Royal Tease Read online

How the fuck were we supposed to know he’d transferred it to Jessa?

  Back in my office, I pulled out my cellphone and made a call praying I would get through immediately.

  But nothing. "Bugger." I forced my brain to run through the possible solutions. I might have a way out of the mess, but that would take relying on a decade-old signal. This was what I got for not calling my cousin and telling him I was here.

  My phone rang and I answered on the first ring

  "Are we fucked?"

  Ariel. Right to the point. “I don’t know. I just tried to call my cousin to warn him to go along and nothing.”

  "What are the odds he'll just go with it? I mean at the end of the day, your background is your background. We didn't change anything, I merely scrubbed out your military history. So it shouldn't come up."

  "It shouldn’t. But she’s so wary of me already."

  "Damn it. I should have known she was on the account."

  Was this her admitting a fault? “We’ll deal with it.”

  "I’ll also try to get in touch with him."

  "And tell him what?"

  “Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. Please tell me you have a good relationship with your cousin and he doesn’t want to dick with you.”

  “Well…”

  “You know what never mind. You go. And try to keep the princess from killing you okay?”

  “Roger that.” I hung up and tried Ben again. Fuck it. I hated risking the whole mission on a long-ago code we had as kids. But I didn't really have any choice.

  Twenty minutes later, we pulled up to the main headquarters of London Lords flagship hotel. LL Westminster was sleek, modern excellence. From the exterior, everything screamed refined luxury. Everything the rich and wealthy could want. There was nothing opulent about it. Nothing gaudy.

  I had to give it to my cousin, he'd built something outstanding. The last time I had seen Ben was when Sebastian had popped into London following King Cassius’s death for an impromptu state visit.

  We’d spoken maybe twice more since then. There was a lot to catch him up on, so I hoped to God he’d remember the signal from when we’d been kids.

  Before I had left for Sandhurst, we’d been really close. And it would be good to see him, except not exactly under these circumstances.

  “You have all your notes for the meeting? I need someone with balls of steel, so if you have no balls you need to tell me now."

  I forced a grin. "Oh, I think you and I both know I have balls."

  Jessa rolled her eyes. "You know what? I can already tell you are going to be a major pain in my ass."

  I left that one alone. No way was I going to remind her that I’d already had my hand on her ass. Very nice ass that it was. Right now, my brain space was occupied with trying to keep the mission alive. Without breaking cover, and, without alerting the princess.

  Security let us up to the twentieth floor. It was beautifully appointed, with balconies all around and floor-to-ceiling windows. All of West London was on display. Obviously Big Ben, Westminster, the House of Commons. Everywhere the eye could see were panoramic views of the city.

  Ben’s assistant stood behind the glass desk as we approached. "Mr. Ainsley, Ms. McLean. Mr. Covington will see you now."

  Here goes nothing.

  She opened up the massive oak door. "Mr. Covington, Ms. McLean and Mr. Ainsley from Evans PR are here."

  Ben put his finger up as he finished a call. His tones were hushed, but authoritative. And then he hung up and smiled wide. "Ms. McLean, it is good to see you again. I was wondering when you would grace us with your presence. East and Bridge were disappointed to miss this meeting. We were hoping that you would let us take you to lunch. After all m—" His gaze flickered from Jessa to me, momentarily landing back on Jessa and then stuttering back to me. I could almost hear his brain doing that screeching car tire sound. Errrrrr.

  Thankfully East and Bridge weren’t here. From what I remembered about Ben’s partners, neither one of them had a particularly good poker face.

  Shit, that meant that Ariel hadn’t been able to reach him. I tapped my left temple twice with my index and my middle finger. And I prayed to God he remembered. I had no idea if he did or not until he shook his head momentarily. "Oh, I see you brought someone with you."

  Jessa gave me a tight smile. "Yes, I have a new partner on the account. I wanted you to meet him before we went ahead and met with Madison." Jessa was the epitome of cool professional confidence. Her smile was friendly, warm even. But there was something very hands-off about her. She'd clearly ignored the slight flirtation from Ben, which made me excessively happy.

  I knew my cousin’s reputation with women. Back in school, everyone had called him Big Ben. We all played rugby and cricket, and I knew full well what my cousin was packing downstairs. I didn't need Jessa knowing as well.

  Ben met my gaze steadily and gave me a smile. "Mr. Ainsley. It’s a pleasure.”

  Thank fuck. He remembered the code, which meant I would be getting a call later about what the fuck I was doing in town and why I hadn't called him. And why I needed him to pretend he didn't know me. Yeah, fun times. "It is a pleasure to meet you as well. I'm very excited to be working on the account."

  That earned me another eyebrow raise. So much to explain.

  "Well, the more the merrier, I suppose. I am so glad Evan has been putting a priority on this account. With the new openings of the hotels in New York and Los Angeles and then Paris, you can imagine we want the marketing and publicity to be effortless. Spot on. We're taking things in a new direction, so we are excited to have more hands."

  "Well I am excited to work with you. Jessa is obviously more than capable, and I will be playing catch up a little bit. But I look forward to seeing the portfolio and what we have to work with."

  And there it was. We were both faking it. There would be a long conversation later. But at least Jessa was buying it.

  Everything seemed to go off without a hitch while we went over the preliminaries. As he was about to hand us off, Jessa gave him a warm smile and a firm handshake. I had to admit she was good at her job.

  Ben, though flirtatious, treated her with respect. She was smart, on her game. I had expected her to maybe try and dick with me when it came to the client files. But all the information I needed was there, and it was easy to follow along as they talked.

  We were off to meet with Madison, who would be our more day-to-day contact. Ben made eye contact with Jessa, his gaze boring into hers. "Now Jessa, just because Madison is your contact, doesn't mean you get to be a stranger, please. I think we owe you dinner after that amazing engagement party that you ran for Bridge. I’ve never seen my mate look so happy."

  She smiled, and I could see the flush on her cheeks. It made me scowl at my cousin.

  "And we will definitely have to get those plans on the books, but I am so swamped. This client I have is opening three multimillion-dollar hotels in major metropolitan cities, so I am going to have my hands full with the plan for him."

  Ben laughed… and still held on to her hand. Twat. "Well then, we will call it a planning dinner. From the start, I've been looking to get to know you better."

  I scowled at him then. His gaze flickered to me, and his wink was so brief that if I didn't know him, I would have sworn that I’d imagined it. He was dicking with me. Fantastic. I would kill him later.

  "Well, we will see what we have time for." She turned her attention to me. "Roone, come on, and I will introduce you to Madison."

  I turned to shake Ben’s hand. And perhaps my grip was a little firmer than planned, because he grinned. Wide and bright. "Mr. Ainsley. I look forward to hearing more from you."

  "Yeah, same."

  I had lived to fight another day. But I was certainly going to have to do a bit of explaining to my cousin.

  Roone…

  I’d lucked out just now. Ben had played along.

  But I still actually had to pull this job off. At Sandh
urst, I’d taken International Studies through the Open University, so I had a good base level business knowledge. But whatever I didn’t know, I’d have to fake.

  But I couldn’t be smug. I had to pull this shit off. I recognized I was acting a little mad. I didn’t like how she put me on edge. I grinned, remembering her frustration as I’d been assigned to her clients. Though I had a feeling she’d make me pay.

  “I’m glad to see you're so happy,” she murmured in the lift. “Madison Jeffries is a tough nut to crack. Game face on. I can’t have you running scared.”

  As if this wasn’t my game face. Don’t be a smug asshole. This morning could have been shite. “What’s there to be scared of?”

  She didn’t answer. Just smirked.

  Ten minutes in to the meeting, I understood what there was to be scared of. Madison was on her game. She was smart. Called everything into question and didn’t take any shit. No wonder she was VP of operations for my cousin.

  But what Jessa had failed to mention was that Madison Jeffries was a man-eater. She was beautiful, a little older, maybe mid-30s, maybe 40, and she was currently sliding her foot up my leg under the conference table.

  She leaned forward, hands steepled, her voice sultry as she spoke. "My goodness, Mr. Ainsley, I would love to hear so much more about your past work. I had a look at your résumé, and I was enthralled."

  I could hear Ariel cackling in my earpiece as she mimicked, "So enthralled..."

  It was Jessa’s stiff back that told me how to play it. "Yes, well, it was a great experience. I’d love to tell you about it sometime. And I hope I can do the same level of work here as I did in the islands."

  Madison’s voice dripped honey, "My God, that must've just been so beautiful working in the Caribbean. However did you get any work done? Honestly, I would just be topless at the beach all the time. You really must take me there. I would love to see the islands from an insider's perspective."

  Next to me, Jessa’s jaw worked as she tried to redirect the conversation back to the work. "Madison, obviously you and I have worked together before. Roone is new, so he's still getting up to speed, but I look forward to continuing our work together. This afternoon, I wanted to scout some locations for our events. It’s a no-brainer to use the hotels, but I’d really like to consider an approach to leverage partnerships. For example, I know that Ian Talbot will have a restaurant in the New York hotel, so hosting an event at one of his restaurants as a ‘sneak taste’ will really benefit the branding and marketing.”

  Jessa was saying things. Smart things from the sound of it. But Madison wasn’t listening. Her foot had found its mark, and I had to swallow the squawk in my throat. "Ms. Jeffries—" I gently adjusted her foot and moved it off my lap. "While you have worked with Jessa for a while, I bring fresh blood and new ideas, I think. I can't wait to dive into your account wholeheartedly."

  Ariel cackled. "Dude, it sounds like when you say account, you mean her snatch."

  Fuck. Next client meeting, I was taking the stupid earpiece out. It wasn't worth it having Ariel's voice in my head all damn day.

  Madison's brows went up, and she grinned. I could practically hear Jessa groaning next to me. She made another last-ditch effort. "If you still have the time this afternoon, I’d love to head down to the restaurant to take a look around and see how it would work for the first event. LL hotels have such an elegant luxury to them, but unfortunately we won’t be able to do anything to promote that in the new properties for a while. I think we start with the tease. The amuse bouche, if you will."

  Luckily, Madison turned her attention back to work for the moment. “That’s a good idea, we can meet the chef and discuss further. Since there will be several retailers in the hotels as well, we could incorporate those flagship venues in the plan.”

  Jessa took notes in her tabbed notebook. I was surprised she wasn’t using her laptop. “Right. I think we should probably head down to the restaurant. I think it might be just the place to announce the new locations. Everyone knew there would be three sites, but revealing the cities can be made into a huge celebration.”

  “Sounds like a great plan.”

  “Oh, I was also hoping to see Mr. Hale and check in with him about his engagement party. See if he was happy with the work.”

  Madison’s smile was a little less natural then. “He has asked about you. He was very impressed with the work Evans PR did on the event.”

  I noticed that little dig there. Evans PR had done a great job not Jessa. That little dig made me dislike Madison even more. Nonetheless, Jessa took the compliment.

  "Thank you. I'll relay the message back to the Evans."

  We all stood, heading out for lunch. While Madison went to her office get her purse, Jessa walked with me to the lift. When we stopped, she pressed a hand to my shoulder and leaned into me. "I see what you're doing."

  I grinned. "Pray tell, what am I doing?"

  "It's disgusting. You're flirting with her. That's not how we do business at Evans." Her voice was a harsh whisper as she spoke through her teeth. "You might not take this seriously, but I do."

  "Oh, I take it seriously. Just a reminder, whether you like it or not, I'm on these accounts with you. All of them. So you might as well get used to working with me because I'm not going anywhere."

  She stepped back and grinned. "Yeah, you'd actually be right about that."

  I frowned. "What—"

  Madison came up behind me, her hand stroking my back. "Well, if you're ready."

  I cleared my throat. "Actually, I drove, so we’ll just meet you at the restaurant. Jessa, we can talk strategy on the way."

  Jessa’s gaze was all mischief. "If you don't mind, Madison and I haven't had a chance to catch up, so I'll ride with her in the limo."

  Bugger. In my ear, I heard Ariel swear.

  I could hear her scrambling to get coverage on the limo. During the day, the plan was that since I was on Jessa’s accounts, I would be her primary security. But, if she was avoiding me, not much could be done about it.

  “Are you sure?” I asked through clenched teeth.

  "Yeah, I'll meet you there." She’d made me drive on purpose.

  We all rode down in the lift together. The two of them got off at street level, and I was forced to go down to parking. When I was alone, I ran to the car as I mumbled into the earpiece, "Jesus H. Christ, it's like she knows what I'm here for and wants to thwart me at every step."

  "I don't want to be the one to say I told you so, but maybe try honey instead of vinegar. It'll work better."

  I reached for my keys.

  My. Keys.

  "Fuck."

  Ariel's voice was sharp. "What?"

  "The little princess stole my keys."

  "What do you mean she stole your keys?"

  I could almost pinpoint the moment. At the lift, her hand on my shoulder, distracting from where she was taking the keys out of my pocket. "Son of a bitch."

  "Wait, Jessa deliberately stole your keys?"

  "Yes. It would appear that way. All so she can meet with Jeffries on her own."

  "I have to respect her hustle."

  "Whose fucking side are you on?"

  Ariel laughed. "The princess's, of course. Get to street level. I'll get someone to fetch your car. We have to get you to that meeting."

  I knew the restaurant they were going to. They already had a head start and were on the road. At best I'd be late. The restaurant was on the other side of town.

  "God, I hope you have someone on her. Because right now I don't have her. And I also have to negotiate for an Uber. I'll get to her as soon as I can."

  She thought she was cute. Well, she wouldn't find it cute when I tanned her hide.

  Dick: Now we're talking.

  Me: Shove it. Tanning her hide is not an option.

  Dick: Bummer.

  But throttling her might actually be something I could get away with. It was all I fantasized about on the way to the restaurant.

&nb
sp; 6

  Roone…

  After nearly a week of princess duty, it seemed I'd underestimated Jessa.

  She was smart, conniving, and would do just about anything to win. And what I'd done by turning up on her turf was basically poke the dragon with an ice pick. The fire-breathing, scaly, angry kind of dragon. And she was going to defend her territory.

  I ran a hand through my hair as I dragged my laptop over to the couch. I missed the islands, but I was getting used to the space. This was the ideal kind of flat for me. It was a townhouse with three levels. All the fixtures were modern, steel, but there was still a sense of warmth with the hardwood floors and the orange-yellow hue of the walls.

  Back home on the islands, I was one of the few guards that actually lived in the palace. My quarters were beautiful, elegant and pristine, but they looked like a palace. Everything was gilded and ornate.

  Sebastian, of course, said I could do anything I wanted to the place. But it never felt like that choice was really mine. I almost would have preferred one of the bungalows because at least then my comings and goings would have been my own.

  I knew it was considered an honor to be posted inside the palace, but it always felt like too much. Like I was undeserving somehow. It just wasn't really my style.

  And yet it had never even occurred to me to leave.

  Sebastian was family. Lucas was family. Hell, Penny and Bryna too, even Ariel and Bryna’s best friend Jinx. We all had dinner together about once a month. It was loud and raucous, and we played games and it was fun. It was the kind of family I'd always dreamed of having one day.

  But it never felt like I really belonged. Like I was more than just an attachment. And with Penny there, Sebastian needed me less and less, as did Lucas.

  Stop being a sentimental twat and focus on your job. As I took a sip of my beer, I turned on the telly. Old episodes of Top Gear were on. I missed the old incarnation of the show. The new version didn't really do it for me. And the original hosts’ new seasons just felt off somehow.

  It was Friday night and I didn't have to be on duty, but I'd still opted for a night watch so everyone else could rest. Then I'd have tomorrow and likely Sunday off, though I still needed to be hyper-aware and careful on my days off. As far as I was concerned, this was my life. I tried not to balk at the undetermined length of the job. It’s not like I had anything else to do, really. I was a soldier; I went where I was commanded.