Chapter 18

Alexander

I woke to slobbery kisses and groaned. “Hank! Get off me.”

He whined.

Cracking open my eyes I saw him hovering inches above my face, tail wagging. He needed to go out. Fair enough.

I took him outside and grabbed breakfast from the kitchen on the way back to my apartment. The weather outside was clear and warm, not a breath of wind in the air. It was going to be a calm day, the perfect kind of morning that heralded good things on the horizon.

No sooner had I taken my first bite of croissant than my father stormed into my apartment without knocking. I couldn’t remember the last time he’d even been in here, never mind the last time he thundered in.

My father’s weathered face and bristling mustache swam into view as he marched up to my table, brandishing a folded newspaper. Before I could ask what he was doing, he slapped the paper down on the table and pointed an accusing finger to the image that took up half the front page. Tamara and I were at the front of the boat, my arm around her shoulder and her head on my chest. There was a caption underneath.

REBELLIOUS PRINCE SNEAKS OUT OF PALACE TO TAKE ROMANTIC CANAL CRUISE WITH SECRET ACTRESS GIRLFRIEND, it read. INSIDE SOURCE CONFIRMS RELATIONSHIP. DETAILS ON PAGE 10.

Inside source? Who had they talked to?

“Who the hell writes these things?” I muttered, trying not to show how affected I was. I knew something like this was bound to happen eventually, but last night was a decidedly inconvenient time for that to be the case.

“I cannot believe you!” Father growled. “You snuck out? Are you a child?”

I gestured to the seat opposite but he remained standing, glaring at me with a fury I hadn’t seen in him for many years.

Irritation bubbled in my chest for the child comment.

“What does it matter?” I asked. “Nobody noticed I was gone.”

His eyes narrowed on me. “It was a family event, Alexander. You’ve exhibited a blatant lack of respect for me and for everyone who cares about you.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I rose to my feet, palms facing my father. “Let’s not get confused here. There were very few actual members of our family there. It was a press event, and you know that.”

“We are royalty, Alexander.” He stood a little taller. This man couldn’t have been born into a more suitable vocation than king. “The country is our family and we have a duty to uphold. Letting them into our lives through ‘press events’ is part of the deal, and you know that.”

I didn’t much fancy having my words slung back at me, but my father had made one critical error.

I pointed to the picture of Tamara. “Here you go. They’ve wheedled their way into a critical part of my life. We’re even.”

His frown dipped even further, if that was possible. “We are not even. You owe an apology to Edward and Clarissa.”

“Fine,” I said.

Honestly, that seemed fair. I would’ve come to that conclusion with or without my father’s interference.

He took a closer look at the image, and I could see him running her face through his internal database to find a match.

“Tamara Callahan,” I filled in. “You obviously haven’t flipped to page ten.”

His eyes returned to mine. “I don’t make it a habit to read this filth.” A second later, his brow furrowed. “Is this why you’ve been behaving so rudely to Svetlana?”

Did everything in this place revolve around that Swedish princess? I already had Edward jumping down my throat about her, the last thing I needed was for my father to join in.

“I wish you would all leave that alone,” I said through gritted teeth. “I don’t know how many times I’ve told Edward that I’m not marrying that girl.”

“Because she’s a princess,” Dad said, indicating that he and Edward had spoken about it. Of course they had. They probably had a binder full of ideas on how to fix me.

“Princess or no, I’m not interested.”

He shook his head, and for a second his anger flickered into something a lot less easy to swallow. Disappointment.

“You’re a fool, Alexander,” he said. “Whether you were going to marry the girl or not, it was cruel of you to behave as you did. You were unkind to her strictly to give your family the middle finger.” He stared at me hard. “Your mother may have been a princess of the people, but she was still a princess. And she would be ashamed of you right now.”

That blow hit me harder than a brick to the chest. I didn’t even think—I just stalked around my father and to the door, calling out for Hank before slamming the door behind me.

How could he say such a thing? No wonder our relationship had suffered in recent years.

I tried not to let my bitterness toward my father consume me, and instead focused my energies on trying to decipher who the inside source was. I should’ve taken the newspaper out with me to scan it for clues but I was so angry that I’d forgotten everything except how to walk away.

The only people who had seen us together were her sister, Tristan Noble, and the maid at Springfield Manor. Unless there was somebody I was forgetting about.

My thoughts circled back to my father and I kicked a clump of grass, sending it flying over Hank’s head. The sky had faded to a dull ash color since I was outside last, typical of the weather around this time of year.

He had no right to say what he did or be as angry as he was. I skipped out on one fucking party. Hell, I’d been caught doing much worse in the past than taking a beautiful actress for a romantic cruise.

Which reminded me... My father probably wasn’t the only one angry.

I dialed Teddy’s number.

“I cannot believe you,” he answered. “You lied to me.”

I winced. “I’m sorry, Teddy. It was a spur of the moment sort of thing.”

“How much trouble are you in?” he asked, humor lacing his tone. Teddy could never be mad at anyone for long—except his family.

“More than I expected.”

He chuckled. “Foiled again, eh old boy?”

“So it would seem.”

He cleared his throat. “I won’t pretend I’m not offended that you didn’t tell me you were going out with Tamara Callahan,” he said, “though I do approve of your choice.”

“I’ll sleep easy now.”

Teddy tutted. “Hanging out with an American has made you sassy.”

“Please never call me sassy again.”

“Someone’s getting sassy.”

“Teddy!”

He laughed. “Fine. Sorry. What are you going to do now?”

I scrubbed a hand through my hair and wrinkled my nose. Good question. Tamara was probably crushed, and I needed to see her to make sure she was okay. After that I could fix whatever else of the fallout needed fixing.

“I’ve got to go find Tamara,” I said. “She was the one who insisted we keep everything quiet. She’s had bad brushes with the press in the past.”

“You could call it that,” he replied.

In all the times Tamara mentioned the debacle with her ex-boyfriend, I never thought to ask about or seek out the what he’d said about her. With Teddy’s hanging words, I grew curious.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The last time I read about Ms. Callahan on the glossy pages of the gossip rag, her ex-boyfriend was painting quite the pretty picture,” he explained. “Self-absorbed but terminally self-conscious, a higher-than-thou attitude that alienated her from the rest of the cast, and the inability to function when she didn’t get her own way.”

“That doesn’t sound like my Tamara at all.”

Teddy hummed. “Well, you know her better than I.”

He left it at that. Teddy had a penchant for drama, so I didn’t put much stock in what he said.

“I’ll talk to you later,” I said.

Teddy laughed. “Don’t let the press bugs bite, star boy!”

I rolled my eyes and ended the call.