Royal Fake

“I wasn’t expecting this.” Her beautiful eyes roved the room, curious.

“Here let me show you around.” I turned on the lights and took her through the house, which was still unbelievably large and sprawling despite being the second floor of a cottage. “This is the master bedroom,” I said opening the door to my room. “You’ll be staying here with me.” I gave her a sly grin.

“I don’t get my own room?” The look of disappointment on her face worried me.

“Well, you will have a room to yourself, you know, a place for Georg to work his magic and you might want it as an office, but you will be sleeping with me.” I didn’t want my voice to sound as harsh as it did but damn it, she was only in Ireland to be with me.

“I see. I just, I might want a place to go without you in it.” Why?

“I was intending to give you the room across the hall, here.” I closed my door and took her to the room across from mine which I had previously used as a study. It still had a desk and several bookshelves teeming with books.

There was a comfortable sectional couch and an armchair as well as a flat-screen television in the corner near picture windows that overlooked the mountains. I didn’t often use the space as I had a proper office downstairs on the main floor that was better equipped for my purposes. I didn’t mind sacrificing my study as I rarely ever used it. Apart from that room, I did have one guest bedroom and one guest bath, but I did not want to offer those to Avery because I needed to have her close.

“Could we put a bed in here?” She perked up a little.

“No,” I said gruffly.

“Why?” She stood her ground, which as much as I loved her feistiness, it was infuriating at times.

“Because how will I fuck you if you’re across the hall?” I shot back at her.

“How will I escape you if I have to always sleep in your bed? I’ll be your concubine, right? I’m pretty sure concubines get their own room.” At that point, she was just being nasty.

“But not wives. You will be my wife, so you’ll get the study. I can have my interior designer make whatever adjustments you need to the space after you’ve signed the contracts and we’ve made our arrangement legal. And speaking of which, I thought we might look over the documents now before you get too sleepy. Then we’ll have a light dinner, a toss in the sheets and then get some sleep.” I may have come off sounding too demanding, but she was on my turf, I called the shots.

“I need to talk to my friends,” she pleaded.

“I know and I want you to talk to them, but I also want you to myself first. You and I don’t really know one another, and I want us to spend time doing that. I hope you understand, but this is really important to me.” I knew that line of defense wasn’t really going to work, as I watched her face sour.

Chapter 17

Avery

“Is this all just about you then?” I was so steaming mad. After seeing the grandeur and the ceremony around everything, I started to feel imprisoned by the Irish monarchy. I realized I would not have very much of my old life left and my life was something I adored and wanted to cling to.

I shouldn’t have been taking my frustrations out on Liam. He had been honest from the start. I got on the plane knowing exactly what was expected of me and nothing had changed. I was visiting Ireland and meeting his father so that I could enter a contract with him and be his wife. It wasn’t Liam’s fault that the monarchy had archaic conservative rules which were nearly unlivable. Poor Liam had survived within the confines of those rules his whole life. No wonder he rebelled against it with whatever he was able to get away with. The cottage was delightfully beautiful and part of me wanted to settle in and just give up the fight but a larger part of me wanted to scratch Liam’s face off.

“It’s not all about me, in fact, none of this is actually about me. I didn’t make the rules regarding my succession. If it were up to me, I’d take the throne as a womanizing old bachelor, but I’m sure the scandal would eventually be too much. We are both going to be very busy soon. Think of your time in my bed as our private time together. It’s the only place I know where no one will bother us. For now, until we know each other better will you grant me the honor of your company?” Suddenly, he was all polite and princely.