Page 67 of Broken King

The all-too-sexy nanny who looks unbelievably good in a bikini.

And then, it’s as if Jessie suddenly can read my mind and says to Marius, “So what’s the deal with the nanny your sister-in-law has?”

I watch in horror as Marius smiles at me as if he knows every worry that’s filling my head about her. Throwing Jessie a nasty look, I attempt to change the topic, but of course, Marius isn’t having it.

“Interesting girl, don’t you think, Katie? She parades around the house like she owns the place. Not that I’m upset because the view is all right.”

He and Jessie stare across the table waiting for my response, but I have no idea what to say to that. Is he goading me into something he plans to use to tease me again? Or does he genuinely not like the way Sabrina acts?

When I don’t say a word, my friend says, “Well, she was nice enough to help your brother out with a shave. She can’t be all bad, right?”

Every syllable gives him more ammunition to bust my ass, I’m sure, and if he doesn’t use this conversation for that, he’ll probably use it in some way to hurt what I’m trying to have with Ronan. God, I just want to disappear.

“That seemed a little too personal to me, but who am I?” Marius asks, clearly not interested in my opinion. “I prefer to save the shaving for women I’m closer to. My brother, on the other hand, is a nice guy, so I doubt he thought anything of it when she was shaving him.”

I didn’t think it was possible, but I hate Marius King even more now than I did before he sat down. Jessie looks at him like he’s a god, of course, so he isn’t going to leave anytime soon, unfortunately.

I’m in hell. This is what hell must be like for someone like me. The only thing that would make this experience worse is if a deranged clown walked in and joined us.

“So you don’t think she’s interested in him?” Jessie asks.

She’s trying to help. At least I think she is. The problem is that Marius is going to go back to Ronan, and if he doesn’t use everything he’s heard here tonight to poison him against me, he’s going to use it at some point in the future to embarrass me.

Whatever happens, nothing good will come of our little time here together.

Marius laughs at the question and shakes his head. “No way. Ronan isn’t like the rest of us. Trust me. She could walk around naked in front of him, and he wouldn’t bat an eyelash. I will say this, though. The opposite isn’t true. She definitely has her eye on him.”

My heart sinks. Oh, God. There it is. The terrible truth of the matter. Sabrina does want to be with Ronan, and there she is, twenty-four seven around him in that tiny bikini while I’m only around a few hours here and there.

And just to make things worse, Marius reaches out and touches my arm before saying, “Not to worry, Katie. Ronan never got over you. She’s got nothing he wants.”

I can’t tell if he’s making fun of me or not, and I don’t care. These past few minutes with him have only served to make me miserable.

“My name is Kate, Marius. You know that. You’ve always known that. I’ve never been Katie to anyone at any time in my entire life.”

The words come tumbling out of my mouth before I can stop them, and when I finish, Jessie stares at me like she’s horrified and Marius simply smiles like he’s enjoying himself immensely. Worse, I’ve probably given him the exact reason to do everything in his power to wreck my chances with his brother.

“You’re Katie to me because you look like a Katie. Sweet. Innocent. Katie. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m meeting someone in the bar. See you out at the house.”

With that, he gets up and walks away. Jessie continues to stare at me in disbelief. I’m not sure what she’s so surprised about. Even someone as timid as me has a breaking point.

“Um, what the hell was that?”

I shrug, not caring anymore since I imagine my shot with Ronan was just blown to smithereens. “I never liked the fact that he always insists on calling me Katie, so I told him.”

“Not that. I was trying to get some details on that nanny. Why didn’t you encourage him to talk? We might have found out some good stuff.”

I look down at my food and stab my fork into my salad. “I didn’t want to talk to Marius King about the nanny. All it does is make me realize she’s got everything going for her, and I have nothing going for me.”

Jessie touches my arm to show sympathy, but I doubt she understands. She’s never cared about someone like I care about Ronan, and if she did, she’d just walk right up to him and tell him they were going to be together. My shyness doesn’t allow that.

“If it makes you feel better, I don’t think anything we said is going to hurt what you and Ronan have going.”

“It doesn’t.”

“Then let’s figure out a gameplan. So Miss Thing is young and pretty. From what his brother just said, Ronan doesn’t care. That’s good!”

I shake my head as despair starts to sink in. “She’s there all the time, Jess. Even if she’s not wearing that bikini every hour of every day, she’s there. He told me on the phone before that he wants to talk to me about something she told him. They’re having conversations that mean something to him. And wheream I? Sitting in a restaurant being harassed by his older brother. It’s hopeless.”

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