The Royal’s Pretend Wife by Sophia Lynn

had enough.
    Without looking behind her, without pausing to make any explanations to the host who was just stepping out of another limousine, she turned back to the one she had gotten out of. She imagined that it had been meant to take her and Apolo back to the manor, but at the moment, she was perfectly happy allowing him to find his own way back.
    Shutting the door behind her was like entering into a private sanctuary. No cameras, no royals, nothing but a plush silence and a privacy glass between her and the driver. Finally, she was free to do what she had wanted to do for what felt like years.
    As she held herself tight, Trinity's tears rained down her face.
    What am I going to do? Trinity wondered. I wasn't supposed to love him…
    When she thought of the word, however, she knew that it was true, and once it was there, there was no taking it back. She had heard other actors and actresses talking about it. They had talked about how easy it was to fall in love with a co-star, and how very simple it was to take feigned emotions for real ones.
    She had always assumed that she would be too clever, too intelligent, far too on her game to make such an error. If Trinity were honest with herself, she would have said that she thought her heart far too cold and far too calculating to do such a thing.
    It had happened, however, and now she had to deal with the consequences.
    In the middle of all the chaos, seeing Apolo with Serafina had stung in a way that she didn't expect it to. When she had felt that hot stab of jealousy and despair, there was no getting around it. She knew then and there that she had been fooling herself, and it was love all along.
    She leaned back in the seat, wondering what in the world she was going to do.
     
     

Chapter Eight
     
     
    Trinity heard the others arriving at the manor. She had beat them by almost two hours, and in that time, she had showered and spent some time thinking. At the end of it, she had decided two things.
    The first was that there was no way to make her feelings go away. One of her teachers had always said that the best way to let emotions run out of control was to simply box them away. After that, the results could be brutally terrifying.
    The second was that she did not want to waste a single moment that she had left with Apolo. She had spent two weeks with the cast of the reality television show, and she knew very well that this was a world that she was only visiting. The amount of money she was being paid for her performance as Apolo's wife was nothing but spare change to these people. She had heard Carolina talk about putting in a new wing of her home with more than double the money that she would receive for her role.
    No, Trinity knew all too well that she was only a visitor here, even if she was one that fit in fairly well. She laughed with Apolo, but she had found moments to share with Carolina and even Serafina. They weren't friends, but they accepted that she was one of them reasonably quickly.
    The problem was Apolo. When she was with him, she had no distance. The loving looks, the gentle touches, they were all real, and they were all precisely what she wanted. They were only holding themselves back from more because of her, because of her fears that her emotions would get the better of her. Of course, now that they had, she figured she might as well take what she could while she could.
    When she heard the others enter the manor, Trinity hurried to put her plan into play. She dressed quickly, and when she was done, she threw a thin silk robe over herself. When she heard Apolo's familiar step in the hallway, she dimmed the lights and went to sit on the bed.
    He entered their suite softly, entering with his shirt partially unbuttoned and his jacket slung over his shoulder. He raised his eyebrows when he saw her.
    “I was worried you were asleep,” he said. She could hear some hesitation in his voice. He spoke quietly, as if worried about agitating her.
    “No, I'm fine. A