Royal Games (The Royals of Monterra) (5 page)

He nodded and tucked my hand into the crook of his elbow. It was so romantic it made me weak-kneed. We walked from the fence to the front of the mansion. I stopped, pulling my hand away from his arm. His nearness intimidated me. I folded my arms and stared up at the huge house, telling myself to calm down.

“What are you doing?”

I tried not to jump. “Taking a mental picture. They took our phones, and I want to remember it when I go home.”

“Why would you go home?”

“I’m . . . I’m not like . . . I . . .” There was no way to tell him that I felt out of place and uncomfortable. That like any good redshirt, I expected not to be alive at the end of the episode. There was no way this guy could really be interested in me.

But he came to my rescue again. “This is embarrassing, but I don’t know your name.”

I wasn’t surprised he didn’t remember it. “Genesis. Genesis Kelley.”

He held out his right hand, and I shook it. When we’d first met and shaken hands, there’d been no spark. I had felt a stronger connection to Lemon when we met for the first time.

But suddenly that spark was there. And it had brought its entire extended family along with it. To be more accurate, a volcano roared to life inside me, sending lava flowing through my veins when we touched.

I wondered if he felt the same. I suspected he might, because he was still holding my hand. “Genesis,” he repeated, his voice caressing the syllables in my name the same way his thumb was caressing the back of my hand.

I gulped. He was sending shockwaves of electricity through me. So much so that even my jewelry seemed to have been affected. I heard a clanking sound on the ground and realized that one of my borrowed, heavy, and dangly earrings had leapt to its death. Probably due to the electrical shock.

“My earring,” I said. It was the only thing I was capable of saying. I bent down to get it and he followed. I didn’t realize what an issue this was until I started to straighten up, only to discover that somehow my upswept hairdo was caught on his cufflink.

“Ouch!” I said, staying crouched down, not able to stand up.

“Just a moment,” he said. “Let me . . . if I could just . . . My apologies, but I’m going to ruin your coiffure.”

“Coiffure?” I repeated. Who even said that? The word and this situation made me giggle inappropriately. He was going to think I was the worst kind of airhead. “It’s fine. I had no idea how I was going to undo it anyway. Better you than me.”

He tugged at bobby pins, pulling them from my hair and letting them land on the ground. “You didn’t do this yourself?”

“Um, no. I’m not really that kind of girl. I hardly ever even wear makeup. They had all these people dressing us and taking care of our hair and outfits. They’re only doing it for tonight. So tomorrow I go back to being just plain old me.”

He paused, and I wished that I could see his face when he said, “I would very much like to see plain old you.”

That made my heart flutter like a trapped butterfly. I hoped he couldn’t see my embarrassed blush from his vantage point. Locks of my hair hit my shoulder and neck as he released them. When his fingers brushed against my scalp, it tingled.

So I did what I always do when I got nervous. I babbled. “I can’t believe my hair is caught in your cufflink. This kind of thing never happens in real life. Although, I guess this isn’t real life, is it?”

“Not really, no,” he agreed.

Just as I started imagining his fingers running through my hair while he kissed me, he finally finished. “There,” he said. “All done.”

I stood up, and was glad that he wasn’t going to touch me again. All of my senses felt totally overloaded.

“You know, now that I think about it, it probably would have been easier for you to have just opened your cufflink.” He didn’t seem surprised by my suggestion.

Which made me realize that he had already thought of it.

“Easier,” he said, nodding. “But not nearly as much fun.”

What? What did that even mean?

He took a step toward me, and it required every ounce of willpower I possessed to stand still. “Or . . . maybe I just wanted to see you with that all glorious hair down.”

I opened my mouth to respond but didn’t know what to say. Men did not flirt with me like this. Ever. And this very beautiful man with the face of a fallen angel said my hair was glorious. I hadn’t passed out in a long time, but I realized there was suddenly a very real possibility of it happening. “Dante, I . . .”

He put a hand on my shoulder. “Rafe.”

I was almost a hundred percent sure that he’d said his name was Dante. “But I thought that . . .”

This time he put one of his long, tapered fingers against my lips, making my whole body go limp. “Everyone I care about calls me Rafe. Just don’t tell the other girls.” He moved his hand away.

“Okay. Rafe.” I tried it out. I liked it. He took another step toward me so that we were practically touching. He reached out, and I wondered what he thought he was doing. My heart slammed into my ribcage so hard I was pretty sure I’d have bruises. I realized at the last second that he was reaching into his coat pocket.

He’d nearly made me stroke out. “More cookies?” I asked. My voice only quivered slightly.

“No,” he said. He held out a small red pin. “Would you take this piece of my heart?”

I knew what that was. It was the First Sight Heart.

“I would love to.” I took the pin from his hand, trying not to brush my fingers against his palm and failing miserably, which sent more shockwaves through me.

Somehow I managed to attach the pin to the bodice of my dress. This pin meant that he liked me enough to spare me that evening’s elimination. I wouldn’t be going home.

It meant he wanted to keep me around.

Chapter 5

Of course, now I knew that I would have been better off if he had sent me home at the beginning.

“The last item is the annual book drive,” Brooke called out. “Who headed that up last year?”

“Genesis Kelley.” The secretary looked terrified to say my name. Brooke somehow refrained from trying to insult me again.

“So you’ll do it again, won’t you, Genesis?” one of the council members asked. It was a good thing Brooke hadn’t asked, because I might have said no immediately.

“I’ve got a lot going on,” I said hesitantly. I didn’t want to say no and leave them in the lurch, but I was really busy. To be fair, though, I did have the most experience with that project.

Rafe cleared his throat, and I turned to see him narrowing his eyes at me. I knew what he wanted. He wanted me to say no.

He wasn’t the boss of me. “Yes, I’ll do it.” It would help with my keep-busy-so-I-don’t-think-about-Rafe plan.

That got shot to smithereens seconds later. “I would like to volunteer to help with the book drive,” he announced.

Another one of those eerie silences descended over the meeting. So much for putting a stop to us working together.

“And you are?” Brooke asked. She knew darn well who he was. I’d overheard her talking about him and me after I got back from the show. You can guess the tenor of that particular conversation.

But she flirted with every breathing man under the age of thirty, and she probably thought pretending not to know who he was made her more desirable. Or something.

“Rafael.” He paused. “Rafe. Rafe Fiorelli.” It took him a second to add on his extended family’s last name. He didn’t actually have a last name. Just a bunch of first ones and a royal title.

“Fine, put Rafe Fiorelli down on the book drive list.”

Little pockets of anger bubbled up inside me. He had done that just so he could spend time with me. I didn’t need his help. I could do the book drive all by myself.

And go to school. And take care of Aunt Sylvia. And help Dr. Pavich. And work at the diner. And help with the talent show. And run the church bazaar. And do my homework. And take care of the farm. And play my games.

Yep, no problem at all.

The longest town meeting in the history of the entire world finally finished, which meant I could say my goodbyes and hitch a ride home with Amanda. Getting far, far away from Rafe.

Which flooded me with relief right up until I remembered that he would be going to the same place I was going.

Whitney stood up, putting Gracie down. She whined to be picked up, but Whitney explained that she couldn’t carry her because of the doctor’s orders. Gracie put her thumb in her mouth. “Good luck with everything. And now I’m going to have to be nice to him because he was sweet to my kids. It’s a mom law.”

I hugged her goodbye. I felt a hand on my shoulder. Rafe. He turned me around. I blamed my quickened heartbeat on my anger at what he had just done. “Should we talk about the book drive?”

Sneaky jerk. “Not now. I’ve got to get Aunt Sylvia home.”

“I can meet you out front.” He took his keys out of his pocket.

“No, Amanda’s going to give us a ride home.” I technically hadn’t asked her yet, and I really hoped she said yes.

He put his keys back. “May I ask you a question? About the flowers?”

That caused a torrent of emotions that I did not want to deal with. Especially not in front of all the prying eyes and straining ears. A heavy pounding started right behind my eyes. I took a deep breath in and slowly let it out before I answered. “I didn’t want to keep them. So I sent them to people who could enjoy them.”

“Of course you did.” If Whitney had said that, she would have sounded sarcastic. Rafe just sounded like he approved. As if he liked my decision and had expected it. I had anticipated that he would be upset.

I offered Aunt Sylvia my arm, and he did the same. She held on to both of us as she got up. “Thank you,” she said.

Rafe gave her one of his rare smiles. I tried not to feel wistful about all the times when he used to smile at me. I imagined my heart, and then I mentally constructed a wall of ice around it. I had to keep it guarded and safe, and I had to stop it from feeling so many things when he was around.

There was a commotion in the back, and I turned to see Christopher burst through the crowd, looking for Whitney. Something was really wrong.

“What is it?” Whitney sounded panicked.

His face had gone completely white. “They closed the factory.”

The nearby factory made computer printer parts, and half the people in Frog Hollow were employed there.

Whitney was frozen in place, unable to respond. There would be no way for them to survive with Christopher unemployed. Nausea rose up in my throat while my stomach churned. I hoped I wouldn’t actually throw up. I was worried about Whitney’s family, and I didn’t want her to move.

The second part was entirely selfish, but I needed her. Especially now.

“The doors were locked. There’s just a sign on the door saying it’s been shut down. There’s no final paycheck. No more insurance.” He sat down hard in one of the folding chairs, staring ahead at nothing.

“But the baby,” Whitney whispered. I knew the cost of a normal delivery could run into the tens of thousands, and I couldn’t even begin to fathom what kind of bill they’d run up if there were any complications.

I felt Rafe shift next to me. I turned to see an expression on his face that I had seen many times before. It was one that said he was figuring something out. “I’ll see you later,” he said. “I wanted to talk with the town council. Excuse me.”

What was that about? I didn’t have long to think about it, though. I found Amanda, who agreed to drive us home. I hugged Whitney and told her I’d call her after she and Christopher had had a chance to talk.

I couldn’t bear for Whitney to go through this kind of stress. I hoped it wouldn’t affect her health, or the baby’s. This was seriously all I needed. Just one more horrible thing to add to the heaping pile of crap that my life had become.

I wanted to see the silver lining. But right now I was surrounded by rain clouds.

My alarm clock went off much too early. Technically it was the same time as every other morning, but I had stayed up way too late. I’d talked to Whitney for a really long time, trying to figure out ways we could make money. Neither one of us wanted to say what this probably meant—that she and Christopher would have to move closer to the city for him to find work. And that it would kill me to lose her.

After we hung up, I had logged on to
World of Warcraft
. My guild was supposed to run a raid, and as main tank I was scheduled to lead it. But they’d gone without me and had already finished up. I’d looked forward to our raid all week. Whenever I played, I was able to become someone else. I was somewhere else. Nobody knew who I was. Nobody knew about Rafe or the show. I was just Eclipse, the death knight. I could turn my brain off and forget about everything around me.

But I had responsibilities, and so I forced myself out of bed. I had to feed the few animals we kept because of their ability to provide food for us. I put my hair in a bun and threw on some sweats. I grabbed my coat on my way through the kitchen. Aunt Sylvia would be up soon and would make us some breakfast. I’d told her repeatedly she didn’t need to, but she seemed to enjoy feeling useful.

I yawned and saw my breath in the cold, dark morning. I rubbed my hands together as I headed for the barn. I pulled the door open and closed it behind me. I turned on the lights and reached for the pail.

It wasn’t there.

Had it landed on the floor or rolled somewhere? I didn’t see it. I went over to check on Clover, our milking cow, and discovered there was no milk left in her teats. And she had a trough full of hay. I turned to see that the pigs had also been fed, and the chickens were all happily squawking and pecking at the ground. A search of their nests showed that all the eggs were gone.

Danny, the teenage son of our nearest neighbors, had helped with the chores in the past when I was gone on trips. But he knew I was back. We had talked at the diner the night before. And he’d been at the town meeting.

But if it wasn’t Danny, then who was it?

I tromped back to the kitchen, where the light had been turned on and the delicious scent of breakfast made my stomach rumble. I went in and hung up my coat. The milk bucket was in the kitchen.

Aunt Sylvia stood at the stove. “Back so soon?” From the tone of her voice I knew that she knew what I had just found.

“Rafe,” I realized out loud. “Rafe did my chores, didn’t he?” How did he even know what to do? I was sure he didn’t do a lot of farm chores back in Monterra.

She just hummed to herself, scrambling the eggs. “Such a sweet young man.”

I opened the cabinets to get plates and silverware for us. Sweet. He was sweet, all right. And a lying liar. “You need to let it go. That door is shut.”

“You know what they say: when life shuts a door . . .” she replied, carrying the eggs over to the table.

“Open a window?”

“No. Open the door again. That’s how doors work.”

I had no intention of reopening that particular door. I was trying to figure out how to install heavy-duty locks and nail it into the frame. Because that particular ship had sailed, crashed into rocks, and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

“Will you grab another place setting?” She had her back to me.

Now he was coming to breakfast? “Really?”

But before I could demand more of an explanation, Rafe came in through the kitchen door with Laddie, letting a blast of cold air inside. He had an armful of firewood. “Good morning,” he said to us, kicking the door shut behind him like he’d done it a million times before. Aunt Sylvia responded to his greeting, but I just glared at him. He carried the wood into the front room, giving me one of those intense Rafe stares that made my insides go rubbery. I grabbed another plate but refrained from slamming the cabinet door shut. He had his own kitchen. He didn’t need to invade ours. I asked Aunt Sylvia to sit down while I brought the rest of breakfast over.

He took off his coat when he returned to the kitchen and put it on the back of the chair. He was still sporting that scruff on his jaw. I wanted to reach over and see what it felt like. Which made me mad at myself.

So now I was officially mad at every person in the room.

We started eating. Ever the gentleman, Rafe made sure to serve Aunt Sylvia first. Laddie trotted over to beg me for scraps. “You’re a traitor,” I whispered to him. He laid his head on my lap and gave me his sad face. He knew just how to manipulate me. I gave him some of my bacon, and he ran off with it.

I didn’t want to be rude to Aunt Sylvia, but I couldn’t stay. I couldn’t sit this close to Rafe and not react. He seriously smelled good enough to eat.

Or maybe that was the bacon.

“Genesis, do you have something you want to say to Rafe?”

“Yeah. I don’t need you to do my chores.” I shoved some toast into my mouth, but realized that I had lost my appetite.

Aunt Sylvia coughed into her milk and gave me a look of disappointment. It made me feel overwhelmingly guilty.

But that guilt went away when Rafe replied cheerfully, “You’re welcome,” choosing to ignore my foul mood and that he was the reason for it. “I wanted to mention that I spoke to the mechanic and he agreed that it was the battery.”

“Great. I’ll just run out with the money I don’t have and replace it.” I carried my plate and silverware over to the sink.

“I can just—”

I whirled around. “No, you can’t ‘just.’ I don’t need you to take care of me.”

He stood up, breakfast forgotten. “I know you don’t need me to, but I want to take care of you. And I want you to take care of me. That’s how relationships work.”

The ice encasing my heart was starting to melt a bit around the edges.
I can be strong
. “In case you hadn’t noticed, we aren’t in a relationship!”

I could tell he wanted to walk over to me. Which I couldn’t let him do because he’d get handsy and I’d give in.

But he didn’t, probably because we weren’t alone. He gave me one of those slow, sensual smiles that made my breath catch in my throat. “Not yet.”

Aunt Sylvia stifled a laugh behind her hand, and I’d had enough. I practically ran upstairs, texting Amanda as I went. She responded right away and said she’d pick me up. It would mean I would get into Iowa City several hours before my classes started, but I had to get out of this house.

College was taking me forever to finish because I refused to take out student loans and only went as I could afford it. It was a priority for both me and Aunt Sylvia, but I should have graduated a couple of years ago. Even after I got my degree, I would still have several years of veterinary school and training ahead.

I thought of everything I had to get done that day. School this morning, shift at the diner, rehearsals for the talent show, maybe arrange another meeting for the committee working with me on the bazaar?

After showering, getting dressed, and making myself somewhat presentable, I threw on my backpack when I heard Amanda honking. I went downstairs and heard Sylvia and Rafe laughing in the kitchen as they cleaned up the breakfast dishes. It made me grumpy that she seemed to be on his side. If she liked him so much, she could marry him.