Page 5 of Royally Knocked Up (Princes of Passion #1)

ENZO

A few hours later, Enzo had given up entirely on the idea of serving his time.

He had tried to have a bottle of scotch sent to his room, only to be told that the staff weren’t allowed to order from the bar.

He’d done his best to insist that he wasn’t really a member of staff, but no one had seemed to care about that very real fact.

They’d persisted in forbidding him from getting a drink.

He’d tried to entertain himself by going out to the slopes, but there wasn’t much fun to be had in that since he hadn’t brought any of his ski gear with him.

The only option was to rent some from the lodge, and he had quickly been informed that if he wanted to take skis out, he was going to have to pay the rental fee, by order of the king.

It was such an indignity that Enzo had refused the offer, knowing that any money he paid for the rental would be ending up right in his own father’s pocket.

He couldn’t bear the thought of giving money to the man who had exiled him here.

That had left him with nothing to do but sit in his room and watch television, a pastime that had quickly begun to wear on him.

Enzo preferred to be social and active. The idea of sitting around watching TV for even one night was wearing.

The thought of doing this for the next two months was unbearable.

He was going to have to leave.

The driver who’d brought him to Vista Piccola was employed by his father, so getting the same car to take him back to Luria was out of the question. Not only would he be refused, but the driver would no doubt let Enzo’s father know what he had requested.

It was maddening that he was nearly thirty years old and was being treated like a wayward teenager. If his father hadn’t been the king, there was no way he could have gotten away with this. It took political clout to treat someone this way.

All right. He couldn’t contact the driver who had brought him here — so how was he going to leave?

He thought through his options. He could rent a car — there was a rental place in Vista Piccola for tourists.

But if he did that, he ran the risk of some member of the media spotting him and releasing a story.

If that were to happen, he was sure his father would get his hands on the story right away.

He probably had people searching the internet every morning for Enzo’s name, waiting to see what dirt he could dig up on his own son.

He probably wanted to discover Enzo getting into trouble so that he would be able to enforce some sort of stricter punishment than he already had.

So no rental car, then. There had to be some other way out of here — something he hadn’t already thought of.

Enzo picked up his phone.

None of his friends knew that he had been sent here.

He hadn’t known how he would explain it to them.

How did you tell your friends, at twenty-nine years of age, that your father had sent you out of the city?

They wouldn’t be able to understand something like that.

His friends’ fathers were businessmen and venture capitalists.

A few were politicians, but even that didn’t carry the same weight as being a king did.

None of them would understand how a father could seize control over you if he wanted to do so, how he could use his royal authority to upend your life.

So he hadn’t told them. But now he was rethinking that decision, because it had occurred to him that involving his friends might be his only way of getting out of here.

He fired off a quick text to Luca, his closest friend.

Luca’s father owned a tech company in Luria, and Luca was being groomed to take over the business when he retired.

Luca liked to joke that this was the same thing as being in line for a throne.

That was a joke that had always annoyed Enzo — the two things weren’t remotely similar, of course, and he didn’t like Luca acting as if they were.

But he had always overlooked it for the sake of preserving their friendship.

What’s going on this weekend? he texted. He needed to start slowly. He couldn’t open with a request to be picked up. Luca had to be eased into all this.

Luca answered quickly. He always did. It was one of Enzo’s favorite things about him. Everyone’s getting together at Gustaf’s . You in?

Maybe, Enzo replied. He paused, then decided to leave it at that.

Maybe there was a way he could get out of all this without having to let his friends know he had been banished to Vista Piccola in the first place.

Maybe he could make it seem as if he had come here of his own free will.

That would be a hell of a lot less embarrassing.

He saw the bubbles come up on the screen that indicated Luca was typing.

Then they went away. His friend didn’t seem to know exactly how to respond, which Enzo thought was probably a good thing.

Let him take his time trying to sort that out.

Let him believe it didn’t matter very much to Enzo whether he was included in the weekend’s plans or not.

He got to his feet and switched off the TV.

Maybe Luca would call. Maybe they would get to talking and would decide it made sense for Luca to drive up and pick Enzo up tonight.

He could crash at his friend’s place for the weekend, and then, when the weekend was over, he would decide whether or not he wanted to come back here.

Maybe he would find a hotel in Luria and stay there for a few weeks so that his father wouldn’t be able to track him down.

Maybe he would throw caution to the wind and just go back to his own apartment.

There was a knock at the door.

Enzo jumped a foot in the air, feeling spooked by the sudden interruption.

Of course, it wasn’t possible that anyone had realized what he was thinking and come to stop him, but it did feel like a massive coincidence.

He straightened his shoulders and made his way over to the door, expecting to see Isla with some sort of information about tomorrow’s agenda.

But it wasn’t Isla. It was Hailey, the American.

She had changed out of her business attire and was wearing jeans and a V-neck sweater, and for a moment, Enzo could only stare at her.

He hadn’t realized before how attractive she was.

Her hair had been pinned up in a severe style, she had been dressed in clothes that didn’t do much for her figure, and she’d been frowning every time she looked at him.

She wasn’t frowning now.

“Hey,” she said, leaning against the doorframe.

Hey . It was such an American thing to say. “Evening.”

“I think you and I got off to a bad start earlier,” she said.

“You were rude.” He wondered whether she would argue. She didn’t.

“A bit,” she agreed. “Although, so were you.”

“Maybe so.” Enzo wasn’t in the mood to dispute the point, or to try to explain to her that the standards for politeness were different for members of the royal family. He didn’t owe her the same sort of respect as she did to him.

Still, he had to admit that she was the most interesting person he had met since he’d arrived here. “I’m willing to start over if you are,” he said.

“I thought it might be good for us if the two of us stuck together while we’re here,” Hailey said. “You know, since we’re the two newcomers to the team.”

“I’m not really a newcomer,” Enzo said.

“I know,” Hailey said. “Your father owns this resort, right?”

He nodded. “I’ve been here dozens of times. It’s a bit of a home away from home for me.”

“Then maybe you can be my guide,” Hailey said. “I’ve never been here before. And maybe I can help you feel a little more comfortable with the people on the team, since you’re going to be one of us.”

Enzo frowned, not liking the sound of that. “I’m perfectly comfortable.”

“Sure you are. I just noticed today that you didn’t seem to be hitting it off with anybody. You’ll have a better time if you make friends with the rest of the team — don’t you think?”

“I didn’t come here to have a good time.”

Hailey raised her eyebrows. “I thought having a good time was your whole thing,” she said. “I thought you loved having a good time.”

“Was this what you meant when you said we should get a fresh start?”

She grinned. “Touché. You’re right. I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”

“It frankly astonishes me that you think you’re the person to help me hit it off with the team when you’re this… abrasive.”

“You bring it out in me. I’m getting along swimmingly with everyone else. But I’d like it if that was true for you and me too, that’s all. Don’t you want to have people you get along with while you’re here, Your Highness?”

He sighed. “You can call me Enzo.”

She grinned. “That’s a start!”

She wasn’t really abrasive at all, he thought, and that was as frustrating as anything else.

He would certainly have liked to write her off as someone difficult to get along with, but that wasn’t who she was.

In spite of the fact that she spoke up to him in ways almost nobody else ever had, there was something about her that entranced him.

His phone buzzed.

He glanced at it. It was Luca. Where are you now? I’ll come pick you up.

It was exactly the message he’d hoped to receive — but suddenly, inexplicably, Enzo found that he no longer wanted it. He no longer wanted Luca to come and collect him, to take him out of here. Or at least, he didn’t want that to happen tonight.

He wanted to finish out the evening with Hailey. She had come to his room, and he wanted to see what she had in mind for the two of them.

“Do you need to take that?” she asked, gesturing to his phone.

So she can be respectful. “No,” he told her, putting the phone in his pocket. “It’s just a buddy of mine. I’ll get back to him later.”

She nodded. “In that case, do you want to come out with me for a bit? I was thinking of walking around the resort, maybe familiarizing myself with the place a little bit, and I’d do best with a tour guide.”

“You’re asking me to give you a tour? Didn’t Isla give you one?”

“She started to, but we were interrupted. It’s been kind of a busy day, to be honest,” Hailey admitted. “My flight from the States arrived earlier this morning.”

“Wow. You just flew in today? You must be jet-lagged. You wouldn’t rather sleep and do a tour tomorrow?”

“Who knows if there will be time tomorrow? Besides, I’ve caught a second wind. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep right now. Come walk around with me. I’d really appreciate it.”

She was asking so kindly, so humbly, and Enzo suddenly realized that this was probably the friendliest conversation the two of them had had since they had been introduced.

He found that he wanted to make the most of this newfound good energy between them. Maybe they would be able to establish something resembling a friendship — and there was no doubt that it would be good to have a friend here, as long as he was stuck.

“All right,” he said. “Let me just go get my shoes on and then we can go.”

“Okay,” Hailey agreed. “I’ll wait for you out in the hall.”