Page 96 of Notorious Park Avenue Prince

I kicked his foot. “I meant in general, not with?—”

“His delicious cock?”

King and I both shook our head at his utter absurdity, but again, it was nice to be distracted from the inevitable.

I glanced at the watch King had put back on after leaving it off for a week.

Eight fifteen p.m.

T-minus thirty minutes until reality set back in, and our time in Wonderland was over.

THIRTY-SIX

east

IT WASN’T THE Phantom that picked us up from the airport but a blacked-out SUV, though it was still King’s personal driver that loaded our bags into the trunk.

“I knew it,” I said, winking at King as we settled into the back seat. “You rented the Phantom.”

“It comes out for special occasions, but I prefer to be inconspicuous in the day-to-day.” He returned my wink. “I am just a professor, after all.”

Behind me, Zac snorted out a laugh. “Understatement of the century.”

As we pulled out of Teterboro and headed toward the city, I reached for my phone and powered it on. When I realized it would be worthless while I was gone, I’d turned it off and shoved it in my bag, and I could only imagine how many “I’m so bored” messages West had sent during his trip.

I chuckled to myself just thinking about the stories he and the other guys would have about their supposed romantic getaways. They’d all be begging me to plan the next trip and apologizing for being idiots.

Then again, their being idiots was the reason I’d just spent the most incredible week with two men who were supposed to be off-limits.

I loved my life.

“Jesus, East,” Zac said as he watched the notifications light up my phone one after the other. They were never-ending, the way I imagined King’s would be once he turned his cell on.

“My friends regretting their poor decisions, no doubt.” But when I swiped my thumb over the screen to see the damage, the sheer amount of missed calls and messages was jarring, even for me.

As I scrolled through, several more popped up, not just from my friends, but my mom, and quite a few others I wasn’t in regular contact with. “Fuckin’ hell, what’s the emergency? I was only gone for a week.”

I opened up the most recent one from West first.

WEST:

East, you need to call me.

Where the hell are you?

Why are you not answering?

Wherever you are, stay there. Don’t come home.

“‘Don’t come home’? What’s he talking about?”

King’s head jerked in my direction. “What happened?”

I shrugged and hit West’s number. “I don’t know. He just sent me a bunch of?—”

West picked up on the first ring. “Fuck, East, are you alive? Why haven’t you been answering any of our calls?”

“I missed you too. Actually, I take that back. I didn’t miss you at all?—”

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