“It’s not your father’s job to erase my mistakes.” I walked over with another stack and placed them on the floor. “It’s my job to stay out of the tabloids. I should have known better.” I sighed. “God, it’s so embarrassing that your father even knows about them.”
“He’s a celebrity lawyer, Addie. He knows about everything,” Etienne said. “In all fairness, you were dating a banking heir. Staying out of the tabloids would have been impossible.”
“Yeah, but filming a sex tape was plain dumb.” I sighed heavily. “I’m an idiot. End of story.”
“Thomas is an idiot. He should have never let it leak and I’m sorry but I don’t believe he had no part in it.”
“Why would you think he had anything to do with that? Because he looked like a fucking god in the tape and I looked like absolute shit?”
“You didn’t look like shit.”
“You watched it?” I aimed a book at him, ready to throw it.
“No,” he said quickly. “I saw the stills on the tabloids though. Everyone did.”
“I hate myself.” I lowered the book and closed my eyes.
“You shouldn’t.”
“I should’ve worn a wig or something.”
“You shouldn’t have recorded it at all.”
“I was having fun with my boyfriend! I didn’t realize the entire world would have access to it.”
“Well, look at the bright side, some families have become billionaires because of sex-tape fame.”
“That is not how they became billionaires, but I see where you’re going with this and trust me, I don’t want my company to get any fame over my nudity.” I covered my face with the book in my hand and thumped it against my forehead. “I just want to fast-forward the next couple of months until a new scandal arises and I’m forgotten.”
“I’m sure it’ll happen soon,” he said. “The prince is in town, after all.”
My heart raced. I lowered the book. “Which one?”
“Didn’t your uncle ask you to take baskets to the villa every night? He didn’t say?”
“No.”
“It’s the summertime, Addie. It’s always the princes’ time here.”
“I really thought they’d be bored with this by now.”
“You thought wrong. It’s the only place they can escape to without the tabloids getting to them.” He chuckled. “I spoke to Aramis the other day and he said he wasn’t coming this time. It’s only Elias.”
“Which one is that one?” I asked, even though his face was seared in my brain. His face and other parts of him, which I wouldn’t discuss with my best friend, no matter how close we were.
“The one you may or may not have had sex with.”
I threw the book at him. He laughed and swatted it away as it reached him. I turned around and busied myself with things behind the register as Etienne kept talking. I completely tuned him out. My mind was too busy racing. Would Prince Elias recognize me? No. He wouldn’t. Right? I was supposed to deliver a basket to his door every night at seven thirty sharp. Those were my uncle’s orders. It was a simple task, one my uncle had left perfect instructions for. Five large wicker baskets were already stacked up in the guest room in my villa, along with the contents of what went in each of them. I hadn’t really paid much attention to any of it, but I would tonight. My stomach coiled. I’d see him tonight. Maybe not. I’d seen security outside of the villa I assumed was his, the same one we’d . . . my face flamed. Oh my God. I couldn’t do this.
“Adeline?” Etienne walked over to me and stood on the other side of the counter. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” I blinked up at him. He looked concerned. I sighed. “I don’t want to deliver the baskets.”
“If you want, I’ll take it tonight,” he said. “But I’ll be gone tomorrow.”
“Why do you have to leave?” I groaned.
“Because my girlfriend is waiting for me in London.”
“Can’t you tell Mira to come here?” I rested my elbows on the counter with an exhale.
“No.” He laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Elias won’t bite you, and even if he is the guy who took your virginity, he . . . I don’t know how to say it in a way that doesn’t sound awful, Addie, but he’s slept with a lot of women.”
“He didn’t take my virginity. I gave it to him. There’s a difference.” I met his gaze. “He didn’t even know I was a virgin.”
“I don’t think I would know either, to be honest.” He pursed his lips to think. “Unless a woman starts bleeding.” He shrugged. “And even then I may just assume she’s on her menstrual.”
That made me laugh out loud. Men were so clueless about women’s bodies. Maybe Etienne was right. Prince Elias had absolutely no reason to remember me. Even though I remembered the night I had with him, I was just a notch on his bedpost.
“Why don’t you prepare the basket and go with me to deliver it? That way he’ll know that you have a mutual friend.”
“Okay.”
“Good. Let’s finish up here, please. I’m starving and feel like I’m going to die under a pile of romance novels.”
“Hey, there are worse ways to go.” I raised an eyebrow. “You could die under a pile of autobiographies.”
The look he gave me told me he wasn’t impressed by my joke, so I went back to work, trying to ignore the fact that I may or may not be seeing the prince tonight.
Chapter 2
“Stop fidgeting,” Etienne whisper-shouted.
I stopped. We were standing outside the door, waiting for someone to answer. When it opened, I held my breath, then let it out when I saw one of the security detail standing on the other side.
“Monsieur Bouchard told us he’d be sending his niece to bring the baskets,” the man said, eyeing Etienne with curiosity.
“I’m a friend of his niece and the princes’. You must be new,” Etienne responded.
“What is your name?”
“Etienne Bellerose IV.”
“Oh. Monsieur Bellerose,” the man said, bowing ever so slightly. “My apologies.”
Etienne wasn’t a prince, but as the great-grandson of a duke, he had his own pull on society’s strings. The Bellerose name carried prestige and honor and unlike my own name, which had been on the decline in some circles for reasons that had nothing to do with me or my leaked sex tape, Etienne’s was respected on all grounds. The man before us opened the door wider and stepped aside, allowing us to walk inside the villa. Etienne offered me his arm, which I gladly took, and I stepped inside with him. He was holding the basket in his other hand and I was unsure of what to do with my free hand, so I brought it up to hold his arm with both of mine. It was either that or I’d start fidgeting again and I didn’t want to seem like a silly young girl with heart eyes for a prince I hadn’t even seen in five years.
“I’ll tell His Royal Highness that you’re here.” The man shut the door behind us and disappeared into one of the halls. I let out a breath.