Page 2 of Rowdy Prince
"Your mail, sire." The valet places a silver tray with neatly arranged envelopes on top of it. "Shall I open them for you?”
Leafing through, I'm about to hand the tray back so he can do just that, but a postage mark from Aiken, South Carolina catches my eye. "Ah, no. I'll see to this myself. Thankyou."
He bows then retreats to the edge of the room. In my world this is considered being ‘left alone’. Even when I take a leak, they follow me and guard the door.Cause my dick is gonna turn into a python and choke me.The degree to which I’m watched is exhausting. And as we move closer to the date of my coronation, the eyes on my every move seem to multiply daily. I miss those carefree days of my college years when I could be as rowdy as I liked, go where I liked, and spend time with the people I liked.It seems like a lifetime ago.
Picking up my letter opener, I slice through the seal with an eagerness I haven’t felt in months. Mitch will be married by now; I couldn't get a break in my duties to travel back for it. I hate that I didn’t get to stand up there with my best friend and watch him exchange vows with the woman he loves. But duty trumps desire, as my mother always says. And while I understand the privilege that comes with my position in life, I do struggle with the lack of freedom. Especially when it means my heart is still living in the United States, beating inside the chest of a beautiful curvaceous woman who will forever be off limits to me—the woman who wrote me this letter. Tara.
Not only is she my best friend’s sister, but she’s also lacking nobility. And once the crown duties are accepted, mixing with the common folk is forbidden in my kingdom. Birthrights can really suck sometimes.
Recognizing her penmanship, my fingers dive into the envelope before my brain even commands them to. I pull out the folded sheet of paper, hungry for the words it contains. I inhale its scent, remembering her thick black hair and the way it shines in the light when it’s freshly washed. I remember her laughter and the way she always thought my stories about kings, queens and castles were lies. Still, she ate them all up, listening in wrapt attention. I would go out of my way to entertain her, just to watch the way her eyes sparkled with amusement. What I wouldn’t give for just one more summer with her and Mitch.
Unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of time. There are precisely three months until my coronation. I’ll be crowned king and be expected to marry the daughter of some duke who could likely be some kind of distant cousin which really bothers me. The nobility in most other countries have been able to marry for love for decades now, but in Reinqueno, we’re still forced into ‘maintaining the bloodline’. Something needs to change.
Opening the letter, my eyes scan her neatly written words, a smile spreading over my face with each word read. However, when I reach the sentence, ‘Now, don’t be proud because I know how expensive international travel can be, which is why I’m going to pay for your ticket,’ I have to bite my knuckle to avoid laughing out loud. Shestilldoesn’t believe me. After all these years, she still hasn’t figured out that I was telling the truth.
Pulling a sheet from the top of my stack royal stationary, I pick up my pen and compose a letter of my own in response to Tara’s invitation to Mitch’s surprise birthday party next month.
‘Dear Ms. MacCallum,
His royal highness, Prince Luis of the kingdom of Reinqueno wishes to inform you that he will be honored to attend Mitchell MacCallum’s thirtieth birthday celebrations…’
I press my teeth into my bottom lip to keep my grin from turning into a laugh as I continue writing. My mother is going to lose her mind when she finds out I’m doing this, but I missed the wedding, I don’t want to miss this party too. It could be the last time I get to see the people I considered my family during the four years I studied in the U.S. I’m going to give Reinqueno the rest of my life. The least they can afford me is a few days.
And one final chance to see Tara…
Tara
“Dear Ms. MacCallum,” I start, reading from the letter written on averyfancy-looking royal letterhead—that is really taking this whole ‘I’m a prince in a tiny kingdom’ thing too far, if you ask me—while Laura sits across from me in a coffee shop downtown. “His royal highness, Prince Luis of the kingdom of Reinqueno wishes to inform you that he will be honored to attend Mitchell MacCallum’s thirtieth birthday celebrations next month. He is however, under royal guard at all times and will require the guest list and location (please include a floor plan with clearly labeled entry and exit points) to be emailed forthwith to his security team at [email protected]. Only then will the official acceptance of your invitation be handed down. Yours in anticipation of a fabulous time, Prince Luis. P.S thank you for the offer to pay my airfare. However, I think I’ll be more comfortable in my family’s jet.”
“You have to give the guy credit.” Laura grins, picking up a pack of sugar and tearing it open. “He’s sticking to his story.”
“Extravagantly.” I push the letter across the table to show her. “Look at the gold embossing. He’s going too far.” I pick up my coffee and take a mouthful while Laura stirs her sugar with one hand and holds the letter in the other, studying it with a creased brow.
“Have you ever looked this Reinqueno place up?” she asks.
I shake my head as I take the letter back. “He’s probably set up a website and a Wiki page for it by now. I mean, I sent an email to that address and got a response. So, if he’s willing to go to that much trouble…” I laugh as I fold the letter up and set it on the table, remembering how I sent a crude drawing of house with stick figures standing out the front of it with ‘Dear Prince of Bullshit’ in the subject line. The response came back saying ‘Thank you. The prince shall see you at the party.’ I don’t know when the man is going to give up the charade, but at least his sense of humor is intact. “And you know, I get that he’s just trying to have some fun, but I was a kid when he told me those stories. Now I’m twenty-four and I don’t have the patience for this stuff.”
Laura is smiling into her phone and I’m starting to think she isn’t listening to me until she says, “I don’t know, Tara. He looks like a bonafide prince to me.” Flipping her phone around, she presents me with an article from the Daily Mail that says ‘Bad Boy Prince in trouble again’ with a picture of Luis holding his hand up to the camera to shield his face from the flashes.
“What?” My heart jolts in my chest at the sight of him. It’s been eight years since I saw him last and my body still reacts the same. It’s crazy because he’s way older than I am, so he probably only ever saw me as his best friend’s kid sister. Plus, he drove me crazy with his stories, so he was classified pretty high on the ‘People I find annoying’ list. But there’s always beensomething. Something about the way he smiled, or maybe it was the way his brown eyes glittered when he was telling one of his stories. Or maybe it was just him… Whatever it was, Luis Rivera set my blood on fire—even if he is completely full of shit. “I cannotbelievehe’s gone this far.” I snatch the phone from Laura’s hand and gape at the article. The Daily Mail is hardly the most reputable paper on the planet, but this is going too far.
“Tara, honey. I don’t think this is a prank,” Laura says, laughter in her voice as she leans over my shoulder and taps at the screen.
“I was reading that.”
“I know. But you’ll want to read all of this too. Look; there are a good twenty million results in Google for him. Image upon image of him in his family regalia, and of course, there’s this.” She taps on the map icon and it opens up, highlighting the location of Reinqueno on the globe. “I don’t think he hacked google maps to put there, honey. I think he’s telling the truth.”
“But…but,” I stammer, my head spinning as the reality of this sinks in. Luis is a prince. A real life-pinch-him-in-the-arm-and-he’ll-squeal prince.Holy crap.I know a prince.
And I sent an email to palace security calling him the Prince of Bullshit!Kill me now!
“Do you…do you know that this means?” I gasp.
Laura nods, laughing a hearty laugh. “That aprinceis coming to Mitch’s thirtieth birthday party.”
“No. It means I’ve committedtreason.I called a prince a liar for years.”
Her laughter deepens. “I don’t think that’s how it works, Tara. I’m sure Luis just thought it was funny.”
