Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 93840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
I wanted to rip Jon and the beefcake in half for putting my sister’s private life in jeopardy that way, but I knew what was done, was done. The only way out was through.
After sending another email to my assistant, Lucas, letting him know I’d be back in the office later tomorrow, I realized I hadn’t seen Felix in hours. I looked up from the desk I’d been sitting at and saw I wasn’t alone.
Arthur sat calmly in a leather chair opposite me.
“How long have you been sitting there?” I asked.
“Since right after I overheard Hen tell Jon she was worried about Felix. Apparently you said something stupid in front of him, and he’s been quiet ever since.”
My stomach dropped. “Why? What did I say?”
“Something about a royal personage sleeping with a commoner as if the very idea was disgusting?” His eyebrow raised in accusation. The man wasn’t subtle when he thought I’d done something wrong.
“Ugh, Arthur. I didn’t mean him. Surely he knew I was just upset.”
Again with the eyebrow.
“Lio, may I make a suggestion?”
“You’re going to anyway,” I mumbled. “Go ahead.”
“Your sister is a grown woman with her own staff. Let her handle her situation the way she sees fit. Until you are the actual head of the family and on the throne, it’s really not your place to go off half-cocked like you did today.”
“But I—”
“Save it,” he said calmly, holding up a hand. “Do you know what Hen did today while you yelled at everyone back home?”
“No.”
“She stayed in her pajamas and cried through a bunch of chick flicks on television while eating an army’s worth of carbohydrates.”
It didn’t surprise me. “Yeah? And?”
“And Felix was right there next to her the entire time, consoling her, bringing her snacks, and making sure she had a fresh stack of tissues handy.”
I pressed my fist into my chest and felt my throat tighten. “Dammit,” I whispered.
“Go find him, sir,” he said gently.
I always knew when Arthur was done lecturing me because he would throw in an honorific to put us back on official footing.
“Thank you, Arthur. I owe you one. You’re a true friend.” The words were sincere even when I tacked on another few. “Sorry I had to fire your boy toy.”
He shrugged. “Meh. He was hardly a ten. Better luck next time. I think you should let me help with the interviews,” he said as he turned and wandered out of my office.
I made my way out of the room behind him and found Mari baking some bread in the kitchen.
“Have you seen Felix?”
Mari narrowed her eyes at me before exchanging significant eye contact with her husband.
“Not since I served him lunch a couple of hours ago. He might be back in his room packing,” she said.
“Packing?” I asked before I realized what she meant. “Oh shit.”
“Yeah, oh shit,” Bert muttered. “Seems to me you’ve got some explaining to do, son.”
My heart dropped into my stomach. Bert stood up from the heavy table and rinsed his tea mug in the sink before kissing Mari on the cheek and heading for the door. Before reaching it, he turned back to me with a rare scowl.
“That there is a nice man, Lio. He doesn’t deserve to be on the used end of this mess. He came here to discover Gadleigh’s unique treasure—to fall in love with it in person. Shame what he fell for didn’t turn out to be the glass.”
When he left, he seemed to take something of mine with him. I felt gutted and breathless, desperate and off balance. Felix was leaving in the morning, and there was fuck all I could do about it.
I made my way through the door Bert had just used and walked the short distance to the carriage house. Without looking behind me, I knew one of the royal guards had followed me out of the kitchen. Two of them had been sitting at the table with Bert and Mari when I’d walked in.
When I reached the carriage house and ascended the staircase, I found the door to the guest apartment propped open with a chair. I knocked on the doorframe rather than striding directly in without permission. Had it been like that the day before, I would have walked straight in. But this was different. Everything had changed since that morning, and things felt awkward as hell.
“Felix?” I called.
“In here.” The voice came from the bedroom, so I followed it. He was folding clothes and stacking them inside his suitcase with precision. Just the sight of the suitcase made my stomach ache.
“Hey,” I said, trying to act cool even though I knew I was failing miserably. “The door was open.” As if he hadn’t known that. What the hell was my problem? I’d never had a hard time talking to him before.