Part 1 (1/2)
Royally Screwed.
By Valerie Seimas.
Chapter 1.
”You know the rules. You must be married by the time you're thirty. No exceptions.”
”What about cousin Nicolai? He didn't get married until he was almost thirty-two,” Sebastian countered lazily, dropping down into a chair across the room. He saw the way Sergei flinched at his pose, leg thrown over the arm, boot just barely out of reach of the gold leaf table, and a smug glint entered his eyes.
”Nicolai was in a coma for three years of his life. He didn't wake up until he was thirty-one,” the butler said. ”And yet, still, he managed to walk down the aisle before the year was out.”
”I hate that story,” Sebastian spat, disdain dripping from his tongue. ”The girl. She 'waited for him' like he was a sign from above. To be so in love and reliant on someone else is sickening and I refuse to succ.u.mb. Which is why I refuse to get married.”
”You know what your father will do,” Sergei said in a low, matter-of-fact tone as he brushed by Sebastian and smacked his wayward leg with a flick of his wrist.
”I know what my father says he will do. What will actually be done is a mystery.”
”You should not test him,” Sergei warned, stopping his tidying of the tea service to bore holes in the back of Sebastian's head. ”He's not a man you want to cross.”
”He's only a man, Sergei. People seem to always forget that,” Sebastian murmured, his voice trailing off to only a whisper. What would his father do? There was nothing he could do, really. He couldn't force him to walk down the aisle. He couldn't blackmail him into doing it; he didn't care about anything enough to be swayed. According to his father he didn't have any morals to appeal to. He couldn't be reasoned into it. Who'd believe he could be swayed by reason anyway.
”He's the most powerful person in the country. You always seem to forget that,” Sergei countered.
”No,” Sebastian said with a smile, ”that is my mother.”
Sergei couldn't hide a smile either. ”I acquiesce. But even she won't be able to save you. Just find a nice girl, Prince Sebastian. Settle down and try to behave for a year or so and see how you feel then.”
”I don't do things because I'm told to Sergei. You should know that by now.”
Sergei sighed, but looked at his charge fondly. ”I know that, sir. I just always hope that you will have changed your mind.”
”Rebellion is my middle name. And don't call me sir.”
”Your middle name is Gustav. Sir.”
”You can't go to work like that!” she snapped at her brother, stamping her foot in agitation and giving him a look so reminiscent of their mother that the boy hesitated.
”Fine,” he sniffled, ”you don't think I should go to work. I get that. But if I don't go, I don't have a job. You can agree that I need a job, can't you Kitten?”
Kat narrowed her eyes at him and the nickname. ”What trick are you trying to pull over on me? What's your goal?”
He threw up his slightly sweaty hands in agitation. ”Yes, my grand plan. To trick you with typhoid fever. To pull one over with pneumonia.”
She glared at him, his little sister, and he tried very hard not to laugh. ”Listen girly, someone has to go to work. You said you'd never fill in for me again and you've already worked two jobs today, including the one I'm trying to leave for, so I have to go. Please just move.”
”It's that Donahue I know he's back. And so handsy, I think he's part octopus.”
”I know,” her brother sighed, ”that's why I don't want you going either. But unless he started playing for the other team, I'm free and clear so step aside and let me go.” He was bordering on whining himself, half a breath away from stomping his own foot in annoyance like the horse he'd been named after.
”Blaze just get back into bed, d.a.m.n it. I'll go.” He opened his mouth to protest but she headed him off at the pa.s.s. ”Do it before I change my mind. You go in like that you really will lose your job. And I don't want to live off ramen noodles again; I'm not twenty anymore. But you know this was not part of my plan tonight and you owe me. Big.”
”Fine, but go ugly it up, okay? They didn't want any women on pa.s.s trays tonight.”
”I'll go shake my head in a sewer drain on the way over,” she promised with sarcasm, halfway out of the apartment. Pa.s.s trays, just what she needed.
”That'll do,” he yelled after her in a good-natured tone.
”Go back to bed and get some rest. Oh, and just so you know, if I find out you went out or anyone came over while I was gone, I'll make it very certain you won't be able to play for any team.” Blaze's eyes filled with amus.e.m.e.nt but Kat just shot him a serious look down the end of her nose and closed the door behind her.
There was a knock at the door but Sebastian ignored it. He wasn't expected to answer it anyway; he didn't even live under the pretext of privacy. After half a second Sergei entered. ”It's time.”
”Sergei,” he grunted, rising smoothly to his feet. ”How many more times in my life must I go to these types of parties?”
”As many times as you must ask me not to call you sir. Sir.”
A wolfish grin appeared on Sebastian's face. ”Ah, so not much longer then. I'll have you trained soon enough old man.”
”Old man,” he murmured as he grabbed Sebastian's suit jacket and helped him into it. Sebastian could only smile.
”That's it? I'm not going to get a declaration that you're not old or a story on how my antics have aged you. You are going soft.”
”I am going no such thing,” Sergei a.s.serted. ”I am simply concerned with other more pressing matters. I have been put on notice, you know. Less than three months until your birthday. It's time to focus.” After a beat he couldn't help but add, ”And one decade older than you does not an old man make.”
”That's what you told me a decade ago when Father replaced my last detail with you. Thirty seemed so old then.”
”And now?”
”Young enough,” Sebastian replied, ”young enough. Of course now you're forty. What is it that Americans say? Over the hill?”
”I think I'm to reply 'better over than under it'? Such crazy sayings.”
”You know, you are the one that should be settling down, not me.”
”Ah, but I am always chasing after you. When do I have time to settle?” Sergei asked as they rode the cramped elevator, guards in front and behind them.
”Does that mean you want me to get married too, Sergei?” Sebastian scoffed as he asked. ”You are dreaming, my countryman. I am not the marrying kind.”
”Like James Dean, I know,” the a.s.sistant replied in a mocking tone.. They'd had this conversation before and they would have this conversation again, as long as they rode elevators to parties Sebastian would rather not attend.
But Sebastian gave Sergei a devilish smile making Sergei think what a shame that it was wasted on them and not a gaggle of royally-approved women and he shook his finger good-naturedly at his friend. ”Be careful what you wish for, Sergei. I'll go off and marry a bra.s.sy American and then where would we be? The King would have a heart attack considering his disapproval of the last royal wedding we had. Hmm, maybe I should.”
”Marrying Grace Kelly did wonders for Monaco,” Sergei said. It was then that the elevator doors opened, presenting a truly entertaining picture of the dapper prince to the awaiting crowd, as Sebastian laughed.