Page 27 of Take My Throne

“I can add something stronger if you like,” Milly offers. “Do you like Irish coffee?”

“I do, but I’d better not,” I tell her. “Not if I want to win the Bomber Derby tonight?”

“Win?” Milly gasps, a delighted smile spreading across her face. “You’re competing?”

I nod as she throws her arms around me, squeezing me tight in a hug.

“I’m so excited for you! I just know you’re going to kick those boys’ butt! It’s about time a woman showed them how to compete. But how did you persuade your dad to let you ride?”

“I didn’t have to,” I say. “He’s gone to Italy, leaving Lucas in charge. Lucas said that if I want to compete, I can. He isn’t going to tell me what to do. What my dad doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

“That’s so cool! I told you he’s a great guy. But why do you think your dad keeps going to Italy? I overheard my parents discussing it. Nobody can figure out what he’s doing there.”

“Beats me.” I shrug. “It’s not like my father tells me anything about his plans, even if I ask. Maybe Lucas knows something-–his adoptive mother was Italian, and he’s spent a lot of time there–-but if he does, he’s not say anything to me. It can’t be anything good though. You know what my father’s like. He never does anything without a million and one other plans going on behind the scenes. I wouldn’t be surprised if he told Lucas one thing, but the truth was completely different.”

“I feel sorry for your father.” Milly’s statement surprises me.

“Why would you feel sorry for him?”

“It must be so lonely not being able to trust anyone,” she says. “All that money but he hasn’t got anyone to curl up with at night. He can’t hang out with his friends. He doesn’t have any because he can’t trust they’re not trying to get close to him to hurt him.”

“And whose fault is that?” I snap. “My mother adored him, but he was so abusive to her, she had no choice but to run away. He could have come for me after she died, but he chose to leave me in foster care. I mean, if I’d grown up with him, who knows what our relationship would be like now? We might be close.”

“And you’d probably be a bitch, like Ally and Taylor,” Milly points out. “Hasn’t it ever occurred to you that your father did you a favour abandoning you like that? I know you had a hard childhood, but it’s made you into the person you are today and she’s pretty darned awesome.”

“Thanks, Mills.” I smile as Milly pours fresh cream into my coffee, just how I like it.

We take our drinks and step outside to sit on the deck. Her house has stunning views across the Knight estate and sitting there with my best friend, I have a brief moment of forgetting my messed-up life and simply enjoying the moment for what it was.

“Is that Archer over there?”

Milly nudges me and I beam when I see one of my favourite people walking towards us. He’s wearing a wifebeater, the lack of sleeves showing off his well-defined muscles. I feel my cheeks reddening at the memory of those powerful arms pinning me down, while he…

“Hey, you two.” He pulls out a chair and turns it round, sitting on it backwards. “You look like you’re having a serious conversation.”

“Just thinking about what might have been if my arsehole father had made different decisions,” I tell him. “But I guess he’s too full of himself to do things any other way. He’s selfish to the core, and that’s never going to change.”

“I hear that,” Archer says. “Still, I thought he was in Italy at the moment. That should give you a bit of a break.”

“Yep, although he’s left Lucas in charge instead of me. Sexist pig.”

“Would you expect anything else?” Archer reminds me. “It’s frustrating, but I don’t think your father would ever let you take over the family business. I have a funny feeling that the only reason he made you marry Lucas is because he didn’t want you to marry into House Navarre. If you hadn’t been engaged to Romy, you probably would have had a little longer as a single woman, but sooner or later, he’d have forced you to marry the man of his choosing. He couldn’t possibly trust you to make your own decisions when it came to important decisions like that, not with you being just a girl.”

“You’re probably right.” I sigh. “There was no way my father was going to let me marry Romy unless it was his idea, and it fit into one of his nefarious schemes. I should have agreed to marry Romy sooner.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.” Archer fixes me with a meaningful look. “None of us takes your marriage to Lucas seriously, which means you’re free to be with whomever you like. And isn’t it even more exciting knowing that every kiss, every caress, is a slap in the face for your father?”

“It does feel good to go against his wishes,” I admit. “Although I feel sorry for Lucas.”

“Why?” Archer’s tone is sharp. “Unlike you, he could have said no. He didn’t have to marry you. He’s only got himself to blame if you cheat on him.”

“I don’t think it’s quite that simple,” I tell him. “Lucas has told me a bit about his upbringing and he hasn’t had it easy either.”

“So?” Archer sneers. “I’ve got no sympathy for the man. And I can’t wait to rub his nose in it when I beat him in the Bomber Derby tonight.”

“Is that right?” I smirk. “You’ll have to get past me first.”

“I didn’t think you wanted to ride pillion.”

“Who says I’m riding pillion?”

I love the look of delighted surprise which comes across Archer’s face. “You don’t mean-?”

“Yep. Since my father’s away, I’m competing. And when I win, he can’t exactly complain about me racing again. In fact, knowing my dad, he’s likely to start boasting about how amazing I am and insisting I compete in every race going.”

“You think you’re going to win, huh?”

“I know I am.”

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