Going Royal 02 - Some Like It Scandalous (17 page)

“So what is it like? You know I’m not going to stop asking and if you don’t tell me, well, I’ll just call Mom and tell her he broke your heart again and she’ll tell Tommy and Dad and—”

“You do realize it’s rude to blackmail your sister, right?” She fished out a worn, three-sizes-too-big T-shirt and stared at it. The simple black shirt with the silver Yale on the front was Charlie’s favorite—he’d worn it everywhere. When she returned to the States and arranged to move out of their apartment, it ended up in her boxes—probably shuffled into their mixed laundry. She’d never returned it. She always meant to do it, but sometimes after a particularly horrendous day, she would slip it on and remember.

When did I become such a sap?

“Pfft. It’s not blackmail when you’re related.” Penny intruded, but Anna traded the sweatshirt and shorts for the T-shirt before answering.

“Oh?”

“Nope. It’s leverage. So, spill. What’s going on with you and Charming Charlie?”

Anna’s eyes widened. “Oh my God. Do not call him that.”

“I kind of like it, it’s got a good ring to it and it comes with bling—heh heh.” Penny chortled, but her laughter was short-lived. “And stop being so evasive. What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. Nothing. Everything. I started this week like any other on a new project, one hundred percent focused on making it a success. Now I’m living with a man that is so damn familiar it hurts and I’m not even sure I ever really knew or know now.” She exhaled, sitting on the edge of the bed. The little girl lost was not her—nor was this horrible loss of options. “Maybe I should suggest I move to a different place, get out from underfoot. I don’t have to be here to be secure and I can’t think this is making it any easier to say we’re not involved when—”

“One. You’re involved. Two. You’re babbling. Three. What happened?” Penny’s voice sharpened, all of the playfulness evaporating.

“We kissed.” There, she said it.

“Sweet.” Excitement bubbled in Penny’s voice. “Who kissed whom?”

“Does it matter?” She flopped against the pillows. Her lips tingled when she thought about their kisses.

“Of course it matters. Did he kiss you? Did you kiss him?”

“The first time—”

“First time? You’ve been holding out on me, that’s multiple kisses.”

Anna let out an exasperated huff. “It’s not like that.”

“Uh-huh.”

Anna groaned. “Penny, you’re killing me here.”

“Killing you? You’re the one holding on to all the juicy details.”

“He kissed me first.” She was never going to get her shut up about it until she answered. “But he was mad—I think.”

“Why do you think he was mad?” Bless her, instead of the a-ha Anna had expected, Penny sounded quiet, thoughtful.

“Because he kissed the hell out of me and walked away.” Her body hummed. The heat spreading from her face to her chest and across her belly—she would have made love with him right then and right there, but he walked away.

“Okay, angry kisses are good.” Relief bumped her voice up a notch. “That’s untapped passion aching to be released. And the next kiss?”

“Well, technically...he kissed me again.” Did the gym kiss really count? The firm affection in his manner and his lips left the butterflies in her stomach in an uproar.

“That you have doubt means you need to give me more details...”

She sighed. Penny really was impossible. “We were working out and talking, he had to go. He gave me a quick kiss because he had to go.”

“With or without tongue?”

“None of your business.”

“Definitely means without. Go on.” Something squeaked in the background, followed by a clicking noise and a long inhale.

“Penny, are you smoking again?”

“Nope.” She blew out a breath. “And we’re not talking about me, we’re talking about you and Charming Charlie. So we have one and a half kisses on his side. What’s next?”

She promised herself to get after her sister later. “Next Nikole let it slip in some interview that she and Charlie were engaged...” Even though she’d realized it wasn’t true, the words had hurt.

“That bitch.” God love a sister who immediately championed her cause. Anna summarized the rest—Sebastian’s confession, Armand’s dismissal and her confusion over it all.

She didn’t know whether they were coming or going. Less than a week ago, he was still a figment of her past—a huge figment—but that was where she kept him, safe and secure in a memory box that she could take out late at night. But now, he was here in her present, so alive, virile and strong.

“What was I supposed to do?”

“What do you want to do?”

Kiss him.
Slap him.
Scream.
Leave.
Stay.

I
don’t want a death threat forcing him to keep me close when clearly we are better off apart.

But she said none of that. She hadn’t told anyone—particularly her family—about the threats, she didn’t want her family to know. “I don’t know.” Anna sighed. “I don’t know what I want. We were done—dead and buried.”

“Bullshit.” The flat tone cut off her self-pity. “You two haven’t been over since the day you came home.”

“Penny!”

“No, you know it was one thing when you were moping around and refusing to talk about it. Everyone danced on eggshells because you looked like hell. You missed him so bad,
my heart
hurt. But it was your business and we all took your side because he lied—but Anna, come on, you’re smarter than this. You want something, you go after it.”

“He’s ordering me around like I’m some servant, that doesn’t say he wants me, Pen.”

“No, it says you burned him and he doesn’t want to be burned again.” She didn’t mince her words. “You know what your problem is?”

“I’m guessing you’re going to tell me.” Were they really sending each other mixed signals?

“Yup. You think too much. You forget that half of a relationship is how good the other person makes you feel—and Charlie makes you feel great. You’ve sounded more like you in this last week with all the insanity than you have in years. You know what you’re other mistake is?” Penny continued without waiting for an answer. “You’re on the phone with me instead of going out there and making your prince come.”

Anna sat straight up. “Penny!”

“Yeah, you were thinking it, I just said it. So now I’m going to do you the best favor of your life. I’m going to hang up now—”

“Penny.”

“I hear an orgasm calling your name. Ta-ta for now!” The phone clicked in her ear and Anna stared at it. Every time she thought her little sister couldn’t shock her more, she dispensed her own peculiar blend of wisdom and snark.

She could sit here and continue to feel sorry for herself or she could beard the lion in his den. Anxiety twined around the fear in her gut. What if he really didn’t want her anymore?

Then I’ll know—we’ll both know—and we can stop hurting each other once and for all.

Leaving the phone in the middle of the bed, she crossed to the door and headed out. This called for a bottle of wine and two glasses.

Time to rip the Band-Aid off...

Chapter Eleven

Padding down the hallway, she glanced in the kitchen and living room before traveling across the hardwood floors and rich Venetian rugs to the archway that led off into an unexplored wing of the penthouse. Charlie kept an office in the suite—he must, because twice this week he retired to that office to take calls. He never invited her back to it. But with a bottle of wine in one hand, two wineglasses in the other and her courage on her sleeve, she planned to invite herself.

What if he tells me to get out?
Again.

She slid to a halt. Grumbling about her own lack of courage, she pushed onward. Better to know than to wait, wonder or hope. She’d waited for ten years—she didn’t mean to, didn’t plan to and hadn’t even realized—until he railroaded himself back into her life. If she didn’t want him here, she wouldn’t have agreed to stay, to work so closely to him, and she sure as hell wouldn’t have wanted to kiss him.

At the door to his office, she raised her hand to knock. Deciding against that, she juggled the wine bottle and glasses and opened the door. He sat behind his desk and his gaze alighted on her immediately. Pleasure flared in his eyes and his mouth parted, but she held up a finger to halt his words.

“We need to talk—and by that, I mean really talk. No more dancing around it, no more polite deflections.” The carpet in his office was like silk against her feet and the cool air brushing her legs reminded her she was hardly dressed professionally, but she plowed onward. Setting the wine bottle and glasses down, she flattened her hands against the desk. “I propose that for the next twelve hours we each give the other a pass. We can ask anything we want, answer it all—honestly—no harm, no foul. We clear the air between us.”

Charlie leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers together. His eyebrows lifted in silent inquiry.

“Yeah, that’s...it. That’s my proposal.” She chewed her lip, the nervous fluttering in her belly turning into a full-fledged stampede.

The moment of truth...

“Okay. Richard, if you wouldn’t mind excusing us...” Charlie looked around her. Mortification flamed through Anna and she straightened up, her current state of undress adding to the embarrassment. Turning slowly, she found Richard standing at the minibar in the office, a tumbler in his hand.

“Hello, Richard.” She gathered together the shreds of her dignity. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were there.”

“Clearly.” The droll humor in his smile didn’t make her feel any better. “And I agree, Armand. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

He sailed toward the door in three quick strides, pausing long enough to give her a reproving look. “It’s good to see you again, by the way. Cut the big guy some slack...”

Lifting both brows, she kept the mild irritation at his advice in check. “Tell me, Rick. When did he tell you?”

Richard cut his glance from her to Charlie. She didn’t turn to follow the purely silent pulse of communication transmitting between the two. Whatever he saw in the prince’s face satisfied him. “End of freshman year.”

“Okay, so three years before I found out and he actually
told
you.” She let him chew on that.

“But I didn’t run.” Rick’s voice went low and it was damn near a murmur.

Anna sucked in a breath. “No. He also didn’t ignore you.”

Behind her, she could hear Charlie shifting at his desk, but neither she nor Richard spoke any louder. “No, but
I
didn’t ignore you either—you could have called me.”

True. She could have and maybe Richard could have helped—Charlie, her, someone. “I’m sorry I didn’t call, but it wasn’t about you. He and I should have been able to do this without you running interference. So...”

“So I’ll shut up and mind my own business. Give him hell, Anna. But don’t run away from him this time.” Richard’s sober expression gave way to a quiet smile and he glanced around her to Charlie, raising his voice at the same time. “You’re on your own, buddy.” And with that, he was gone.

“He always was the smart one.” She turned back to Charlie and pursed her lips. “Sorry for bursting in, I should have knocked.”

“No—you shouldn’t have. You were beautiful in your determination. Fierce... I liked it.” But he stayed behind the desk, so she grabbed a chair and pulled it forward. The fabric seat was cool against her bare legs.

“And my proposal?”

“It’s dangerous, Anna.” Charlie sat forward now and reached for the wine bottle. He studied the label but made no move to open it. “You want us to—how did you phrase it? Stop dancing around? Be honest?”

“Yes.” The nerves curled through her again, but her little sister was right and it was time—and frankly, she wanted it to be time. “I’ll understand if you don’t want to. You know, maybe I won’t understand it, but I will respect it. But I can’t keep kissing you, crying over you and having all these questions and feelings and memories and wondering what we’re doing or why we’re doing it.”

His jaw tightened when she said cry, but she held her ground. “What if you hear something you don’t like? Or I do?” He didn’t challenge the premise, instead clarifying the terms. She could appreciate that.

“No walking out. No walking away. We stay here—we check our tempers at the door and we talk.” Scooting to the end of the chair, she put her hands on the desk.

“And if we fight?” His gaze shuttered, his expression turning remote. She courted not only Charlie, but the prince who’d dismissed her earlier.

“Then we fight. But a fight doesn’t mean the end—we used to be able to fight and not hurt each other.” She chewed the inside of her lip. “Not like you hurt me when you ordered me out of that room. Not like I hurt you when I didn’t fight for you in Norway, and I walked away. I accept that I did that—but I’m
here
now.
You’re here
. Let’s...try?”

Charlie exhaled and rolled his chair back before standing. He gathered the wineglasses and gestured to the door. “Let’s find someplace more comfortable, then.”

She trailed after him, through the quiet penthouse to the opposite hall. They bypassed the kitchen, the dining room, the living room and even her bedroom. At the far end of the hall was a room she never went into—his bedroom.

He opened the door, and she hesitated. “Is that a good idea?”

“Trust me.” Two very simple words, but a harder emotion to dredge up from the swampy morass of their mutual mistakes. He waited, though, and he didn’t push. She licked her lips and nodded. She did trust him—if he wanted to sleep with her, well, hell, he could have had her on the table, in the foyer... Cutting off the lazy curl of desire that train of thought awoke, she stepped into his room.

Like hers, it had a large four-poster bed in the center of the nearly twice-the-size of her room, but it also had a little sitting area. Comfortable sofas arranged in an L shape with a pair of overstuffed chairs. Video game controllers sat on the coffee table, across from a wide-screen television with a game system hooked up to it. A couple of blankets were tossed over the chairs and she picked out his favorite right away from the depression in the seat and the back.