Carla’s Prince

“Please, you know why, Cristoff.” She walked around to the other side and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I didn’t like how we left things last time and we always work things out. So, I have been all over looking for you in all your spots but you have been keeping a really low profile.”

“Well, I had no interest in being found.”

“So, you are not going to tell me where you were hiding?” she asked as she looked up at him.

He shook his head.

“That is my little corner of heaven. Why on earth would I want to share it with anyone?”

“Cristoff, I am not just anyone. I am Stephie. Your Stephie.”

He shook his head.

“You are not mine,” he said and she raised an eyebrow over the other. “You never were.”

“Please, Cristoff. You have always been mine and I have always been yours. You know that, I know that.” She shrugged. “Hell, the world knows that.”

“Maybe we should put out a statement and tell the world otherwise,” he said, looking into her eyes.

Stephanie shook her head as she looked back at him.

“Something’s different about you,” she said as he put his hands in his pockets. “You have this look in your eyes. It is like you are not really here.”

She was right. He was not really there. His mind was back in the U.S. where he was aching to get back. Back to his little corner of privacy and normalcy. Back to Carla.

“Let’s leave and go somewhere. Talk about things,” she said as she got closer to him. He took a step back and shook his head.

“You and I have nothing to talk about.”

He turned around, ready to walk away from her, but she would not let him leave. She reached for his hand and he stopped.

“Look at me,” she said coldly.

Cristoff closed his eyes and silently cursed the moment he decided to come to London in the first place.

“Look at me, Cristoff,” she said again and he turned around slowly. He pulled his hand away from her and stood there wishing he would just run off. “We need to talk,” she said again.

“And I told you, we have nothing to talk about.”

“Oh yes, we do. You owe me that much and you owe the people too.”

He forced out a laugh and rubbed his temple.

“I don’t owe you anything, Stephie. And what the hell do you mean I owe the people?” he asked. “What people are you talking about?”

“Your countrymen, that’s who!”

He looked around briefly to see if anyone had heard her before he turned his attention back to her.

“What the hell is your problem?” he asked angrily.

“I just want us to be on talking terms before I have to permanently move to Denmark,” she said matter of factly.

He looked at her, confused.

“What the hell are you going on about? Why the hell would you be moving to Denmark permanently?” he asked and she shrugged.

“After the wedding, duh,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Whose wedding?” Cristoff was still confused.

“Ours!”

He smiled as he looked at her before he burst out laughing. Clearly, Stephanie was deranged. It was the only explanation he could think of.

“Why the hell would we be getting married?” he asked. “We have not had a relationship in forever. Hell, I don’t even think we ever had a relationship.”

“Cristoff, we were together for one and a half years,” Stephanie said matter of factly.

“We were fu*king for one and a half years. We were never in a relationship.”

She slowly walked towards him and looked into his eyes.

“We always knew that the Benedict and Tempest houses would be bound for life and the only way to do that is by marriage,” she said.

He shook his head.

“What the hell…this is not the Victorian era, Stephie. Arranged marriages are not such a big deal anymore.”

“That does not mean that they do not still happen…I mean, are you saying that you don’t know why you are here instead of your father?”

Cristoff took off his crown and ran his fingers through his hair.

“Whatever sick plan you Tempests have with my uncle or my father, I want no part of it. I am not a child and I damn well won’t be treated like one.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw a small group of people from the party walking the garden and he quickly put his crown back on.

“Cristoff,” she said in a soft voice as she slowly got closer to where he was. “We have something special. I know it.”

“If we had something special, we would have known. Both of us.”

“Cristoff, Cristoff…” She put her arms around his neck and looked into his eyes. “I love you. You know that, right?”

He did not answer her. He was just looking into his eyes wondering what had compelled him to sleep with her for that long.

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.”

“No, Stephie. You don’t,” he said in a soft voice. “You love the life I can give you. You love the access that would come with being queen consort to Denmark.” He shook his head. “You don’t love me. You don’t love anyone apart from yourself.”

“How can you say that, Cristoff?”

“Because I know you more than you know yourself, Stephie. So, whatever this is, let it go because it is not going to happen,” he said just as they heard the noisy buzz of a drone flying overhead. “Damn paparazzi,” he said as he pulled away from her. “It’s a fu*king funeral. You would think they would respect that.”

He looked around briefly and then turned his attention back to Stephanie.

“Look, I have to go. I want to spend some time with Isabella before I go back to…” His voice trailed off when he realized that he was almost giving away his secret. “I just need to talk to her a little more.”

“You are wrong about me,” she said and he shook his head.

“What are you talking about?”

“You are wrong about me wanting you just because of your title,” she said and once again, he forced out a laugh.

“Remember when I made a joke about abdicating and you wouldn’t hear about it?” he asked.

“When?”

“When we first got together.”

She shrugged.

“I don’t know…”

“Well, I remember, Stephie. I remember it all. I also remember when you exploited me in France so you could get that fashion magazine cover deal,” he said in a soft voice.

“Wait…Cristoff…”

“You think I did not put two and two together? How you were supposed to be on the cover of the magazine before you were suddenly dropped after your drunk speech went viral?” He shook his head.

“Cristoff, I didn’t exploit you,” Stephanie said.