“Who are you?” she asked.
I looked from Jon to the woman and back. “Um… Felix? Who are you?”
“Henrietta. Hen.”
That name rang a bell. “Henrietta, Lio’s sister?”
“Yes. And you?”
I wondered if he was out to his family. “Oh. I, ah… I’m a friend.”
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Jon roll his eyes, but it was the valet named Arthur who spoke up from where he’d been sitting reading a book. “They’re sleeping together,” he said with a sniff, not even looking up from whatever he was reading.
My head spun around to glare at him. “That’s none of your damned business.”
But the woman, Hen, just laughed. “Ah-ha. I see. Even when he hides away at Gadleigh, he manages to get laid. Little shit.”
The comment soured my stomach, making it seem like all there was between Lio and me was a cheap fuck.
Hell, for all I knew, maybe it was. I swallowed and looked around for a place to sit.
“I don’t suppose anyone happens to have an extra pair of sweats lying around,” I muttered.
Henrietta looked me up and down with a smirk. “No, but there are extra blankets in that cupboard over there,” she said, nodding toward a wooden wardrobe against one wall. I shuffled over to it and found stacks of wool blankets. Despite smelling musty, they were nice and thick and warm.
“Thanks. Much better.” I exhaled and found a spot in an overstuffed chair. “How long until we get an all clear?”
“It depends on what the threat is,” Henrietta explained. “Some last only a couple of minutes. Some last days.”
“Days?” I sputtered. “I can’t stay down here with no clothes for days.”
“Well, maybe you should have thought about it before sleeping with the prince of Liorland,” she teased.
I stared at her while I waited for my brain to catch up. When it did, I felt the blood drain from my entire body.
“What?”
“Oh hell,” Arthur said before standing up and approaching Jon to whisper something into his ear.
“You heard me,” Hen continued. “Everyone wants a piece of Lio thinking it’s all fun and games, but then this sort of shit happens and they realize it’s not all nightclubs and fancy clothes.”
“Wait, what?”
I couldn’t feel my lips. Or my tongue. Or my feet.
Henrietta’s eyes narrowed at me. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I didn’t sleep with a prince,” I insisted, knowing full well it was a lie. “I slept with Lio.”
Henrietta stared at me for a beat. “You’re serious, aren’t you? You really don’t know who he is. How can you not know who he is?”
I thought about the magazine cover from the night before, the one with the king and queen of Liorland on the front. Liorland with an L-i-o. As in, the royal family of Monaco. The house of Grimaldi. I thought about Lio, who seemed so at home in a royal fucking castle. Grimaldi.
“Oh fuck,” I breathed. “Oh god.” I thought about how stupid I sounded complaining about the paparazzi to him, of all people. How stupid I felt for not knowing who he was. For letting him keep me in the dark about it.
Henrietta glanced up at Jon. “Is he breathing?”
I felt like an absolute fool.
“Shit,” Jon said. “Felix, put your head between your knees for me.” His hand guided my head toward my lap.
I noticed Arthur leave the room out of the corner of my eye.
“Oh god,” I moaned. “I can’t breathe.”
Hen came to perch on the arm of my chair and rubbed my back. “Honey, it’s okay. Just calm down.” She mentioned something to Jon about finding Lio.
“But, Hen,” he argued.
“Find him!” Her shout made even me jump, and I noticed Jon’s feet disappear from view. A few moments later I heard multiple sets of footsteps clamber into the room. Jon, Arthur, and the face I most wanted to see.
“Shit.” It was Lio, and he didn’t sound happy. “Felix, baby, just breathe. What happened?”
Henrietta began lecturing Lio about being an insensitive jerk. She seemed to go full sister on him and lambasted him while he tried to calm me down.
I opened my eyes to find him squatting in front of me, lines of worry carving divots in his forehead. His hands held mine on my lap, and I soaked in the warmth of them as my brain spun.
“You’re a prince,” I said.
His face fell. “Yes.”
“Of, like, a country.”
“Yes.”
“Oh god,” I groaned again. “It’s true. I’m an idiot.”
Lio’s hands came up to cup my chin, forcing me to look at him. “You’re not. You’re smart as hell.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked. “You could have told me. I wouldn’t have treated you any differently.”
Arthur mumbled something that sounded like I told you so.
One of his hands moved to push hair back from my face. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Felix. I wanted to, but then…” He looked up at his sister and the other men in the room, who I’d figured out by now were some type of security personnel. “But then you saw that magazine and…”