Royal S.O.B. (A Bad Boy Romance) (17 page)

She
was startled.

It
was early afternoon and she was alone, save for Cate, in the chambers. Mrs.
Bradford had her administrative duties at that time and would be away for at
least three-quarters of an hour.

"May
I… come in, Princess Adelaide?"

The
prince's familiar baritone was soft.

The
contrast of both visits was not lost on Addie. The first visit had been laced
with sarcasm; this visit seemed to be dripping in honey.
So the prince takes his agenda forward
, thought Addie.

"You've
already come in, Your Royal Highness, Prince Kenrick." She set the tone of
the conversation that was about to ensue.

She
stood up, not to disrespect the prince, and pointed him to a chair.

"Please
be seated, Your Royal Highness," she said evenly.

"Thank
you, Princess Adelaide," Kenrick said, looking from Addie to Cate.

"I
fervently hope I'm not disturbing the two of you."

"Well,"
said Addie.

"We
were trying to study for our exams."

The
prince cleared his throat.

"Oh,
I'm so terribly sorry. I'll not take but a moment."

"That's
all right, Prince Kenrick. Kindly state the purpose of your, ah, unexpected
visit," replied Addie, glancing at Cate with a raised eyebrow.

There
was no trace of nervousness or fear in her voice. And if panic was rising deep
inside the pit of her stomach, Addie did not show it.

"Actually,
I was deeply affected by your poem… the one you read out loud on your Annual
Day."

"Oh.
You came all the way to tell me this, Prince Kenrick?"

He
never expected such audacity in her.
Was
it an offshoot of what she saw the other day?
Whatever it was, he liked it.
This would be fun.

"Yes,
among other things," said Kenrick.

"And
what would these other things be, Prince Kenrick?"

She
hated praise, and abhorred false praise.

"But
let's stick to your poem first. I was impressed by your talent, and your
felicity with words."

"Which
was why, dear Prince Kenrick, you awarded me with the QSS, I presume?"

"Yes,
indeed. But then the evening was over, and the poem never left me."

"You
mean, it's still chasing you wherever you go?"

What did she mean,
'wherever you go'?
Kenrick wondered if it was a subtle dig back to the servants' breakroom
episode.

"The
chasm you referred to, in the poem, between the royals and the commoners… I
spent a lot of time thinking about that."

"Amazing."

That
was all Addie allowed herself to say.

"And
I want to do something about that yawning gap."

You already did
something to bridge that gap
, thought Addie.

She
let out a yawn. Was it a coincidence or was it timed to perfection, Kenrick
could not tell.

"And
I want to start with abolishing the 'royal' prefixes."

"Which
means?"

"It
means you call me Kenrick and I call you Addie, like two friends do."

Addie
could smell where this was going.

"But
wouldn't that mean you're throwing a whole lot of royal protocols to the
winds?"

"I
don't care," replied the prince.

"What's
royal protocol between friends? My pal Pat – the one who came with me the other
day – he calls me Phantom."

"He
does? It's a rather appropriate name."

"Haha,"
Kenrick was not amused.

But
he had to keep up appearances; he could not slip up yet again.

"So
my suggestion to you and me – let's drop the 'highness' and 'prince' and
'princess'."

"And
stick to Kenrick and Addie?"

"Yes!"

"Well,"
responded Adelaide.

"As
commoners, we were taught to never disobey our royals. And I would never dare
to disobey you, Kenrick."

She
was quick on the draw with his first name. And this time he laughed, genuinely.
What a piece of womanhood she was! Kenrick could not take his eyes off her, nor
could he think of anything else.

"Thank
you, Addie," he replied.

"In
fact, I came to tell you this."

"So
awfully nice of you, Kenrick," Addie responded.

"But
all you could've done was to use some royal stationery. It's going to waste at
this rate."

"This,
this is what I like about you, Addie." He was buttering it up nicely.

"This
bit of wit, this slice of sarcasm. Where would our race be without such keen
sense of humor?"

There
was a moment of silence.

"And
another thing," Kenrick suddenly remembered.

"Yes?"
Addie poised, looking back at her friend rather impatiently.

It
was clear who was leading the polls here.

"I
came to apologize for the other day." Kenrick hesitated.

"Oh
that," replied Addie quickly.

"That's
nothing. It's very common among the royals."

"What?"
he panicked.
What was she hinting at?

"What
do you mean?"

"I
mean, what happened the other day."

She
deliberately kept it double-edged.

"What
happened the other day?"

Kenrick
was on the verge of snapping. Perhaps he would have a heart attack?

"You
were not there in your chambers when I came to visit."

Kenrick
breathed relief. It was not much fun anymore, her playing this cat-and-mouse
game.

"What
I mean to say is, the royals always keep the commoners waiting," Addie
stated, giving him an escape clause.

He
was still reeling under her spell, caught in the web she had woven dexterously.

"But
Addie," it was the first time that he addressed her thus. It sounded odd,
coming from him.

"You're
not a commoner."

"Well
I was, until a short time ago."

"But
that's of no importance now," Kenrick assured.

"In
a way, bereft of our titles, we're both commoners. Moreover, the present is
key, the present is all we have. Why go back to the past?"

Addie
read different layers of meaning in that statement. And she was not going to
let it pass.

"Well,
past was the present of yesterday. Past is the foundation of the present. And
both will carry the future forward. So let's give our past its due."

"All
right, all right," conceded Kenrick, irritation creeping into his tone. If
there was one thing he could not stand, it was pedagogy.

"I'm
not one to argue with you."

Addie
kept quiet. Her ploy of annoying him had succeeded.

"Is
that all, Kenrick? I need to get back to my studies."

Was she going overboard
, thought Kenrick. He
came for one thing, something else occurred. And now he was being forced out of
the place. What had he achieved?

"That's
all, Addie," he heard himself saying it.

"I've
returned your visit. I apologized for the other day. Now it's your turn to
visit me."

"What
is this, some kind of tit-for-tat?"

"In
a way," replied Kenrick slyly, allowing himself the pleasure of a tiny
wordplay.

"In
that case, okay," agreed Addie, missing the mischievousness in his answer.

"But
please, no deadlines. I have my exams on my mind, and I need to focus."

"Fine,
but you can't disobey the prince, remember?"

"Yes,
and also the future king," she added.

"So
it's going to be Kenrick and Addie now?" Pat asked, surprised.

"Yes,"
replied Kenrick.

"I
could manage that much."

Both
of them were lounging in the chambers, and it was mid-morning. Pat was getting
the details of what had transpired at the meeting.

"Which
is a lot, Phantom," Pat noted.

"I'd
say getting to first name terms is a great starting point."

"I
think so too."

"Your
charm can take over from here."

"I'm
not so sure of that," replied Kenrick.

"She's
the shrewdest woman I've ever met."

"Ah,"
said Pat.

"I
had a bad feeling about it."

"If
this meeting was anything to go by, I still have a long, long way to go."

"Why
do you say that, Phantom?"

Kenrick
said nothing for some time.

"She's
a very intelligent girl, Pat. Not the least like what I expected her to
be."

"Well,
you get them in all types."

"Yeah,
I know," answered Kenrick.

"But
maybe here's something I hadn't bargained for."

Pat
fell into silence too. The entire tone and manner of Kenrick suggested a
seriousness he was not used to.

"Was
there any reference to her catching you with the servant women?" Pat
asked.

"Not
overtly."

"Oh.
Did she indicate it in a veiled manner?"

"I
thought so."

"It
could be your mind playing tricks, Phantom."

"No.
She was playing this cat-and-mouse game, and I almost fell into her trap."

"Then?"

"Then
she let me escape," Kenrick noted.

"That's
her trick. She almost has you in her vice-like grip, and then she lets you go.
Just like how a cat plays with a mouse… and kills it slowly."

"This
means," Pat said after a long pause.

"We
need to formulate a whole new strategy to counter her."

"Nah,"
Kenrick waved his hand.

"I
doubt any of our grand strategies would work on her. She's above them
all."

This
was news to Pat. Phantom was not the type to resign to a situation, and yet
here he was, with his guard down.

"You
know what, Pat." There was a quiver in his voice.

"While
I was talking to her, she asked me to leave the premises."

"What?"
Pat could not believe his ears.

"In
so many words?"

"In
so many words," Kenrick said slowly.

"She
was preparing for her exams when I'd entered."

"So?"

"So
when I was halfway through my speaking, she asked me if there was anything else
to say."

"Oh
God."

"That
was the first time anyone has ever done that to me."

It
pained Pat.
What a state royalty had descended
to
, he thought.

Then
again, came a tiny voice from somewhere within himself, how much was the
contribution of royals like Phantom to this decadence? Whatever he was doing
could be fun for him, but did he ever think of his victims?
Perhaps
, he wondered,
payback time was here
.

Both
of them fell silent, each trapped in his own web of thoughts. The rest of the
morning passed that way, spreading a kind of negativity in the chamber.

*****

That
day, he had seen her in close proximity.

This
time he saw her flawless, smooth-as-feather skin from near. It was something he
had not seen before. And that added even more allure to her person.

Then
Kenrick realized: Every time he met Addie, he discovered something new about
her. That day at the university, it was her hourglass figure, silhouetted
sexily against the backlight. This day in her study, it was her heavenly skin.

He
was almost reaching out and touching her cheeks. He had done it to hundreds of
women, and without thinking even for a second. But here, he was on guard. He
could never do that to Addie.

What
was it – was it love? He hated to think it was. But probably there was no other
explanation for it.

Or
was it because she was his stepsister, and he was afraid of creating a scandal?
Possibly. Be that as it may, but this was not his habit.

From
his coign of vantage across her desk, he had seen her soft bosom heave gently.
And with each heave, it had brushed against the edge of the desk. How lucky
that desk was! For it could feel her divine breasts, this treasure trove that
was out of bounds for him.

Suddenly
he thought of her pussy. That was even more of a treasure. He tried to imagine
it in his mind's eye – and he got a hard-on at once. Of course, he had no idea
what it looked like, but he knew it had to be the sexiest pussy in the world.
It would be soft, it would be golden, it would be tight. It would be–

Could Addie possibly be
a virgin?

That
thought mesmerized him. Kenrick, in his true avatar of conquering women with
his cock, was something of a virginity specialist. He was always dreaming of
virgin pussies, and somewhere the law of attraction worked for him. Somehow,
all the world's virgin vaginas made a beeline to his bedroom door and waited
outside for his benign consideration. And then he had them all.

Cracking
open a virgin pussy was something else altogether. It was Kenrick's biggest
high. He had already given the analogy of a nubile girl being like a new bike
to Pat. Compared to that, a virgin pussy was like plucking the first flower in
spring. Soon there would be plenty of flowers, but that first ever flower,
bright and colorful, smiling and happily dancing in the wind, had to be his.
There was no compromise on that.

Something
told him that this flower called Addie was the first one in the spring. And he
had to be the one plucking it. The way it was bright and colorful, smiling and
happily dancing in the wind, told him that she had to be a virgin. And that
made his loins tingle even more for her.
If
only he could take her right now, then and there?

And
yet, he knew that this was not possible. There were a select few things in the
world that had to be earned. They never came your way, even if you were the
prince and future king. This was the divine order, and no one could alter it.

Here
was one such sweet little thing that he needed to earn. And to earn it, he
knew, he needed to
deserve
it first.
Till then, he had no right to desire it. First you deserve, then you desire.

All
of this was new territory for Kenrick. For the prince, who was used to having
any woman for the asking, to be denied one woman, to wait for her, and to work
for her was an unknown zone. But strangely enough, he liked the thrill of it.
For far too long, he had snatched women. Now he wanted to earn one.

He
felt a bolt of electricity go through his entire being at the thought of
holding Addie in his arms. Then he would kiss her gently on those luscious lips
that looked as if they were about to burst any minute. Then he would kiss her
neck, and go down…

Before
he knew it, he was masturbating.

*****

Kenrick
got up late the next morning. By then, Pat had gone for his customary walk on
the green, communed with nature and was back.

"How
is His Royal Highness Prince Kenrick this morning?" Pat asked with his
usual enthusiasm.

"Oh
sorry, how is just Kenrick this morning?"

He
laughed. Kenrick got up and sat on his four-poster bed, smiling at his friend's
jibe.

"You
know what, Phantom," said Pat.

"We
both need a change of scenery… Let's go on a leisurely drive to town, spend
some time in the malls and return. What do you think?"

It
sounded like a good idea.

"Let's
go," agreed Kenrick.

"But,
no bike ride this time." Pat was firm.

"Okay,
as you say," Kenrick laughed.

*****

In
less than two hours, they'd hit the highway in Kenrick's Rolls Royce Phantom.

Pat
as usual was in the passenger seat, both his feet on the hallowed dashboard of
the Royce. He was humming a tune, and was his happy self as always, but the
prince was somewhere else. He was playing Beethoven's Ninth on the music system
– and that gave a hint about what was playing on his mind.

"Say,
Phantom," started Pat.

"What
do you want to do in town?"

"Nothing
in particular," replied Kenrick.

"Wanna
shop, or grab a bite, or catch a movie?"

"Nope,
nothing that we can't do back at the manor."

"Of
course, His Highness, but you can do everything back at the manor."

Kenrick
shot him a glance.

"I
was just thinking, since it's trending these days, why not be like the good old
commoners?" Pat played.

That
clinched it for him.

"Great
idea!" chuckled Kenrick.

So
they shopped, ate out, and caught a movie. They picked up some tees for a lark
from a discount store (royalty hunting for discounts!), ate some fish and chips
in a street side café, and watched Richard Linklater's
Boyhood
in the cinema at the mall.

Simple
commoner stuff.