A Royal Entanglement: The Young Royals Book 2 (13 page)

“You want me to put the fear of God into this Bradley guy?”

I chuckled, “No,” he said, “I have my own plans for him.”

She stepped out of my embrace and smiled up at me.
 
“You know I love you right, Freddie?” she said and I nodded, “But if you let that other guy take her away from us, I will have to kill you.”

“I love you too Mer,” I said with a chuckle, “Now, don’t you have a job to do?”

She punched my arm and then left the room.
 
I rubbed the spot and grimaced, she didn’t know her own strength, or she did and she was sending me a warning. I shook my head and chuckled, I didn’t think Alex realised how many people cared about her and were willing to protect her.
 
She seemed to be the one who was always looking after everyone else, but who looked after her?

I stepped out of the room and stood in the hallway, waiting for her.
 
I needed to make sure she was okay.
 
I couldn’t say I was upset with the turn of events, she had been all set to turn my proposal down, but now she didn’t have a choice.
 
I didn’t like that she had only agreed because she was backed into a corner, but in the end it had gotten us both what we wanted.

Her door opened and she stepped out looking for all the world like her whole world hadn’t just been stood on its ear.
 
Alex knew control, she was a master of it.

“Freddie,” she said when she saw me.

“Can I walk you to the office?” I asked, stepping up and offering her my elbow.

She tucked her hand into the crook of my arm and I rested my other hand over it as we walked down the hall.

“Thank you for coming to tell me yourself about the papers,” she said, “I really appreciate the heads up.”

“Of course,” I said, “I didn’t want you to have to face it alone.”
 
I was quiet for a bit as we walked and then, “I know this isn’t what you wanted.
 
If you want to call the whole thing off, we can make a statement saying that there is nothing going on—”

She stopped walking and looked up at me.
 
“Is that what you want?”

She looked so vulnerable, her big eyes staring up at me with a shadow of uncertainty in them.
 
I smiled down at her and brushed the back of my hand across the soft skin of her cheek.

“No,” I said, my voice husky, “That’s not what I want, but you just have to say the word and I can make it all go away.”

Her eyes searched mine for a moment and then she shook her head. “No,” she said, “We may as well let this play out.
 
Don’t say I didn’t warn you, though.”

We continued walking until we reached the office.
 
I opened the door for her and we stepped into the suspiciously quiet room.
 
Everyone was trying very hard not to look directly at us and appear to be working, but it was far to obvious that we were the sole focus of the entire office.
 
I dipped my head and brushed a soft kiss on the corner of her mouth before walking back out of the office with a smile on my face.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, although Alex’s reticent reception of me was now more understandable.
 
When she told me that she was seeing someone, I didn’t believe her, but there was no escaping it now.
 
A front page announcement and a Press Conference is a hell of a way to prove a point, but methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Alex looked good on camera, well, she looked good all the time, but this morning as the press gathered around her and Lord Bingham, she looked every inch the calm, cool and collected woman I had known in the States.
 
It’s why I picked her, why I had pursued her, she was exactly the kind of wife I wanted and I thought she wanted it too.

Lord Frédéric Bingham could pose a problem though.
 
He was an Earl, hard to compete with that, heir to a Duchy and the multi-billion dollar Monticorp, not to mention his own million dollar corporation Avonlea.
 
I’d done some research on him yesterday and found that he was more than a pampered dandy and he also had a reputation with the ladies, this little announcement was sure to cramp his style.
 
Which, in turn, made me wonder why they had done it.

Each of the photographs in the paper were innocent enough when looked at individually.
 
They weren’t caught in an amorous embrace, or sneaking a kiss, they weren’t even holding hands; they were simply standing next to each other and talking.
 
Considering that they were both close to the Queen and had been working together, surely these moments were as innocent as they looked and probably would have gone unnoticed except for that picture on the front page.
 
They were dancing, closely, and looking into each other’s eyes and it looked anything but innocent.
 
And that could give me problems.

My phone rang and I glanced at the caller id.
 
I swore softly, the last person I wanted to speak to was Kiki, but I thumbed the answer button and put the phone to my ear.

“Brad Corsair,” I answered.

“Bradley, have you seen the news?” Kiki asked in the annoying baby-talk that grated on me.

“I was just watching it,” I replied.

“You will fix this, right?
 
You will win her back?”

“I will try,” I replied, frustrated.

“We had a deal Bradley.”

“I know that.”

“You’re not trying to back out of it are you?”

“No, Kiki, I’m not trying to back out of it.
 
When I came here I didn’t know Alex was involved with someone, in fact I didn’t know a lot of things.
 
Why didn’t you tell me she worked for the Queen?
 
Or that there was a coronation?
 
Those are pertinent details you forgot to mention.”

Kiki was silent for a moment and I rolled my eyes.
 
If I didn’t need her to win Alex back, then I would have hung up on her, but Alex was too important to walk away from.

“I knew she worked for the Palace,” Kiki conceded, “But I don’t know she was so close to the Queen.
 
I thought she was just a lowly gofer, just one of the many worker bees.”

“You didn’t know your own daughter was the Queen’s personal assistant?”

“We haven’t talked all that much lately,” Kiki said and I suppressed the urge to groan.
 
I had come here thinking that Kiki and Alex had patched up their differences.
 
Kiki had led me to believe Alex wanted me back.

“Again,” I said, “Information that would have been helpful before I landed here.
 
Look Kiki, I will do what I can, but if Alex and Lord Bingham are indeed a couple, as it looks like, then there won’t be much I can do.”

“No,” Kiki said, her voice losing all trace of the sickly sweet baby talk, “You promised me Bradley.”

“Fine,” I said with a frustrated exhalation, “But you will have to help me.
 
Have you seen Alex yet?”

“No,” she said sheepishly.

“Well, call her, today.
 
Set up an appointment to see her.
 
She can’t refuse meeting with her own mother.”

“Fine,” Kiki said, “But you still have to do your part.”

I disconnected and restrained myself from throwing the phone across the room.
 
I looked back at the television where the press conference was wrapping up.
 
The reporters were calling for Lord Bingham and Alex to kiss.
 
I turned it off, I couldn’t watch that.
 
I sank down into a chair and dropped my head into my hands.
 
How could I compete with someone like Frédéric Bingham? I didn’t know how I would pull it off, but I had thirty days to perform a miracle and get Alex to marry me and time was ticking.

I sat at my desk trying to work, but my mind was otherwise occupied.
 
The press conference had been a circus with Freddie happily playing the ring master.
 
I felt like I had been dragged in from the audience and kept waiting for the punch line that would leave me humiliated.
 
And then he kissed me.

The crowd of photographers and reporters had been clamouring for it, so we had obliged.
 
I was nervous, just being that close to Freddie with his wonderful aftershave swirling around me was enough to put me off balance.
 
Add to that his warm hand on the small of my back and the way he looked at me… I was a goner.
 
I must have looked like a love-sick fool in front of everyone or a stunned mullet, either way it couldn’t have been pretty, and then he turned to me to kiss me and I… panicked.
 
That’s the only excuse I have for how unbelievably awkward it was.
 
Our first kiss and it was in front of fifty reporters and it was ugly.
 
Our noses bumped, our teeth clashed, I didn’t know where to put my hands.
 
All in all it was a mess and it was immortalised on film.

I gave up any pretence of work and dropped my head onto my desk.
 
This was worse than I had ever imagined.
 
No one would believe that I would be dating someone like Freddie.
 
He was all suave and charm and handled the press attention with ease.
 
I was uncoordinated, clumsy and a nervous wreck by comparison.
 
What would a guy like Lord Frédéric Bingham, Earl of Avonlea, ever see in an unsophisticated
paysan
like me?
 
No one would believe us.