, drawing my attention from our father. “Not here.”

“Oh not here, indeed,” I said angrily, pulling Rose close. “Come on, we are leaving.”

Without another word, I all but dragged her out of the ballroom, my stride angry and fuming. This was a joke; I’d never belonged with them and never would. I couldn’t appease my father or anyone else for that matter. Suddenly I felt like I was about to suffocate if I stayed any longer in this place. My only relief was getting out as fast as humanly possible before I exploded and truly made a scene.

“Edward! Slow down, dammit! I’m wearing heels, remember?”

I ignored Rose’s pleas until we were back out into the night air, the soft breeze rippling through her escaping curls as she rounded on me, her expression thunderous. “What are you doing?” she demanded, her hands on her hips. “You can’t leave! We have a plan, remember? And we should stick to it.”

“I can’t,” I ground out, attempting to step around her. I had to get out. She didn’t understand what was going on and had probably missed the subtlety of what my father said, but there was no way I was going to let her or me be subjected to it for a whole evening. And it was clear to me that I was never going to be Andrew. Hell, I was never going to be accepted into this family, no matter what I did. “Get out of my way, Rose, before I pick you up and move you.”

“No,” she said, pushing at my chest with her hands. “I didn’t get all dressed up for you to storm out of the palace in five seconds. You are going back in there, and you will put a smile on your handsome face!”

I reached down and grabbed her wrists lightly, feeling her pulse flutter under my touch. “Rose,” I said, my voice a bit softer this time, “I’m not welcome there.”

She sighed loudly and looked at me, her eyes showing things I hadn’t seen from anyone else. “You were there a total of five seconds, Edward. How do you know that?”

“I just know,” I said, dropping her wrists. “Please, can we leave? I really can’t…” I sighed and bowed my head.

She opened her mouth to reply but surprised me by nodding tightly. I breathed a sigh of relief and signalled for my car, not saying another word until we were driving away from the massive gates. It was then that I yanked at the bowtie around my neck, throwing it before releasing the buttons of my dress shirt.

“I’m sorry,” I finally said, breaking the silence. “It was an idiotic idea to think this was going to work in the first place.”

She was silent, and I tried to imagine what she was thinking. Was she thinking I was a complete and utter failure? Because I sure as hell felt like one. One measly shot, and I had blown it wide open. A month was too short. I needed the rest of my damn life to try and show my father I could be something different. But I was who I was… there was no changing that.

“We need to take a different approach.”

I pulled the car up to a red light and looked at her. She was still in this? I thought she would be pissed off about what I had done—dragging her away from a perfect princess moment that I imagined was every little girl’s dream. But the person who sat next to me was no little girl with her head in the clouds. She was a fierce woman who didn’t give up. “What?”

She looked over at me, a glint in her eye. “You know? We need to do something without your father being involved. It’s clear that your relationship with him isn’t the best. It’s too volatile. The second you saw him your defences went up. So why not take the royal family out of the equation?”

“You mean kill them?” I asked playfully.

“What? No!” she nearly shouted, her eyes wide with terror. “That’s ridiculous. I mean we need to find your own niche. Surely there’s something more to you than just partying and sex? Surely you have a passion that we can tap into and exploit?”

I thought about it, thinking that maybe she was onto something. I was trying to fit into my father’s world, yet the only thing he had asked me to do was clean up my image. It didn’t mean I had to be doing it with him. “Children,” I finally croaked out. “I have a passion for orphans.”

Rose went deadly silent as I eased the car towards her sister’s place. My stomach grumbled over the noise of the idling engine when we were stopped at another red light. This wasn’t what she had bargained for tonight, I knew that. She was supposed to be seated with the king, dining on exquisite food and no doubt holding her own in conversation, but I’d taken that away from her in my selfish hurry to leave. But I didn’t know how to make it up to her, either. Especially since the whole sex thing was off the table. “Fancy some fish and chips?” I asked and pointed to the chippy up the road from the lights, the blue neon lights spelling out “The Codfather”.

She coughed out a laugh and nodded at me, smiling. “Yeah, I’m starved.”

I found us a parking spot. Everyone stared at us as we entered the chippy. I looked like an American high school prom reject, but it wasn’t really me they were staring at. Every man’s mouth dropped, customers and the staff, when they saw Rose in that dress. They couldn’t keep their eyes off her, and I couldn’t blame them. I had to repeat my order three times before the man behind the counter understood.

“Go grab a seat,” I said. I nodded towards the corner table near the front window and collected our two portions of fish and chips wrapped in paper. She seemed grateful to no longer be front and centre in the middle of the chip shop, but as she turned, swaying those hips and making her way to the far table, I knew I wasn’t the only one admiring the view. I sprinkled lashings of malt vinegar and salt on the chips and squirted some good old ketchup on for good measure and brought our meal to the table.

“Hope you like red sauce.”

“Love the stuff,” she replied with a grin and speared a chunky chip with her plastic fork. “You know, if you were wanting to keep a low profile, this probably wasn’t the best idea.”

“Royals like fish and chips, too,” I countered. “Here, napkin, my lady?”

“Ooh, don’t mind if I do,” she chirped back, and we sat giggling like teenagers on a first date. I shook my head after our laughter had died down. I shouldn’t have thought about it like that, because now I would forever see it as such—and she deserved better than a greasy chip shop for a first date.

“So, did you give any more thought to what I said in the car?” I asked, quickly trying to get onto a safe topic before I was tempted to pry and ask her all the things that were running around in my head. Like what was her favourite food, movie or book? Why did she want to be a photographer? I wanted to know everything about her, what made her tick, what made her
her
.

She nodded. “I think it’s a good idea,” Rose answered. “I’ll see what organisations are struggling, and we can go from there?”

“Sounds good.”

“We will make this work, Edward. I swear. And you know, if it doesn’t work out we can always try Plan B and bump them off one by one.” I laughed, and her eyes sparkled with mischief. “After all, I think I owe it to myself to get some revenge since your dad kinda did call me a whore.”

“Oh, shit. You caught that then? I’m so sorry.”

She waved my apologies away with her fork. “Of course I did, Edward, I’m not stupid. A girl can tell when she’s being insulted, even if it’s done subtly.”

“You shouldn’t have had to go through that. I shouldn’t have put you in that position.”

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault. You didn’t say it. And after all it’s not true, so who cares?”

“I do.”

“Edward,” she said as she reached over and took my hand. Her sudden touch sent a jolt up my spine. “You’re not your father. So please, don’t feel bad. You certainly do not need to apologise for it.”

She took her hand back and concentrated on her food again. We talked a little more after the dust had settled, sticking mainly to business and keeping it professional, for fear I’d scare her off even more, as we finished our meal. We were stuffed to the gills, and I drove her to her sister’s, not far from the chippy. As I parked the car in front of the house I looked at her to find her watching me, her expression pensive.

“I’m telling you this is going to work. We’re going to get you cleaned up in no time. It’ll be like the Cinderella story but better!”

“You’re not going to make me wear glass slippers, are you?” I joked, not sure how to handle her sudden, fierce dedication to me. She gave me a playful slap and a smile. “Seriously, Rose, I wish I had the same faith in me that you seem to have.”

“You will be successful,” she said adamantly, laying her hand on my arm. Even through the multiple layers I could feel her comforting touch. I began to wish she would leave it resting there. “Thanks for a lovely night.”

I snorted with laughter then, some of the tension easing from my shoulders. “You aren’t hard to please, are you?”

“Not in the slightest,” she replied, cracking a grin. “Want me to come over tomorrow?”

“Bring some breakfast this time,” I teased as she dropped her hand and reached for the car door. “Hey, Rose?”

She turned back toward me, a hesitant look on her face. “Yes?”

“I… thanks,” I said, my head a jumbled, fucking mess. “For not letting me make an absolute cock of myself tonight.”

“Shame. Now, that would have made for a great picture,” she winked, opening the door.

Before she could exit, I grabbed her wrist. She turned expectantly back towards me, and I brought her hand up to my lips, letting my mouth rest gently upon the back of her hand for a moment, while I locked eyes with her. My heart was hammering as I kissed her soft skin, thinking she was going to snatch her hand back. But she didn’t. She just stared wide-eyed back at me, her chest rising and falling quickly.

I lowered her hand back down and away from my lips before it got awkward. “Goodnight, Rose.”

She blinked at me in rapid succession, and swallowed. “S-See you tomorrow.”

I let her go that time and drummed my fingers on the steering wheel as I watched her go up her sister’s garden path until she was safely inside and the door was closed.

God, I had screwed up big time tonight—almost falling at the first bloody hurdle—and not only with my father but with her, too. It could’ve gone much, much worse, I considered, had Rose not been there tonight. But even amidst the regret, there was a glimmer of hope. Rose was right; this could all work out.

I threw the car into gear and headed down the street. With her help, and with her standing by my side, I was going to prove to my father, to them all, that I could do this. That I was a better man than what the tabloids liked to report. And Rose was my sure-fire way of doing that.