Royal Bastard Read Online Free

all began to register—my brain shouting at me to do the only appropriate thing and leave them to it—when he looked up, and our eyes met in the mirror.
    I couldn’t move; I was caught in his stare.
    Surprise, then something akin to a smirk, graced his handsome face. If my mouth hadn’t already been wide open, catching flies, it would’ve been then; he was devilishly handsome.
    With his eyes still on me he continued to move within the woman who had her legs wrapped high around his waist. She moaned—a little louder this time, thoroughly enjoying what he was giving her—and finally I was released from the spell he’d put me under. I swallowed, my face burning with embarrassment and—dare I say it?—jealousy, lust and need. I couldn’t believe I was watching them still going at it, but I couldn’t get my feet to move. This was a public toilet, granted it was the staff’s and hardly used, but couldn’t the mystery man at least have locked the door?
    Harriet is going to die when I tell her this, I thought. And with a sly smile of my own, unable to resist, I pulled my camera up to my face and snapped a photo. I watched his face go from a satisfied smirk to fury as I did so. But just as quickly as I’d barged in, I backed out and fled down the hall back to safety, my face tingling with remnants of embarrassment that I hadn’t shut the door immediately upon finding them. But there was something else, too—a hysterical giddiness that was in direct proportion to my brazen actions. I thought about the photo I’d just taken, probably the best one of the night, and my dirtiest one ever.
    Well, it would be our little secret.
    Maybe he’ll think twice about leaving the door unlocked the next time; let him worry about the picture I had in my camera now. Though of course I had no intentions of sharing it with anyone… maybe just Harriet, but it had been worth it to wipe the look off his face.

    * * *
    “ B rent , please leave me alone!” I huffed as I walked towards the exit, trying to ignore the fact that Brent was behind me, his steps rapidly catching up to mine. The club was shutting down for the night, the last orders at the bar were called for half an hour before, disappointing those who’d heard the announcement, and with the music no longer playing, most now were starting to file out.
    My original plan was to wait on Harriet to come down from her perch high above the dance floor, when we would have an after-work drink and discuss the pictures for another hour before I would head back home. I’d figured it would be nearly four or five in the morning before I climbed into my bed, and after tonight, I was looking so forward to getting some uninterrupted sleep.
    But that was before Brent had popped up again and started harassing me. He hadn’t left as I’d asked and was now a little worse for wear, drunk off his ass and a lot more aggravating. Now he wasn’t taking no for an answer. I was just trying to stay one step ahead of him and had somehow, what with the flow of the crowd, found myself outside on the pavement in front of the club. I turned to go back in.
    “Come on, Rose!” he was saying as I reached the side door. “You have to give me another chance.”
    “Move along, club’s closed,” said a gruff voice, motioning for us to move away. But before I could explain that I was staff, there was the crackle of a walkie-talkie coming from the bouncer’s side and he pressed a hand to his ear and the earpiece he no doubt had, and then he was gone, summoned by something much more important than two squabbling ex-lovers.
    “I don’t have to do anything,” I reminded Brent, looking at his handsome profile. There was a time I would have given in, let him weasel his way back into my good books when he’d done something wrong, especially when he gave me the look he was giving me at that moment, but not now. He had crossed a line I couldn’t forgive, and I didn’t think I wanted to in the first place. Lonely