“Youhave to?” I scoffed. “More like King is making you. Tell me, do you ever get sick of doing what he tells you?”
Shep whirled around and pinned me with a fulminating stare. “I’m second-in-command, it’s my job?—”
“To do whatever he tells you. I know, I get it. But come on, you know I didn’t do this. You think I’d risk blowing my ass up?”
“No, and if it’s a fake?—”
“It is.”
“Then Alessio will find out.”
I rubbed a hand over the stubble lining my jaw. I had several royal events lined up later in the day, but wanted to get a workout in before they got underway. Now, with this, Ireallyneeded to work off some irritation.
“Listen, I’m going to go for a run, if that’s okay with you.”
“A run?”
I grabbed a shirt out of one of my drawers and pulled it on. “Yes. It’s a form of exercise.”
“What about the video?”
“I don’t give a fuck about the video.” I walked over to Shep and looked him dead in the eye. “I told you, it’s fake. Beyond that, it’s not my problem.”
I went to brush by him, and Shep took hold of my arm, halting me.“It sure as fuckisyour problem.”
“Why? Because King is mad? That’s not really something I worry about much.”
Shep’s eyes narrowed, and I knew I’d hit a nerve. Yes, I respected the hierarchy of our organization and my role in it. But at the same time, I knew what I was looking at wasn’t real. If they wanted to believe otherwise, not much I could do about that.
“Maybe you should.”
“Non, I think I’ll leave that to you. You’re so good at it.” I glanced down at where he still held my arm. “Now, unless you’re offering to let me work out my frustration some other way, I’d advise you to let go.”
“That’s never going to happen again.”
“Shame. You could use a good fucking.” I leaned in and added, “And I’d make itreallygood. Explosive…”
Shep’s short nails dug into the skin of my arm—hard. “That’s not funny.”
“Come on, it was a little.”
“You really don’t give a shit how much trouble you’re in, do you?” Shep’s jaw bunched. “That would just make it worse.”
“Hmm, and you wouldn’t want that.” I angled my face up until our lips almost touched.
He let me go with a slight shove then headed for the door, and because I was a total glutton for punishment I called out, “That’s right, run back and report to your King like a good little soldier.”
Shep paused, hand on the door, and for a second I thought—or ratherhoped—he would turn back and make me pay for that comment. Instead, he gripped the handle and threw it open, storming out without another word.
7
SHEP
IF I THOUGHT I’d get a reprieve from having to see Theo for the rest of the day, I was wrong. Though he went off to fulfill royal duties for a few hours—which, now that the wedding was over, meant I wasn’t required to tag along as babysitter—what I didn’t count on was his showing up at the villa afterward. With his skimpy swimsuit in hand. And convincing everyone to join him in the pool.
Why he couldn’t go get in his own damn pool was beyond me, because if there was one thing the two of us needed right now, it was space. We’d made a stupid, in-the-moment decision yesterday, and it wasn’t going to happen again.
I sat up in the lounge chair by the pool as he, Lucien, and Kai raced each other from one end to the other, and tossed my laptop onto the chair beside me. Work never stopped, but today was just approving the last ad details for next month’s issue. When I’d createdLincoln, a political entertainment website that catered to making politics accessible to everyone, I didn’t think hard copies of a magazine would be feasible—or profitable—but I was happy to be wrong about that.
