“Your name’s a good start.”
“My full name is Owen Hawthorne III. I’m the Prince of Parlaisa, and my brother is the King. This is Hawthorne Palace.”
Even just hearing that much set me at ease. Not because it made much sense, but after everything that had happened, it made a hell of a lot more sense than anything else Owen had told me that day.
“Every year, my niece—Cassie, not Reggie—and I are able to sneak out into the city in disguise because of the cosplay tradition associated with the festival’s annual parade. Much like the UK, royalty in Parlaisa are under constant scrutiny from the public, so the parade is one of the few occasions where we can escape our rather public lives. When you saw me without my mask on, I thought…”
Oh, shit. “That’s what you meant aboutmaking you. Like spy talk. You weren’t interested in me at all. You thought I knew who you were.”
I was an idiot.
“Keeg, I think it’s pretty apparent I didn’t stick my tongue down your throat because I wasn’t interested in you.”
I smirked. I shouldn’t have felt as relieved as I did about that, especially because he had still been such a royal asshole to me.
“If there’s anything you should be questioning about today,” he went on, “it’s not that kiss.”
Was I really blushing again over that?
Fuck.
“So what about everything else?” I asked. “With Cassie? And that guy with the Taser?”
“After the parade, the royal guard was to take Cassie back to the palace while Frederick—Peter Pan—and I hit the bars. When he came up to me, he was letting me know that the royal guard had lost track of her. Apparently, she’d slipped away to join protestors for this Equal Marriage bill that is due for an upcoming vote in parliament. She’s as clever as the rest of the Hawthornes. And that’s when I had to leave, to go find her. I figured I was just going to go grab Frederick when I saw him in the alley. I hadn’t considered that the guard would see you, let alone assume you were some sort of psychotic abductor.”
“Me, trying to abduct her?”
“They were being overly cautious, and I’m very sorry about that. It’s my fault for leaving the two of you. As a member of the royal family, I profusely apologize, as will the royal guard.”
“So I’m not a prisoner or in trouble?”
“No, of course not. I’m sorry you had to go a moment thinking that was the case.”
I sighed. “Well, that’s another relief.” At least I knew I wasn’t going to wind up in some royal prison with a bunch of guys making me the center of their gangbang abuse, which admittedly returned to being a hot scenario once the real threat was no longer a possibility.
“Now comes the bad news, then,” Owen—or I guessed, Prince Owen III—went on.
“Bad news? How could there be more bad news?”
“It appears that a picture of our kiss was leaked online.”
“Wait, what do you mean a picture was leaked?”
“A picture from the bar…of us kissing.”
“There’s a picture of me kissing a guy? Where is it? Like on someone’s Facebook page or Twitter? Can you get it pulled?”
“Exactly how big of a problem will it be if I can’t?”
“No one back home knows I’m gay. It’s a huge problem!”
“Okay, well, your friends obviously knew when I—”
“No, I mean my family, everyone back home. I’m not out to anyone.”
That wasn’t entirely true. There was Casey, Steve, Serena…and then Linc, a guy I knew back home and with whom I’d talked about it a little.
Owen’s wide eyes and gaping mouth assured me he hadn’t considered I was closeted, but his look was enough to convince me he was taking my distress seriously.
