Royally Screwed Part 14

"Sebastian, what did you do?" Kat couldn't resist giving him the partly patronizing look she often reserved for Blaze.

"Why does everyone always a.s.sume I did something?"

"Sebastian . . ."

"It is all your fault actually. I just took your advice."

"And what advice was that?"

"Reminded Dya Vlad that his son was just as guilty of 'extracurricular activities' as I was."

"Oh G.o.d, how?"

"There may have been some pictures . . ."

Kat's mouth dropped open in disbelief. "When I said to remind him I meant a comment, a joke, maybe even a strongly pointed look. I never said splash pictures across the tabloids."

"There were no tabloids," he protested. "And only one picture. I just slipped it into a presentation he was making, that's all."

"To who?"

"Just the family and some state officials. Baba never saw it he caught it before he even started."

"And the picture was . . .?"

"Of me and Anton. Celebrating."

Kat just shook her head. "I can't believe you did that. Wait, how did you even do that?"

"I do have friends you know. Apparently in my absence Prince Vlad and the King gave Sergei a royal dressing down for him to deliver and he's not overjoyed with me at the moment."

"So you just let him put you on house arrest?" Kat wasn't sure if she should laugh or be properly chagrined.

"A royal picks their battles, Kat."

"Hmm, I see. Are you afraid of Sergei?"

"No. I'm afraid of my mother. Sergei I'm just wary of. I cannot function on my own and he knows it."

"Well what about letting me in? Won't that make him angrier?"

A wolfish smile appeared on Sebastian's face as his hand slowly brushed against her. "I told you I pick my battles."

"You'd go to battle for me?" she asked cheekily. "Who am I, Helen of Troy?"

"Always," he answered, "and far more beautiful than that homely Greek." His hand came up to stroke her cheek, slowly drawing them closer, and the mood changed. She turned but it didn't stop his lips from descending against her jawline.

"I like this too," he murmured thickly, resting his head against her temple, darting his tongue out to dance along the curve of her neck. She remembered all too well. When his teeth sc.r.a.ped lightly against her earlobe she couldn't stop a small sound of enjoyment from escaping. She felt his satisfied smile against her skin.

"What are you doing?" Kat asked, barely managing to get it out around the desire stuck in her throat.

"I missed you," the Prince said. "Hasn't anyone ever said 'h.e.l.lo' to you before?"

"Not like that." She put a hand on his chest and pushed him away. He didn't protest just leaned back, far enough for her brain to start working again.

"Then you're missing out on all the fun." He wiggled his eyebrows devilishly at her and she had to laugh. She also had to move, getting up from the couch and putting as much acceptable s.p.a.ce between them as possible. His grin meant he saw right through her. But before he could comment on it, the front door opened and Sergei entered.

He was talking rapidly in Sezynian but stopped when he saw them both there. His eyes narrowed slightly on Kat and she s.h.i.+fted self-consciously under his scrutinizing gaze. He clicked his heels together, bowed rather formally to her, to them both, and then left the room.

"I have something for you," Sebastian said, completely ignoring Sergei's interruption. He inclined his head to the table where a neatly wrapped box sat, just slightly bigger than the last one he'd given her.

"Doesn't look big enough to be the s.h.i.+rt you still owe me," she said, peering at it critically. "You really have to stop giving me gifts."

"We'll just see about that. Open it it might be just the thing you've always wanted."

"You got a happily ever after into this box?" Kat asked tartly. She picked it up and rattled it near her ear nothing made a sound.

"That's what you've always wanted?"

"That, a clawfoot tub, and serving trays that clean themselves. That pretty much sums me up."

"Does it really?" Sebastian asked, his voice just a tiny bit chiding. "Your deepest desire is a clawfoot tub?"

"What's wrong with that?" she argued, dropping the box back on the table and turning to him. "They look relaxing and calm and romantic. Plus, privacy you have enough room for one of those it's not stuffed into the only bathroom you share with a football team. And "

Sebastian had a strange smile on his face and she clammed up at the sight. She'd revealed way too much of herself in that statement. Next thing you know I'll be confessing the family secret, having heart to hearts about the way I felt when my mother left, Kat thought. She chided herself for feeling involved.

Kat didn't know where to look and her eyes dropped to the floor, scuffing the toe of her shoe against the carpet. He got up from the couch and came towards her, reaching around her to retrieve the box. "Open it," he said. "I guarantee you'll hate it."

She smirked and rolled her eyes. "You have to stop giving me gifts," she said, taking the box and throwing it back down on the table. "We have other things to do anyway. I want to talk to Sergei."

Sebastian watched her square her shoulders and walk purposefully across the apartment, whispering her thoughts out loud, but he didn't pay much attention. He considered the woman before him, a huge ma.s.s of contradictions. He still didn't know why she kept coming back. Every morning that he woke up and she was still talking to him was a success in his book. He picked up the box and tucked it into her bag for later. He couldn't stop the grin that spread across his face at the thought.

"May I have a word?" Kat asked rather formally at the door to Sergei's office.

He looked up from his computer with a shrewd glance and nodded his head. "Please come in." He stood, gestured towards a chair, and she dropped into in.

"You don't like me," she said, getting straight to the point, not in any mood for formality, "and I want to know why."

Sergei sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers as he studied her. She resisted the urge to squirm. "It's not that I don't like you."

Kat laughed. "Oh, then you show your affection so well. Give me a little credit. You definitely don't approve of me spending time with the Prince."

"But approval and affection are too very different things."

"They aren't different at all."

Sergei leaned forward, across his desk, his eyes commanding her attention. "I am trying to make a King. Turning a carefree playboy into the steadfast future leader of my country is not a trivial task, especially when you are being fought at every turn. What I wouldn't give for a Petrescu with some drive.

"I have been preparing for this moment for the past decade Prince Sebastian has been doing his best to avoid it for just as long. But our country is on the brink of a crossroads. In the hands of Prince Vlad and his son it would not be a Sezynia I can be proud of. So no, I do not approve of all of the time he is spending with you when he should be taking the future and marriage much more seriously."

"But that's exactly why you need me," Kat said, leaning forward herself. "He is never going to be happy about the necessity of a wife. With the choices you were presenting him, he would have given up on this pursuit weeks ago. Because I have no stake in the game he wants me. For whatever reason he likes me, he listens to me. I keep him . . . distracted from the gravity of his situation. And you need that. Because based on what I've learned, faced with the enormous responsibility of a country's future on his shoulders, one he's been avoiding for a decade, who knows what he'll do."

Sergei was even more curious about the woman that sat in front of him now. A waitress that slept with the Prince yet didn't want his money or his gifts. And then here she was, showing a much shrewder view of the situation than he'd believed she was capable of. Maybe Sebastian had much better taste in women than they'd both thought; no need to fear a repeat of Violetta.

Sergei let the room stretch into silence. Kat was compelled to fill it. "We can work together. I know what kind of woman the Prince wants to marry. You know what kind of woman he needs to marry. Together we might find one he won't run from."

Sergei let a grin seep onto his face he would not underestimate her again.

Chapter 13.

"I have an idea," Sebastian said the minute she opened the door.

"And I have a migraine," Kat said as he breezed past her into the apartment. "What part of 'not tonight' did you not understand?"

There was that cheeky grin. "Kat, are we talking about something else?" His eyes danced devilishly as they looked her up and down.

"Stop that," she ordered. He just laughed she smacked him in the shoulder and pushed him aside. "Why are you here again?"

"I had an idea."

"And it's such a rarity you had to run right over and tell me?" Kat dropped down on the couch, crossing her legs under her and laid her head back, eyes closed, fingers ma.s.saging her temples.

"Allow me."

"What?" she asked, startled as his hands came down against her face.

"I have magic hands," he murmured, moving his fingers in slow circles.

"Who tells you that? All the women you bed?" But the edge fell out of her voice as he continued making deliberate, languid caresses against her face.

"Yes," he responded softly, just a breath was.h.i.+ng against her cheek. "I'm sure in a few minutes you'll be agreeing."

"Don't hold your breath." But the tone betrayed her, all breathless, round, a sigh seconds away.

"So my idea . . ."

"Mmmhmmmm,"

"I think we need to resort to cliche. It is what works."

"Okay. And that is?" One of his hands slid from her temples to the nape of her neck and she was hard pressed to argue with anything he might say.

"Throw a big party. Fill it with eligible women. Mingle and dance until we find one that sticks."

"How many women would qualify as filling it?" She was running out of women as it was.

"You won't have to worry about that at all. The location will take care of that nicely."

"And what location is that?"

His hands moved to her shoulders and she felt his breath waft slowly across the exposed column of her neck. "Sezynia, Kisa. We're heading back to Sezynia."

"Wait what?!" Kat sat up in surprise, her headache summoned back in full force as she smashed her forehead into Sebastian's chin. "You're just giving up and leaving?"

"No," he grumbled, running a stray hand across his chin. "A tactical redistribution. Sezynian women wouldn't greet me with such mistrust and suspicion."

"Maybe more. They know a lot more about you."

"Yes but at least they don't think I'm perpetually a fraud when I tell them I'll one day rule a country."

"That fact is still debatable." Kat jumped up, regretted it immediately, and settled back down with a groan.

"What do you want?"

"Aspirin. Kitchen counter. Four." She closed her eyes and laid her head back into the crock of the couch, a fetal position where Sebastian couldn't distract her with those lovely hands.

Sebastian was leaving. Sebastian was leaving? Sebastian was leaving! She knew this was coming. Theoretically he would either find someone to marry and return home for the wedding or go home in defeat for his birthday. But that was still weeks away. Kat thought she had tons of time to worry about that. Seems she was mistaken.

"When are you leaving?" she grunted, swallowing the pills he handed her without water.

"As soon as possible. We're leaving eight a.m. Thursday."

"I'm sure everyone's happy to be going home."

"Well the snow has just about thawed so it's the perfect time. Plus, as Sergei and Anastasia keep telling me, there is much preparation to be done and if I want to be King I need to start paying more attention to it."

"Oh," was all Kat could say. She rubbed a stray hand against her forehead it hurt even more now. She kept her eyes averted as she added, "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help to you."

"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll have better luck in Sezynia."

"What?" She sat up in surprise again. This conversation was turning into a study in dej vu.

"The women in Sezynia you won't have to convince of who I am. Though they might need to be convinced of my sincerity. I'm not actually known for that back home."

"Wait. You want me to come with you?"

"Of course Kisa. I cannot do this without you. Sergei would start choosing for me again and we can't have that."

"I've never been out of the country before."