Royal Bastard by Avery Wilde Page B

shirt.
    “I’m sorry,” I finally said, breaking the silence. “It was an idiotic idea to think this was going to work in the first place.”
    She was silent, and I tried to imagine what she was thinking. Was she thinking I was a complete and utter failure? Because I sure as hell felt like one. One measly shot, and I had blown it wide open. A month was too short. I needed the rest of my damn life to try and show my father I could be something different. But I was who I was… there was no changing that.
    “We need to take a different approach.”
    I pulled the car up to a red light and looked at her. She was still in this? I thought she would be pissed off about what I had done—dragging her away from a perfect princess moment that I imagined was every little girl’s dream. But the person who sat next to me was no little girl with her head in the clouds. She was a fierce woman who didn’t give up. “What?”
    She looked over at me, a glint in her eye. “You know? We need to do something without your father being involved. It’s clear that your relationship with him isn’t the best. It’s too volatile. The second you saw him your defences went up. So why not take the royal family out of the equation?”
    “You mean kill them?” I asked playfully.
    “What? No!” she nearly shouted, her eyes wide with terror. “That’s ridiculous. I mean we need to find your own niche. Surely there’s something more to you than just partying and sex? Surely you have a passion that we can tap into and exploit?”
    I thought about it, thinking that maybe she was onto something. I was trying to fit into my father’s world, yet the only thing he had asked me to do was clean up my image. It didn’t mean I had to be doing it with him. “Children,” I finally croaked out. “I have a passion for orphans.”
    Rose went deadly silent as I eased the car towards her sister’s place. My stomach grumbled over the noise of the idling engine when we were stopped at another red light. This wasn’t what she had bargained for tonight, I knew that. She was supposed to be seated with the king, dining on exquisite food and no doubt holding her own in conversation, but I’d taken that away from her in my selfish hurry to leave. But I didn’t know how to make it up to her, either. Especially since the whole sex thing was off the table. “Fancy some fish and chips?” I asked and pointed to the chippy up the road from the lights, the blue neon lights spelling out “The Codfather”.
    She coughed out a laugh and nodded at me, smiling. “Yeah, I’m starved.”
    I found us a parking spot. Everyone stared at us as we entered the chippy. I looked like an American high school prom reject, but it wasn’t really me they were staring at. Every man’s mouth dropped, customers and the staff, when they saw Rose in that dress. They couldn’t keep their eyes off her, and I couldn’t blame them. I had to repeat my order three times before the man behind the counter understood.
    “Go grab a seat,” I said. I nodded towards the corner table near the front window and collected our two portions of fish and chips wrapped in paper. She seemed grateful to no longer be front and centre in the middle of the chip shop, but as she turned, swaying those hips and making her way to the far table, I knew I wasn’t the only one admiring the view. I sprinkled lashings of malt vinegar and salt on the chips and squirted some good old ketchup on for good measure and brought our meal to the table.
    “Hope you like red sauce.”
    “Love the stuff,” she replied with a grin and speared a chunky chip with her plastic fork. “You know, if you were wanting to keep a low profile, this probably wasn’t the best idea.”
    “Royals like fish and chips, too,” I countered. “Here, napkin, my lady?”
    “Ooh, don’t mind if I do,” she chirped back, and we sat giggling like teenagers on a first date. I shook my head after our laughter had died down. I shouldn’t