Playing Dirty(151)

“I’ve had a life of people telling me what I’m allowed and not allowed to do,” Andrew said. “Mostly not allowed. And although I mostly didn’t listen to them—even when I should have—I’m sick of it. In fact, I think the reason I spend most of my adult life doing dumb things and getting myself on the front of tabloid newspapers is because there were so many things I wasn’t allowed to do.”

“I’m not telling you what to do,” I said.

“Am I misinterpreting ‘can’t let you’?” Andrew asked, raising his eyebrows. “It’s my decision, Keira. But I’d really like to make it with you.”

“Isn’t it a little late for that? You already renounced your claim as next in line.”

He nodded, acknowledging that this might be the case. “But my point remains: I want us to be equals. I don’t want there to be rules. Or if there are, then they should be rules we arrive at together. I didn’t renounce my family because I had to, I renounced them because I wanted to after all the crap they’ve hurled my way in regards to you…like assuming that you’re nothing more to me than a passing fancy, simply because you don’t come from some sort of high-society aristocratic family, and threatening to go the media and drag you through the mud, just to wreck your life.”

“That was mostly Michael.”

“No, my mother assumed the same thing about you—that it wouldn’t last, simply because of your supposed ‘station’ in life. That’s why she didn’t immediately fire you when I told her about us. Like our relationship was just that much of a joke to her; she couldn’t take it seriously enough to care even for a second. And then she called our baby a bastard. I just couldn’t take that sort of ‘family’ anymore. You and blob,” he pointed at my stomach, “are the only family I need now.”

“We’re not calling the baby blob.”

“There you go with your rules again. Maybe you should take my place as King, huh?”

“Very funny,” I said, rolling my eyes and smiling for the first time since he’d told me the shocking news about what had occurred with his family.

“My sense of humor is still just as bad as ever, so you’ll have to accept that,” he said. “Now let’s go off and make a new life together.”

All things considered, that sounded pretty damn good to me.





Chapter 25

Keira



The Palace was more than happy to let me go from my job at short notice; in fact there was a tacit sense that if I hadn’t requested it, I would’ve been fired anyway, for obvious reasons. Some of my effects remained at the old apartment I’d been housed in when I was still working back at Richmond Palace, and so, the following day, Andrew packed the bare essentials of his own belongings into his car, and we made the drive back there.

It was a pleasant journey, but the conversation kept returning to one question: what now? I was delighted that the answer Andrew suggested was the one I’d been thinking myself: America. I had family and friends there, and it was a good place for a fresh start for an ex-royal.

“America is where persecuted Brits traditionally go, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Actually, that story’s a bit of an exaggeration,” Andrew said. “There wasn’t any real persecution at all.”

I shrugged. “Well, once we’re over there, I’d keep that to myself if I were you. People are pretty defensive of their history.”

“Tell me about it,” he replied. “Look at the family I come from.”

“So what do we do, until we can get flights?”

“Shouldn’t be more than a night,” he said. “Two at the most, I guess. We can afford a hotel room for one night, I would think.” Our funds were limited, because Andrew hadn’t wanted to take too much of anything that wasn’t his outright—his money was royal, and he no longer was. “How much does a hotel cost?”

I pulled a face. “I could tell you how much an American hotel costs, but over here I haven’t got a clue. I’m still getting used to your money.”

“We really make a pretty useless pair in many ways,” Andrew said with a grin. “But we’ll survive.”

“Once we get back to the States I can be more useful,” I said “I’ll show you how to be a normal person.”

“I’ll fit right in,” he replied. “I’ve told you before how ‘street’ I am.”

“If you put air quotes around street, you’re not street.”

“Well, if that’s the only thing holding me back, then it’s easily fixed.”