CHAPTER 13
Teagan
I splashed some water on her face. As soon as I saw his picture on the TV, I quickly rushed to the bathroom. I couldn’t believe what I just saw.
Cort was royalty. And not just any royalty. He was the prince, and next in line to be crowned king.
He’d lied to me.
Hell, he probably lied to me about everything. Was it some sort of scam that he used to get girls into bed? Was it some kind of a game he liked to play to see if he could seduce women without using the title of prince to his advantage?
I was so angry that I left the bar and instantly deleted Cort’s number and the voicemails he’d left me. There was no point in dwelling on those memories.
“You bastard!” I yelled when she got back to her room. I threw the phone hard onto the bed and sat down, burying my head in my hands.
It was the worst kind of betrayal, and brought back all of my frustrations and fear from Cory. I couldn’t stand being lied to. Here I was thinking about for the past several days, and it turns out that it was all just a big joke. He lied about everything probably except his name. He was probably calling me just to set up some sort of a booty call, to see if he could nail the American girl a second time. Did he really think I wouldn’t find out about him eventually? Hell, all I had to do was google him, and it pulled up hundreds of hits with his image and who he was.
I felt so stupid.
I should have googled him. On the bus ride there, I should have used whatever service I had left to see who he was. I should have known better. After everything with Theo I should have protected my heart more.
I didn’t expect to fall for him. But I had. That was the most frustrating part of it all. I knew that he’d touched something deep inside of me, something inside my soul. Even though we had just met, I had really cared about him. And I was holding out hope that he might care for me the same. I shook in anger at the thought of how excited I got when I saw two messages from him.
A harsh pang went through my chest. Was Cort calling me because he needed a wife? Did he want her to become queen, just so he could be king?
I sat down on the edge of the bed. My hands were shaking as I clutched at the small flip phone in her hand. It couldn’t be… he was calling her because he wanted to meet up again. There was no way…
I was American. Was that even going to be legal here? Didn’t I have to jump through some sort of crazy hoops to become a citizen or something?
I flipped open my phone and scrolled through for his number.
“NO!” I groaned realizing what a stupid mistake it had been to delete Cort’s info. I had even deleted the incoming calls so she had no idea what his number was. What the hell was I thinking?
Deep down I knew why I did it. The pain and the anger of being lied to had forced my hand in the moment. I’d been lied to too many times before and I wasn’t about to stand for it again.
But was this time different?
Did I love him?
A wave of realization washed over me. Holy shit, I loved Cort Monreau. It was insane. It made no sense whatsoever. I was faintly aware I was losing what little common sense I might have had left, but after I combed through all the garbage in my head, all the stupid excuses for not being with someone, I knew that it was true.
“Teagan, you are so stupid!” I moaned.
I felt like I was going to puke. The room was teasing me, swaying left and then right as full-blown panic set in.
“Easy,” I told myself. “What are you getting yourself into here?”
She grabbed a water from the fridge and sat back down on the bed. I took a long gulp and tried to relax. There had to be a way to make sense of all this. I had to talk to someone. And I knew exactly who.
“OH, MY FUCKING GOD!”
Ellie’s voice practically shattered the screen on my laptop through Skype.
“I know,” I said. “Am I just getting my head messed up over nothing? I feel like I can’t form a coherent thought.”
“You had sex with a prince! A real, actual prince!”
I laughed. “Stay focused. There are more important issues here.”
“What are you talking about? You had sex with an honest-to-God prince!”
Ellie screamed again and jumped up and down on her bed.
“Tell me everything!” she squealed.
I rolled my eyes, trying not to laugh. I had been too panicked to really let that thought sink in. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, it was pretty cool. But what was I going to do? I had to get Ellie back on track here.
“What do you think I should do? Should I figure out a way to call him?”
“Of course, you should! What are you even talking about?” Ellie asked.
“But he lied to me. How can I believe that he really likes me or if he just wants me to be some fake wife? He will get rid of me the second he can. Hell, he might even have me killed!”
Ellie rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Are you serious? You’ve been watching too much Game of Thrones.”
“Hey! Not fair,” I replied. “Well, this is all assuming he is even interested in that. From what the news was saying, the big issue is that he doesn’t want to get married. But it is the only way he will be king.”
“Well, find him and convince him to marry you,” Ellie said.
“It’s not that simple,” I replied.
“I thought you said the guy was amazing? Aren’t you having all sorts of gushy feelings for him? That’s what you told me. Which is it?”
I sighed. “Yes. I do have feelings for him. Ugh, it doesn’t even make sense. I hardly know him. And it turns out what I thought I knew about him was a total fabrication!”
“So? Put yourself in his shoes. Maybe he doesn’t like girls who only want him because he is the prince. You know it is possible that he was trying to hang out like a regular person under the radar and just happened to meet you. I mean he called you twice didn’t he?”
“Yeah, but I have no idea why.”
“That’s because you are too insane to talk to him. The only way you will know if you talk to him.”
I let out a long sigh. Ellie was right, for once. The best thing for me to do was to talk to him. Give him a chance to explain himself and then go from there.
“Ok, what do I do? I deleted his number like the colossal fool that I am.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t one of your brighter ideas, girl.”
“Thanks,” I said. “You are quite the cheerleader.”
“Wait,” Ellie said throwing her arms up in the air.
“What?”
“I just had a thought,” Ellie replied. “With the whole country talking about this on the news he has to figure you’ve seen this, right?”
“I guess… for all he knows I’m back home now. I gave him nothing to go on.”
“True, but I have a better idea. Why don’t you just go to the palace and meet him in person?”
Meet him in person? Could I actually do that?
“What? Are you crazy?”
“Come on,” she said. “Think about it. You show up there and tell them who you are. Maybe not tell them everything; you have to hold some of your naughtier moments together back, but tell them to give Cort your name. It’s that simple.”
“That does not sound simple,” I said. “But I’m not sure I can just waltz up there and talk to the prince. That is ridiculous.”
“He knows you, Teagan. You aren’t just some crazy person wandering up asking to speak to the prince about nefarious cloud patterns.”
I groaned. “Do you have any idea how many girls are probably camped out in front of the palace just trying to plead for the prince’s hand in marriage?”
“Ok, well, let me think,” Ellie said.
She grabbed her phone and began to search for something.
“What are you doing?” Teagan asked.
“Just give me a minute,” Ellie replied.
I finished my water bottle and tossed it in the trash.
“Here! Oh, this is perfect!”
“What?”
“In an interview a while back Cort told someone he stays in shape by fencing, riding horses, weight lifting, mountain climbing, but he is always looking for other physical things to learn and get into that might challenge him.”
“Ok,” I said. “I’m not really seeing where you’re going with this…”
“You teach yoga, dummy,” Ellie said.
“You want me to offer to teach him yoga?”
“Of course!”
“I don’t know…”
“All you do is show up and tell them that you are a yoga teacher and want to offer the prince your services. Tell them your name. You told him that your name is Teagan and you teach yoga… he has to make that connection!”
Now that was a thought. Could it actually work?
“It’s perfect, right?” Ellie asked.
“I guess it isn’t bad. I still don’t think it will work, but I’ve got nothing else to lose.”
“You aren’t going to do it, are you?” Ellie asked.
“I don’t know. This is all so out there.”
“But it was good,” Ellie said. “Right?”
“Of course, it was good,” Teagan replied.
“And you already know how you feel. You love the guy, right? I can tell. I know you are all conflicted and feeling like a total moron for being conflicted but don’t let your stupid pride get in the way of this. Please just tell those lame voices in your head to shut up and follow your heart.”
I smiled. “Wow, that was insightful.”
“I may start writing greeting cards,” Ellie joked.
We both laughed. I bit my lip slightly as I tried to force my nerves down.
“I know you are scared, but you gotta take the leap,” Ellie said.
“I know, and I will.”
“Go get him Teagan,” Ellie said and she blew me a kiss before she signed off.
Tomorrow morning, I was going to the palace.
And I wouldn’t let myself stop me.