His Royal Prize (3 page)

Geoff was different, though, and that made it all the more important for her to walk away. She needed the
power to be in her hands and not in his. He had knocked her for a loop by brazenly asking her out while sitting a few tables away with his date. What did this mean? Did Geoff even know, or was the attraction between them that he’d denied so long simply too strong for either of them to contain?

She busied herself with the crowd of B-list celebrities she was hosting at her table in an effort to get her mind off Geoff. She knew that most of them had accepted her invitation to this event in hopes that they’d get a photo with her that would end up in tomorrow morning’s papers.

She danced with each of the men at her table, trying not to notice where Geoff was. When it was time for her to go up to the front to narrate the slide show that documented her recent trip to Botswana, she found herself distracted by images of Geoff on the trip.

She remembered seeing him talking with the local businessmen, and helping out when a citizen had a flat tire. He seemed to be more than just a handsome face, more than a man who was doing his duty because it was expected of him. Though she’d been surprised that he’d asked her out. It would be nice to spend some time with a man who was more than he appeared to be.

Geoff started to return to his table but was stopped when he felt a hand on his arm. He glanced over his shoulder to see Edmond standing there. Geoff had been at numerous functions with Malcolm’s right-hand man, yet this was the first time that he’d been approached by him in public.

“Yes?”

“I need a word.”

“Certainly,” Geoff said, leading the way through the crown to a quiet alcove. “What’s up?”

“I saw you speaking to Amelia Munroe…”

“So?”

“I wanted to remind you of the stipulations of your father’s—”

“Of Malcolm’s will? He’s never wanted anything to do with me, Edmond. I’m not going to let him dictate my life now.”

“Understood, sir. But please be careful. I don’t want you to lose your share of the Devonshire fortune.”

Geoff walked away from the older man without responding. He was more than frustrated with the entire situation. He thought about just walking away, but his mother deserved something for the happiness that Malcolm had stolen from her.

Geoff returned to his table in time to greet Mary as she left the dance floor with Jerry Montgomery. Jerry was a nice enough fellow—an American sports reporter who covered British sports for ESPN. He had a toothpaste-ad, American smile—super-straight white teeth and a confident grin.

For some reason Geoff had never really liked the fellow. He couldn’t say why and didn’t spend a lot of time thinking on it. But Mary liked him. In fact she was flushed from dancing. She gave Jerry an intimate smile as he walked away. Geoff realized that Mary liked him. He also realized that he wasn’t jealous in the slightest. In fact, he was relieved.

“Nice dance?”

“Yes. I simply love that song,” she said. The song
in question was “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” made famous by Frank Sinatra. The song was a standard that evoked memories of his mum teaching him how to dance.

“I’m glad he offered his services, then.”

“Me, too,” she said somewhat shyly. “Where is Caroline?”

“Gone for the evening. She said this party was too tame.”

“I guess it is, by her standards. By yours as well,” she said. There was a question in her voice as her eyes cut across the room to Amelia.

“Ah, well, this is the kind of function that I have to attend.”

She smiled then, the closest thing to a genuine expression of joy that he’d seen all evening. “Duty calls.”

“Indeed it does. But I’ve had enough for tonight. Shall we?”

Geoff saw Mary home but didn’t feel like heading back to his luxury townhome in the leafy-green area near Greenwich. He was restless and not sure what he needed, but he knew that sitting at home wasn’t it.

Actually, he did know what he needed, but he couldn’t have it until tomorrow night.

Normally, when he felt this way, he got in his plane—his favorite classic 1983 Lear—and took off for a few days. When he was in the sky he wasn’t Geoff Devonshire, bastard son of Malcolm and Princess Louisa of Strathearn. Instead, he was simply Geoff and there were no rules, no obligations and no one who wanted anything from him.

Instead, he found himself at a club just off Leicester Square where a friend of his deejayed. He entered through the back to avoid the paparazzi who covered the red-velvet rope area and found a small booth in the rear of the darkened club.

The electronic beat of the music pulsed loudly and he felt everything inside him stir as his thoughts again turned to Amelia. He wanted to make sure she had no ill feelings regarding his comment about her tabloid life. He called his butler, Jasper, and asked him to send Amelia a little gift, something he thought she’d appreciate. And something that would show her that he saw her as more than just the scandal girl the world thought they knew. He’d picked up a carving in Africa he’d seen her admiring—maybe he’d known all along he was going to ask her out. He jotted a note on his personal stationery that he had Jasper bring him and sent the man on his way.

His mobile phone rang and he glanced at the caller ID before answering it. It was his vice president at Everest Air. Given the time of night, it probably wasn’t good news.

“Devonshire here.”

“It’s Grant. We have a major problem. My contacts with the baggage handlers union said they are getting ready to strike.”

“We don’t employ them, the airport does. Right?” Geoff said.

Running the airline was taking some time to adjust to. As a former RAF pilot, he knew planes and understood what it took to fly them. And as a businessman he knew
how to make money, but there were intricacies to the airline business that he was still learning.

“That is correct.”

“So let’s talk to their boss and see what we can do to sweeten the deal. Who is in charge?”

Geoff heard the rustle of papers on the other end of the line. “Max Preston.”

“Let’s have him to the office tomorrow. Pull out all the stops and make sure he knows that we want to listen to him. Listening is key in these situations.”

A lot of his team at Everest Air was waiting for him to prove himself, to show them that he had the right stuff to run the company. And Geoff wouldn’t have it any other way. He’d spent a lifetime making sure that everyone knew he didn’t coast through on his father’s coattails.

“I’ve had to deal with all kinds of hostile people, including rebels in Uganda who didn’t think that my foundations had any business there. But I sat down with them, I listened and the rebel leader talked,” Geoff said, remembering that long night when he’d sat across a fire from a man with an AK-47 cradled in his arms as he expressed the same desires that most men had. A desire to be heard and treated fairly. These were things that Geoff couldn’t provide but he had been able to promise he would talk to his friends in government and was able to successfully gain some concessions for the rebels.

“I had no idea. I thought you just travelled around partying with your other rich friends.”

“Grant, are you jealous?”

“Hell, yes, mate. Who wouldn’t want that jet-set life?”

“It's not as glamorous as you might think.”

“Nothing ever is. What time are you thinking for this meeting tomorrow?”

“Early. We want Max to have time to go and talk to his people once we’ve talked to him.”

“Will do. I’ll let you know when it’s arranged,” Grant said.

Geoff smiled to himself. “That’s perfect. We want to make sure that no one’s travel is disrupted because of this baggage handler situation. I think your suggestion is spot on.”

Grant laughed. “Thank my wife for that one. She made the suggestion over tea.”

Geoff smiled to himself. Women were able to sometimes get to the heart of an issue. Something he’d learned from his sisters and his mother.

Grant was going to be a great asset to him at the airline. He had been working there for the last three years, and though the profits weren’t surging under his leadership, they had been steady.

Geoff knew from his own business interests that constant vigilance would be the key to making sure that every quarter increased their profit margin. And he could do that with men like Grant on his team.

Winning the competition against his half brothers was important to him because this was a family thing. And he always succeeded when he put his mind to it.

He looked at his watch and realized he’d spent exactly two minutes not thinking about Amelia. Her grin flashed in his mind and the scent of her perfume lingered with each breath he took.

He couldn’t wait to see her tomorrow night and get
to know the woman behind the glare of the paparazzi flashbulbs because he was having a hard time reconciling the two very different sides of her that he’d seen. She was a puzzle that he wanted—needed—to solve.

A
melia loved London in the morning, despite how crowded the city was with workers heading to their offices and tourists rushing from palaces to Big Ben. To be fair, her morning started after rush hour and well into the congestion charges that were in effect in her neighborhood. It was a crisp, spring morning. She put on a pair of running shorts, a sports bra and a pair of sneakers and headed out the door.

But her cell phone rang before she’d hit the elevator. She glanced at the caller ID to see that it was her older brother, Auggie. She shook her head and thought about letting it go to voice mail, except the one time she’d done that he’d been reaching out for help.

“Morning, Auggie,” she said.

“Sis, I need a favor.”

She leaned against the wall in her foyer. Why was she
surprised? Her brother was the kind of man who always needed something. But she had almost lost him to drug use, and she’d made him a promise that if he got clean, she’d always be here to help him stay that way.

“What kind of favor?”

“I can’t make the Munroe Hotels board meeting this afternoon. In fact, I need the entire week off. Do you think you can cover for me?”

“No, Auggie, I can’t,” she said. Auggie had a serious problem with responsibility. Though she was the one who somehow always made it into the papers, Auggie truly lived his life as if he didn’t owe anyone anything. His therapist had told her to stop enabling him.

He was only eleven months older than she was, and given the circumstances of their birth and highly dysfunctional family, they’d had only each other to rely on while they’d been growing up.

Her parents were passionate lovers who couldn’t keep their hands off each other, but they didn’t know how to relate to each other outside the bedroom. They were both a little too self-absorbed to be good parents. In essence, she and Auggie had raised themselves.

“Lia, please?”

This was the hard part, she thought, because despite everything she loved Auggie and didn’t want to have to tell him no. “I really can’t. I have to be at the Munroe Foundation this afternoon. I’m presenting my report on Botswana.”

“Can’t you just reschedule it?” he asked.

She rubbed the back of her neck. If she did this for him, he’d start expecting her to run both arms of her family business again. Amelia had chosen the foundation
because she liked the work. And Auggie had taken the public role of running the Munroe Hotels chain. She’d had to do a lot of behind-the-scenes “helping,” since it appeared that Auggie hadn’t inherited their father’s business savvy.

“I can’t.”

“Lia, I’m not going to be there. If you aren’t going to stand in for me, the board will probably decide to hold an emergency election for a new chairman and then there won’t be a Munroe at the helm.”

Her father would be very angry if they both missed the meeting. Amelia didn’t want to do anything that would invite her father back into their lives.

“This isn’t fair. You know I’m not supposed to run both organizations. I can’t do it, Auggie.”

“It’s your decision, Lia. I think it might be better to let someone else take over.”

“Do you want to make Dad crazy?” she asked. Her brother had a love-hate relationship with their parents. And while she tried her best to keep the peace from a distance, Auggie did his best to make sure that their parents were always a little bit uncomfortable.

Auggie chuckled. “That wouldn’t bother me in the least.”

Her dad was recovering from open-heart surgery and Amelia didn’t want to upset his progress. “I’ll do it. But you have to be back in the office in one week’s time. If not, then I’m going to ask to have you removed. I’m not going to keep covering for you.”

“You’re the best, sis. Talk to you soon,” he said, hanging up.

She ran every morning in Hyde Park and this morning
she really needed it. Auggie was frustrating beyond belief, but he was her brother. She passed tourists who were following the Princess Diana Memorial Walk and heading up toward Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard later in the morning. She ran, trying to forget everything and enjoy the city under her feet as music blasted in her ears.

She should be thinking of her day or of this weekend’s luncheon with her father but instead she was thinking of Geoff Devonshire.

He had the kind of brooding good looks that put her in mind of Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen’s
Pride and Prejudice
. Objectively she thought that it was interesting that a man with aristocratic breeding would still fit a mold that was over one hundred years old. But then she had to laugh. Men hadn’t changed in all that time. Women had been subject to their whims then and still were now.

The psychiatrist her mother had sent her to when she’d turned thirteen had said that Amelia had father issues. And that was still true.

She was always trying to prove herself to some man and Geoff would probably be no different. As much as she wanted to think that she didn’t care, a part of her did. A part of her wanted to be at that quiet banquet table he’d occupied last night rather than at the center of attention.

His respectable girlfriend and his sisters had surrounded him. He had been born into scandal, as she had, but instead of being consumed in the paparazzi storm, he’d found a way to make a respectable life for himself.

In some way, she craved what he had. But then she
shook the thought aside. She was the media’s favorite subject because she always did something outrageous. The very things that had gotten her on the cover of the weekly magazines had also gotten her father’s attention.

Father issues, indeed.

At the entrance to her building she noticed Tommy, the photographer who always seemed to be following her, lounging against the wall. He had worn jeans, a baggy T-shirt and a khaki vest with lots of pockets crammed with lenses and backup batteries.

He snapped to attention as he saw her approach and took several photos as she entered her building. She suspected they’d show up on some Web site before the day was done. She’d probably replace whichever celeb they’d caught doing something unglamorous.

“Good morning, Ms. Munroe. There is a package for you.”

“Thank you, Felix,” she said to the doorman, taking the FedEx package that he held out to her.

Felix also handed her one of her own monogrammed towels and a bottle of water. She smiled at the Brazilian doorman. Felix did a good job of getting tips from her by always saying yes to all her little requests. He was very handsome and he’d come to the UK to find fortune as an actor, but he had found that his grasp of languages wasn’t as good as he’d thought, so he’d started working here to improve his English.

She took the elevator up to her penthouse and entered the room. Lady Godiva was waiting for her. The miniature Dachshund was always happy to see her.

Amelia took a moment to pet her before walking over
to the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that lined the east side of her apartment. She sipped her water as she looked out over the city.

She wiped the sweat from her face, tossed the towel on the floor and looked at the package. The return address was from London. Someone had sent her a package last night.

Geoff Devonshire.

Lady Godiva danced around her feet with a tennis ball in her mouth. Amelia reached down and scratched her under the chin. Then she took the ball from the dog, tossing it across the room.

The dog scampered off after it and Amelia sat down on the arm of her black leather sofa and opened the package, intrigued.

What would he send her?

She pulled out a box wrapped in white paper with Geoff’s monogram on the center of it.

For a moment, she couldn’t make herself open it. She didn’t want to think of Geoff as a real option. She just wanted him to be a sexy guy she was going to have fun with.

Not a man who would make her care.

“Stop being silly,” she said to herself. She tore the wrapping and opened the box.

Her breath caught as she stared down at the exquisite African carving. She knew he’d gotten it in Botswana—she’d seen the carving when they’d been touring a village. Had he noticed her admiring it?

A piece of fine linen stationary was lying on top of the carving with a simple note.

I look forward to learning more about the woman behind the headlines.

Amelia told herself that he was simply trying to woo her, but her heart beat faster anyway. His actions had touched her. She took the carving into her bedroom and set it on her chest of drawers where she could admire it from anywhere in the room.

Steven called him at eleven and asked if they could meet for drinks later that evening. He wanted all three of them to have a chance to talk. Geoff knew it would be tight—he planned to take Amelia up in his plane and get away from the city. He knew that she liked the spotlight, but Geoff had learned from his mother that living under constant scrutiny made life difficult at best, and he thought she’d like the escape.

“Sure, I can do that. Why don’t we meet at one of my clubs?” Geoff suggested.

“Just tell me where and I’ll text Henry,” Steven said.

Geoff made a few notes and took down Steven’s mobile number. He’d never thought about having brothers before and at thirty-eight he worried he was a little old to start forming close relationships with Henry and Steven, but he was willing to try.

“Can I ask you a personal question?”

“Go ahead,” Geoff said.

“Do you ever wish you’d gone to Eton? So we could have met earlier in life?” Steven asked.

Geoff had never thought about that. Growing up with sisters in his mother and stepfather’s family, he’d often wondered about his father and the two half brothers he’d
never met. But he’d known that meeting them would have devastated his mother, who wanted nothing to do with any of “Malcolm’s mistresses' children.”

“Sometimes. But I think we needed to live our independent lives,” Geoff said.

“That we did. I’m looking forward to speaking to you later,” Steven said before ending the call.

That was abrupt,
he thought as he leaned back in his chair and spun toward the window that looked out in the direction of Heathrow Airport. This view from Everest Air was different from his office in the heart of London. His life had always been in flux and he’d always embraced change—he wondered if it was because of the way he’d grown up.

Why was he suddenly being so philosophical? He suspected it had to do with Malcolm’s presence in his life after all this time.

He booked a table at one of his clubs and figured out exactly how much time he’d need to leave to pick up Amelia.

She was on his mind the rest of the afternoon. Only when Caro arrived to chat with him about a garden party their mum was throwing at the end of the month was he able to think of something else.

“I need your help, Geoff.”

“You always do,” he said with a smile.

She stuck her tongue out at him. “Mum wants to make sure that we have privacy. She doesn’t want the party to be swarming with media.”

“That’s not a problem, Caro. They have never come to Hampshire and they won’t now, especially not for this party. Henry is the one who is keeping them captive and
with his very public persona, it should stay that way. I don’t want this to weigh on anyone’s mind.”

She nodded. “I’ll let Mum know.”

“You do that,” he said.

She smiled at him. “How’s your maiden bride?”

“She’s not mine.” After last night’s flirtation with Amelia, Geoff had barely given Mary a single thought. The vehemence of his response to his sister’s question surprised them both.

“Really? I thought you two were getting serious.”

He shook his head, but he wasn’t about to discuss his love life with Caro. “Who are you dating now?”

“Paul Jeffries.”

“The footballer?” he asked. Footballers were notoriously full of themselves and changed girlfriends with the passing of a season.

“The same.”

“I don’t like that. He’s too…wild for you.”

“Too bad,” she said with a cheeky grin. “I’m twenty-one now. You can’t tell me who to date anymore.”

Geoff looked at her sternly. “If I see one photo of you in the weekly rags, that’s it.”

She glanced at her watch. “Oh, look at the time. I’ve got to run.”

“Caro?” She stopped at his office door. “I’m just trying to protect you.”

“I know. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

After she left, he wondered if perhaps he should be taking his own advice. Amelia embodied everything that he warned his sisters to stay away from. Not a day
went by that he didn’t hear some juicy tidbit about her on the
One Show.

But he was different than Caro or Gemma, and he knew how to handle Amelia. Besides, he was a man used to getting what he wanted, and he wasn’t about to let anything stand in his way.

She intrigued him. He’d first started noticing her on their last trip to Botswana. Something about seeing the woman who’d had a salacious video on YouTube sitting in the dirt with hungry, sick children had piqued his curiosity. She was complex, he’d realized, and he wanted to expose all the layers of the woman to get down to her core.

Dating her was going to be hard with his busy schedule and hers. He needed a solid reason for the two of them to spend time together.

He stood and stretched. Glancing out the window of his office he saw the Munroe Hotel chain logo in the distance and he had an idea. If he could partner with Munroe Hotels and create unique travel packages for the Everest Air consumer he would be able to positively affect the bottom line of the airline. It was precisely the kind of idea he’d been searching for. Something that would help him win the competition with his half brothers and give him a reason to spend more time with Amelia.

But did party-girl Amelia spend any time in the offices of Munroe Hotels? He’d have to research it and find out. He made a few notes on his legal pad. He and Amelia both came from similar backgrounds, with parents who were more interested in themselves than in their kids.

He’d always understood that the Everest Group was Malcolm’s life, and besting Malcolm on his own turf appealed to Geoff. He liked the feeling that thought evoked. And he smiled to himself as she finished making plans for his evening.