Living Royal

Chapter Thirty Five

Living Royal

Chapter Thirty Five

"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, please welcome His Royal Highness, Prince Edward of England and Her Royal Highness, Princess Isabella." Alec, the man who had met Edward and Bella at the door, introduced them as they prepared to enter a large conference room.

It took Bella a few seconds to grasp the way he had introduced them, specifically the way he had introduced her. Firstly, because rarely did anyone call her Isabella anymore. Secondly, because it was the first time that she'd been officially introduced as Princess Isabella.

She was going to have to get used to that quickly before she made a fool of herself when someone tried to get her attention and she ended up not answering, thinking they were talking to someone else.

She wished she could ask everyone to just call her Bella, but somehow she doubted that was possible.

Edward snapped her attention back to their current situation when he nudged her softly.

"Are you ready?" He asked.

She simply nodded, too nervous to speak.

Edward, of course, noticed her nervousness. He squeezed her hand where it lay against his sleeve as they walked into the conference room.

The room was quite spacious with large glass windows that overlooked the streets and a huge conference table right in the middle of it. The Italian delegates stood to one side, waiting to welcome them, while the Press clicked away at their cameras as they stood against the wall opposite the windows.

The delegates led by Mr Volturi welcomed Edward and Bella. They were supposed to spend a few minutes with the press before they left and it became a closed meeting between the royals and the Italians.

The press continued to ask several questions; mainly about how the royal couple were enjoying their honeymoon and what did they thought of Italy…etc.

"Italy is a very beautiful country." Bella answered truthfully. "I've always wanted to visit and am more than happy that I finally have the chance."

The reporters nodded in approval of Bella's words. Edward squeezed her waist as well, indicating that he loved her answer.

Bella was filled with pride that she was able to handle this well.

It seemed that being a princess was going to be easier than she thought.

She should've known better.

"Your Highness," A reporter addressed Edward. "What's your comment on the recently leaked photos from your stay in Paris?"

Bella's heart dropped.

What photos?

Edward frowned in confusion, "Excuse me?"

Alec cleared his throat loudly getting everyone's attention, "I'm afraid that is all for today gentlemen. We have to begin the conference right now, so if you'll please vacate the room, we'd be much obliged."

'What a polite way to ask someone to get the hell out,' Bella mused.

As soon as the reporters were gone, Mr Volturi spoke up, "We're very sorry about that. The photos only surfaced this morning and have been creating quite a buzz worldwide."

"What photos?" Edward asked impatiently.

"Oh, we assumed you knew…" Mr Volturi stuttered. Despite the fact that Mr Voturi looked to be about fifty years old, which made him more than twice Edward's age, he seemed almost afraid of him. Well, maybe not afraid, but apprehensive about Edward's reaction.

Maybe a wrong question by an Italian reporter could cause diplomatic tension between England and Italy? Is that how they saw it?

"A few photos have surfaced this morning." Volturi went on. "They were taken of you both at your villa in France while…uh…you were swimming?" He said uncertainly, while a faint blush covered his cheeks.

Edward and Bella froze.

While they were swimming? While they were in their bathing suits? While Bella was in her bikini? While they kissed and made out?

Oh God, the list went on.

"Uhm," Edward cleared his throat awkwardly, trying to regain his composure. "Do you happen to have one of the newspapers where the photos were posted?"

"Yes, of course." Mr Volturi gestured to Alec, who disappeared outside the conference room for a minute and came back holding a newspaper. He handed it to Edward.

Edward lifted it so he and Bella could look at the front page.

Bella gasped as she saw a photo of them kissing while in the pool, another smaller photo next to it with them splashing each other like little kids.

Who the hell took those pictures?

The answer came to Bella right away. The cleaning crew. They were the only ones who were in the house at the time and there were no neighbors around the villa to take any pictures like that of them.

She glanced at the photos again.

This was not good.

Royals aren't supposed to act like human beings! They're not supposed to have fun! At least not where anybody else can see.

If the situation were different Bella would laugh at her errant thoughts but this wasn't funny. Not one bit. She was already in trouble with Carlisle; this would only serve to drive him over the edge. He'd probably make Edward divorce her.

Bella's heart dropped to the pit of her stomach.

"Well, when you're in the spotlight, things like these tend to happen quite often. Now, shall we carry on with our meeting?" Bella's head snapped in Edward's direction. He sounded so nonchalant which was the complete opposite of what she expected.

The four delegates present nodded quickly, indicating how willing they were to put the whole incident behind them and get down to business.

Bella walked slowly to the conference table where Edward held a chair for her and then took a seat beside her.

The meeting took approximately two hours, and during those two hours Bella spoke approximately two words. She was bored out of her mind and wondered why Carlisle insisted that she attend in the first place? She knew nothing about world politics and until she learned, she'd be completely useless in meetings like these.

Is that what he was trying to tell her? That the time came for her to get into the 'family business'?

If that was the case then Bella saw it as a sign of approval from Carlisle, a way to welcome her into the family.

By the time the meeting was over, Bella could not wait to get out of there.

As soon as they left and got into their car, Bella sighed in relief and leaned against Edward's shoulder.

She knew she shouldn't be complaining, considering it was Edward who was doing all the work, but it was still hard for her to just sit there and act like nothing was out of the ordinary, like her presence wasn't, in fact, unwanted.

"I'm so sorry about that, baby." Edward wrapped an arm around her pulling her further into his side. "I would've warned you, but I didn't want you to be any more nervous than you were."

"A little warning would've been nice though." She groused, feeling guilty about making him feel worse about this.

He kissed her forehead, "I'm sorry. I promise not to subject you to anything like this again unless it's absolutely necessary."

"No, don't apologize." She sighed. "I knew that this is what I'm supposed to do from now on, but I just felt like a complete idiot in there, like I was useless."

"You're not useless."

"Maybe not to you, but I bet the Italians are already wondering why you married such an airhead."

"Actually Mr Volturi told me how much he admired that my wife was not only beautiful but intelligent as well." Edward grinned with pride.

"What? When did he say that?" Bella lifted her head to look at him in surprise.

"Remember when we were speaking in Italian?"

"Oh, then." Belle remembered. "Well, that was nice of him, but how does he know whether I'm intelligent or not? I barely spoke two words to him."

"From your answers to the reporters. He said you sounded sincere and truthful which is more than what he could say about a lot of other Princesses he's met. You handled yourself perfectly Bella, even though you're still not used to being diplomatic with reporters. You were amazing."

The awe in Edward's voice as he praised her immediately elevated any trace of worry she had.

"You were great too, you know." Bella admitted. "It was so different seeing you on the job, sexy even."

"Sexy?" He smirked "How is that?"

"Well, I'm used to goofy-fun-Edward and I love him, but serious-no-nonsense-Edward is smoking hot." She giggled.

"Oh yeah?" Edward bent his head so that he was inches away from her.

"Yeah." Bella whispered before Edward's lips touched her own.

They continued to kiss heatedly until they reached their hotel. It was a struggle for them to keep their hands off of each other long enough to get through the lobby and up to their room, but they managed, barely.

The moment they entered the room, Edward pushed Bella against the door and kissed her with everything he had. They moved slowly towards the bed, because they wouldn't let go of each other long enough to watch where they were going.

However, the moment they reached it, Edward's mobile phone buzzed annoyingly.

"Edward, your phone." Bella panted between kisses.

"Let it ring." He whispered. "It's probably my father asking for an update, I'll call him later." And he dipped his head and continued to kiss her, this time moving to her jaw and down to her neck, trailing kisses along her collar bone.

"But, what if it's important?"

Bella couldn't believe she was convincing him to interrupt their make-out session before it progressed, but she had a feeling that the call might actually be important.

Edward groaned, "Okay, just stay exactly the way you are until I'm done. Don't move an inch."

Bella was lying on her back on the bed by that point so she nodded all too happily.

Edward got up and picked his phone up from the floor next to his jacket that was also thrown on the floor next to the bed. He glanced quickly at the screen before picking up.

"Hello, father." Edward answered quietly.

"Son, is Bella with you right now?" Carlisle asked him right away. Edward frowned in confusion. His father sounded different. Something was definitely wrong.

"Um, yes, she's right here. Why? What's wrong?"

"Put me on speaker phone, Edward."

That was weird, Edward thought. He father had never requested to be put in speaker phone before. What could be so important that he wanted both of them to hear at the same time?

Edward froze. It couldn't be.

"Dad, is it Emmett? Is he alright? Please, just tell me." Edward asked frantically.

At hearing this, Bella got up and immediately went to Edward's side.

"No, no. Emmett's fine. There's nothing wrong with your brother Edward, except for an exceptionally hard head." Carlisle chuckled. Edward and Bella sighed in relief. "This is about something else."

"Is it the photos, then? Because we just saw them. You have to admit something like this was bound to happen sooner or later, anyway. We can't be careful every moment of every day."

"I know, Edward. This isn't about the photos either, although we're going to have a talk about that later. There's something else more important that you both should know."

Edward and Bella glanced at each other frowning in confusion.

"What is it, Carlisle?" Bella asked softly. "We're getting worried."

"I just need you both to be more careful in the next few days until you get back to London. We've received a few standard threats and I've decided to boost up the security detail, but it wouldn't hurt if you both were careful as well."

"Wait, what standard threats?" Bella asked.

Edward chose to answer her this time.

"Every once in a while we receive threats against a member of the royal family, so we increase the security detail assigned to them and that's usually the end of it. I can't remember when a threat has actually been followed through before." Edward explained.

"Wow, wish I knew that before." Bella said, shocked at what she'd just heard.

"Why, would it have changed your mind about marrying me?" Edward grinned crookedly.

"No, but I would have bought a bullet proof vest." She joked.

Edward chuckled, but then a thought entered his mind that made him sober up.

"Wait, who was the threat made against?" He asked Carlisle.

Carlisle remained quiet for a moment before answering quietly.

"It was against Bella."

"What?" Edward yelled. "What the hell do you mean it was against Bella? Why would anyone threaten her?"

"I don't know Edward; there are a lot of lunatics out there who don't really need a reason to hold a grudge against someone."

"What did they threaten to do exactly?" Edward asked, needing to know as many details as possible.

"Kidnap her and…murder her if we didn't obey their demands. Listen, there's no need to worry about this. You just said it a minute ago; these threats were never really carried out. Besides, the Secret Service is working as we speak to figure out who sent the letter."

Edward was still fuming that someone would dare threaten his wife. She was the kindest person anyone could ever meet, why would anyone think about threatening her?

He realized Bella had been very quiet throughout the exchange. He glanced beside him only to find her sitting there unmoving, staring into space.

Oh Crap.

His wife just went into shock!

(A/N): So, whadya think? Thank you so much for all of your wonderful comments! They made my day/s :D Love you guys!

I've got some NEWS. I think there'll probably be two more chapters and then that's it. I just feel like I'm strecthcing the stpry too thin and I really don't want you guys to get tired of it...and me :D