Chapter 19

Charles

The blonde twined around the pole like a squirrel around a tree. Her ass was naked, her generous curves coated with shine, but all I could do was stare past her and across the club to see if Henry was one of the fellows staring up at her like she was God. So far, the clientele of this strip club had been as dubious as you’d expect in one that was open during the daytime. It was only 6 p.m. after all.

“In Pandora” had been the brief text Henry had sent in response when I’d asked to meet.

And now here I was, in Pandora, the box of questionable men and lovely ladies. Walking from the front of the club to the back, I passed girls of all types and tastes: black, white, curvy, thin—all sexy, of course. Some eyed me curiously while one—dark-haired with a butterfly tattoo on her upper thigh—licked her lips. I could barely give them a passing nod as I went by.

My dick twitch with irritation. I knew I was supposed to be attracted to them, but there was one thing on my mind and one thing only: getting advice from Henry about the whole Heidi situation.

I found my dear brother lounging in the curtained-off back room. His legs were spread and his mouth was agape, probably because inches away from his face was the freckled ass of a sexy redhead.

Although Henry’s eyes didn’t move from their ass-bound position, he somehow still saw me. His hand waved me over onto the cushy velvet seat he was currently slumped on. I grudgingly sat down beside him.

“Can we do this somewhere else?”

Henry only shook his head, not breaking eye contact with the two backside mounds that were now bouncing up and down exuberantly. He spoke in clipped chunks.

“No can do. If Mother wants to nag me using you again, I’m certainly not going to change my plans. Not for that.”

I cast a skeptical look around the room, with its black satin curtains and low orange lights.

“You specifically made plans for…this?”

Henry smiled. “Course I did.” He gave the redhead’s ass a good whap. “Tequila invited me herself.”

Rolling my eyes, I said nothing. Nor did I humor Henry by asking where or how he’d met Miss “Tequila.” I’d heard the same story enough times by now: at the club, in the bar, just running around the streets in the middle of the night.

“I meant it when I said this was important,” I said in a curt tone.

When that garnered no response from him, I continued. “I went to see Heidi.”

For the first time, Henry’s shocked eyes found mine.

“You what?”

“That’s not all,” I continued.

This time, when I glanced pointedly at the redhead, who was still working that ass away, Henry gave it a different sort of slap.

“Thanks, but my brother and I need to talk.”

He handed her a stack of twenties and she left. Henry watched her go with a sad sort of twinkle in his eyes.

“Women.” He sighed, as if she had forcibly made him go into this strip club and watch her shake that ass. He swiveled to face me head-on, his face serious now.

“What did she say? That tabloid thing was just a crazy fuckup, right? She was buying it for a friend or some other guy she was screwing, right?”

His voice contained all the abject hope I had felt myself until yesterday—with the exception of her being with another guy.

“I’m afraid not.”

Henry processed this with an impassive expression. Then he bobbed his head in a nod so forceful, it shook several dark curls askew.

“But she’s getting rid of it if it’s yours. Right?”

His hopeful tone got my blood boiling.

“That’s the last thing I want,” I snapped.

“It may not be up to you,” Henry pointed out with a shrug.

I scowled. Already, this conversation was going exactly how I had expected—and feared.

“She’s keeping it, and I want her to,” I stated in a matter-of-fact voice. “More than that, I’m considering making it public.”

This slapped Henry out of his hot-female-ass-induced stupor.

“What?!”

His shock satisfied me slightly. My teeth thoughtlessly bit at my lip. There was some dry skin there, a whole layer I had to tear off. Just how there was a layer of incomprehension over Henry’s mind. He’d never been fond of anyone for an extended period, so there was no way he’d understand what I was going through.

“That will ruin everything,” he concluded in a shocked voice that suddenly became pleading. “Charles, if you do that, then that means I—”

“May have to become monarch,” I finished for him. I shook it away. “Maybe it doesn’t have to come to that. Maybe I can…”

Henry jumped to his feet.

He scoffed. “What? Somehow make it fly that you are not only having a baby with someone outside marriage, but that the someone is an American model? They’ll let me on the Queen’s Guard first.”

He started pacing one-footed, which consisted of rocking his body one way and then the other. All the while, his expression grew darker and darker. He rounded on me with an insistent look in his eyes.

“You know Mother—”

“Will probably disown me for good,” I concluded.

Hovering before me, Henry’s squinting eyes searched my face incredulously, as if he were the one sitting here instead of me. From the way things had been going, anyone would have guessed this was bound to happen to Henry and not me. And yet here we were, our roles reversed, the so-called responsible brother on the cusp of a career-crucifying scandal.

Finally, Henry’s whole body sagged, as if he’d talked and rocked the last dregs of energy out of himself. Staring into the dark indent of the curtain ahead of him, he asked, “What are you going to do?”

I stared into the same curtain indent.

“That’s the operative question, isn’t it?”

“And what did she say?” Henry asked, a new hopeful tone in his voice.

“She did offer just slipping away, going back home to the States, and not mentioning anything to anyone.”

With one single loud clap of his hands, Henry leaped up. “That just solves everything, now doesn’t it?”

I rose, my glare cutting into him. “That doesn’t solve a thing. It’s an option, nothing more—one which I point-blank refused and even now don’t want to consider.”

“Don’t want to consider,” Henry repeated in an exasperated tone. “Are you serious right now?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I snapped. “The real question is how anyone can expect me to, in good conscience, just abandon my own child and the girl I…” My words trailed off into nothingness.

Henry gestured at me to continue. “Go on. The girl you what?”

The question was a sneer, and my response was a frown. My phone rang.

“Charles, you’re with Henry, aren’t you?”

I nearly dropped the phone on the spot. It was my dad on the other line. I gawked at my brother’s furious face for a moment before words sputtered out of me.

“Yes, I am, Father. What is going on?”

“What is going on is that I have something to talk to you about,” his tired voice said. “Express orders of your mother, of course. Besides, your presence has been sorely missed at the palace since that unfortunate family meal we shared. Am I not permitted to see my sons from time to time?”

My gaze roved around the strip club’s cloaked back room for some kind of hasty escape hatch or something. But the only way out seemed to be the way I’d come in—through the music-roaring, girl-cooing sketch house. There was no way I could retrace my steps while my dad was on the other line.

“Where are you boys at the moment?” Dad continued. “I could come meet you.”

That lodged a pit the size of a football in my throat. Shit, shit, shit.

Seeing my face, Henry whispered, “What is it?”

Covering the phone, I whispered, “He wants to meet us right now.”

“Shit,” Henry groaned.

“We’re at a coffee place,” I said vaguely. “Can’t remember the name. Let me just take a look at the sign and text you the address. Give me a minute.”

As soon as I’d hung up, I grabbed Henry’s arm. Together, we barreled out of Pandora like the long black-walled building was about to explode. Because, in a way, it was. If Father found out we were here… Well, the repercussions wouldn’t have been as heinous as if Mother found out, but they wouldn’t be good either, especially if he thought to ask what we’d been talking about.

Out on the sidewalk, Henry and I glimpsed a coffee shop across the street. Quickly, I texted my father its name, and then Henry and I hurried inside.

--

Meeting with Father took longer than I would’ve liked. Part of me had been hoping to call up Heidi after getting advice from Henry and figuring out what I was going to do. Now, not only was I more confused than ever, but I had my kindly inquisitive father to deal with. He was dressed incognito in ugly spectacles and a low hat so no one noticed him. Or if they did, they didn’t let on.

As it turned out, he had been dispatched by Mother to wrestle out of us who we were taking to the ball. Before any rational thought could occur to me, I blurted out, “Heidi.”

And as Henry ogled me, he blurted out, “And I’m taking her friend…Liz…”

“Liza,” I supplied for him. This appeased father but only worsened things for me. Taking Heidi to a high-profile charity ball like this after all that had happened…it was an idiotic idea at best and a fatal one at worst. Whatever happened there, it wouldn’t be good.

And yet, as I settled into the wooden-back café seat, my mind was already sinking into the comfy warmth of the idea. Me and Heidi, arm in arm…

My father’s current presence was acutely unbearable, though. He was a man who, over time, I had come to look up to, and I couldn’t tell him what I’d done, not when things were still undecided like this.

And yet, the lie of omission took root in me so deep that I was practically stuttering with it. Finally, I excused myself to the bathroom.

Standing in the corner away from the urinals, I did something, an act that was now becoming something of a habit for me: call Heidi during my first free moment. Our conversation was brief and hesitant on her part, but she’d agreed to meet me at the house and have my car pick her up as usual.

And now, thirty minutes later, after an unlikely excuse and a hasty departure from the café, here I was, sitting on the hidden house’s inside steps, waiting.

She was late and looked paler than I would’ve liked.

“You all right?” I asked immediately, covering her with my arms.

Her arms and torso went stiff, as if she didn’t trust herself to lean into the hug.

“I guess as well as can be expected,” she said in a small voice.

My arms still around her, I conveyed her to sit beside me on the steps. My hand slipped to hers, and once again her responding gesture was hesitant.

“I think people should know.”

My words were louder than necessary, but Heidi didn’t give any indication that she’d heard me.

Rage arced through me.

“Heidi.”

She closed her eyes and nodded, tears escaping from her lowered lids.

“It’s just that it will ruin everything: my career, not to mention your…”

Her teary eyes sought out mine.

I squeezed her hand. “Future as a monarch. I just keep thinking there has to be another way. Another way that isn’t so black and white. That isn’t either you and the baby leave or we both lose our careers.”

A bitter smile traced the edges of her lips. “I don’t think real life is like that.”

Nothing was all I could think to say. Instead, my fingers traced hers, up and down, over knuckles and around nails.

Then Heidi spoke again. “But I’m willing to try, if you are.”

Hearing the furtive hope in her voice, I blurted out, “Would you go to the ball with me?”

Her smile was surprised, puzzled.

“It’s this big affair for a charity I’m passionate about,” I explained. “It’s the World Wildlife Fund. I think last year, they were responsible for taking the rhino off the endangered species list.”

As her smile became thoughtful, I couldn’t resist those tempting lips any longer.

When my lips first met hers, passion sizzled all the way to my groin. Oh yes. It was time.