His Royal Prize (4 page)

He made reservations at a little African restaurant that he hoped would remind Amelia that they had met in Botswana. He wished he’d had the time to get to know her better then.

When they’d been on the charity trip to Africa neither of them had obligations that took up their time. He could have spent all of his time focused solely on her. But that didn’t bother him. He was more than ready for Amelia. He only hoped she was ready for him. The real man, not the staid one that she might expect from his reputation.

Amelia wasn’t used to waiting around for some man, so it unnerved her a bit that Geoff was coming to pick her up. She’d spent the afternoon at the foundation office presenting her findings and persuading the board of directors to adopt her proposal for the course of action they needed to take.

“Why are you nervous?” Bebe asked as the sat in a pub near Waterloo Station.

“I’m not,” she lied. It was ridiculous to have nerves like this before a date. It was nothing more than a date. He was just a guy—one she would go out with once or twice. She’d dazzle him with her smile and her winning personality and then…he’d move on. The way men always did.

“You are such a liar.”

“Bebe—”

“Don’t ‘Bebe’ me. Anyone else might believe that you are perfectly confident, but I know you better and you are nervous.”

Bebe was her best friend and had been since they’d met at finishing school. The two had bonded when they were both ugly ducklings. Bebe had been overweight with frizzy hair, and Amelia had had braces and been gangly. They’d been an odd-looking twosome back then. None of their classmates would have predicted that they’d turn out to be incredibly successful and renowned for their glamorous lives.

“He’s different. I know he’s not going out with me so he can get his photo in the society pages.”

“So you don’t know how to treat him?” Bebe asked.

“I’m not sure that’s it,” Amelia said. The after-work rush hour had just started and people were hurrying past the window on their way home.

“Whatever it is, be careful. You don’t want to do something outrageous.”

She swallowed hard. Bebe was right. She couldn’t afford to let her nerves get the best of her—she tended to act without thought or restraint when that happened, and that meant regrets.

“I’ll be fine. One more glass of wine and I’m set.”

Bebe smiled at her. “You look fab. I love turquoise on you.”

“Thank you, darling. My mother recommended it.”

“How was Milan?”

“Fab,” Amelia said, winking at her friend. “In fact, I brought you back a little something.”

She handed Bebe the shopping bag that she’d carried in with her.

Bebe took the bag from her but didn’t open it. “What’s going on with you? You’re not yourself. Is it more than that yummy Devonshire heir?”

Amelia shook her head. Bebe was the one person in the world who knew about all of Auggie’s troubles, and a part of her wanted to just unload on her friend. But she knew exactly what Bebe would say.
Don’t enable.

Hadn’t she heard those exact words from everyone before? She knew that she was to blame. She should just step out of the equation, but letting the Munroe Hotel chain go wasn’t something she was ready to do yet.

“Nothing.”

“Is it Auggie?”

Amelia shook her head in disbelief.

“How do you do that?”

“I know you. And it isn’t that hard to figure out. You just visited your mum and everything’s okay there. Your dad is recovering nicely from his surgery, so that leaves Auggie. What’d he do this time?”

“He needed some time off from work.”

“And you covered for him?” Bebe asked.

“Please, don’t. I know I shouldn’t have, but I’m not ready to walk away from the hotel chain yet.”

Bebe reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “I don’t want to make you feel worse when things are already mucked up. Tell me everything.”

Amelia spent the next thirty minutes talking to Bebe about the board’s ultimatum that she take over running the hotel chain if Auggie was going to continue skipping out on meetings.

“Are you going to do it?”

“I have no idea. I could run both the foundation and the hotel chain, but that would mean giving up my life. I mean, I’d have to work 24/7 to make it happen.”

“You can’t do that,” Bebe said.

Amelia knew that. Sometimes she wished she simply were the scandalous heiress that the tabloids made her out to be because it would be so easy to walk away from it all if she were that shallow.

She needed balance and wanted her life to be more than just her charities and her family business. She wanted to come home to more than Lady Godiva and to have someone who cared about her. Someone who would take care of her the way she watched over Auggie.

“I have until the next board meeting to decide. So that’s three months.”

“You’ll come up with a plan,” Bebe said. “I’m here for you, whatever you decide. Just be sure that you’re doing what’s best for you.”

Bebe gave her a hug as they stood up to leave. As they walked out, Amelia heard whispers about her as she passed. She put on her carefree smile and walked through the crowd. She wasn’t sure she could keep that smile in place all night but she was going to try her damnedest.

Bebe was the only friend who knew there was more to her than her party-girl image and she intended to keep it that way. No matter how much time and money she donated, the media never covered that. Instead, they only printed stories about who she was seen with. She was afraid to let anyone see the real her, afraid that she’d
lose a part of herself if she did, and she wouldn’t be able to handle that.

Geoff seemed to be different than the other men she’d dated before but she was afraid to believe in that. Men had let her down and she had a hard time trusting her judgment as a result. For all she knew, he could be just like the rest of them.

Tonight she needed to be poised and sure of herself. She didn’t want him to guess that she’d spent extra time thinking about her outfit or what she would say. She wanted him to see the woman the world thought she was. A hotel heiress with nothing on her mind but the next big party.

That would be harder than it sounded, she thought. Being that vapid took a lot of work. She smiled at the bellman as she walked into her apartment building and went up to her apartment.

Her sweet little dog was waiting for her and she scooped her up and held her close. For a minute she wished she didn’t always have to be on when she walked out her front door. And she almost wished that she could let her guard down and share with Geoff how difficult it was to keep up the illusion of Amelia Munroe.

A
melia laughed and all heads in the restaurant turned to look at her. Geoff was getting used to the fact that she commanded attention—and took his breath away as well. She was charming and funny, something he’d already known from the time they’d spent together in Africa. But tonight, despite the impression he’d had, she didn’t even seem aware of the attention she garnered. Her focus was entirely on him.

“So there you were, caught by your superior in a compromising situation. What’d you do?”

“I told him I was doing my duty for queen and country.”

She laughed again, and it was then that he realized her laughter never reached her eyes. She was laughing because the story was meant to be funny but there was something upsetting her.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Yes. Why do you ask?”

“Your eyes.”

“My eyes?”

“Yes, I can tell that you aren’t really engaged in what I’m saying. Don’t get me wrong—you’re a wonderful audience. But your heart isn’t in it.”

Those very eyes of hers widened. “How did you know?”

“I just do. What’s on your mind?”

“It’s not worth discussing. Especially when I’m having dinner with a sexy guy like you.”

Geoff reached across the table and captured her hand. He stroked his thumb over her knuckles. “I’m more than just a guy.”

“Sexy guy,” she said.

He was tempted to let her distract him from the topic, but he knew this was a chance for a real conversation and he wasn’t going to pass it up.

“That’s not going to work. Later on, when I claim my goodnight kiss, we can talk about how sexy you think I am. But right now I want to know what’s on your mind.”

She turned her hand over in his and threaded their fingers together for a moment before pulling her hand back. “It’s a bit heavy for a first date.”

“You and I are beyond first-date stories. Tell me, Amelia.”

“I have to—” She shook her head. “I can’t do it. I know you mean well, but if I tell you about this, then we certainly won’t be having the date you signed up for this evening.”

He knew there was a lot more to this woman than met the eye. Now he was going to find out just how much more.

“Trust me. I’m very good at keeping confidences.”

“Are you?”

“Yes. And no matter what else happens between us, I’d like to believe we are at least friends.”

As a flash of surprise flickered in her eyes, he realized that she wanted to believe that, too.

She leaned forward. “I…how much do you know about my family?”

“We have a bit in common in our births, don’t we?”

“Yes. Well, you have more in common with my brother. My parents married before I was born.”

“But there was scandal around you both.”

“Yes, there was,” she said, then shook her head. “You really don’t want to hear this. And to be honest, I don’t think I want to tell you. Please, let’s go back to enjoying our evening. Tell me more stories from your RAF days.”

Geoff leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his wine. Letting this go would be so easy to do. It might be the gentlemanly thing to do. But he was more interested in being real than anything else. He wanted to know the girl behind the image. He wanted to be more to Amelia than every other man she’d gone out with. He wanted to know the real woman, and just now, he’d had a glimpse of her and he couldn’t go back.

“I do want to know,” he said quietly. “My family is complicated as well. I know that it’s not always easy to balance our own lives and still take care of familial duties.”

“You’ve just made it sound as if we have more in common than just our scandalous births?”

“We have a lot in common, love. We already know that from the time we spent in Botswana.”

“I guess we do.”

She cut a piece of her filet mignon and took a delicate bite. He waited, hoping that if he gave her some space and showed her he could be patient, she’d let him in, even if just a little.

After a few moments she put her fork down and leaned in close again. “I’m not sure I
can
talk about it. I don’t like to.”

“Just tell me what’s troubling you,” he said. “You can trust me.” He needed to know what was on her mind. It hadn’t taken him very long to figure out that Amelia was everything he’d hoped she’d be and more. She was smart and sassy and so damn sexy that he’d had a hard time keeping his mind on the conversation. Until now. She was in pain—he could see it. And he wanted to be the one to help her.

“I have to find a way to convince the board of directors at Munroe Hotels to keep my brother in his position as chairman. And I have no idea how to do it without throwing myself into running the company full time.”

He was surprised. He’d expected her answer to be something else. Anything else, really, except this.

“Do you know anything about running the chain?” he asked.

“Plenty. I’ve done it before. But with my responsibilities at the Munroe Foundation, it’s too much work to do both.”

“And your brother?”

“He’s not…well, simply put, he’s not a man like you, Geoff.”

What kind of man did she think he was?

“In what way?” he asked.

“He has never put family and his responsibilities before himself, and I have the feeling he never will,” she said. “The thing I have to decide is if I’m going to keep covering for him, or let him sink and let my father’s dream of keeping the hotel in our family die.”

Amelia knew she was saying too much. But there was something in Geoff’s beautiful, stormy blue eyes, something in the way he held himself and the way he leaned in when she talked, that invited intimacy and made her want to tell him all her secrets.

And that was dangerous.

She didn’t mind sharing about Auggie and the Munroe Hotel chain, but there were other secrets that she knew she’d have to be careful to protect. Secrets that would be very damaging to her if Geoff didn’t prove to be the man she was starting to believe him to be.

She doubted he had any idea that she held an MBA from Harvard, since she’d gotten her degree under her mother’s maiden name to keep the paparazzi from following her there. Or that he had any clue that she’d been the one to run the chain in the late nineties since Auggie was the figurehead then. She’d kept her name off everything while her brother was in and out of rehab. Those were the type of tidbits she’d been careful to keep out of the public domain. She’d found that if anyone saw beyond the party-girl image she’d carefully cultivated
they were confused, and often expected things from her she simply couldn’t give.

“Why are you trying to save your brother’s skin?” he asked. “Isn’t he older?”

This was a mark of the man that Geoff was, she thought. That he saw her as a little sister and therefore someone who should be cherished and protected. She knew that much from watching him interact with Caroline and Gemma. Everyone knew that although the women were his half sisters, Geoff would do anything for them.

“Auggie and I are almost twins—only eleven months apart—so I don’t really think of him as my older brother.”

“He should,” Geoff said.

She smiled at him. “I guess the rumors about you are true.”

He arched one eyebrow at her. “Which rumors?”

“The ones about you putting your family first,” she said. As much as she knew that many people would say she had a better family situation, Geoff had the real family, something that her parents had never managed to create.

Amelia had realized early on that having parents who were married but couldn’t stand each other was hardly an advantage. And her parents’ public fights had often managed to feed the fire of tabloid gossip about them.

What would it have been like to grow up with someone looking out for her?

And would that really have been any better. Because if her childhood had been different she wouldn’t be the woman she was today.

And as Sandra Bullock said…“I complete me.” Those words could definitely be applied to her. And she needed to remember that.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

“I’m sorry. Let’s stop talking about this. I don’t need you to solve my problems.”

“I don’t recall offering anything more than a shoulder.”

“Touché.”

“I have an idea that will be beneficial to both of us,” he said.

“What?” she asked.

“A venture between Munroe Hotels and Everest Air. It will give you something to take to your board of directors and it will give me a new line of revenue at Everest Air.”

“Why do you need a new line of revenue?” she asked. She’d heard rumors there was a competition between the Devonshire heirs, but the details had been kept close to the brothers. Would Geoff trust her enough to tell her what was going on?

“I need an edge to make sure that my business unit outperforms Steven’s and Henry’s. We’re competing with each other—did you know that?”

“I did. I don’t know the details… You could use the paparazzi to help your cause….”

“I can’t. That’s not my way, but what do you think about my offer?”

“I’ll think about it,” she said.

There was a commotion at the front of the restaurant and she turned to see Tommy and some of his paparazzi friends scuffling with the maitre d’.

“I hope you don’t mind seeing yourself in the papers,” she said.

He tipped his head to the side and studied her carefully. “Why do you think they follow you around the way they do?”

“Probably because I invited their attention. When I was younger I didn’t realize how my actions were goading them on. And now it’s too late to get rid of them.”

“Why did you court them?”

She didn’t really want Geoff to know how shallow she had been. He couldn’t understand that she went from being a gawky, awkward teen to a beautiful woman overnight. And the attention was heady. Once she realized that it also garnered her father’s attention, she’d been unable to resist.

“I thought—that’s a lie. I didn’t think at all. I just lapped it up like anyone else who gets some fame after years of being overlooked. It was like a drug and I was addicted. But then things got out of control.”

She thought about that YouTube video—she was topless on her yacht with several of her mother’s male models. It practically looked like she was orchestrating an orgy.

After that incident, she’d known she was going to have to take control of the media. She’d learned how to use them. They wanted something salacious so they’d get paid, and she needed her name in the headlines so that when she wanted to shine a spotlight on a cause, she could get the attention she needed.

“It’s very convenient to have my little media hounds with me. They follow me to Africa when I go, and I
get some pictures of the real plight over there back in the papers here. It’s a trade-off and right now it’s worth it.”

“That’s a very wise strategy,” he said.

“I’m not known for being wise.”

“That might be because most people are fooled by the smoke and mirrors. It takes a lot of smarts to keep the world believing you are nothing more than an empty-headed heiress, doesn’t it?”

She shrugged. “Don’t make me out to be a saint. I do love a good party and a good time. It’s simply that at some point, we all have to grow up. And when I did, I looked around and realized that the only real assets I had were my family money and the media who follow me around.”

He lifted his wineglass toward her. “You are definitely my kind of woman.”

She lifted her glass and took a sip of her wine. She wasn’t sure why but hearing him call her his kind of woman sent a little thrill through her entire body. She wanted to pretend that he didn’t matter, that he was a guy just like all the others, but tonight had proven to be so much more than just a getting-to-know-you kind of date. Tonight had shown her that he thought of her as someone worth spending time with, someone he wanted to do business with, someone he felt he could trust. And it terrified her.

Geoff paid the bill and then escorted Amelia out of the restaurant. He knew that he’d gambled by going out with her tonight but despite his reputation for putting family and duty first, he was a man who seldom denied
himself the finer things in life. Amelia Munroe was definitely one of the finer things in his life.

He put his hand on the small of her back as they walked out of the restaurant. Her hips swayed with each step she took and he couldn’t help but admire her figure.

She glanced over her shoulder at him, her eyes smoldering with the same desire as his. Apparently she liked the feel of his hand on her. Almost as much as he liked touching her. No matter that she was still an enigma to him, that she wasn’t what he had expected, that she hadn’t exactly accepted his business proposal. He needed her. He needed her in his bed and he wanted to know all her secrets.

He wanted to be the man who made her forget her public persona, her family concerns, her work. And no matter what the cost, he was going to have her.

“Amelia, over here!”

“Who’s the mystery man?”

“Devonshire, give her a kiss!”

The calls continued. Geoff ignored the paparazzi as he always did—he’d barely ever given them a chance to get a good photo of him. He signaled the valet to bring his car and when it arrived, he—not the valet—held open the door for Amelia.

“Come on, Amelia. Give us something we can use,” one of the men said.

She smiled up at Geoff. In that instant, he realized how luscious her lips were. All evening he’d kept his mind on the conversation by looking straight in her eyes, but now he was failing miserably. All he wanted was to taste her, to know what it felt like to feel her lips against
his. And he didn’t give a damn who saw them. She stood up on tiptoe and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He leaned down, intending to give her just a buss on the mouth, but he couldn’t.

Their lips brushed and he felt an electric pulse down his body straight to his groin. He wanted to groan but controlled himself. Instead, he wrapped his hand in the hair at the back of her neck and tugged gently so he could take control of the kiss.

He plunged his tongue deep into her mouth. Her taste was addictive. He couldn’t lift his head—not yet. He wanted more of her. Her lips were full and soft, and that expressive mouth that he’d watched all evening was finally his.