Page 16 of Royally Knocked Up (Princes of Passion #1)

HAILEY

“ I ’ll come over tonight,” Enzo said. “I’m sorry that I have to spend the day at this event — I’m sorry I can’t bring you with me.”

“Oh, don’t apologize,” Hailey said. “Of course you’ve got to go. It’s important to your father. And I know how hard you’ve worked to make him proud of you.”

Enzo rolled his eyes. “Don’t say it like that,” he said. “I still don’t like admitting that I care what he thinks.”

“You care plenty,” Hailey said, smiling at him. “And I think it’s great that you do. You shouldn’t be embarrassed about that. Now, go to the event. I’ll be here when you get back.”

“If you want to order room service, feel free,” Enzo said. “It will be charged to me, so just get whatever you want. I don’t want you to be bored, cooped up in this room all day.”

Hailey felt a twist in the pit of her stomach. “Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I’ll be fine.”

She ached to tell him the truth. He deserved the truth from her, and she knew that. But she couldn’t do it. They had come too close to restoring his reputation, to making his father proud of him — and to Hailey completing the job she had been assigned to do.

The last thing she should be doing right now was being honest about why she had come here in the first place. If Enzo were to find out, it would ruin everything.

So she let him kiss her goodbye. The kiss still felt magical — special — as if it was a miracle that it was happening at all.

Every kiss with Enzo felt stolen. And Hailey knew that it was.

She wasn’t supposed to be doing this. She was taking something that wasn’t rightfully hers, and it was only by sheer luck that she continued to get away with it.

She watched from the window as he got into the car that he’d called to pick him up and take him to the press event.

He would be meeting his brother there. The princes would spend a few hours talking to reporters about the fact that their father was about to assume the throne and what it meant to them to be a part of this moment.

Hailey hoped that Enzo’s brother would respect him. She hoped he wouldn’t be made to feel like the family black sheep.

But she couldn’t focus on it for too long, because she had her own business to take care of today.

She waited until Enzo had been driven away. Then she went down to the lobby.

Romano was standing there waiting for her. “Ms. Jones,” he said. “Are you ready to go?”

“You’re the one who’s taking me?”

“That’s right. The king sent me to pick you up.”

She couldn’t help smiling. “It’s good to see you again,” she said.

“How have you been enjoying your time in Monteverde?”

“It’s a beautiful country. I wish I could stay longer.” She felt a pang in her chest. “I guess my time here is nearly done. Once the coronation is over, the king will end my contract and send me back home.”

“Well,” Romano said, “there’s no reason you couldn’t stay anyway.”

She looked at him. Was it possible he knew what she was thinking — the true reason she wanted to stay longer? Could he have perceived that there was something between her and Enzo?

No. Of course he didn’t know. He was taking her at face value. And he was right. Technically, there was no reason she needed to leave Monteverde.

But could she stand to stay here once Enzo was no longer a part of her life? Once her contract was over, she wouldn’t have the chance to see him every day like she did now. And it was unlikely that he would go out of his way to see her once he discovered what she had done.

She felt the weight of it like an axe hanging over her head.

He was going to learn the truth so soon.

There didn’t seem to be any avoiding it.

And as Romano drove her to the palace, Hailey found herself wishing that she could go almost anywhere else — that she wouldn’t have to face up to this.

Seeing King Edoardo again would be the first tacit evidence of her betrayal that she had had to confront.

This is my job. This has always been my job. It’s never bothered me before.

But she had never been assigned a target like Enzo before — someone who had made her feel that she could, and should, truly be herself.

The king was waiting for her in the throne room. He wasn’t seated today — he was on his feet and pacing, and he turned to face her when she arrived. “Ah,” he said. “Ms. Jones. Thank you for coming to meet with me today.”

“Of course, Your Highness.”

“You are to be commended,” he told her. “Truly, you’ve done a masterful job with the assignment I gave you.

I’ve never gone so long without seeing my son’s name in the papers.

When I sent him up to Vista Piccola, I confess that I feared it would do no good.

I thought I might see reports of him carrying on up there the same way he did when he was here.

Having him at a distance would have done some good, of course, but even so — those reports would have been damaging. ”

“Well, that’s why you hired me,” Hailey said.

It caused her no small amount of grief to say it.

To admit aloud to the fact that her sole purpose had been to keep Enzo from proving his father’s worst fears true — it felt as bad as admitting that his father was right to have sent him away.

And admitting that felt like a worse betrayal than anything she had done so far.

The king was smiling at her, though. “I don’t know how you did it,” he said.

“Truly, Ms. Jones. No one has ever been able to control my son. Not me, not his mother, not his brother. I admit that when I gave you the job, I expected you to fail. But you surpassed all my expectations. You somehow found a way to keep him out of trouble, and I couldn’t be any happier. ”

Now Hailey really felt sick. She had betrayed the king too, though she hadn’t allowed herself to worry too seriously about that until now.

She’d been hired to do a job, and instead of focusing on that, she had conducted herself in a shockingly unprofessional manner.

Yes, she had managed to keep Enzo under control, but in doing so she had risked a story getting out that might have been much more damaging to the crown than anything the papers could write about a night of drinking at bars.

What would the king have said if the story had been about Enzo conducting an affair with an unknown American woman — the woman he himself had sent to make sure his son stayed out of trouble?

At least that story would never have to be revealed.

She would never have to let the king know what had happened between herself and Enzo, and with luck, Enzo wouldn’t tell him either.

Of course, once Enzo knew that Hailey had been hired by his father, he wouldn’t feel any loyalty to her — but by then she would be on her way back to America.

She was filled with regret. She should never have gotten involved with him. It had been such a mistake.

And yet — how could she regret it? Everything about it had been so wonderful. What did she wish had been different? She hated to think about what would be said when it was over. It hurt to imagine what Enzo would think of her when she was gone, when the truth came out.

But would she really rather it had never happened?

Her stomach churned, and she felt lightheaded. “Is there anything else, Your Highness?” she asked. “I’m a bit tired.”

“No, that’s all,” the king said. “I wanted to congratulate you personally on a job well done. I’ll be letting your organization know how happy I am with your performance.”

“Well, I very much appreciate that,” Hailey said, but the truth was that she could hardly think about it. Suddenly, her head was spinning.

She allowed herself to be escorted from the palace. Romano was waiting outside with the car, and he smiled at her. “Back to your hotel then, Ms. Jones?”

She nodded and got into the backseat, wishing that she could lie down, but knowing it would look unprofessional to do so. Although why should I worry about professionalism now?

Could her guilt really be making her feel this bad? Could it be causing physical symptoms? She hadn’t realized she was that regretful about what she had done here.

Or maybe this was something else. Maybe she was actually sick?

“Romano,” she called up to the front seat.

“Yes, Ms. Jones?”

“Can we stop at the drugstore on the way back?”

Hailey was on her way to the aisle containing stomach remedies when she walked through the tampon aisle. At first, she hardly noticed, so intent was she on getting something that would make her feel better.

And then, gradually, she came to a stop.

She had run out of tampons at the very beginning of her stay at La Fantasia. She had meant to go into town and procure more, but she had gotten distracted by everything that had happened, and she had never gone.

She’d never needed to go.

Now a feeling of numbness swept through her, and she turned to the head of the aisle, where she knew — from having been in countless identical drugstores — that she would find a rack of pregnancy tests.

No way.

It couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible.

But that was nonsense. Of course it was possible. Ninth-grade biology class had made that abundantly clear.

She picked up one of the pregnancy tests and carried it to the counter in a daze.

She had been through this in the past — a false alarm, in that instance — but it had been years.

She hadn’t thought it would happen again, and she certainly hadn’t imagined that it would happen on this trip. On this assignment.

With a prince.

But the test would be negative. It had to be negative.

After she’d paid, she slipped it into her purse and went back out to the car. Romano didn’t ask her any questions, and she didn’t speak again until they had arrived at the hotel.

Enzo was already there, waiting for her.

“Where did you go?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her. “I thought I would surprise you, coming back early, but you weren’t here.”

Hailey had trouble even bringing herself to speak. This was just one more thing she was going to have to keep from him, and it made her feel like the worst person alive. “I went out shopping,” she said.

“You didn’t buy anything,” he noticed, and she could have kicked herself for coming up with such a weak lie.

“I didn’t see anything I wanted.”

“I’ll take you out shopping tomorrow,” Enzo said with a smile. “I’ll take you to the best stores in the city. We’ll find what you need, whatever it is.”

The guilt threatened to pull her under. “You don’t have to do that, Enzo. You don’t have to do anything for me.”

She could tell she was worrying him, but there was nothing she could do about it. There was no explanation she could give. She was truly stuck, and she knew it.

She let him take her to bed, but she couldn’t bring herself to do more than kiss him briefly and roll away. A part of her wanted to just tell him to leave, to go back to his place so she could be on her own tonight. But she couldn’t do that either. What if this was the last night she had with him?

Their time was running out. There was no way to be sure when it would end.

She waited until he fell asleep, snuck into the bathroom and took the pregnancy test.

When it came up positive, she felt no surprise, just a sinking feeling of dread.

She had no idea what she was going to do or how she was going to handle this — but in a few days, she would be going home. She would deal with it then.

For now, she had to destroy the evidence. She threw the test away, then bundled up the bathroom garbage bag, hurried out of the hotel, and dropped it into a dumpster.

She went back upstairs and got into bed — but she lay awake, shivering, unable to relax.

She was going to have to find a way to tell Enzo about this. To keep this from him would be the biggest betrayal of all.

But what on earth would he say when he found out?

She couldn’t begin to imagine — and the thought of that conversation terrified her.