Royal Bastard (Instantly Royal 1)

“Yeah.”

“Well,” Mace continued. “I’m looking at some photos online right now and it’s perfect for what we need.”

Even his high-powered brain was too tired to try to work this one out. “You’re gonna have to use more words, Mace.”

The other man laughed, the self-deprecating sound confirmation that as usual, his mouth and mind were running a hundred miles an hour in different directions. “We had a shoot scheduled at a manor house in the Yorkshire Dales in a week, but the deal fell through. If I don’t find a replacement spot ASAP, the director is going to have a shit fit and fire my ass because we’re scheduled to start the shoot with the manor house sequence and we’re leaving for England in two days.”

Nick didn’t understand the hierarchy of who was who on a movie shoot or what exactly happened on them, but fired was fired no matter what line of business someone was in, and it sucked.

“And you want to do the shoot here?” he asked, confirming what he already knew Mace had been leading up to.

“You got it.”

Damn. What was it with this fucking place? Everyone wanted the pile of rocks but him.

“Gramps is going to be hard to convince.” Now, that was the understatement of the century.

“Tell him this film has the budget to persuade him.”

Nick’s gaze snapped over to the door separating his room from Brooke’s. This was just the kind of opportunity she was always telling the earl and the villagers about. It was his favorite kind of win-win. Happy Mace. Happy Brooke. Pissed-off Gramps. Did it get any better than that?

“How long and how much for the shoot?” he asked, a plan about how to make this happen already forming in his head.

“A few days and lots of zeroes,” Mason said. “We need to shoot the big zombie wedding ball scene there.”

The bizarre words pierced the whirr of activity in his head. “Do I even want to know?”

“Probably not.” Mace laughed. “One more thing, everyone will need to stay close by because the hours are killer long. Is there any place for that?”

“The village has a B&B and I’m sure I can find other accommodations, too.” Who wouldn’t want to make a quick buck by offering up their house in the village for a couple of days?

“Tell them we’ll need people to act as extras, too. We lost our extras when we lost the location.”

“I’m not making any promises.” Even though if the people of Bowhaven could come together to village-nap him, surely they would be up for slapping on some zombie makeup. “Shoot me the details ASAP.”

“Thank fucking God,” Mason said with a relieved sigh. “Just let me know as soon as you can.”

After hanging up, Nick lay back in bed and closed his eyes, but sleep didn’t come. Of course it didn’t. That would have made his life easy, and that wasn’t in the cards tonight—or any night since this craziness had started. Life in Salvation and his pre-England days had never seemed so far away. What was close? The woman who’d been avoiding him. The one who he couldn’t stop thinking about. She’d want to know about this opportunity, and if anyone could help him convince the earl to say yes, it was her. As soon as he thought it, he was up out of bed and had his hand on the doorknob. It wasn’t an excuse to see her. He had a reason. A real reason that had nothing to do with the happy way his dick twitched in anticipation.

He cracked open the door and looked into the darkened room. “Hey, are you up?”

“I am now,” she said, her voice sleep roughened and sexy as hell.

Stop thinking about how sexy she is, Vane. He wasn’t here for that. He was here because he had a solution to a problem that was making her worry.

“How bad is the financial situation at Dallinger Park?” he asked, stepping inside the room but leaving the door open behind him.

The soft stream of light coming in from his room illuminated Brooke just enough to show off her messy hair and sweet, sleepy smile as she sat up in bed. It was one more side of her that he couldn’t help but tuck away to remember later. He kept doing that when he was around her, and he didn’t like it. Getting attached to her, the village, this damn house wasn’t his thing and he wasn’t about to change that now.

“What makes you think Dallinger Park has a situation?”

Oh no. They weren’t going to play that game, and he needed solid information to get this plan in motion. Research always went before inventing. “I have eyes. This place is in major need of maintenance and updating.”

She gave him a cautious look. “It’s not inexpensive to run a great house like this one.”

Her non-answer was as good as a yes. “So the earl needs the funds.”

“You’ll have to ask him for confirmation.”