Page 19 of Some Like It Scandalous
She rolled her eyes. Could they become any more melodramatic?
“To add to the mystery spice of this secret love affair, ACE has learned that in the decade since their split, Anna Novak has been engaged twice?—”
She choked.
“—her first engagement took place just two years following the reported breakup with the then recently ascended Andraste Grand Duke, Armand Dagmar. As you may recall, the grand duke’s father and titular head of the family passed away from a heart attack during the prince’s senior year at college. Sources have reported that when the prince returned to the family estate in Norway, Anna Novak actually accompanied him but left before the final ceremony that sealed the grand duke’s new role. Two years after this, announcements were posted in the Tampa,Florida, newspaper regarding her engagement to firefighter Chad Dowds. ACE requested an interview with Mister Dowds this afternoon, but he refused to answer our questions.”
Oh crap.She needed to call Chad and apologize.
“Her second engagement, however, is the one that interested local reporter April Menendez—” The screen cut away to a lovely Hispanic woman standing in front of a Los Angeles police station.
“Thank you, Kim. I’m standing here at police station in Los Angeles where a certain detective works. Four years ago, this police detective—who has not allowed us to use his name—was engaged to Anna Novak. Because the officer works undercover, ACE was allowed to interview him but only if we did not take cameras inside or use his image. The officer in question had nothing but praise for Miss Novak. He wouldn’t comment on their engagement or why it ended. He also dismissed the prince’s involvement in calling off his engagement to Miss Novak, assuring us that it was a mutual decision.”
“April.” The screen cut back to the woman in the studio—she angled so it appeared she was speaking right to the image of April in the upper right hand of the screen. “Have you had a chance to sit down with Miss Novak?”
“No, Kim. I haven’t. All attempts to reach Miss Novak have been rebuffed, though we have it on good authority that she was seen entering the prince’s Petersburg Towers here in Los Angeles. Now, as we reported last month, the prince maintains a residence at the top of the tower. His security also picked her up at her house.” The image cut to the circus outside her little cottage and Anna sighed. “As of ten this evening, Miss Novak had not returned home. Her office is declining any comment as has the spokesman for the royal family…”
Richard was shown leaving an office somewhere in Los Angeles. He nodded politely to the cameras, but kept right on walking.
“…so at this time, it’s anyone’s gamble. But I have to say that if the two have reunited, then it has all the fairytale potential a woman could dream of…”
“Thanks, April.” The screen focused back to the studio. “For those just joining us, we are following the breaking story of Prince Armand’s love affair with American Anna Novak. Are they a match made in storybook heaven or will she break his heart for a second time?”
Break his heart…Anna stared at the screen as it cut to a commercial advertising nude celebrity moments. She looked at the remains of her decimated cake. The trip to Norway was one of the hardest she’d ever taken—but it was nothing compared to the flight home.
Alone.
“You shouldn’t watch that. You’ll never hear anything you want to hear.” Armand’s quiet voice wrapped around her. She found him standing a few feet behind her, his hands in his pockets, exhaustion digging grooves deep into the furrows around his eyes.
“You’re back.” And she had no idea how she felt about it.
“My apologies. I didn’t expect to take as long as I did.” He walked around to sit down on the sofa next to her—fall down was more like it. He claimed the remote and hit the mute button when the reporter started talking again. “You found the cake?”
“Yeah. It’s good.” Discomfort shifted inside her. He looked like hell. “Should you be going out with those threats?”
He slid off his shoes and stretched his legs out until his feet rested on the coffee table. “I cannot allow others to dictate where I can and cannot go. If that were the case, I would never leave home.”
She maneuvered the cake around in the container, chewing her lower lip. “But it’s not safe?—”
“Anna, it’s never been safe. The unhappy accident of my DNA means I live with security twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. We take precautions, I let them do their job and they allow me to live my life.”
What a horrible life that must have been… “How did you manage to go to school? You weren’t surrounded by security.”
He leaned over and poked a finger into the bowl, scraping some chocolate from the rim. “Wasn’t I?”
“I think I would have noticed.” Security didn’t exactly blend into the background.
Armand swiped another finger full of the frosting and she scooped some onto a fork and held it out to him. He stared at her for a long heartbeat and then accepted the bite. A streak of chocolate decorated his lower lip. She stared at it until his tongue swiped it away. “Jimmy Snozen from across the hall.”
“What?”
“Jimmy Snozen. Giles Carter. Mike Denning. Eddie Brown.” He ticked the four names off on his fingers.
“They were your frat brothers.”They hung out at the apartment and they moved in next door and across the hall when we did…
He shook his head slowly. “No. They were part of the security detail, as was the pizza delivery man, the Chinese takeout and the sandwich shop guy.” He grabbed her water bottle from the cushion where it rested next to her leg and unscrewed the top. “May I?”
“Sure.”
