Page 22 of The Prince and the Double Shot
“Yes.”
“Did he tell you who I was?”
“He didn’t. I guess he assumed that I already knew.” Was he lying? Did I even care? It wasn’t as if it mattered if he knew who I was or not, but something was telling me to keep it a secret for now.
“Thank you. How much did you pay him?”
“Five hundred.”
“He could have gotten more from the papers.”
“There was a glare from the glass. He wouldn’t have been able to sell them. But I thought it’d be better to… It’s what you would have wanted, I thought. We all deserve our privacy, don’t we?”
The way he said it told me everything I needed to know. He could say it was for me, but he didn’t want his own face in that photo. Who was he hiding from?
“Secrets. We all have them.” I said slowly.
The rest of the night went without incident, and we had a good time as we got to know each other more. We kept it simple, and neither one of us dug deep again. He walked me back to the hotel and said goodbye awkwardly.
I wanted him to kiss me, but something had shifted.
There was a new elephant in the room.
ZANE
Ihad been careless. All these years, I had made sure to keep a low profile to avoid being found. One night – one date with a prince, and it had almost all come crashing down around my ears.
I ran away for a reason – escaped a future that I didn’t want – left a family who only thought of me as capital for their own nefarious purposes. If that photo had been released, there was a chance that it could all come crashing down. If they found me, they would not let me stay. In fact, it might not be safe for me to stay.
The world was a messed-up place.
I craved freedom from that world. I didn’t want to live in a world of obfuscation and lies just to stay in a fantasy that was darker than a fucking Grimm’s tale. My father was weak, but my mother was as powerful and demanding as they came. She would have me dragged back to that world before I could even take a breath or plan another escape. Once I was back in – there would be no way out for me.
But what did I have? Freedom to make my own choices. A future that belonged only to me, even if my future had boundaries that I had to stay within to avoid detection.
Hiding. That was what I had. A future of staying below the radar and always looking over my shoulder. This wasn’t the first time that I had been fearful that I’d been found. Luckily, it hadn’t been true. My family was powerful, but I had been kept on a very short leash, which helped maintain my anonymity. When your parents were rich, the press desired to know about you. Their access had always been denied, for the most part. I had been luckier than most of the children who had parents like mine. I hadn’t been paraded around and forced to smile at the photographers.
That would have been myfuture.
What kind of life would I have? What could I… How could I ever truly share myself with anyone? How could I build a life when I lived in fear of it being taken away by one simple mistake?
A mistake that could have happened yesterday and ruined everything I had worked for. I shouldn’t see him again, should I? He lived in the public, and I lurked in the shadows. I might not know who he was, or even care. That world can only be mine for a tumble between the sheets, and not a life that I would ever aspire to, even if I did fall in love with someone like him.
Freedom.
With Phil, there could be no freedom.
I sighed and tied my apron tighter around my waist. I needed to get to work. I kept waiting to be told when my first shift at the pool would be, but maybe the owners had found someone else.
Whatever… I hoped it wouldn’t be too busy today. My mind was spinning, and my body felt so tight and wound up with the fear of this all crashing down on top of me.
Jesus… All I could think about was the way he smiled right before he laughed. It was a break in the darkness he lived in, as if the sun had just broken through the clouds. He knew loss.He had truly loved, and losing Petra had shriveled his heart the same way the disease had destroyed Petra.
It was horrible.
Love was horrible.
No.
