A/N: I've attached a picture of Alex's villa, it's too perfect for him! Thanks for reading! S
“Oh my God, it’s like a little castle, how appropriate!” I squealed when we got within eyesight of Alex’s villa.
“I know, apparently the staff person that handles booking all our vacation has a much better sense of humor than I gave her credit for, this place is ridiculous. The majority of the places I’ve seen have been more like yours -- classic beach villas, but she had to book me the one place that look it would be right at home in England. We’d discussed booking my great aunt’s former home here -- it’s called Les Jolies Eaux, and it a bit farther south, but it seemed too large for just me. Although maybe I should have pushed for her place instead, after seeing this. Its name is Oceanus, how’s that for regal?” He laughed, “I’m sure it was chosen because of its size and location primarily but I’m having a hard time believing that its appearance didn’t play into why I’m staying here. My protection officers got a good laugh out of this place when we arrived.”
“About that, how many guards do you have with you? And...exactly how close are they to you at all times?” I asked, certain I was blushing. Alex paused before going into his house, rightly guessing that I wouldn’t want to have this conversation when the guards were right there.
“I have four with me here on the island. And there are typically two or three around me at any given time; they were within eyesight when I was on the beach or in other public areas. But they’re there for my safety and the safety of those I’m with, not to eavesdrop or interfere with anything in my private life. They always keep a respectful difference when I’m with others so when I stayed that night at your villa, I would hazard a guess that they were spread out throughout the property to make sure no one else entered but stayed far enough away not to hear anything.”
“Did they do a background check on me?”
“I think they probably did a cursory look at everyone that was staying on the island before we arrived, but yes, I imagine that when we started talking the other day, the likely looked into your background a little more closely. I apologize for the invasion of your privacy but it would strictly be information that is public record, I don’t think they got your grades or credit card score or anything.”
“Hm. Well, even if they had, both are exemplary so I have nothing to hide.”
“I would have expected nothing less from you. Anything else you’d like to confess, though?”
“Nothing that would show up on a background check -- I’m a rule follower, as a rule,” I joked. “I did once get caught drinking in the dorms in undergrad, but I gave a fake name, so I’m pretty safe unless they’re searching under my pseudonym.”
“Which is?”
“Mimi McFarland -- I’m kidding, I have no idea what I used, that was ages ago. Actually, I think I used my best friend from high school’s name, I wanted to be sure it was a name I could say with confidence. I’m not a particularly good liar.”
“That’s a good thing in my book,” he said. “You ready to go in now?”
“Almost,” I said, then brought his face down to mine so I could give him a soft kiss. “There, now I’m good.”
He took my hand in his and squeezed it, opening the door to his villa and letting me walk in before him.
Inside, two tall but not particularly large men were waiting for us in the living room, one of which was the man that had caught me before I collapsed earlier that day. Alex introduced them to me as Robert and Josh. I thanked Robert for his quick save and he laughed, saying he was happy to help. Shortly after that, the other two guards came in -- I hadn’t even thought about it, but they must have been following us on our walk over to Alex’s villa. It was very strange to think that there were always people around, even when I couldn’t see them.
The other two men were Sam and Collin, and they were all incredibly nice and sweet. They referred to Alex by his first name, which made me wonder why Robert had called him “Your Highness” earlier. I’d have to remember to ask Alex about that, not that it was a big deal one way or the other. We chatted for a while, then Robert and Josh went outside and Sam and Colin went somewhere else in the villa, I guessed to their bedrooms to relax now that they were off duty.
They were totally nice, cool guys, not what I would have imagined people in their line of work to be like, not that I’d thought that much about it before. But the reality of being with someone that required bodyguards was intimidating, on a lot of different levels. That he was famous was obviously something I was coming to grips with, but I hadn’t really thought about what went with that -- that there could be people out there that could hurt him, either accidentally or intentionally.
“I can tell they really liked you, don’t worry,” he said, reading the concern on my face incorrectly. Alex tugged me over to sit by him on the couch.
“‘Worry? Why should I care?’ Sorry, that’s Mayer again. Thanks for the reassurance, they’re really nice guys. By far the nicest body guards I’ve ever met,” I joked.
“That’s the second time you’ve quoted John Mayer to me, do I have something to be concerned about?” he teased.
“Oh definitely, I’m full on obsessed. I love his music and think he’s pretty much brilliant and...”
“Ok, ok, ok, I’m sorry I asked. Now that I know that, absolutely no more Mayer playing when we’re in bed together, do you hear me?” He pulled me close and tickled me.
“Ok, stop, stop!! No more Mayer, I promise!” I yelled and he stopped his torture, but still kept his arms around me. “Strange question, but why did Robert call you by your title earlier today but then now, they all just called you Alex?”
“I imagine he said that earlier as a reflex. They’re very committed to only addressing me formally when we’re in public and I suppose, technically, with you and Maggie there, they felt that was a public enough setting, although I doubt he really thought much about it, thus me calling it a reflex. I’d be fine with them always calling me by my first name but they’re very serious about respecting me and my title. And honestly, that sort of thing is important to my grandmother, in particular. Now, when no one is around, they’re much more like mates than guards, but they take their jobs seriously, which I, of course, appreciate. I imagine that they’re a little cross at me right now for not keeping them informed about what I’ve been doing lately. I spoke to them before we went to dinner that first day and again the next day when I came home and showered, but they’re used to knowing exactly where I’m going, when I’m going, and who I’m going to be with. I didn’t even say a thing to them before I went up and introduced myself, which then led to me disappearing from contact with them for the rest of the day. The could see me, of course, but I’m sure they knew that I’d be furious at them if they came up and interrupted us.”
“Yeah, that would have been hard for you to explain -- you couldn’t have just pretended they were friends of yours after you went into such detail about being there by yourself.”
“I considered telling you I was here with friends that first day, but thought it would look suspicious if I never wanted to be around them. Sort of like with you and Maggie -- I was half convinced you’d made her up until she came by this morning!” I laughed as I could easily see how it might have looked like that.
“Not to completely change the subject, but talking about Maggie and thinking about earlier today just brought something to my mind,” I said.
“What’s that?” Alex pushed a piece of hair behind my ear. I loved that he was always touching me, like he couldn’t not touch me.
“The pictures that Maggie showed me online, some of them were taken when we were swimming at my pool yesterday afternoon. Alex, if Maggie hadn’t been online first thing this morning and found them and came immediately to tell me...Alex, we were moments away from having sex in that very same pool. THINK of the splash those pictures would have made! The press would have made damn well sure they found my name then and I’d be all kinds of famous for the worst possible reasons.” I was honestly shaking at the thought of pictures of me having sex being out there, for my parents, MY GRANDPARENTS for God’s sake, never mind the rest of the entire world to see.
“Having sex? You presume too much, my lady, I was merely suggesting a nice swim in the nude. Sex never crossed my mind.” I swatted him. “Seriously though, I hadn’t thought about that at all -- I would have been disowned by my family, I can’t imagine the scandal that would have resulted from that happening. It would be unlike anything our family has ever endured. And that’s saying something.”
I shook myself slightly. “Well, no sense in dwelling on it, but we certainly need to be more careful about such things in the future, that’s for sure. I’m going to give Maggie a call to give them time to get ready for dinner.” I got up and went to the phone, glad that Maggie had given me the name to Jack’s villa, as otherwise I’d have no way to find her. No one answered when I called, so I asked one of the people staffing Alex’s villa to take over a message to them. I was worried as I didn’t have an address to go with the name, but she just laughed and said none of the villas had addresses, only names, as it was such a small island.
A short while later, Maggie called back to let me know that they were in for dinner and she was excited to get to know Alex a bit more, although she said was somewhat nervous about it, given who he was. I reassured her that he was perfectly nice and normal and that if she could, she should really try to forget about his title and just treat him like any other guy I was hanging out with.
“So you’re saying I should be a total bitch and grill him about his intentions?” she laughed.
“Oh my God, no!! That’s not what I meant at all! I just meant, I think it means a lot to him to just be treated like a normal person, since he probably hasn’t gotten much of that in his life. So, instead of treating him like a guy I’m dating, just treat him like a new classmate or something? Whatever works for you to be on your best behavior, ok?”
“Oh, so you really must like this guy, huh? Don’t worry, I’ll be good. And Jack will be amazing, he could talk to a wall, he’s so easy going and charming, so it should be a great night.”
Maggie’s prediction for how the night would go proved true. Jack and Alex hit it off immediately and Maggie, despite her concerns, was her normal, charming self. It was great to get to see Alex around other people, to see what a sweet and charismatic person he was, without any airs at all. I also loved getting to spend more time with Jack. Maggie was right, he really was the life of the party and he seemed to genuinely enjoy getting to know both Alex and me, and didn’t seem to be just on his best behavior to impress us, me because of who I was to Maggie and Alex simply because of who he was. The food was fantastic as well and once we were finished, we moved out to the deck to continue our evening with some drinks.
When the guys left to go get us more beers, Maggie and I stayed behind in the living room. We both were watching our respective men as they walked out, admiring the view, then caught each other’s eyes and burst into laughter.
When we finally calmed down, I said, “Maggie, can I ask a tremendous favor of you?”
“Of course, anything.”
“Could you keep watch on the internet for me, to see if they figure out who I am? Maybe setup a Google alert for both my name and Alex’s or something? I really don’t think they will, for all they know it was just a couple of days thing, but just in case. I’m going to drive myself crazy if I do it, so it would really mean a lot to me if you’d just keep an eye on things for me. ‘Cause if they do get my name somehow...well, I’d really like to be able to give my parents a heads-up about this whole thing. But I’m not going to freak them out if I just remain the ‘mystery blonde, you know?”
“Sure, that makes sense. And I’m happy to be your eyes and ears on this one, Charlie. I know you’d do it for me in a second. But you just need to let it go for now and enjoy your time left with him -- I’ve never seen you so happy as you are with him. I don’t suppose there’s any chance of…?”
“Continuing this in the real world? Yeah, no way. Set aside the fact that I’m going to be doing nothing but living and breathing bar prep the next few months PLUS we live in different countries PLUS I’ve never been in a real relationship PLUS long distance relationships never work PLUS we’ve only dated in this utopia and have never experienced anything close to a normal day-to-day life. Oh, and he’s a frickin’ prince, so there’s that too. We live in different worlds, Maggie--he lives in a fairytale and I live in the real world.”
“Has Alex said anything about it?”
“No, but I’m not surprised. He dates British nobility, Mags, not student loan-debt ridden girls from middle America.”
“And you’re alright with all this?”
“I’m just not thinking about it right now. I’m sure it’ll hurt but I always knew it was temporary. It’s not like I’m in love with him or anything.”
Maggie shot me a skeptical look.
“I’m not!”
“Charlotte, I’m half in love with him and I barely know him. As you said, he’s a frickin prince PLUS he’s handsome as hell PLUS he’s about the nicest person ever PLUS he’s got that accent PLUS that body.”
“Hey, no checking him out, tramp!” I teased. “Seriously, Maggie, I’m good. I might as well enjoy it why it lasts, right? No sense in ruining the rest of our time here.”
After Jack and Maggie had left for the night and Alex and I were curled up on the couch on his deck, I screwed up my courage to have a conversation I was dreading.
“I feel slightly awkward talking about this, which is ridiculous as we’ve already had sex, but, um, have you been tested somewhat recently? Uh, I mean, do you have any sexually transmitted diseases I should know about?” I was avoiding his eyes as I asked, which was ridiculously juvenile, but I couldn’t help it as it was my first such conversation on the topic.
“You mean besides the herpes-like disease of being royal?” he teased. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t joke about this as obviously it’s a very serious subject and it was hard for you to bring up. Yes, I’ve had a physical earlier this year and haven’t slept with anyone since then. I’m completely disease free. As are you, I’m assuming, unless there is some sort of airborne STI I was unaware of?”
“No, I’m good, thanks,” I said sarcastically. “The reason I brought it up is that I’m on birth control -- I have been since I was a teen to help regulate my periods. So we don’t have to use condoms if you’d prefer not to. That first time I hadn’t asked you yet -- I thought about it but didn’t want to be presumptuous -- and didn’t want to risk it. But obviously it would be easier if we didn’t have to deal with them.”
Alex grabbed me and gave me a huge, smacking kiss. “This is amazing news, as I’ve been considering which of my protection officers it would be least embarrassing to ask to go to the local grocer’s to get me some more -- I’m lucky I happened to have any in at all in my Dopp kit.”
“Well, I’m glad that conversation is now able to be avoided, for all of our sakes.”
“I think we should celebrate,” he said, raising his eyebrows at me suggestively. So we did, in the most expected way possible.