Prince Albert: A Billionaire Stepbrother Romance Read online

  I get another email from Gaige.

  Chelsea put her partition up and she hasn't poked her head out since. She slept on the flight to Vegas. You should put down your partition and entertain me.

  Show me your boobs.

  Have you joined the mile-high club?

  I shake my head, but I lower the partition that divides us. "You're bad," I whisper.

  "Aw," he says. "Why are you still wearing your shirt? I said boobs."

  "I'm looking at a boob."

  "Wow, you bowl me over with your witty and clever retorts, Delaney," he says, raising his eyebrow.

  "Shut up. You give me very little to work with."

  Gaige grins at me, reaching over to slide his hand around the back of my neck and draw me in close to him. He kisses me full on the lips, but I push him back. "What?" he asks.

  "You're going to kiss me like that, right in public?"

  "No one can see in here. Our partition is down but everyone else's is up. Including Chelsea's. Fool around with me."

  "How many glasses of champagne have you had?" I ask. "I'm sure the flight attendants can see in here when they walk by."

  "So what. Who cares?" he asks.

  "So…" I start. "Despite your blasé attitude and carelessness about, well, everything, you are a minor celebrity, you know. People are interested in who your girl-of-the-moment is."

  "Pfft," Gaige says. "I'm not minor. I'm fucking major, baby."

  I jump back when a flight attendant interrupts us, offering champagne. Gaige charms the pants off her, and has her giggling and leaving us the bottle in less than ten seconds. With her phone number beside it.

  He pours a glass and hands it to me. "What?" he asks, when he sees my face.

  I shake my head. "That's what I'm talking about."

  "You're jealous of the flight attendant?"

  "No, don't be ridiculous. I mean, okay, you were totally flirting with her and everything. But I know that's just how you are. And she did leave you her number."

  "Which I promptly tossed in the trash. Oh, you are jealous," he says, his voice sing-songy. "I love that you're jealous."

  "I'm not jealous. I'm saying that people remember you. Even if they don't know who you are, they remember you. I mean, look at you," I say, gesturing down the length of him. I had a point with this. What was my point? Okay, maybe seeing Gaige charm the pants off the flight attendant threw me off a little bit. "You're hot. You're hot…and, basically, you're fucking ripped….and tattooed….and even if you weren't all of that, your eyes, I mean, they're just so…"

  "No, no," he says. "Don't stop. Keep going. What else do you love about me?"

  "What?" My voice comes out like a squeak. "Who said anything about love?"

  Gaige shrugs. "You're the one going on and on about how sexy I am, and how you can't stand that anyone else is even looking at me –"

  "That was not the point I was making," I say. "I'm just saying that you're memorable. And people do not need to remember me with you."

  Gaige studies me, and the intensity of his gaze makes me blush. Damn it, he's always making me blush. "So you're just looking out for me."

  "Exactly!" I say. "I'm looking out for your best interests. It's my new job."

  Gaige leans closer to me, reaches over to my seat, and runs his hand up my leg. "I'm glad we're a team."

  "Is that some kind of innuendo?"

  He makes an exasperated sound. "I'm glad your dad assigned you to me. Not everything that comes out of my mouth is an innuendo, Delaney."

  "You were just talking about joining the mile high club and you have your hand on my leg. Plus, pretty much everything you say to me is innuendo."

  "That's not true," he says, and his forehead wrinkles. For a second, I think he looks almost…hurt.

  "I didn't mean it as an insult," I say, my voice halting.

  "Do you think he did it on purpose?" Gaige asks.

  "Did what? Who?"

  "Do you think your dad knows?"

  My heart stops. "No, of course not," I say quickly. "Wait, do you think he knows?"

  Gaige shrugs. "I don't know," he says. "I was just wondering if he was…trying to get us together or something."

  I almost spit out my champagne. "No," I say. "Definitely not. Are you kidding?"

  "Is it so bad?"

  "What, you and me?" My voice is too loud, and I drop it to just above a whisper. "Are you asking about if you and I got together?"

  "No," Gaige says, and averts his eyes. "Forget I said anything." He lies back in his seat and closes his eyes.

  Shit. I feel like someone punched me in the gut. But Gaige asking what my father would think if we got together is insane on so many levels. "I thought you were joking," I say lamely.

  Gaige's eyes remain closed. He was joking, wasn't he? I nudge his arm, but he doesn't open his eyes. "Stop ignoring me. Are you screwing around with me? You're asking what my father would think about the two of us? He would absolutely kill you. And me. Maybe me first. He'd definitely fire me. And you. And probably disown me. You're my…" I lower my voice to a whisper. "Brother."

  He opens his eyes and looks at me. "Step-brother," he says. "And yeah, whatever, I was totally just kidding. Hooking up is one thing, but what am I going to do, date you?" His voice is nonchalant, but there's an edge to it that wasn't there before.

  Crap. Now I really feel like someone punched me in the gut.

  Gaige sinks back against his seat and I sit back in mine, the silence between us deafening, acting as if nothing happened.

  Except it feels like everything just happened.

  Sometimes the most important conversations start like the most innocuous ones in the world, no big deal, and then they just spiral out of control of their own accord. I want to rewind the last twenty minutes and do it all over again. But this time, I'd actually say the right words.

  Except I'm not sure what I would say. Was Gaige hinting that he wanted to date me? I don't even know how that would work, even if we weren't step-siblings. I already know Gaige. We have history. Would we sit at dinner and go to movies and pretend to get to know each other?

  I close my eyes, faking sleep. How the hell did I get myself into this situation?

  And why can't I stop thinking about what Gaige said?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  GAIGE

  It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks in Japan -- I don't even know where the hell we've been, to be honest. The first week I was too jet-lagged to notice much of anything, and content to just be told where to go and what to do. Photo shoots, interviews, appearances, one right after the other. I shot some television commercials, but I don't even know what the products were. Cologne, I think – nothing bike-related. And an ad for one of those little canned coffee drinks. It's all a blur.

  And in the middle of that blur is Delaney. Always Delaney. I'm still hooking up with her, sneaking into her hotel room at night after Chelsea has gone to bed. The sex hasn't changed – it's still as hot as hell. That in and of itself is a fucking miracle. I've never had so much sex with one girl.

  The thing is, it's bugging me.

  I want – shit, I don't know what I want. I want to be around Delaney all the damn time. I can't get enough of her laugh, or the way she blushes when I embarrass her, which is a lot, or how she's so professional when we're out somewhere and she's handling me…and then she's mine, totally mine, in bed. When I'm with her…it's just easy.

  Except that everything has felt off since the flight. Or maybe it's not off for her -- I can't tell. I don't know why the hell I brought up dating, anyway. I wouldn't know the first thing about dating some girl, much less Delaney. Delaney is sure as fuck not any regular girl, even if she weren't kind-of related to me. The whole stepsister thing doesn't bother me like it apparently does her, anyway.

  I answer the knock on the door because I know it's Delaney. Pulling on my Marlow Oil polo shirt, I yank it open. Delaney is wearing black slacks and a polo shirt that matches mine, her hair i