Page 43 of Fallen Crown

She rotates back to me on her heel, and I tear my gaze from Brice before he notices. I should have arranged to see him before now. Stupid. Things are going to be awkward between us, and it’ll be caught on camera for the world to dissect later. Anything that helps them build a juicy narrative will be ripe for the picking. And then my husband will be forced to pick it apart. Being painted as a cheater would be my worst nightmare.

“He’s delicious, isn’t he?” Hye Jin smiles. “This fantastic mishmash of all the types of men women love. The rake. The tattooed bad boy. The caring family man. That photo of him and Princess Grace is enough to melt the coldest heart.”

“He’s worked hard for his place on the team.” The reminder of the photo, coupled with Brice’s admission he wants kids some day, does funny things to my stomach.

“The camera is going to eat him up on the course.”

Or eat him alive. That’s the only reason I’m willing to subject myself to the potential scrutiny.

“You said you just returned from a trip to Boston to see your husband?” Hye Jin says.

“Yes,” I say. “I was there for a week.”

“After coming off a fairly intense training exercise with Prince Brice, is that right?”

“I wouldn’t call it intense. Three days of camping and hiking is nothing. Preparation everyone on the team will be doing, but as the coach, I was the right person to lead him.”

“Of course,” she says, with a hint of a smile. “I wasn’t suggesting otherwise.”

When I glance up, Brice is staring at me while someone is talking to him. I can’t decide if calling him over would make what Hye Jin suspects better or worse.

“What did you say your husband is doing in Boston, again?” She peers at me with what feels like false sincerity.

I’m torn between honesty and protection. InterFlix would have no trouble digging up the truth if they asked the right people questions. Confess or deflect?

“A business opportunity,” Brice says from beside me. “Some investor in one of his YouTube endeavors. Did I get that right?” Brice turns to me for confirmation, and his presence brings an instant comfort.

“Yes,” I say, and his familiar scent wafts toward me, and I long to inch closer, breathe him in. One glance across the room, and he’s here at my side, reading my mind. He’s relaxed and either a much better actor than me, or he didn’t spend most of the last week pondering what we’d been inching toward with each other. If I could get myself under control, we might be able to turn Hye Jin away from the taste of scandal. There won’t be one, but I’m aware they can edit content any way they want.

“Would InterFlix consider YouTube a direct or indirect competitor? It would seem like there would be some overlap in viewership.” Brice sips his mixed drink, and when he shifts almost imperceptibly closer, my shoulders lower, and the tension eases out of me. His impeccable royal training is definitely coming in handy right now.

While she launches into an explanation about the differences between the two companies and their philosophies, I tune them out. Or I try to. Brice keeps drawing me into the conversation as though it’s normal for us to stand around debating such things.

One of the camera operators lowers their camera to whisper something in Hye Jin’s ear, and she perks up. At the entrance are Queen Aurora and King Alexander, and tonight, they haven’t brought Grace. They ooze elegance and money, even more than the rest of the people present. I suppose that’s the point.

“I’ll have to circle back to you two again later,” she says to us. “We’d love to get some footage of the king and queen before they’re otherwise engaged.”

“Of course,” Brice says. “My brother would love to speak to you.”

Somehow I doubt that’s true. King Alexander’s dislike of the press is fairly well known around Bellerive, but he also allowed Brice to do this. He would have weighed the costs and benefits of having the youngest son of a dying king on an international streaming service.

Just the thought makes my heart ache for Brice.

Once Hye Jin is gone, I try to step around Brice to get another drink, but he places his hand on my lower back, and his lips brush my earlobe. It’s an intimacy I never would have expected from him in public, but the king and queen coupled with the InterFlix cameras have stolen everyone’s attention for a moment.

“When this is done,” he says, “come climb with me.”

“Brice.” His name is filled with every reason I’ve given myself over the last week not to spend time with him alone anymore. We were getting too close and comfortable with each other. For him, it might be flirting, but for me, if I get confused, it’s my marriage on the line. The stakes are nothing to him and everything to me.

“You left me for a week,” he says.

“I left the island for a week.”

Our gazes are locked, and I hope everyone is still focused on the front entrance. He won’t ask again; I can feel it. If I don’t agree to climb with him tonight, that’ll be the end of our secret trainings, the end of whatever is jumping between us right now. The smart choice is to say no.

“Text me when you leave,” I say.

He nods and steps away from me, disappearing back into the crowd and ensuring that whatever narrative Hye Jin might want to build isn’t made easier by our apparent closeness. Though I hate admitting it, there’s something attractive about Brice understanding this world, this high-profile life without me having to explain any of it. He inserted himself into an awkward conversation to help me, waited until people are distracted to touch me, and then he slipped away to avoid suspicion once we’d come to an agreement.