Prince Albert Read online

  Japanese of him; I wonder if he knows that.

  "Dad, you can't think that I'm going to be the one to keep him in line overseas," I protest.

  "That's exactly what I need you to do," Beau says. "I have full confidence in you. I can't trust anyone else. You've always had a way with him, and he's always listened to you."

  "What?" My voice is high pitched now. "That's not true. I haven't even seen him in years. We only spent two summers together after you and Anja got married. I hardly know him."

  Beau shrugs. "He respects you."

  I almost burst out laughing, but I know my father would be terribly offended. "I hardly think that's true. Gaige doesn't respect anyone."

  "You'll keep him out of trouble," Beau rises from his seat and comes around to my side of the table, putting his arm around my shoulder and giving it a squeeze. He kisses me on the top of the head the way he used to do when I was young. "I trust you. And I'm glad you're home. I think I might just be the proudest father in the world, getting the chance to work with his daughter."

  "Damn, you really know how to work people, Dad." I shake my head. The last thing I want to do is babysit Gaige, and yet here I am acting as if it's a foregone conclusion already.

  "I know you'll do the right thing, Delaney," he says, before he leaves.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  GAIGE

  Fuck, I'm pissed off. I came back to live here after the accident because I needed to recover from surgery. Two surgeries and two months later, my tibia is no longer in a million pieces. And at least I can get around, even if it's in this goddamned boot that leaves me limping like an idiot. But I'm ready to get the fuck out of this place. It's been a lame couple of months, definitely not as filled with booze and girls and parties as I'd thought a few months of mandatory rest would be.

  But that's not what's irritating me right now. That's the background, but what's pissing me off is this deal with my stepfather. I generally don't mind him. Even though he's a cowboy boot-wearing, born-and-bred Texan, he's not a bad guy. He's not a drunk, or a wife-beater, or a gambler. The guy's biggest vices are hunting, cigar smoking, and buying insanely expensive scotch. And talking about Texas.

  But he tries to do right by me. This deal is a lot of money, and it's Beau's company. He's concerned about my "brand" – of course, he's also concerned about Marlowe Oil's brand. That's where I come in – I can make big oil "cool and approachable" for millennials who don't trust big corporations.

  If it were anyone else but Beau, I'd have said no to the whole "face of the company" thing. I don't want to tour Japan and smile pretty for the cameras, just like I didn't want to do that bullshit photo shoot with the models either. Sure, three hot blondes made it less painful, but I'm a racer.

  I want to race. I miss the rush of adrenaline, sitting on the bench for the past two months. No amount of working out can match the rush I get going a hundred and fifty miles an hour on the back of a bike. You can't replicate that shit doing anything else in the world.

  Except maybe when you're fucking.

  But hell, good sex like that, the life-altering kind that mimics the rush of racing? That shit happens once in a lifetime, maybe.

  I think that's the way it would have been for me and Delaney. I've thought about that a lot. More than a lot. Fuck, I've jerked off to her memory a thousand times. We never got quite that far.

  And now Beau makes me feel like a jackass in front of her, a child who needs babysat because I can't be responsible enough to take care of myself. I'm an idiot for convincing myself that Beau thought I was a good investment, an adult and not an irresponsible kid. But that's exactly what he thinks, just like everyone else.

  I'm so wrapped up in my thoughts I almost don't even hear the knock on the front door. There's no way it's Beau coming here to apologize; if there's one thing Beau doesn't do, it's admit he's wrong.

  I pull the door open, and Delaney stands there, looking nervous as hell. And hot. Hot and nervous as hell, in my doorway at eight o'clock at night. Shit. I'm already aggravated and pissed off -- and now I'm getting hard, too.

  "Can I come in?" She tucks her hair behind her ear, the same way she used to do when she was nervous. I guess some things don't really change after all.

  "What, did you trek all the way down here to gloat about how you're going to babysit my ass in Japan?" I stand in the doorway, blocking her entry.

  "Why am I the bad guy all of a sudden, Gaige?" she asks. "I thought we were getting along."

  "Getting along?" I ask, feeling a surge of anger. I'm not irritated with her; I'm angry because I agreed to do this thing I don't even give a shit about, because I thought her father respected me, but it turns out he doesn't. I know I shouldn't be taking it out on her, but I can't seem to help myself. "Yeah, we used to get along, didn't we? Did you come down here to see if you could help yourself to that old style of getting along?"

  Delaney's face colors red, the way it does when she's angry, or embarrassed, or upset. She's probably all of the above right now, I imagine. Does she think I forgot what passed between us?

  "Don't take it out on me because you're pissed off, Gaige O'Neal," she says, punctuating her words by poking my chest with her fingers. I wrap my fingers around hers, pulling her against me, and she inhales sharply, the hiss of air audible in the silence of the evening.

  "Pissed off?" I ask. Her body feels warm against mine, and I want more than anything to kiss the ever-loving hell out of this girl. Scratch that -- I don't want to just kiss this girl. I want to tear her clothes off right here, right now, and plunge my cock between her legs. "Did you come down here to the guest house because you wanted to talk about a work trip that's a month away? Or did you come for something else?"

  Delaney struggles against me. "Let go of me, Gaige," she hisses.

  "You sure you want me to, darlin'?" I ask. I run my other hand along the side of her neck and she tilts her head to the side, into my touch. She's practically purring as I touch her. She looks at me, her green eyes wide.

  "I don't know what you're implying, Gaige," she whispers.

  "I'm not implying anything, Delaney," I say. "I'm outright saying that you waltzed that little ass of yours all the way down here from the main house at this time of night for something that couldn't wait."

  "You should let me go," she says, but her voice is softer now, the edge from before suddenly gone. I'd let her go if her pupils weren't as big as saucers and her breath weren't coming in short gasps.

  "Or what, Delaney?" I ask. "You're so hot for me you're practically panting. I bet if I were to reach between those legs of yours, you'd be soaked."

  "Don't be disgusting," she says. This time, she yanks her hand from my grasp and pushes away from me. Apparently, suggesting she came down here to screw me was one thing but talking about putting my fingers between her legs crossed some kind of imaginary line.

  Her reaction makes me want to keep crossing that line, pushing that same button over and over and over. What can I say? I'm a fucking child. So I guess Delaney's father had a point after all. Maybe I'm not maturing as I get older. It's funny how Delaney makes me feel like a damn teenager.

  "Whatever you say, darlin'." If she's going to babysit me, I might as well give her something to fucking babysit.

  I can see Delaney's jaw clench and she tugs at the edges of her shirt, smoothing it. "What happened between us was years ago," she says, her voice hard. "It was a lifetime ago."

  What happened between us. She doesn't say the actual words. She doesn't describe the kiss that started everything that summer, the kiss that sent both of us spiraling out of control, reckless in our pursuit of each other, until it came to a crashing halt just before anything went too far. She fails to mention the stolen kisses when we were left alone, the frenzied groping that carried the promise of more. More that never happened.

  And I've never forgotten about it.

  "Right," I say. "And you've never thought about any of it in the past four years?"

&nb