Stealing Kisses With a King (Kings of Carolina #3)- Sylvie Stewart Page 0,1

speech to the hospital donors.” I pushed off the wall. “But, as you already know, Clara wrested control of the situation, and the evening was salvaged. End of story.” I was done with this little interrogation. “I don’t know why you insist on hounding me like this. It’s been two days. Don’t you have a girlfriend to befoul?”

And, just as I knew it would, my mention of the fair Ruby transformed my brother’s expression from one of thinly veiled impatience to something more closely resembling a drunk Labradoodle on roast night. Sorry bastard.

I crossed to the bar trolly and swiped a bottle of my favorite Laphroaig, leaving Leo to his no-doubt filthy fantasies. Not that I could blame him entirely. Ruby was a gorgeous girl—and well-equipped to ruffle Leo’s overly-starched feathers. In fact, she was quite possibly the best thing to ever happen to my brother, and the fact that she provided loads of entertainment for me as well was the proverbial icing on the cake. The woman possessed balls arguably bigger than either of us Baxter twins, but luckily for Leo, they came in a tall, honey-haired package with legs longer than a giraffe’s and a smile as charming as Deepika bloody Padukone. As they say, we’d already put a fork in my brother, because he was truly done.

But not with the current topic, it seemed. “She’s left for North Carolina early, I’m afraid, so my attention has been freed and can be focused entirely on you until I leave for D.C. this afternoon.”

I spun on my heel, almost spilling my newly poured glass of whiskey. “But she promised to repair the sticky clutch on the Shelby. What am I expected to do now?”

Leo’s eyes rolled predictably. “It truly is a crisis, but couldn’t you possibly drive one of the other dozen cars in your bloody garage?”

My responding scowl went unacknowledged. The GT350 was my favorite of the ladies this month, and I’d been looking forward to a drive over to Rostana Bay to catch the last of the waves with my mate Nolan before the weather turned too cool—and I became consumed by official duties. “Don’t be ridiculous. None of them will do. I’ll need to ask Wes to repair it instead—although I believe he may have mentioned something about his daughter’s wedding, so I should be quick about it.”

A vein in Leo’s forehead threatened to rupture. “You’d honestly ask a man to be late to his own daughter’s wedding just to avoid grinding a few gears on a heap of metal?”

My lips curved easily at that. “Don’t let your girlfriend hear you refer to it as a heap of metal or you’ll find yourself with balls bluer than Cookie Monster.” I feigned grabbing my balls with an added, “Nom nom,” just to watch him squirm.

He appeared to run out of steam as he swiped a rough hand through his hair. “I’m not an idiot, Malcolm.”

“So you keep saying.” I lifted the glass to my lips and let the smokey liquid coat my tongue.

“Just leave poor Wes alone—and Ruby as well. She’ll be back in a week or so. Her uncle Carl is having a stent put in and she wanted to be there.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so? Tell me you didn’t make her fly commercial?” I pointed a finger at him around my glass. His lips pinched together, providing my answer. “Unbelievable! The entire point of being a prince is to fly women around the world in your private jet and impress them with your money and privilege.”

He shot me a withering glance and shoved his stupid hands in his pockets. “Interesting take. First, using the jet unnecessarily releases staggering amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere—something Ruby understands and respects. And second, I was under the impression that a prince’s purpose was to prepare to assume leadership of a nation while always putting its people’s wellbeing first. How silly of me.”

“Prig!” I concealed the insult under a fake cough. “Well, obviously. But the impressing women part comes directly after that.” I took another sip of the whiskey, trying my best not to let my brother’s lack of adventurous spirit depress me.

“If you say so,” he dismissed my comment with a wave of his hand. “Anyway, I thought I should interfere before Mother gets wind of the crisp-torpedoed speech and starts asking questions.”

My hand froze inches from my mouth.

I was man enough to admit Leo’s mention of the queen turned my blood a touch cool. Well,