Royal Ruse - Emma Lea Page 0,18

put my head between my legs as I tried to calm my breathing. Maybe if we explained the situation to the king…

The doorbell interrupted my freak out. I groaned. I was in no frame of mind to talk to anyone and if it was another gift from the king, I might actually throw up.

I glanced at the screen on the kitchen wall and exhaled roughly. Lucas. Thank God it was Lucas. Maybe between the two of us we could work out how to get out of this mess.

Lucas

I smoothed my the front of my shirt and tried to ignore the sweat on my hands as I waited for Frankie to answer the door. I’d tried calling her, but she wasn’t answering and I was convinced she never wanted to speak to me again. I hadn’t realized my mother would share that stupid video to all her social media followers. I didn’t have social media, so it took Effie summoning me to her office for me to realize what was going on.

This entire thing had gotten so far out of hand, I didn’t know what to do. I just hoped Frankie had a plan. Frankie always had a plan.

The door opened and Frankie smiled hesitantly at me. That was new, and I didn’t like it. Frankie was never hesitant about anything.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” I replied, pushing my glasses up my nose.

We stared at each other for a moment and then she swung the door wide.

“Come in,” she said.

I stepped across the threshold and past Frankie, close enough to pick up on her scent. She smelled like chocolate chip cookies. Had I ever noticed that before?

“Can I get you a drink?” she asked, leading me through the brownstone to the kitchen.

“Coffee would be great,” I replied, and she looked at me with surprise.

I wasn’t a big coffee drinker, it usually made my anxiety worse, but I needed it today if only to get over the whiskey headache that was still throbbing behind my eyes.

“Cream and sugar?”

“Please,” I replied.

I might be drinking coffee today, but that didn’t mean I liked the taste of it.

I slid onto a stool by the kitchen counter and watched as she made my coffee. She moved gracefully, almost like she was dancing. Had I noticed that before? And why was I noticing it now? In fact, why was I suddenly noticing a whole lot of things about her I’d never noticed before? Like that little sliver of skin that she bared when she reached up to pull a mug out of the overhead cupboards, or the way she smelled, or the way her hair looked like she’d just crawled out of bed…and not in a bad way.

I cleared my throat and tore my eyes away from her. The atmosphere between us was already weird, I didn’t need to make it any weirder. I scanned the room for something else to pin my attention on and noticed the massive arrangement of flowers.

“Is it your parents’ anniversary?” I asked.

“What? No, why?”

“The flowers.”

She turned and looked at the flowers and her cheeks flushed.

Fascinating.

I’d never seen Frankie blush before. Why would she be blushing about flowers?

Oh.

Oh, my God.

Did she have a boyfriend she hadn’t told me about? Was that why this was so weird between us?

But why would she agree to be my fake fiancée if she had a boyfriend?

Her dissertation.

Of course. She was doing this for her Ph.D.

“They’re…um…they’re from the king,” she mumbled.

“What?” I asked as she slid my coffee across the counter to me. “I thought I heard you say they’re from the king?”

Frankie rolled her eyes and huffed. “They are,” she said, grabbing a note and pushing it toward me. “See for yourself.”

I scanned the note, recognizing the handwriting even before I got to the signature at the end.

“The king has heard about this?” I asked with disbelief as I slowly raised my eyes to hers.

She nodded slowly. “It appears so.”

I sighed as I picked up my coffee and took a sip, grimacing just a bit. Frankie came around to my side of the counter and slipped onto the stool beside me.

“Tell me what’s going through your head,” she said, her hands cupping her mug of black coffee.

“I didn’t realize this would become such a big…thing,” I replied with a sigh. “I came here to apologize for that stupid video and to give you the opportunity to back out.”

She stared at me for so long I didn’t think she would answer me. My heartbeat ratcheted up and my gut