Royal Rebel (Second Chance Romance) Read online

  I glance around. “You slipped your guards. I’m guessing Big Daddy doesn’t know?”

  Her foot stills. “Are you going to tell him?”

  “No. I would never—”

  “Oh, like that time you said you would never tell your mother we were sneaking into the bakery fridge and stealing frosting?”

  “I didn’t know that blue frosting would come out the other end in the same color!”

  Her face screws up. “Ugh! What?”

  “I thought I was dying!”

  “You…pooped blue?” Her eyes fix on mine, then she laughs so hard and deep that she doubles over, her arms over her belly, sucking in air until she’s hiccupping.

  Yeah, I remember that, too.

  I bang on her back. “You’re going to get hiccups of doom,” I warn her.

  “Noo—” Hiccup. “Ooooooh.”

  “It’s happening!”

  “It’s—” Hiccup. “Not!”

  “Only one cure!” I haven’t done this since we were both six years old, but I step behind her, wrap both arms around her waist, and squeeze her against me as I turn in a circle.

  Her legs whip out, her arms flying. It’s different now, with long limbs and her woman’s body.

  But I spin her. It was the only way to get rid of her hiccups back in the day.

  I realize after two turns that in trying to hold her tight, I somehow got two handfuls of breast.

  Very nice breasts.

  But even so, I stop and let go abruptly. She’s lost a shoe in the whirl. I go to fetch it.

  She doesn’t seem to think anything of my accidental manhandling of her, bending over, hands on her knees, her hair falling in a cascade of black, pink, and blue.

  She’s really something.

  She stills, then holds up a hand. “Wait,” she says.

  I pick up the shoe. It’s silver and flat.

  She rises to stand. “I think they’re gone.”

  She’s glorious, her hair wild, her face pinked up, sweater askew.

  I’m in love with her all over again. All the women I’ve known, in all the years since I had to leave her, disappear completely. “You all right?”

  “You were the cure, but you were also the cause,” she says.

  My grin is so big. I haven’t felt a smile like that in forever. “Guilty.”

  I kneel in front of her and tap my knee so that she can put her foot on it. She lifts her bare toes and I slide the silver shoe back on.

  “It doesn’t fit,” she says.

  “What?”

  “Don’t get any Cinderella vibes. I had to stuff tissue into the toes.”

  “I guess no happily ever after for us then.”

  She pushes her hair off her face. Her eyes glitter, golden-brown and mischievous. “Nope. What are you doing in the rose garden, anyway?”

  “You lured me here.”

  She takes a step back. “Right.”

  We’re back to the original problem. “So you said that speech was for somebody else.”

  Her throat bobs as she swallows. “Yeah.”

  “One of the guards?”

  She turns. “I’ve gotta go.”

  I take hold of her arm. “Hey.” I have to stop her from leaving. She was the biggest loss of my life. Now I have this chance to see her again. Forget those other women. They are nothing compared to her.

  Nobody ever compared to her.

  “If he’s a guard, I probably know him. I could, I don’t know, give him a message or something.”

  Her face swivels back to me, our gazes locking. “You’d do that for me?”

  I’d do anything for her. Literally anything. But I have to tuck that thought away. “Sure.”

  She presses her thumb into her palm, a gesture so familiar to me that my heart squeezes from seeing it again. She’s anxious. She used to do that when she’d tell me about how she wished she could go to regular school, and that her father was scary, and, in the end, that the stupid age rule meant we couldn’t see each other anymore.

  I press my thumb into her palm, right next to hers. That was something else I used to do. Touching her is like starting an engine. Everything in my body roars to life. That’s the Finley all the women know and love.

  I shake it off. “You can trust me. You always could.”

  She wraps her fingers around mine, and her smile makes me feel like the sun has invaded my body. “Unless it involves blue frosting.”

  “If we get that for dessert tomorrow, I’m going to know what you did.”

  She laughs, a normal one this time that won’t set off the hiccups. “How is your mom, anyway? I never see her.”

  She wouldn’t. Mom does laundry in a separate wing. “Good. Now that I’m not banished, we got to move into palace quarters again. It’s nice.”

  Her eyebrows shoot up. “So you live here? In the palace?”

  “Just the staff wing.”

  She bites her lip. “Do all the guards live there?”

  She’s thinking of a tryst with this other guy.

  I stuff the disappointment down one more time. “No. Only the ones who have families working inside the walls. The rest of the guards are in the barracks beyond the south gate.”

  “I’ve never been beyond the south gate.”

  “You’re not missing much.”

  “So, that’s where Gregor would be?”

  His name makes my brain temporarily go white, like my memory is an old digital cartridge erased by a magnet. “That’s him? Gregor?”

  She won’t meet my gaze. “Maybe.”

  “How did you even meet him?”

  She hesitates, but finally says, “I watch from the bridal tower. It looks down on the fields.”

  So, she’s been spying. “I’m guessing based on your speech that you haven’t hooked up?”

  She smacks my chest. “Dory!”

  “It’s Finley now. If you call me Dory, I’ll end up doing extra push-ups to prove my manliness.”

  “Good. I think I’ll make a big banner that says ‘Make Dory do more push-ups to be manly!’” She swings her leg out, and I forget her signature move until my knees are knocked out from under me. She’s whacked in just the right spot to shift me off balance.

  “I’m going to get you for that!” I swing her up and over my shoulder, hanging on to her legs.

  She pummels my back with her fists. “Dory! Put me down!”

  “Promise to call me Finley?”

  “No!”

  I jog through the rose gardens, causing her to bounce.

  “Dory!”

  “Finley!”

  “Stop!”

  “Nope!” I head for a bench, where I plan to deposit her.

  “Okay! Finley! Finley the Great! Finley the Destroyer! Finley the Almighty!”

  “That’s more like it!” I plant her feet on the concrete bench. We’re in the farthest corner of the garden.

  She finds her footing and stands way above me, my face at her belly. I have to fight the urge to bite the swath of skin that’s exposed before her sweater falls to cover it.

  I want to seduce the hell out of her. Use every ounce of my knowledge on her. Turn her inside out. Make her scream.

  But this is impossible. She wants Gregor. Of course she’d pick him. The tallest, the strongest, the best leader. Compared to him, I’m a chump. He’s a fourth generation palace guard. My mother washes bedsheets.

  But he’s a good guy. Still a guard, and a big-ass scandal if they’re found out. But a good guy. I can’t fault her choice.

  Octavia leans her elbow on my head like I’m a fence post. “Just like when we were kids. You were always a pipsqueak.”

  “Not anymore.” If she’s thinking of dallying with a lowly guard, I’ll give her something to think about. I grasp her waist and lift her, holding her close as she slides down my body. When she’s back on the ground, I tilt her chin so she has to look up at me. She’s tall, but I have her beat.

  Her brown eyes are bright with cha
llenge, but something else, too. She liked what I did. I can see it in the flush in her cheeks, the way her hands clutch my shoulders.

  But there’s a shout from beyond the hedges, the Sergeant calling the guards back to training. Damn.

  Her arms fall slowly, her fingers grazing my chest before dangling at her side. I let her linger, let her think about it. Finally, she steps back.

  “So, what’s your message to Gregor?” I ask.

  She looks around. “He was supposed to be here.”

  “You were meeting?”

  “No, he’s always here.”

  “Oh. He’s been named squad leader of the trainees. He was called away after lunch.”

  “Oh.”

  “You want me to tell him something?”

  It takes a second before she answers. “Meet me here, I guess? Tomorrow? After lunch?”

  “Sure.” I want to say something else. Anything else. But I simply repeat, “Sure.”

  And then I have to go. Sergeant doesn’t make any allowances for being late.

  But before I turn the corner to exit the rose garden, I take a quick glance back at the Princess. She’s sitting on the bench, her hands in her lap, staring at the ground.

  Beautiful. Solitary.

  And if I’m guessing right, terribly lonely.

  CHAPTER 3

  Octavia

  I stay in the rose garden as long as I dare, trying to recover from what has happened.

  A thousand confused and conflicting thoughts bounce through my head.

  I told the wrong guard I loved him! But then it was Dory? Or, I guess, Finley. That name does suit him better.

  And then Finley offered to send the message to Gregor.

  What a mess I’ve made of the whole thing.

  And yet, it worked out.

  So weird to see him all grown up. Finlandorio Bulgari.

  I adored him back in our day. He was my primary playmate. When I was five, Leo had been thirteen and already traveling with Father. Lili was only two and the absolute worst toddler.

  But Dory — Finley — had filled in that gap perfectly. We were born only a couple months apart, him to a laundress. He was such a charming, clever little thing that none of the palace staff minded him running about the rooms. We became fast friends.

  Our meeting in the rose garden was a trip through the greatest hits of our relationship. Hide and seek. Webkinz. Laughing till I hiccuped. Stealing treats from the palace kitchen.

  When he and his mother were moved out of the palace on his seventh birthday, a whole different era of my life began.

  I was never the same. The pain didn’t only stem from losing my friend. It was also the first time I realized I could completely, absolutely, want something, and my father could arbitrarily take it away.

  And when I protested, he said it was for my own good.

  Through all those years, Finley hadn’t been that far away, living in the cottages beyond the stables. But for a princess living under a royal decree that no male over the age of seven be near her, he might as well have been on the moon. I never got so much as a glimpse of him. Despite all his cleverness, he never made his way to the palace.

  It had hurt. I thought for sure he’d try to sneak his way in to find me. We’d been stealing frosting from the cake fridge, after all. Only now, looking back on those years with adult eyes, do I realize he couldn’t take that risk. It wasn’t only his. It was his mother’s, who needed the work, raising Finley alone.

  And, sixteen years later, he’s my confidante once more, taking my secret message to one of his fellow guards.

  My heart speeds up. Regardless of my mistake with Finley, my mission was a success. At exactly this time tomorrow, I will be alone with the object of my desire, my dream man, Gregor Lisbon.

  There’s so much to do!

  What will I wear? It took forever to choose this outfit, and now I need another?

  I cut back through the herb garden. Lili remains on the bench. “I heard voices! What happened?”

  “I’ll tell you when we get back. Let’s go!”

  We hurry to the storage room and race through the tunnels to our wing. At the last fork, Lili heads to her room and I go to mine.

  I shove my flashlight in the bucket by my secret door and push it open, knocking the wall tapestry askew.

  And uh, oh.

  My guard, Valloria, sits waiting on the end of my bed.

  I’m so busted.

  I feel sick.

  Valloria stands, short and stout, more muscular than half the male guards doing push-ups in the yard. Her gray uniform is impeccable, and, for a moment, my eyes rest on her shoes. I’ve done a lot of staring at guard shoes today.

  Her voice is firm and low. “You were in the tunnels.”

  I have no idea what to say. If she doesn’t let me nap tomorrow, I won’t be able to meet Gregor! I picture that beautiful tall man pacing the rose garden, wondering where I am, and despair fills me.

  Valloria follows the rules like her life depends on it. And it might. I don’t know what Father does with guards who fail their duty.

  When I don’t speak, she does. “Your Grace, I have to report this to your family.”

  I need to come up with something to tell her that won’t endanger my ability to sneak out again tomorrow. But I’m not sneaky like Leo or a quick thinker like Lili. I stammer, trying to come up with some explanation for my tunnel excursion.

  Lili pops in through the open door. “Octavia! Did you steal that paint like I asked you to?” She comes up short when she sees Valloria. “Oh no. I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to get you in trouble. And your guard is here.”

  I get it. She’s saving me.

  I follow her lead, trying to think quickly. “I didn’t make it. Some of the lamps are out, and I freaked out and came back.”

  Lili walks to the end of the bed. “Some lights are out in the tunnels?” She turns to Valloria. “Isn’t it the job of our personal guards, the only people who know about tunnels, to keep them safe for the royal family? Should we report this?” She presses her hand to her heart dramatically, and I hide a smile.

  Now that the story is formed, I can add to it. “You might as well report the light problem to Grisholm. Valloria will no doubt tell our parents that I took the tunnels to get that spray paint you wanted. And then, of course, we’ll have to explain about her failure to keep the lights working.”

  Valloria taps her guard boot, arms crossed over her uniform. She knows something about our story is off. “Why couldn’t you get this paint by asking?”

  Lili’s face brightens. She loves the nitty-gritty details of a lie. She’s an expert at social media and has real-world practice at fabricating entire personas.

  She’s also wearing a smuggled outfit. The royal stylist would never have approved her short cropped top, beaded bolero jacket, and jeans so tight she can barely bend.

  But Lili has ways.

  She’s in performance mode. “If you must know, there’s a group of very talented painters in town looking to become graffiti artists. With Father’s ban on spray paint, they can’t get it themselves. I’ve been helping them. You may have stopped us today, but you won’t in the future.” She raises a fist.

  I have to resist clapping. Lili has not only made up a fantastic story, she’s covered the current crime while simultaneously creating a cover for future crimes. I am in awe of her.

  Valloria lets out a long exhale. “You two are going to be the death of me.”

  Lili smiles. “This whole thing can be easily solved if you provide me with four cans of spray paint in black, blue, red, and green. Then this whole problem goes away.”

  Valloria stands. “Put in a proper request to Madam Mariam. If she denies it, let me know, and I will put in a word. But nobody should support graffiti artists. They are a scourge, defacing our town.”

  “You are misinformed,” Lili says. “They are brave, bold, and avant-garde. And I assure you, they enjoy their status as miscreants and
outsiders.”

  Valloria shakes her head. “Enough on this. I’ll fix the lights. What are your plans for the afternoon?”

  Lili threads her arm through mine. “Sister talk. We’re going to paint our nails and braid our hair.” She drags me to the door. “We’ll be in my room. Don’t worry.”

  “No tunnels,” Valloria says.

  “No need for them if you get my paint!” Lili calls.

  We race down the hall to her room, past her own guard outside her door, and into her bedroom, where it’s harder to be heard from the hallway.

  “Tell me what happened.” Lili kicks off her shoes and sits on her window seat, pulling me beside her. “Did you meet him?”

  “No. Gregor didn’t come to the garden today.”

  “What? I thought he did that every day! Oh, Octavia.” She squeezes my arm. “I’m so sorry.”

  “But I ran into Dory. Do you remember him?”

  She shakes her head.

  “He played with me when you were little. He was in the gardens. He’s going to tell Gregor to meet me tomorrow.”

  Lili drops her arms. “Really? You’re trusting him with that secret?”

  “He’s good. We were so close as kids. It will be okay.”

  Lili looks doubtful. “If you say so. What are you going to wear?”

  I let out a sigh. We’re past the hard part. “I don’t know. You can help me decide.”

  “It can’t be anything from your official wardrobe.” She hops off the seat and drags me with her. “Let’s head back to the secret part of my closet.”

  As we move to the secondary room that serves as Lili’s dressing space, the mixed emotions flood me again. I don’t like leaving out so much of my story. How he spun me around. That moment on the bench when our bodies slid against each other.

  But there’s no easy way to explain about Finley.

  He’s a secret I have to keep to myself.

  CHAPTER 4

  Finley

  I pay close attention to Gregor the rest of the afternoon.

  It’s not like I don’t know him. We’ve been guard trainees for two months, and everybody knows everybody.

  But I’m seeing him through Octavia’s eyes. And I get it. Tall, strong. Basically, the pinnacle of the species. And nice, too. You can’t even hate him. He’s not arrogant or a blowhard.