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7
25 February
St. Jerome’s Square
Seated on a raised dais—along with the Barrington family, the other “lady guests,” and some of the Navan representatives—Juliana smiled as she watched the spectacle in front of her. She noticed that the Duke of Waverly presided over the parade much like the queen. She felt like she was in a familiar place but on an unfamiliar planet.
The cobblestone square was surrounded by government buildings. Elaborate facades graced old-world buildings, a steepled church sat at the end of a street, and in the background were the hints of a river. The trail of floats reminded Jules of the parade she would normally attend on this day if she were home. Big, bold wooden scenes depicting moments important in the formation of their country. Each of the three provinces had their own set of patron saints, as different as their turbulent histories. Here, St. Jerome and St. Horatio were of import, and those were the events depicted for the audience.
Even with the majesty and the insight available for her absorb, her mind kept drifting back to the lowest floor at Xavier Hall and the secrets she’d become privy to. Rowan Beckwith was the Duke of Waverly’s illegitimate son. It was baffling on so many levels. And his plan? She shook her head.
Juliana had not set out to get involved with Rowan. They hadn’t had one civil interaction. The day they’d met at St. Peter’s Training Ground, Juliana had actually been excited. Football wasn’t her thing really, but she’d volunteered to go with Jamie because she wanted to have something in common with her brother. She thought it would be fun and bring her closer to him. But then he opted out, and she was forced to go with Ele. Juliana’s disappointment was piercing. She had hoped the afternoon would be salvaged with the introductions and the tour. Ele got Tristan, and she was sidled with Rowan. He barely acknowledged her, and then he pawned her off on the kit master. And Jules had been ogled enough in her lifetime to be shocked and intrigued by his indifference.
She’d shaken Rowan’s hand at the reception in America and watched him on the pitch. When the team advanced out of pool play and they hosted a press conference, Juliana was a prop to show the players that the country was proud of them. What had happened while she was there was an accident.
Juliana had been watching Ele’s tells for years. And she’d made it her mission to help Ele hide her panic attacks from the public. In her quest to help her sister, she’d done some crazy things, but none were as insane as what she had done at the press conference. She knew Ele was about to fall off the rails when she surveyed the men in front of her. She had two choices—Nico Ramsey or Rowan. And while she wouldn’t have been mad to kiss Nico, Rowan was the better choice. Nico had kids, and Rowan, she thought, had no ties. But even as she contemplated what she was going to do, she wasn’t prepared for the enormity of it. She walked to Rowan, and without any preamble, she put her mouth on his. In her mind, it was going to be a brief brush, the scrape of a butterfly wing. It was what she’d intended.
But what was that saying? The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Because his mouth was heaven.
Juliana had always been selective with her kisses. A couple of saliva exchanges in secondary school and during her modeling career. But trust was hard to earn, and Juliana refused to give parts of herself over to anyone without the knowledge that the person wouldn’t sell those parts of her.
So, when his teeth nipped at her bottom lip, her mouth opened in surprise. And the first swipe of his tongue, like a barrel-aged bourbon, swirled through her like temptation. And before she knew what was happening, her world tunneled. At the narrow tip of it was Rowan. He kissed her like he wanted to know her, like they were having a conversation. Trading tidbits of information, racking up likes and dislikes. She kissed him back like he was a favorite book she read over and over again. She was racing to the epilogue when he tore out all of the pages in the middle. When she’d realized that he had snatched it away from her, she had been too stunned to do anything but allow Noah to maneuver her to safety.
The parade paused in front of the stands, and the master of ceremonies whipped the band into the national anthem. Everyone seated on the dais hurried to their feet. When the song finished, there was polite applause. Juliana was about to sit when the next song began—the Navan anthem. She knew it because she’d had to learn it as part of her diplomatic training. The voices of the crowd, which had barely mouthed the words of the national anthem, now practically shouted the refrain. And at the end, the crowd cheered loudly and stomped their feet. The enthusiastic rendition was inspiring, but it left Juliana feeling cold.
Then, the Duke of Waverly moved to the center of the platform and raised his hands. The audience roared their approval.
“Let Carnival begin!” he called out.
The parade resumed, moving through the square. Everyone found their seats to watch, but as Juliana sat, she was aware that she’d seen something that made her feel vaguely uncomfortable.
Juliana had taken the day to think about Rowan’s proposition, and she needed to talk to him. She saw the benefits of his plan. And she knew it was the right move, politically. Frederik’s good looks didn’t make up for the aloof demeanor he portrayed, and she wasn’t sure she could build an alliance with him. But she also couldn’t figure out how she and Rowan would pull off such a supreme hoax. He did not like her, and she did not like him. Their interaction in the hotel room all those months ago had played in her mind over and over today. They were oil and water.
She found the elevator and ducked inside. Violet had given her step-by-step instructions with landmarks, which seemed ridiculous, but helped her find her way. She knocked lightly on the door. She heard something hit the floor and then a flurry of clanks before the rhythmic crunch of the crutches sounded.
When Rowan opened the door, he seemed surprised to see her. He must have been working out because his shirt was damp and his skin glistened. He wiped his face with his hand and then rubbed it on his shorts.
“I didn’t expect to see you today,” he said by way of greeting. He gave her a once-over, taking in her slacks, sweater, and heels. “I’m underdressed.”
Juliana tried hard not to stare at his arms. While the rest of his body was depleted, his biceps were not. And she might sort of hate him, but she could appreciate his athletic body.
She cleared her throat. “Can I come in?”
He shifted back, giving her space to duck inside. He motioned with his head toward the sitting room. They weaved through the weight area, and she settled on the sofa.
Rowan stood in the middle of the room, looking around. “Um, can you grab a towel from the bathroom for me?”
Juliana knew it had taken everything for him to ask for her help. She didn’t hesitate. She hurried into the bathroom, taking care not to look over at the bedroom. She found a towel in the first cabinet. When she went to walk out, she took in the room. It resembled a hospital room with its adjustable bed, wheeling table, and random medical equipment.
Feeling like an intruder, she returned to Rowan and placed the towel on the recliner. After some maneuvering, he finally sat down. When he was comfortable, he looked over to her.
“It must be hard to be so helpless.” As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she wanted to shove them back in. Way to go! “I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant.”
Rowan looked too tired to argue with her. “Yes, it is, and yes, it is.”
She glanced away from his piercing stare and twirled a strand of hair around her finger. She didn’t know how to move forward with their conversation. The silence around them was uncomfortable, and Juliana realized she was messing this up.
She met his gaze. “I’ve thought a lot about our conversation yesterday.”
Rowan shrugged. “And?”
“You really think we can pull this off?”
He leaned back and smirked. “I thought you had a better poker face than what you’ve just shown me.”
Juliana’s cheeks heated. “I do.” She shook her head and giggled. She wanted to slap herself. She hated when she did that, and she really hated it when it happened in front of this man. She inhaled and leaned forward a bit, softening the line of her back, forcing herself to relax. “I think I do.”
“Fair enough.” He shifted, winced. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about this. I want you to listen to me, the whole way through, before you react.”
Jules was skeptical, but she nodded. “Okay.”
“We already have this narrative in place, right?” He paused for her acknowledgment, so she nodded again and felt a bit like a bobblehead. “I’ve been very vocal about my ire over what happened in July. And you know I am a bit of an anti-monarchist. I haven’t been particularly quiet about my views.” She started to speak, and he held his hand up. “Because of these two facts, I think we need to go big with our ‘discovery.’” He put air quotes around the word. “I know you aren’t going to like this, and I’m not crazy about it either. However, I think it’s best if we are discovered in bed together.”
All the air left Juliana’s lungs. With a strangled inhale, she forced out a, “No!”
He looked at her, and she could almost hear his thoughts. Grow up Princess!
“Remember, I’ve been vocal about everything that went down between us. If we are found wrapped around each other, I can feign outrage and be very protective. My father will rage a bit—not because he won’t approve, but because he didn’t know. We say how we’ve been sneaking around since the gala. It can’t be before that because I was still with Alicia. But we explain how that kiss started it all. You’ll have to be ready to deal with the age-difference quips—of which I am sure there will be a lot. And I’ll have to defend against being called a hypocrite. The whole country got wrapped up in Ele and Tristan’s story. We can craft ours so that we have the same effect.”
Juliana hated every part of the plan, but she couldn’t argue with the genius of it. They could probably pull it off.
“Why haven’t I been with you since the accident and surgery?” she asked, trying to anticipate questions that would come up.
“I’ll say I didn’t want you to see me like that, that I was protecting you. And you were so angry with me that you issued an ultimatum. I intentionally pushed you away. Get this,” he said, his eyes sparking, “we can say it’s why you agreed to show up for the marriage mart. You decided to move on. But when I discovered you were here, I revealed myself and my past to you.”
Juliana sat back. “That’s fucking brilliant,” she said, a bit awed.
“Right?” He glanced away from her for a moment, and she knew she wasn’t going to like what the rest of his plan entailed. “The thing is, you’ll have to stay down here with me once we are found out. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Juliana fidgeted. She couldn’t see how that would work. She understood it, but she was concerned that they might kill each other.
“Look, we’d have to sleep in separate beds anyway, and sex is off the table for a while.”
“Sex?” she said, right before she giggled. Her cheeks heated again.
He pointed at his leg. “No traction.”
She looked away from him, embarrassed because she’d had a flash of him naked, entwined with a woman. “Right. So, how would we be in bed together?”
“I thought about that. What do you sleep in?”
Juliana’s eyes went wide.
“Don’t answer that,” he said quickly. “Do you have something you can wear that would be inappropriate?”
Jules cleared her throat and said, “Yes,” on a laugh.
“Then, we’ll have to figure out how much time a girlfriend would spend with her boyfriend when they’ve just reunited and he needs to rehab.”
“Right. Simple really.”
“The other thing is, you can’t tell anyone it’s fake.”
“Except Ele and Jamie and Robert.”
“No. No one.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. They will know.”
“How?” Rowan asked. “Ele was out of the country for almost three months. Jamie is hardly ever in country. You are conspicuous enough when going out that we can make it seem like you came to me after.”
“Tristan and Nico won’t be suspicious?”
“I was never one to talk about women in the dressing room. It’s not my style. And Nico and Tristan might suspect, but they won’t challenge me on it. Much.”
She didn’t like this stipulation, but she understood. If there was one part of their plan that was faulty, it would be this. Tristan and Nico might respect Rowan enough to just have his back, but Ele was going to ask. She’d seen how Rowan treated Juliana. She would question this relationship. But Juliana knew she could count on Ele’s and Jamie’s support, so she would try it his way.
“Okay.”
Rowan’s lips curved—his version of a smile. “All right, tomorrow, here’s what we do.”
