CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX – HATTIE
That storm arrives with a bang of the door against the wall.
Actually, ‘storm’ is an understatement.
Finn is more of a cyclone at this very moment.
He stalks across the room and stops in front of the TV, staring down at me, his eyes blazing with anger.
I blink at him, shoving my hand into my bag of fizzy sweets. “You’re a fantastic door. Terrible window, though.”
He steps around the coffee table and grabs my chin, tilting my face this way and that. He examines every inch of my cheek and jaw by stroking and prodding his thumbs across it, and I frown.
“What are you doing?” I ask. “You’re interrupting my show.”
“She hit you.” He releases my face and pulls back, still staring at me with that rage bubbling beneath the surface. “She fucking hit you.”
“Oh, that.” I lean to the side so I can see the TV.
“‘Oh, that?’ That’s all you have to say?” He grabs the remote control from the table and points it towards the TV. The screen folds in on itself, going blank, and my jaw drops.
“Hey! I was watching that!”
“And now you’re talking to me.” His voice is low and dark with an edge that warns me not to dismiss him any further. “She. Hit. You.”
I put the sweets on the table, lick my fingers clean, and show him my cheek. “And I’m fine, see? There isn’t a mark on me. The manager at Lammens was very helpful.”
“Hattie, for fuck’s sake!” He runs his hand through his hair. “Is that all you have to say? She hit you!”
“Yes, I know. You’ve said so four times. Also, I’m the one who got hit.” I pause. “And it was helpfully caught on camera.”
“Yes. It’s very convenient that a journalist who is very close friends with Valentina just happened to be passing by at that exact moment.”
I clear my throat as I sit up again. “Coincidences are wonderful, aren’t they?”
“Harriet. Did you plan this?”
“That depends.”
“On what, exactly?”
“On how much trouble I’ll be in if I say yes.”
Finn stills, his hand fisting his hair, and stares down at me. The anger that was clinging to him just moments ago softens slightly as our eyes meet, and the downturn of his lips becomes slightly less prevalent.
“You…” He sighs, letting his hand fall to his side. “What did you do?”
I tuck my legs beneath me and grab a cushion. I hug it to my chest as I gaze up at him. “Are you going to shout at me?”
“No. I’m not angry at you. I’m angry in general. I’m fucking raging that she dared put her scheming hands on you. I could drive over there now and break her fucking neck for that. The only reason I haven’t gone by that house and raised hell is because I know you had something to do with it.”
Oh.
Nobody has ever been this angry on my behalf before.
I reach out and take his hand, rubbing my thumb over his hot skin. “Yes. I planned this. I can’t do anything to her, not openly. All I can do is orchestrate her downfall and hope she dances to my tune.”
Another sigh escapes his lips, and he reaches up, loosening his tie. He pulls it over his head and tosses it to the table, then sits down and undoes the top three buttons of his shirt, all without releasing my hand.
“Talk. Now. And tell me everything, or I will take back what I said about not being angry at you.”
I swallow. “The shopping trip was genuine. Valentina heard that Jasmine was asking around, saying that I was ignoring her calls, and she was trying to get hold of me. We decided to leak our plans knowing it would get back to her and she’d show up.”
“Which she did.”
“Yes. I told you this morning that Jasmine’s plan would be to discredit me in the media. We had Victoria follow us to cover that—if anything did happen that I didn’t account for, then we had her account as a trusted journalist to save my back.”
“So, you knew this was a bad idea?” He meets my gaze, annoyance flickering in his blue eyes.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I reply. “Jasmine is a snake. She’s a stupid one, granted, but still a snake. She’s a master of twisting things to benefit her, and that’s what I needed to cover. Ultimately, I knew that if I beat her to the emotional punch, she wouldn’t be able to accuse me of anything.”
“Clearly, your plan worked.”
“Well, yes. I was hoping she’d hit me, to be honest. You better believe I hammed up the concerned big sister act both before and after.
I even begged the security team to just escort her out quietly and not make a fuss.
” I pat the cheek she hit earlier and sniff.
“I was the picture of grace and kindness.”
“You. You’re going to fucking kill me.” He releases my hand, cups my chin, and examines my face once again. “If she’d left a single mark on you, I’d be in a jail cell right now, prince or no prince.”
“I’m a bit disappointed she didn’t,” I murmur through his hold. “I could really play on it if she had.”
“You put yourself in danger. I’m familiar with her temper, and she could have really hurt you. Even with the security team present.”
I pout. “But she didn’t.”
“That isn’t the point. You achieved your goal—she’s getting raked over hot coals online, and you look like the saintly big sister who was wronged.
It seems to have split the internet. There are people who believe you did a horrible thing to your sister and deserved it, and the others are fully Team Harriet, saying the arrangement was always yours and we’re clearly in love, and nobody deserves to be hit regardless of their actions. ”
I grab my sweets again as he releases my face. “Oh, really? Excellent.”
“What’s excellent about that?”
“It makes my life easier.” I shove a sweet in my mouth and chew. “Have you seen how crazy some of these online sleuths are? I need them on my side. I thought I’d have to work a bit harder for it.”
Finn blinks at me. “Then consider me pleased that you can adjust your plans?”
“You sound uncertain about that.”
“Oh, I am. I’m wondering what the fuck I’ve gotten myself into.” He shoves his hand into my packet and steals a handful of my sweets. “And I lied. I am angry. You promised me you’d tell me what you were planning, and you kept this to yourself.”
I open my mouth, ready to argue with him, then stop.
He’s right.
I did.
When we were at Alec’s manor after the whole incident with the guys that Jasmine had paid to attack me, I’d promised I’d tell him about all my plans.
“I’m sorry,” I say softly. “I just… I thought you might tell me no.”
He chews slowly, his eyes never leaving me. He swallows, then says, “I wouldn’t tell you no.”
“Huh? You wouldn’t?”
“I would tell you that, if you must do what is objectively a very bad idea, take more than one journalist. Take at least three regardless of their favourability to the Royal Family. Tell Sophia, at the very least, so she knows what’s going to happen.
” He rips one of the sweets in half with his teeth.
“And for fuck’s sake, tell me, so I don’t have a journalist’s phone shoved in my face mid-engagement asking for my opinion on my fiancée getting slapped by her sister in public. ”
Ah.
Yes.
A little preparation could go a long way.
“I’m sorry. I promise I’ll tell you next time.”
He stares. “I was hoping you’d say there wouldn’t be a next time, but of course, there will be.”
“Well, not exactly like this.” I shrug a shoulder. “She isn’t stupid enough to fall for it again. But if I do get another zany idea like this, I promise you’ll know about it. Especially if you have something happening that day.”
“You’ll tell me even if I don’t,” he says flatly.
“Because I can come with you and ensure she doesn’t go too far.
You have no idea how worried I was when I saw that clip.
I was lucky it’s a journalist I’ve worked with several times, and he took me off to the side to quietly show me.
Then I couldn’t get in contact with you. ”
“Oh. Yeah. My father started blowing up my phone, so I turned it off.”
Irritation flits across Finn’s face. “We’re getting you another phone. With a new number. That you never turn off. Do you understand?”
“That’s a bit overkill.”
“I didn’t ask you what you think. I asked you if you understand.”
The deep, dark authority in his tone sends a shiver dancing across my skin. “Yes, I understand.”
“Good. I don’t trust your family, and I’ll feel better if I can always contact you. You have a great security team in place, but that doesn’t mean you’re always safe. Things happen quickly. Too quickly, sometimes.”
His words make me pause.
With everything I’ve been through, it’s easy for me to forget how we met. Twenty years is nothing in the grand scheme of things, not for a country like Askurg that has a history spanning hundreds of years.
Just because I have fuzzy memories of the revolution that almost killed his father and resulted in Finn escaping his own set of kidnappers doesn’t mean he’s forgotten it at all.
Of course, he knows how quickly things happen.
I put the sweet packet to the side and slide along the sofa towards him. I climb on top of him, sitting on his lap, nestling my knees by his hips. He stares at me, unmoving, and I reach up to his handsome face and brush some of his messy hair from his forehead.
I kiss the spot my fingertips have just brushed.
He still doesn’t move, so I keep going, dotting a little path of kisses down over his cheekbones towards his lips.
I touch my lips to the corner of his mouth, letting it linger, and he finally responds.
He slips his hands up my bare thighs, skirting his thumbs beneath the hem of my dress.
“What are you doing?” he asks, his voice low and tinged with amusement.
“Apologising,” I murmur, cupping his face with my hands. I pepper kisses across his other cheek until my lips arrive back at his, and he kneads his fingertips into my thighs, gradually moving his hands higher until he’s all but cradling my ass. “What are you doing?”
“Wondering how far you’ll go for that apology.” There’s a teasing edge to his tone as he palms my cheeks. “I haven’t decided if I’m accepting it yet.”
He wants to play this game?
Fine.
I’ll bite.