Page 20 of Exposing Adonis

I frowned, remembering something that nagged my senses. “Wasn’t he engaged to Pippa two seconds ago? I think you’re making too big a deal of this … rebound.”

Geordie let out an aggrieved sigh, crossing his arms and leaning back into his seat. The backrest settling with the pressure of his weight.

With a click of his tongue, he opened his mouth. Then closed it again. He nodded, as if he was having a conversation in his head.

“Do you know much about titles?”

“Titles of … ?”

“Peerage,” he answered. “Did you ever think to yourself why Callum is a Baron? Why he’s referred to asLordStrathlachlan? Any of that?”

“Look, I’m an American. And a Filipino. These titles and royalty is all colonizer bullshit. They mean nothing to me.”

“And they shouldn’t. They’re a relic of an ancient time, but people with titles will fight tooth and nail to make them relevant.” He chuckled. “And nothing matters more to a low title, than advancing up the ranks.”

He looked at me and lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug.

“A Baron is the lowest order of British nobility, or the peerage. So he’s called Lord Strathlachlan, or My Lord if we want to get fancy. But below them, and above knights like Dame Judi Dench or Sir Elton John, are something called baronets.” He was about to make my head spin with this nonsense. “Lady Philippa Fox is a baronetess. The only child of a baronet. She is not referred to as My Lady, but simply Lady Pippa. You understand?”

“I don’t really know if I do, but go on.” I admitted.

“Her baronet father and late mother wanted her to ascend to nobility. It was an obsession. They threw her at every noble and every prince, and that was her reason for existing.” Geordie said with a hard edge to his voice. “She would have given up everything to fulfill their dream of grandchildren in the peerage.”

“That seems dumb as fuck,” I said with a slight snort.

“Aye, it is. I agree. But I’m a commoner. My dad was a businessman.” Geordie nodded with me. “Nothing about any of these titles, made up or divinely ordained,” he said the last bit with so much sarcasm that I laughed, “matters to anyone except for those who have them. And that’s why they were engaged. Two people with hereditary titles, to make more people with hereditary titles, to keep this obsolete institution alive.”

An arranged marriage. Interesting.

“Did they love each other?” I finally asked, knowing that the answer could break me.

“Aye, they love each other, the way old friends who grew up together might.” Geordie looked at me sideways to see my reaction. “But nothing compared to what real love should be.”

I looked down at my hands, my thumbs folding in to touch the callouses on the pads below my fingers. Far from the long, elegant, soft hands ofLadyPippa Fox, Baronetess. She sounded like a fucking action hero.

“Did he really break it off with her?” I knew that I should be asking Callum this, not his friend, but this was a rare opening. I had to take it.

“Aye,” Geordie said. “But it takes two to break that kind of contract, and I don’t think she agrees.”

“Crazy ex-girlfriend?” I asked.

“No, lass,” Geordie chuckled. “But if you were raised to have a single purpose, and you almost have it in your grasp, who knows what you’d do.”

“I still want to kill her.” I hoped this moment of honesty wouldn’t cost me.

“Get in the back of the queue. You’ll have to wait your turn,” he said with a grumble.

On that awkward note, we passed the rest of our time in silence until the big ass plane returned, charging the runway like a bull.

Chapter 9

Callum

Kemet

Shehadn’tdisappearedthemoment I was out of sight. She hadn’t panicked and tried to run away. That was good. Right?

I clicked to internal comms, and buried the parachute in a nearby rock formation, marking the spot on our GPS in case we wanted to recover at a later time. Probably not, though. There was little reason for us to hold on to atandemparachute. When was the next time I’d strap a man on me and do an air infiltration? Probably never.

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