“I need to go to London.” I leaned into the mirrored wall, placing my forehead against it and closing my eyes.

“You have back-to-back meetings this week. You’re meeting with the cabinet in fifteen minutes,” Pierre said. I straightened and turned so that my back was against the glass.

“Meaning, her father,” Aramis stated.

“Yes, I’m well aware that I’m meeting with her fucking father, Aramis. Thanks for the update.”

“Just call her,” he suggested.

“I don’t think a phone call will fix this,” Pierre said.

I glared at him. He didn’t cower and I didn’t expect him to. I glared at him, screamed at him, used him as a literal punching bag at times, which I wasn’t proud of, and the man never backed down. It was what I liked about him. It was what made him stand out and why he’d gone from being my security to being my personal secretary. None of those things made me not want to kill him right now. He should have known not to let her go. He should have known not to answer questions that would be misconstrued. I said that last thought aloud.

My brother laughed. “No offense, but how did she misconstrue the fact that you broke things off with Emily and started dating her because you needed to appeal to the people?”

I turned my glare in his direction. He also didn’t cower. Much. He did, however, have enough sense to leave the room without another word.

“He’s right, you know,” Pierre said. “It would have been impossible for her to believe anything other than the fact that she was being used.”

“Why would you say that? Why would she think that? She knows me. Really knows me. She has to know I would never do that to her.”

“She’s always had her reservations about you.”

“About me?” I frowned. “I’ve never given her reason to have reservations about me.”

“Her father hates what you stand for and her mother doesn’t trust you. Her friends, who know your family, warned her against you. How could she not have reservations?”

“Her friends like me. Her mother likes me.” My frown deepened. “And Adeline is her own person.”

“Do you remember what you said on the broadcast? When you told the world you left Emily for another woman?”

“Yes, that I’d been in love with another woman for some time.”

“You never used the word love. You said you’d been seeing another woman for some time.”

“No I didn’t.”

“I have the entire speech written down.” He waved the stupid clipboard he was always walking around with. “You said...” He flipped papers and read from the page. “I’ve been seeing another woman for quite some time. She doesn’t come from a long line of royal blood or a family of knights. She’s a hard worker, some would say, a commoner, but there’s nothing common about her, as I’m sure there’s nothing common about you.”

“You wrote that down?” I walked over to him and yanked the clipboard from his hand, reading the paper.

“I figured it would be good to write your speeches down from now on if you’re going to continue to do broadcasts. You know, so you won’t repeat yourself often.” Pierre stared at me. “What do you think?”

“I think your penmanship is shit.” I was brooding. I knew I was. I couldn’t help it. “So you’re saying because I focused on describing her like this . . . she thought I was using her? She liked this speech. She told me that herself.”

“What is she supposed to say, Your Majesty?”

“I hate you.”

“I agree. She should have said that, but she’s too in love with you to think that.”

“No, I mean I hate you for pointing this shit out now.” I shoved the clipboard on his chest. “I’m meeting with the cabinet and then I’m going to London. I don’t care what else I have lined up.”

Walking up to the King’s Apartments and into the room, where the four members of my cabinet were sitting around the round table we had set up there, was testing. The last person I wanted to see was Adeline’s father. I hadn’t seen him since the night of the coronation celebration here and that hadn’t ended well. It wasn’t like I was hiding from him. If anything, it was the other way around. He hadn’t attended our last two meetings. The rumor was that he was putting together more parades and riots. If that was the case, I meant to get to the bottom of it today. The time for rioting was over. It should have been over when Adeline and I visited some of the families who took the biggest impact from the failed economy. The last thing I had time for was a bratty man and I fully intended to put him in his place if he stepped out of line. So far, they’d only seen the compliant king. Today, they’d see a ruthless one.

Tags: Claire Contreras Naughty Royals Romance
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