Dirty Rogue: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance(113)

“Claire,” I say, cold fear mixing with hot anger in my chest. “What in the name of God is happening here? Did Jessica go back to the Northern Crown?”

The woman I hired to be Jessica’s companion and personal assistant squares her shoulders in a steely stance. “She’s gone back to the United States, your highness.”

“What?” The anger goes white-hot, spiking through my gut, making my stomach clench. I feel as if I might vomit. “When?” My voice comes out as a low growl.

“Her flight left an hour ago.”

Claire isn’t backing down, and when I see her rigidity, my first instinct is to lash out, shout at her, and tell her she’ll never work in Sainthall Palace again.

Then it finally dawns on me. This is exactly the kind of shit that gets me in trouble in the first place. With Marcus, with my father—every single time I’ve been hurt, resentful, pissed off, I’ve let my emotions get the best of me.

It also occurs to me that Jessica likely couldn’t leave the country without help from someone, and it would have been next to impossible for no one to notice her leaving the palace to go to the airport, yet no one alerted me. Claire must have helped her. As my employee, she shouldn’t have done that without consulting me first.

Yet how can I blame Jessica? After the things I said to her, it’s no f*cking surprise she felt her only option was going back to New York City.

And this isn’t Claire’s fault for helping her leave.

It’s mine.

All mine.

I’m the one who did this.

Defeated, I blow my breath out through my lips, then turn my attention back to Claire. Her shoulders are braced. She’s waiting for me to yell at her. She’s waiting for the characteristic Prince Alexander blowup.

Those days are over.

So are my days with Jessica.

“All right,” I say lamely, and her determined expression changes to one of confusion. “Go on with what you’re doing. Let me know when you’ve finished, and I’ll make sure you get reassigned to another position on the palace staff.”

“Thank you, your highness,” Claire says, bewildered. She’s speaking to my back. I’m already retreating, heading for the door and out to what can only be a lonely life.





Chapter 41

Jessica





I’ve been back in New York City for three days, and already Saintland seems like something I imagined.

It’s what I’m thinking about as I wait patiently inside the lobby of an office in a high-rise remarkably similar to the one that housed Colton-Hayes. After leaving so suddenly and giving absolutely no notice, I didn’t even consider asking for my job back at Colton-Hayes.

I had gone immediately to Carolyn’s apartment—and mine, too, I reminded myself—when I deplaned in New York.

She had opened the door, a surprised look on her face, and then pulled me into a hug. “Where’ve you been, Jess? Tell me all about it. Come on. Sit down. I have to know. Right now.” She had taken hold of my elbow and steered me directly to the sofa.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t find another roommate while I was gone,” I had said sheepishly.

She rolled her eyes kindly at me, then disappeared into the kitchen, emerging a moment later with a bottle of wine and two crystal glasses. “Why would I have done that?”

“I did just disappear…for a couple of weeks. And I still owe you rent money for this month.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Jess. Of course, I didn’t replace you. You needed a vacation.” She shrugged. “I did wonder if you’d be back. It wouldn’t be the first time you decided to up and change everything about your life overnight.”

“Yeah,” I agreed with a sigh, accepting the glass of white wine she offered to me. “Changing my life on a whim? Those days are over.”

“What happened?”

I took a deep breath and a big gulp of wine, then dove headfirst into telling her the entire story, leaving out the finer details of our time in bed. When I was finished, she was sitting on the edge of her seat, mouth open.

“A prince. And you couldn’t cut him any slack when things got busy?” Carolyn raised her eyebrows in mock dismay.

I gave her a pointed look. “You’ve dumped guys for less.”

“You’re right,” she said, sitting back and swirling the remainder of her wine in her glass. “So…what are you going to do now that the fairy tale is over?” Her eyes danced at her little joke.

I gave her a nudge with my foot and snorted. “Some fairy tale.”

“Really, though. Are you just going to go back to business as usual here in the city?”

“That’s the plan. Except…”

“Except what?”

“I might have screwed up my chances at Colton-Hayes.”

Carolyn laughed, a pure sound. “Let me guess—you told them you were taking a vacation at about the same time you told me?”

I screwed my mouth into a twisted grin, shaking my head.

“You didn’t tell them at all?”

“I didn’t tell them at all.”

She laughed again and wagged a finger at me. “You have to tell people when you want to quit your job, Jessica. Ghosting is for men, not for jobs.”