Page 39 of Royally Knocked Up
She put a hand on his arm. “Enzo,” she said quietly, “don’t do it. Don’t go over there.”
“Your Highness!”
He turned automatically. Hailey turned too, possibly responding to his movement —
A man was holding up a phone. Enzo recognized the pose. He had clearly just taken a picture.
He froze for a moment, unsure of what to do.
Hailey had no such reservations. She strode over to the man and plucked the phone right out of his hand.
“Hey!” he objected, grabbing for it, but she took a quick step backward.
“You’re going to delete that,” she said.
“Like hell I am.”
“Who do you work for?”
“I don’t work for anyone!”
“You’re not with a media outlet?”
“No!”
“Did you know that it’s a crime for a private citizen to sell a picture of the royal family to a media outlet without written permission?”
“No it isn’t,” the man said, but his brow was furrowed slightly, and Enzo could tell he doubted what he was saying.
“It is,” Hailey countered.
“I— I have friends who have done it,” the man said. “They never got into any trouble for it.”
“Friends, huh? Friends who are really you?”
He paled, but he didn’t say anything.
“Listen, you’re not going to get into trouble for anything that happened in the past,” she said. “You’d have to be caught doing it, and if you’ve done it before, you obviously haven’t been caught. Butthistime, you made a mistake.”
She held up her own phone and snapped a picture of him. He blinked.
“I’m going to keep this as insurance,” she said. “If any photos of me and the prince appear in the media, I’ll know who took them. I might not have your name, but the resources of the royal family will be brought to bear on finding out who you are, and you will be prosecuted.”
She handed him back his phone. “You can keep that picture as a souvenir,” she told him.
“Why are you so desperate to keep your appearance here with the prince a secret?” the man asked swiftly.
“We’re colleagues, and we’re working together on a business venture.”
“What is it?”
“That’s the part we’re not ready to disclose, although if you wanted to look into it, I’d start at La Fantasia.”
“The resort up in Vista Piccola?”
“That’s right. That’s where we were employed.”
“I did hear something about the prince being employed there on a temporary basis,” the man mused. “All right, I’ll look into it myself. Listen — thank you for not getting me into trouble withthe royal family.” He glanced over at the prince. “I didn’t know it was illegal.”
