Royal Chase

I gasped, and then ran over to try and separate them. Tangerine Girl was screaming, “You were trying to get me kicked off the show, weren’t you?”

At the same time, the other woman was yelling, “You’re crazy! What is wrong with you! Get off of me!”

None of the crew stepped in to help. They stood there and filmed, saying nothing. So I yanked the tangerine girl off of the other one and pushed her back. She fell onto her butt, still yelling and screaming.

I put my fingers into my mouth and whistled loudly. The screaming finally stopped. I channeled Grandma Lemon the best I could. “Y’all need to calm down. This is not how ladies behave.”

Some more choice words were exchanged, but the other girls managed to separate the fighters into opposite corners of the room. I worried that I might have to spend the rest of the night playing referee.

And that things would only get worse once Dante joined us.

Chapter 4

I never realized how much I like surprises until I met you.

I already had a pounding headache, and it didn’t seem like it was going away anytime soon. I had spent a long time talking with Genesis, the only other halfway normal person here, and we both enjoyed the show put on by the drunken women who had gone into a tizzy when Dante entered the room.

“He sure is handsome,” Genesis sighed.

And in other news, water was wet.

I encouraged her to try to meet him, although I didn’t like her odds given the man-eating savages currently monopolizing his attention. He looked over their heads at me and gave me a “sorry” expression and I just waved. That’s what we were here for. He wasn’t there to spend time with me.

“I’m relieved he only has a bit of an accent,” Abigail said to some women off to my right. Dante and Rafe had been allowed to attend Columbia and MIT, respectively, unlike their older brother, who had only been allowed to go to university in England since he was the crown prince and all. Even then they’d only let Nico go because England’s crown prince was attending the same school, which would double the amount of security. Dante had once joked that as “the spares,” no one cared if he and Rafe came to the United States. Which meant that they had only the barest trace of an Italian accent when they spoke English.

“Some of the girls here have such thick accents I can’t understand them.”

I would not get annoyed or let her provoke me. Hopefully, Dante would see right through Abigail and kick her off the show too.

She noticed me then and said, “Oh, no offense.”

“Bless your heart. Lots taken.”

She gave me a dirty look, which let me know that she did indeed understand me, but had singled me out as her first victim in what was sure to be a six-week smear campaign against all the competitors.

I sat down on a bar stool and asked the bartender for some Sprite. Dante made his way over to me, with a cloud of desperate women clinging to his heels. They stayed a few steps back as he sat next to me. His leg accidentally brushed mine, and I refused to acknowledge the way it made my stomach go fluttery.

“You’re not drinking?”

I probably should drink. It might help dull the boring. But on the other hand, it would definitely make me more susceptible to him. “Nope. Kat’s my spirit animal.”

He looked confused. “Your what?”

I noticed that there were no cameras nearby, which meant I could explain without getting embarrassed. “My spirit animal. My life choices guide. She has what I want—a degree; plans for her international children’s charity; and she landed the man of her dreams, who just happens to be an actual prince. So I’ve adopted her lifestyle and am giving up certain things. Like alcohol.” It was a weird flaw of mine, and was probably because I was both super competitive and mildly superstitious—if somebody went on a three-day cleanse and lost five pounds, I’d do it for a week and lose ten. Kat went without alcohol and sex and had all her dreams come true, and so would I, only better.

He gave me a knowing grin, while I took my soda from the bartender. Dante asked for a scotch.

“What? It totally worked for her.”

“You could have landed a prince too, without forgoing anything.”