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The patron wasn’t fooled. “My, my. So that’s the way it goes, huh?” Nic hated the knowing tone in Butler’s voice. “Listen to me, Fernandez. I don’t fucking care if you’re fucking the Queen herself. What I do care about is getting the alledramite contract from that dithering fool Stefan. While he is trying to make up his mind which mining company to award the contract to, I want you to get close to the princess and dig up any dirt you can on the royal family.”
“Blackmail? I must say, you’ve got very admirable business ethics, Rupert.”
“Let’s just say I’m covering all my bases. I’ll make it worth your while.” He named an amount that would be able to keep the estancia afloat for several months while he turned it around.
Wasn’t it just Nic’s fucking lucky day?
First, the Prince offering him Pygmalion, his famous polo pony stabled in Walkden’s own horse farm in exchange for some playacting with Her Royal Highness. Pygmalion had won the Horse of the Year Award from the US Polo Association and had received numerous Best Horse awards from the US, English, and Argentine Opens. Stefan himself was an amateur player and competed occasionally when he was in England. Walkden used Pygmalion in his tournament line-up. The horse was a gift from an Arabian Sheikh to Stefan, and Nic would be a fool to turn down a champion horse, one that could sire future winners on his farm.
“I’m throwing a party in LA next week. Bring the princess with you.” It was a command.
When Butler left, Nic sank down on the bed and swore, wondering how his life had gotten bloody complicated in just a few short days.
* * *
The House of Ligueria’s official visit to the U.S. had ended. Stefan flew back to Seirenada to meet with the Council, and Lexie flew to California for damage containment.
“Blair, I hope I haven’t inconvenienced you by coming over on such short notice,” Lexie said, lounging on the poolside recliner at her Uncle Rob’s Beverly Hills mansion, his fifth in ten years. Her uncle had a habit of crazy renovating and would flip the house on the market for a much bigger profit. Present mansion already had a subterranean movie theatre with “bed” seats plus a miniature lake with two white swans. Of course, the house wouldn’t be complete without the ever-present stable.
It was a gated community, but Lexie made sure to wear a wide-brimmed hat and a pair of dark sunglasses in case some paparazzi were able to sneak in.
Blair’s brown eyes were brimming with excitement. “Are you kidding me? It’ll be fun. This is going to be just like the sleepovers we used to have when Your Royal Highness deigned to ’rough it‘ and spend some summers here,” she teased.
Lexie smiled wistfully. “I never did to get to paint my nails a different color each,” she quipped, thinking back on how when she was younger, she wished she had a sister to play with. Stefan had been packed off to boarding school and Lexie was often left in the palace with her nonna, while her own mother was gallivanting off somewhere with her father. Time spent with her grandmother meant lectures on a royal’s proper decorum and expunging any frivolous, flighty tendencies she might have inherited from her “common” mother. As a result, by the time she was seven and arrived at the local school, Lexie had more in common with her teachers than with her peers. By virtue of her royal standing, Lexie would have been labeled different from the start, but her formal manners, compounded by an innate shyness, gave her schoolmates the impression that she was standoffish and proud.
“Who says you can’t do it anymore?”
Me, Lexie thought, and that was the worst of all. Her nonna was gone. Stefan wasn’t looking over her shoulder. Even Theia had been sent packing by Nic Fernandez, his one condition to agreeing to their pretend relationship. So why did she feel adrift yet hemmed in?
“You always overthink things,” Blair said after she had taken a sip of her sparkling water. Lexie nodded. Blair was flighty, but she always saw the crux of the matter. ”Just relax and soak up some rays. By the way, when are you going to see Nic again?”
Two days in L.A. and she had yet to see hide or hair of that beautiful, infernal man. He was letting her marinate in her anxiety, and now she was stewing in resentment. No texts nor calls to let her know if they were going to dinner tonight as planned in the social itinerary Theia had printed out for them. She sighed, supposing she deserved it after the way she had treated him.
