Reluctantly Royal Page 6

  “I have the tow receipts to disprove that.” Hannah pulled out her phone and started tapping away at it.

  “Car will be here in a minute.” I tucked my phone into my pocket and stared at the top of Hannah’s head. “He’s pulling around.”

  Hannah nodded but continued typing at her phone. After a beat, she looked up at me with a slight smirk. “I’m texting Rachel to let her know that I’m getting into a stranger’s car. Alone.”

  “If it helps any, you’re not technically alone. There will be two ‘strangers.’ Me and the driver.”

  Hannah gave an adorable snorting laugh. “I’ll be sure to tell her that.”

  I stood there for a few seconds in awkward silence as vehicles sped past on the busy road, despite the time. A few seconds later Hannah giggled and typed some more. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Dimitri exiting the building and approaching security’s SUV. I tipped my head toward Hannah and Dimitri gave me a nod back. He slipped inside the SUV just as Hannah’s head popped up.

  “Rachel wants to know how Dimitri’s doing. Is his rash getting better?”

  “Rash?”

  “I don’t know. I guess he told Rachel he had athlete’s foot from chasing her in his dreams for so many years.”

  I winced. Poor Dimitri. “Uh, he didn’t mention a rash. I think it must’ve been the language barrier. I’m sure he meant to say something—”

  “Less disgusting?”

  “Oui.” I couldn’t help the chuckle that slipped out just as our SUV pulled up to the curb.

  “Oh, look,” Hannah exclaimed, pointing at the two black SUVs with the same make and model. “They match. Do you think they’re staying at your hotel, too?”

  “Maybe,” I murmured, despite the fact I had just watched Dimitri climb inside one. Pulling open the rear passenger door, I gestured to Hannah to get inside.

  “Just a sec.” Hannah ran around the front of the car and with her phone took a picture of the license plate and the hulking outline of Étienne behind the wheel. “Good to go. Now if I disappear or anyone finds my body, a few friends have the license plate and a picture of the guy driving the car I was in.”

  I climbed in after Hannah and met Étienne’s eyes in the rearview mirror. He didn’t look as amused as I felt.

  “Should I feel affronted that I didn’t merit a picture?”

  A flash went off in my face before I could blink.

  “Happy?” Hannah snorted as her fingers flew across the screen of her phone again.

  I was guessing by the sound, since all I could see was one big white spot.

  “I had no idea you were such a prima donna,” Hannah muttered as she typed some more.

  Once my vision was somewhat normal, I noticed Étienne’s hands flexing on the steering wheel. After establishing eye contact in the rearview mirror, I slowly shook my head. I knew he wanted to come to my defense and delete her pictures, but they were harmless. I wasn’t doing anything reckless, and I doubted that, even if she were the type to sell the photos to a gossip rag, they would make her any money.

  “Étienne needs to know where we’re going next.”

  “I know. I’m looking.”

  I blinked. Hannah had made it sound like she had every part of our night planned down to the millisecond. “You don’t know?”

  “Okay—6550 South Buffalo Drive. Wait, you’re not a vegetarian, are you?”

  “Quoi? Non. Why?”

  Étienne typed the address into the sat nav, then texted the address to the other security car. Seconds later he signaled and pulled into traffic.

  “You’ll see,” Hannah replied with a smug little smile.

  I wanted to pester her with questions, but for the first time since my life went sideways I was enjoying the unknown. Unlike the past year, this roller-coaster ride with Hannah was fun. Although, since her last surprise was the Erotic Heritage Museum, I had no idea what she had up her sleeve next.

  Hannah fiddled with her seatbelt and avoided looking at me. “So tell me more about yourself. What was it like to grow up in Monaco?”

  Étienne’s eyes flashed to mine in the rearview mirror, reminding me of our audience. I felt like such an ass, but what could I say? I’ve been lying to you. I’m actually a prince so I’d rather not talk about it?

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s always hard to answer when people ask that. It was my childhood. I didn’t know any different, you know?”

  Hannah tilted her head. “I know what you mean. People always ask what it was like to grow up in Las Vegas. It’s home. It’s all I’ve known. But in case you were wondering, I didn’t live in a casino. Just a regular ol’ house. My parents do not work in a casino. I went to a normal school. And no, they didn’t teach us how to gamble in grade school.”

  “People ask you that?” I’ve had my share of weird assumptions about my life. Somehow I’d never thought that ordinary people had the same issues. Huh.

  “Anyone who’s not from here. It’s obnoxious, really.”

  I could relate. Not that I could say as much. I shrugged. “I guess my childhood was normal for an upper-class family.”

  “Upper-class? Wow. What do your parents do?”

  I froze for a second. “Err, my parents’ money came from their parents’ parents. Import-export mostly. Back in the day. My dad worked for the government and my mum stayed home with us. Mostly.” The hair on the back of my neck prickled, and I could feel the wave of heat overtaking my face. I was just glad for the mostly dim interior so Hannah couldn’t see me sweat. I was horrible at lying. So I kept babbling. “My mum is awesome. Or she was before. When we were little, she loved to play with us, encouraged us to run around and play crazy little kid games. She always had time for us and didn’t care if she got dirt on her dress or messed up her hair. She was involved.”

  “Was?”

  I flinched, drawn back into the present by Hannah’s soft question. “Quoi? What?”

  “Did you lose your mother, too? You speak about her in the past tense.”

  “No, she’s still very much alive. But…losing her son changed her. And my father, too, obviously. But she took my brother’s loss especially hard. And it doesn’t help that I look exactly like him.”

  “Wow. I’m so sorry, Luc.” Hannah reached over and took my hand. She gave it a slight squeeze, then gently swiped her thumb over the back of my hand. “That has to be so unbelievably hard on all of you.”

  “Oui.”

  Silence filled the cab, broken only by the sound of the SUV’s turn signal clicking. I looked out the window next to me and wondered if I’d ever be able to escape the shadow of my family. They seemed to hover over every aspect of my life. Even when I was pretending to be someone else.

  “I get it,” Hannah said softly.

  I turned back and faced her, waiting for her to say more.

  But she didn’t look up from her lap. She threaded her fingers with mine and stared at our hands as though they held the secrets of the world. “I…went through some stuff in high school—I don’t want to bother you with the details—but it changed my family. We were close before—don’t get me wrong—but after? It was like they were afraid to let me out of their sight. Like everything would be okay as long as they could see me, could touch me. They went the opposite way from your mom. So overprotective it felt suffocating.”

  I nodded slowly, thinking through what she said.

  “People handle grief in different ways.” Hannah gave me a sad smile. “Wow, we got kinda heavy there for a minute. And here I thought your evil plan was to get me into the backseat so you could have your wicked way with me. What happened to that?”

  “Wait, are you questioning my…what do you Americans call it?” I gestured between us.

  “Game?”

  “Oui, you’re questioning my game?”

  “Well, you talked a big talk yesterday at the bar. Military man. Stranger in town. Needed someone to show him the sights. All that flirty talk. And the way you danced? But
then tonight…” She paused and shrugged.

  I didn’t find her intimation that she’d found me lacking tonight to be a deterrent. The way she’d melted in my arms earlier and how she kissed me back at the museum, those were the actions of a woman who was into me. She was clearly leveling a challenge at my feet.

  One that I was more than happy to accept.

  I rested my arm on the top of the bench seat and leaned toward Hannah. “I had no idea you were so disappointed. Is there some way I can make this up to you?”

  “Oh. No. It’s just—I was just—I didn’t mean…” Hannah flushed and shrugged helplessly, caught in her own trap.

  I leaned closer still and cupped her jaw in my hand. With a soft nudge, I turned her head until she was forced to look at me. The interior of the vehicle was dim, but I could still make out how her eyes widened when I leaned toward her. And the darkness couldn’t hide the sound of her uneven breath as I slowly ran my thumb over her cheek. “It should be a crime for a woman such as yourself to ever be disappointed. You should never want for a thing, mon chou.”

  “I just—”

  “Sssshh. No, there is no excuse. It is my fault that I have disappointed you so.” I was close enough that I could feel her breath puffing against my lips.

  Hannah’s eyes fluttered shut and her lips parted slightly.

  “Hannah?” I whispered.

  “Mmm-hmm?”

  “Why have we stopped at a motorcycle shop?”

  “Wh-what?”

  “The car. It’s stopped.”

  “Oh.” Hannah sat back and blinked a few times, then looked out the window. “Oh. We’re here.”

  “And where is here?”

  “Just the best burger in the whole state. Maybe the country.”

  “And they serve it in a motorcycle shop?”

  “Nope.” Hannah unbuckled her seatbelt and grinned up at me. “They serve it next to the motorcycle shop.”

  My eyes followed the direction she pointed to, straight to the large, paneled truck parked beside the shop, the words Drive-thru painted on its side in a faux neon sign motif. A crowd of easily fifty or more loitered in the parking lot.

  We were eating dinner outside. In a parking lot.

  From a truck.

  “Hope your brought your appetite. Their burgers are to die for!”

  I couldn’t recall a single time I’d ever eaten a meal in a parking lot. This definitely qualified as a new experience. I just hoped the only thing standing between me and more alone time with Hannah wasn’t a bout of food poisoning.

  Hannah must’ve read my less-than-thrilled expression because she rolled her eyes. “Come on, Luc. Live a little. I didn’t take you for such a prissy date.”

  Hell, with a challenge like that, I couldn’t back down. “Quoi? I didn’t say a thing. Let’s go eat some of your…parking lot food. It sounds lovely.”

  Judging from Hannah’s expression, my smile looked about as fake as it felt. But she just shook her head, then hopped out of the SUV.

  The last thing I heard before I left the vehicle was Étienne’s muffled laughter as he tossed out a “Bon appétit.”

  Chapter 7

  I’ve eaten in restaurants so famous that their reservations were months out. Places where only “it” people could eat. The kind of restaurants that had food critics likening each tiny bite of food to nirvana. But even I had to concede that Drive-thru’s burgers lived up to Hannah’s hype. They were amazing.

  Standing in the crowded parking lot with sauce dripping from my burger wrapper was the least princely thing I’d done in the last year—and I loved every second of it. Here I was literally just another guy, standing in a crowd of fifty people or so, all just there to enjoy a meal and perhaps buy a motorcycle. Maybe it was the endorphins from the great food, but I was seriously considering taking a Ducati for a test drive.

  A muffled moan left me as I enjoyed another huge bite.

  “Good, right?” Hannah had opted for the fully loaded French fries which looked just as delicious, smothered in cheese and bacon and mushrooms. She held one in front of her face and licked at the drips of cheese before they could fall, then popped the whole fry into her mouth.

  For the second time that evening, I had to take a second and shake out my pant leg. Merde, did she have to make everything so erotic? Or was that just a symptom of my newly reawakened libido?

  “Right?” she asked again.

  I swallowed quickly before answering. “Oui. Pardon, I was lost in a food coma for a moment.”

  Because there was no way on earth I was telling her that the way she ate was so distracting it made my dick hard. I hadn’t ever been on a first date, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t acceptable behavior.

  Hannah covered her mouth with her free hand as she laughed. The lights in the parking lot cast a halo around her head, giving her an ethereal aura that was both captivating and alarming. I didn’t have time to examine that feeling before she spoke again.

  “That’ll happen. If you like Drive-thru and are around for much longer, there are a few other places I think you’ll love. Stick with me—I know all the good dive bars, food trucks, and bowling alleys in town.”

  “I’m with you on the food trucks and dive bars. But you’re not getting me anywhere near a bowling alley.” Wouldn’t do to tempt fate, given what had happened when my cousin Harrison had last been in Vegas. Plus I had promised Bastien. Sigh.

  “Pool halls, then?” Hannah grinned mischievously. “We had a table at home growing up. I bet I can wipe the floor with you in a game of eight ball.”

  I unconsciously took a step toward her. She was so filled with joy—it was magnetic. And she didn’t even have to try hard. She could’ve wiped the floor with me now. “That I’d like to see.”

  “It’s a date.”

  We stood there with our food clutched in our hands, staring into each other’s eyes. The crowd around us faded to white noise as my pulse filled my ears. I took another step toward her until I could feel her body heat against me. Hannah angled her head back and tilted it slightly. The invitation was clear. My lips hovered over hers, and I brushed them softly with mine. I was a nanosecond from taking the kiss deeper when the loudspeakers overhead blared with static, followed by a loud voice barking about the new, dynamic motorcycles in the store. We both jumped away from each other, the moment lost.

  Hannah laughed and shook her head. “I almost dropped my fries.”

  “Because of the kiss or the ill-timed announcer?”

  She just gave me a smile and ate another fry.

  I cleared my throat uncomfortably because suddenly I’d found myself liking her too much and making more plans when I wouldn’t be here that long. I couldn’t promise Hannah anything. Hell, given the way Bastien had left things back home there was a good chance I’d be returning to my own betrothal announcement if I wasn’t careful. I had to remind myself that this—with Hannah—was temporary.

  To cover my awkwardness and disappointment, I tried to make small talk. “Can you carve some time into your busy schedule for me? Will your boss be okay with that?”

  “I’m technically self-employed, so I’m my own boss. I rent a space at the salon and Kennedy, the owner, doesn’t care as long as she gets her monthly rent.” She paused for a second with her fry dripping cheese into the carton. “Well, actually that’s not entirely true. She’s a gossiping witch on the best of days and a backstabbing bitch on the others. I’ve been looking for a new spot. And depending on how the next few weeks go, I might take some time off and let my lease expire…” Her voice trailed off like she was lost in thought.

  “With us?” I barked in surprise.

  She blinked at me. “What? No.”

  “Oh. You just, I mean, I just thought…The way you sounded…” This time I was the one who trailed off, but mine was in discomfort. To be honest, my reply had been a reflex. It wouldn’t have been the first time that a woman I was with developed expectations.

  But Han
nah didn’t know who I really was, I reminded myself. Not everyone had ulterior motives.

  “Sorry, Luc, but my world doesn’t revolve around you. Besides, won’t you be gone in a week?”

  “Oui. Again. I’m sorry. It’s just…” I didn’t know how to finish that, so I tried to laugh it off. “I’m used to the world revolving around me, I guess. I apologize.”

  Hannah laughed lightly and shook her head. “Must be nice.”

  I inclined my head but didn’t answer. No one ever wanted to know the truth.

  “You know, I didn’t exactly picture you being such a tease.” Hannah dangled a cheese-laden French fry in front of her face.

  I leaned over and bit the fry she held. “What do you mean?”

  Hannah narrowed her eyes at me and ate the other half of her fry. “That. That right there. You’re a tease—all flirty with no follow-through. Like earlier in the car.”

  I smirked and snaked another fry out of her hand. “Pretty sure that’s the first time in my life I’d ever been accused of being a tease.”

  “Well, what would you call it?” Hannah studied me as she leaned over and took a huge bite out of my burger. While she chewed she waved her fry container as if to make her point, then held a hand in front of her face and spoke through her mouthful of food. “You drew me in and then at the last second backed off. If a chick did that, the guy would label her a tease.”

  “Hey, I’m all for gender equality, but I’m no tease.”

  “We’ll see. You did promise me earlier that you’d put out.”

  I choked on my bite of food. Merde, she was cute. Cute and filthy and entirely not my type. I shook my head and struggled to swallow my food when a guy behind me yelled, “Hey, darlin’, if you’re looking for a sure thing, I’m available. And I’d never leave you high and dry like that douche you’re with.”

  The last few bits of my wrapped burger fell to the ground as I pivoted and stared the asshole down. “Ta gueule, connard!”

  “Oh, great.” He snorted. “A fucking foreigner.”

  I’d been so pissed I hadn’t realized I spoke in French.

  Bolstered by the jeers of his equally drunk friends, the ass took a step closer to me and pulled the brim of his baseball hat around until it unveiled his entire ugly face. Judging by his bloated red complexion and the cooler at his feet, he really liked his beer. “Seriously, sweetheart. You can do so much better. How about you let me show you around town.”