The Royal and the Rebel (Royally Pitched 2)

“Not anymore. But that’s another story.” She paused and took a moment to study him. “Wait, you do know Ele and Tristan are together now? Proper. Publicly. It happened the night of the Christmas gala, the night of your injury.”

Rowan nodded, although a trickle of shame prickled up his spine. On his best day, he was a difficult man. On his worst … well, on his worst, he cut off his friends, didn’t contact them, and rebuffed their attempts to contact him. He’d been an asshole in his grief over his injury, and he wasn’t sure he had any friends left. He glanced away from her and shifted in his seat, suddenly quite uncomfortable. A stab of white-hot pain shot through him. He wondered if it was truly from his leg or if it was his conscience reminding him he was a wanker.

“I know they are together. Good for them,” he said, meaning it.

He’d been harassed by Tristan’s fall into the abyss of Ele. It was almost like watching a bloke drown. He’d fallen into water, and instead of sputtering in protest, he’d swum like a guppy. Submerged in the deep with a woman. He couldn’t reconcile his best friend involved with a member of royalty. It had taken him a long time to realize it was his issue with his own family that had made him react to the relationship like he did.

Another swipe of the ponytail.

“I checked my phone before the girls showed up. I have a ridiculous number of texts. Ele, Jamie, the queen. Well, really, it was the queen’s secretary, but I know she was dictating the words. And Tristan.”

Rowan froze, the cup suspended in front of his mouth.

“I’m to tell you he is going to kick you in your other knee when he sees you, and I am to give you this.” She held up her middle finger at him.

Rowan couldn’t help it. Big, rollicking laughter spilled out of his mouth.

Leave it to Tristan to make him laugh. The wiry fuck was the one person who could always make Rowan feel lighter, like the weight he carried on his shoulders could be handled if he just allowed himself the opportunity to let some shit go every once in a while. He could perfectly picture Tristan with his phone, always attached to his hand if a ball wasn’t at his feet—Does he fuck with the phone in his hand?—an expression of annoyance on his face, as he texted Juliana.

God, he missed his friends.

He laughed for the first time since the otherwise normal tackle had changed his life, and it felt good. It took him a moment to get control. And when he did, he looked to Juliana. She was frozen in place with her teacup halfway to her mouth, her eyes fixated on him. There was a cheeky smile on her face. And when she noticed the quiet, she blinked and winked at him.

He should have been embarrassed, letting her see something he rarely showed anyone, but he only experienced a warmth of acceptance, and it made him feel good.

“He’s a right joker, isn’t he?” she asked, her eyes still twinkling.

“He is.”

Juliana cleared her throat. “As you can imagine, there is quite the fallout from your fath—I mean, the duke’s bombshell.”

“As he intended.”

“Yes, I get that now. Um, well, I don’t think the reaction is going to stay centered in Armenta.”

Again, Rowan’s brow rose, the question obvious.

“It seems, well, we are going to get some visitors.”

Rowan closed his eyes. He should have been prepared for Juliana’s family to descend. But he’d thought they would need time to coordinate schedules and security. Make arrangements, cancel engagements. He hadn’t anticipated them dropping everything and showing up en masse.

“I should have predicted something like this,” he conceded.

Juliana ran her hand along her ponytail again, and he had the mad urge to run for a pair of scissors and snip it off.

“No. This is unpredictable. I would never have thought they would show up here. We don’t have that kind of relationship. They have that kind of relationship—Jamie and Ele. But not with me.”

He wondered if she had any idea what she had shared spoke of her insecurities. He didn’t think so. He wasn’t sure she even realized what she’d said or what it revealed about her and her relationship with her siblings. He shook it off. He did not need to get involved in this girl’s life. Even as the thought occurred to him, he knew it was pointless. They could not pull this off without knowing each other—at least a little.

“No need to worry too much. We just have to be ready.”

“Exactly. Our stories need to coordinate. I don’t know if it’s better for us to see them together first—you know, a united front. Or if I should waylay them and explain on my own. What do you think?”

Rowan thought of all that could go wrong with this first encounter. Jamie and Ele knew Juliana and would be able to call them out better than anyone else. If they could put on a good enough show, maybe they wouldn’t pester her too much.

“I can probably snow Ele easier than I can Jamie. Ele was gone for much of the fall. While we did speak often, she was preoccupied. The thing with Ele is, she just started to check in. Before, she had been too caught up in ordering her world to take much note of what was happening with me. But since her return, I have to say, her interest, her attention, is focused. She’s one of those people who locks in. Do you know what I mean?”

“Aye.” He knew exactly what it was like to have that kind of interested scrutiny on you. Every word and look measured, weighed. Someone who truly listened, not as a detraction, but a genuine curiosity. “Sounds like Nico actually.”

“Oh. Interesting.” She paused, seeming to turn this over in her mind. “Jamie though, he’s different. It will be more difficult to get this over on Jamie. I don’t know if it’s king training or whatever, but he has a bullshit detector like I’ve never seen. And he has always been interested in what I am doing and my motivations for my actions. I think he is the one who first noticed my ‘escapades’ seemed to coincide with Ele’s episodes. He’s so damn sharp.”

“Are you saying you don’t think we can pull this off?” he teased.

“No, no, not at all. I’m just thinking, we need to be smart to be convincing.”

“I think we’ve aligned our stories, ad nauseam.”

“We have. I feel good about that.”

“What are you concerned with?”

Juliana looked away from him, biting the corner of her lip. “You haven’t been around Tristan and Ele since they’ve been in public.” She stopped and snapped her fingers. “You have. Do you remember at the awards ceremony when Ele handed Tristan his medal and he couldn’t resist picking her up and swinging her around?”

“Sure. Hard to forget. When you work your whole life for something, when you achieve it, you tend to remember every single second.”

“Of course. I hadn’t thought of that.” She nodded. “When Ele and Tristan are around each other, there’s this electricity between them. A current. Not sure I can adequately describe it, but it almost makes you tingle. You can’t be around them and not notice their connection.”

Rowan had an idea of where she was going with this. Once again, he was surprised by her, and his respect for her ticked upward. He could have helped her out, made it easier on her, but he was ridiculously curious how she was going to handle this. So, he quirked his eyebrow.

She read the question, and he saw her audibly gulp and then take a deep breath. “You can’t manufacture that. We can tell them whatever we want, but if there’s no physical connection between us, they’ll know.”

Rowan slid back on the recliner and found the handle. He pulled up, and the chair returned him to a sitting position. He carefully found his footing. Then, he looked directly at her.

“Come here,” he commanded.