Royal Bastard (Instantly Royal 1)

Just as the man started in on the absolute mockery having a child borne from a marriage that had been annulled as a legitimate member of the peerage, the forest ranger hit the mute button.

“Thanks,” Nick said.

Riley made a sort of grunting sound that he took as a “no problem,” and they went back to shoveling fish and vinegar-soaked french fries into their mouths. The fact that his mouth was filled with food was probably the only reason why his jaw didn’t drop when the earl walked in in full-on tweed outfit with a carved walking stick and a proud, disapproving upturn to his nose.

The earl looked around the mostly empty restaurant and finally settled on Nick. “I need a moment.”

“What is it?” he asked, sopping up some salt from the brown paper wrapper his fish and fries had come in.

“Can we go somewhere more private?” The earl fiddled with an eight-by-ten manila envelope tucked under one arm. “This information is of a delicate nature.”

Nick watched the closed captioning on the silent television. The douche nozzle in the bad suit had moved on to calling Nick’s mom a money-grubbing American hussy. “I’m not sure I have any delicate sensitivity left anymore.”

“It involves Ms. Chapman-Powell.”

That dragged his attention from the TV. “Go on.”

The earl pulled the envelope from under his arm. “And some pictures.”

“Have you been watching the news?” Nerves started to eat away at his stomach lining despite the bravado. “That kiss is already splashed all over the place.”

“There are…” The earl paused as if, for once, at a loss for words. “Other photos.”

When Nick didn’t say anything, Gramps gave Riley a look that would freeze lava and the forest ranger shrugged and moved to another table. The earl sat down and placed the envelope on the small circular table. Nick’s stomach developed six new ulcers in the span of a heartbeat. He didn’t want to open that envelope. Whatever was in there, it was bad. He picked up the envelope anyway and pulled out the contents.

…

Just when Brooke thought it couldn’t get worse, Nick had walked into the Fox, asked her out into the garden, and shown her naked photos of the two of them making love at the stable house taken the night before. She knew because her hair was up in the photos just like it had been last night. He’d fisted her ponytail and she’d almost come on the spot. Now someone else out there knew that moment that had belonged just to them.

The contents of her stomach curdled.

“How did he get these?” she asked, crumpling onto the wooden bench farthest away from the door leading into the pub and trying not to remember that the man who handed over the copies of the photos was her boss.

The earl had received the low-resolution copies as a courtesy from a media mogul who’d turned down the opportunity to publish the photos in the national newspaper he owned as a favor to the earl. Of course, there wasn’t a guarantee the other papers wouldn’t print them. If they made it past next week without her arse on the front page, she’d go into shock.

“Well, it was nice while it lasted,” she said, imagining all her grand ideas for Bowhaven flying away with the fast-moving clouds overhead. They’d never happen now. Not once people got an eyeful of these pictures.

The disaster that was her life post-Reggie was one thing. She’d been the victim. But this? She doubted they’d see it that way.

“What was nice?” Nick asked as he tore the printouts into tiny confetti pieces and swept them into the manila envelope.

“Being respected by the villagers.” Getting the opportunity to see some of her ideas for the village come to fruition. Meeting her parents’ eyes. Not having everyone in Yorkshire knowing what her O face looked like. He could take his pick. “Now I’ll just be the girl who shagged the earl’s heir.”

The envelope crumpled in his grip. “That’s not fair.”

“And we both know that life isn’t fair, so why fight it?” She knew better. The man got backslaps. The woman? She was just a slag. It wasn’t fair, and that just gutted her.

Nick paced the pub’s back garden like a caged animal, all angry intensity and pent-up energy. The air rippled around him, and for a second she couldn’t do more than stare at the man she’d fallen for. Hard. Before she knew it. Seeing him riled up like this on her behalf shoved away the last bit of the self-protective barrier around her heart because it was his. And with Nick by her side, she’d win over the town again. She wasn’t going to give up on it now.

Oblivious to the thoughts swirling around inside her head, Nick raked his fingers through his hair as he paced. “Why don’t you get out of Dodge? Go somewhere else for a while, ditch everything and everyone.”

Away. From everyone. The words stuck on repeat in her head. “You think I should run away. Again?”

He stopped in front of her and nodded with the conviction of a saint in church. “Just leave. Start over. Everyone does.”

“Even you?” The words scraped her throat as she said them.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t known he was going in a few months, but knowing and believing were two different things. Six months. That’s all he could give Bowhaven each year. Nothing more. No full-time commitment. She was a world-class git.