The Controversial Princess (The Smoke & Mirrors Duology #1)(43)

“I left Alabama when I was eighteen. I caught a part in a low-budget series. In fairness, no one held out much hope for the network taking it from the pilot episode.” He laughs. “I look back and cringe my ass off. It was a pile of trash, but they bought it. Six years and six seasons later, total hit.”

“What was it called?”

“The Wanderer. I was a bounty hunter in the late eighteen hundreds. My horse and I roamed the West and wreaked havoc on the vigilantes. And the women.” I hear the smile in his tone and turn my face into him, finding a smile, too. He shrugs. “I was quite good on a horse.”

“And on a woman.”

“A pro,” he replies, biting my nose. “Tell me about you.”

“Me?” I ask abruptly, turning away from him. “Doesn’t the world know everything there is to know about me?”

“I’m not talking about Princess Adeline of England that the papers talk about. I’m talking about the real you.”

“That is the real me.”

“What, the style icon? The headstrong royal who doesn’t believe in marriage?”

“I do believe in marriage. Just marriage to someone I love. Not someone unsuitable for me but suitable for my family.”

“Is Haydon Sampson unsuitable?”

“Grossly,” I mutter.

“Not according to the British Monarchy.”

“What do they know?” I ask, resentment tingeing my words. “Half the marriages in my family are loveless. Arranged to strengthen the crown.”

“You want to be loved for who you really are, not who your family wants you to be.”

His words come from leftfield, startling me a little. “Is that a statement or a question?”

He doesn’t hesitate. “A statement.”

“That’s very observant of you.”

“You don’t need to be observant to realize that.”

“How come no one else has, then?”

“Because you’ve not let them close enough.” He pulls Stan to a stop and takes the reins in one hand, using the other to slip around my waist and pull me back into his warmth. I go with ease, no resistance at all, despite not liking our direction of conversation. Nuzzling into my face so I am forced to turn into him, Josh looks so deeply into my eyes, I fear he may have found my bitter soul. “The question is, have I got the real Adeline?”

I don’t realize my hand is over his on my stomach until he laces our fingers and constricts, and I don’t realize I am holding my breath until I release it on my answer. “I don’t know who the real Adeline is anymore.”

He doesn’t say anything in return, he just kisses me, tilting his lips onto mine and gently working them in a delicate, dreamy dance of tongues. “I don’t think you’ve ever really known,” he murmurs, and I know he is right. I haven’t. And I’m not in a position to figure it all out at this moment in time, when I’m lost in his deep, meaningful kiss. I’m not sure which side of Josh I like the most. The domineering, controlling, brutal lover. Or the gentle, soft, and giving gent. I’ll take both. Both sides of him ease me, settle me in one form or another. I hum my contentment and fall deeper and deeper and deeper. “You taste fine, Your Highness.”

I’m floating away, but I am cruelly yanked from my dreamy moment by the sound of a roaring engine, and I pull away, all too breathless, blinking back the stars from my vision until I see a Land Rover racing across the field in the distance. I’m about to curse whoever is at the wheel, knowing if they come much closer at that speed, Stan will get distressed, and with two of us in the saddle he’ll be harder to control. But then the vehicle slows, and the blurry form of the driver becomes Damon. I have seen Damon mad only once in the time he has served me. It was not a sight I relished. And it isn’t now. He looks fuming.

“Damon?” I question when he gets out of the Land Rover, his shiny leather shoes sinking into the soft muddy ground. He looks down and breathes in, his jaw tight.

“Your Highness.” He addresses me properly but tightly. “We agreed half an hour.”

“But I texted you,” I argue, getting my phone and pulling up my messages to prove it. “Oh.” I stare at the red icon telling me the message failed to send. “I must have lost network.” I hold up my phone to Damon and give him an apologetic smile. “Sorry.” At that moment, with my phone held high, obviously catching a few bars of service, Damon’s phone dings and mine notifies me of a dozen missed calls.

He shakes his head. “I believe it’s time to get back, ma’am.” He sounds calmer than he’s clearly feeling. “Kim is on her way to the stables and wishes to see you urgently.”

“She couldn’t have waited for me to get back to Kellington?”

“Apparently not, ma’am. I believe Felix has accompanied her.”

Felix? Stupidly, I wrack my mind for another Felix who works for the household. Any Felix. Any Felix other than the head of communications at Kellington. The fixer.

Damon clears his throat, obviously seeing the questions and worry in my expression. “Something about a bank, ma’am.”

I recoil without thought, and Josh catches it, tightening his grip of me. A bank? Or a banker? “Oh … umm … yes.” I nod decisively. “Then I suppose I ought to get back.”