Felix and the Prince (Forever Wilde 2)

I sensed my bodyguard, Marco, follow us at a distance. Jon had stayed behind in Monaco to celebrate the arrival of his brother’s new baby.

When we met up with Jackie on the path, I recognized Felix’s warm brown eyes in her face right away.

“Jackie, what are you doing here?” Felix’s voice was sunshine over steel. I hadn’t realized he called her by her first name.

“Felix, sweetheart! There you are. Let me have a look at you.” She cooed over him like he was a little boy in his first church suit. “Don’t you look well! And who is this now? Aren’t you a handsome one. You look familiar. Have we met before? You have to excuse my memory, it’s just that I know so many people.”

“No ma’am, we’ve never met before,” I said, feeling Felix shift closer to me.

“Jackie, this is…” He stopped and looked up at me like he had no idea how to introduce me.

“Lior,” I said.

“Lior… that’s unusual. Are you a friend of Felix’s?”

“You could say that,” I said with a smile. “I’m his boyfriend.”

Felix’s jaw dropped at my casual admission of our relationship. I turned to him with a grin. “What? Aren’t I? Or are you dumping me so soon?”

“Dude,” he mumbled. “Don’t be a smartass.”

“Felix, that’s no way to speak to your young man here,” Jackie scolded. “Lior, where do you live? Here in Hobie? You don’t seem like a small-town Texan.”

She seemed to be eyeing my clothes as if judging from the wrinkled button-down and ripped blue jeans I had on. Part of me wished I’d been wearing the Hermès yachting clothes I’d been given after attending a regatta last summer.

“I live in Monte Carlo, ma’am.”

Her eyes grew hungry. “Is that right? And what do you do there?”

“I work for the government.”

I wasn’t sure if Felix snickered or rolled his eyes, but anything to keep him from being stressed was a bonus as far as I was concerned.

“What do you need, Jackie?” Felix asked.

“Well, I came by to see how you were doing, darling. We haven’t seen each other for so long, and I wanted to find out what you’ve been up to. I didn’t even know you had a boyfriend. How did you two meet?”

I knew neither one of us was going to tell her the truth and risk her getting a personal story she could use in the media.

“Strip club,” I said at the same time Felix said, “Rodeo.”

I heard a bark of laughter behind us and turned to see Doc and Grandpa approaching.

“It was a naked rodeo, Jackie,” Grandpa Wilde said. “Texas has gotten more risqué since you lived here.”

“Dad, Pop,” she said, stepping forward to give them each a brief kiss on the cheek.

“I guess you’d better come on in, then,” Doc said. “There’s at least some banana pudding left over from dinner. I know you used to like Pop’s banana pudding back in the day.”

Jackie looked at Grandpa Wilde with something close to a wistful smile. “Still do, I’m sure.”

Once we were all settled in the kitchen with thick bowls full of the soft dessert, Doc got right to the point.

“So what brings you out to this old place, Jackie?”

“I wanted to talk to Felix about something.” She turned to her son with exaggerated puppy eyes, and I couldn’t help but notice the sliver of hope that entered his expression at the idea his mother wanted something to do with him. “My fiancé’s daughter is trying to get into the arts school at UT, and I’d like you to write a letter of recommendation for her. Will you do that, sweetheart?”

The hope disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Felix’s beautiful brown eyes sad and resigned. I’d never wanted to kill someone the way I wanted to murder my lover’s mother right then. How dare she.

Before I could butt in and demand she leave the premises, Felix spoke up.

“Do I know her?”

“No, of course not. She lives in California,” Jackie said, missing his point.

“Then how the hell do you expect me to recommend her? I don’t even know her qualifications, or her name.”

“I need you to do this for me, darling,” she pleaded in a grating tone. “Chris really wants her to get out of California and go to school somewhere more… family-oriented.”

Felix snorted. “UT is home to fifty thousand college students living in the most liberal population in all of Texas. If he wants her to move somewhere more conservative than California, he picked the wrong place.”

She sighed. “He hears the word Texas and assumes it means good old boys. But Chris isn’t the only one begging me for your help. Chelsea really wants to go there, and it will take some pull to make it happen. Please do this for me, Felix. You owe me.”

I noticed Grandpa’s face get dangerously red, to the point Doc reached over and placed his hand on the back of Grandpa’s neck to calm him. They exchanged a look but didn’t open their mouths.