White Girl Problems (18 page)

I shrugged. “Whatever.”

He kissed the side of my head. “I think it’s a good idea, and since you’re obviously indifferent to whether you see me or not, I will make the decision for you.”

I scowled. “What?”

He laughed and grabbed his phone. He dialed and spoke animatedly into the phone. It was strange, almost like a show. “Hello, Mother. I have wonderful news. Finley has accepted our offer to spend the holidays with our family. She will be bringing her sister, Jessica.” A woman squealed into the phone and I gagged a little bit. I couldn’t catch my breath. Was that what he had been saying? Damn him and that Shakespeare talking. Shit. I was going to meet the king and queen? Oh my God. I backed away and tried really hard to not pass out or vomit.

Were we at meeting the family? He had met mine, not that it was anything to be excited about. My stomach started to hurt. I got up and went to the bathroom. I needed a shower anyway. The aftermath of losing my virginity was exactly as I feared it would be, and nowhere near what I wanted to share with another human being.

I turned on the water and climbed inside. I sat on the floor as I had done in the morning of that very day. I curled up and hugged my silky smooth legs and sighed.

“Shit.”

The water dumped on me and I fought the urge to barf everywhere.

The shower door opened and in stepped a completely naked Aiden. I jumped up, scraping my back on a jet and wincing. “Oh shit.”

He grabbed me. “What are you doing?”

I held my hand on my back ribs and waited for the initial sting to leave. “Why are you in my shower?”

He smiled. “I was just in your bed. I figured the shower wasn’t an issue, since I have seen every inch of you na—”

I slapped my free hand over his lips. “Oh my God. No. I don’t want to talk about it. Ever. Never. Oh my God. That really hurt.”

“I am so sorry. I tried to be gentle. I know you’d said it was your first time, but you are so confident and strong I assumed—”

“No, jackass. My back.”

“Jackass? She calls me jackass after making love to me?” He laughed and spun me around. “Oh, Finley. Darling, you’ve scraped your back open. It’s bleeding.”

I looked down at the slight hint of blood in the water pooling at my feet. “Awesome. Exactly as I imagined this day going.”

He hugged me to his chest and I tried really hard not to think about junk resting on my hip. “Did I hurt you or is it just the back?”

I moaned into his chest. “I don’t want to talk about it. Can it just be something we do and never talk about?”

He sighed. “Sometimes I forget you’re seventeen. Not that nineteen is so much older, but a lot happens in that two years. And I am twenty shortly.”

I shook my head. “Well, I turn eighteen in two weeks.”

He lifted my face. “Close to New Year’s?”

I nodded. “Yeah, on New Year’s Eve. I was born in ‘95, the last baby born in the State of Washington in ‘95, to be exact. I was born at 11:47 p.m. My parents held me back at school ‘cause my mom thought I would be really behind.”

“So I’m not even two years older. Maybe you’re just really immature.” He winked and I shoved him back. He laughed harder and hugged me tighter. “I lo-love you, Finley Roze.”

“Even though I’m immature?”

“Especially because of that. You make me feel like I am young too.”

“You are young.”

“A prince is never young. We have expectations just by being born a prince. In fact, as a fetus, it is expected we will be born a boy.”

I looked up at him. “I know you’re enjoying this little pity party, but I’m cold and you’re hogging the water.”

He looked up. “I’m which?”

“Taking the water. Being tall, it hits you before me and runs down you. I don’t get any. Hogging? How do you not know what hogging is?” I reached over and turned on the steam jets. He moaned as they hit his back. “This is my new favorite shower.”

I smiled up at him. “I can’t believe you’re in my shower. My dad would murder you.”

His face dropped. “He might get angry when he notices my men outside the bedroom door.”

My smile faded fast. “You are kidding me. You left them outside? Why would they come in?” Then it hit me. “You mean they were out there the entire time?”

His mouth hung open, but he closed it again. I wrinkled my nose. “Did they hear? Do they always do this for you?”

He didn’t say anything. I shoved him back and climbed out of the shower. “You’re a jerk. That is disgusting. If I wanted to lose it with people listening in, I would have taken one of the numerous opportunities I had before I met you. And after.”

He snapped. “It’s the way things are done. They see and hear, but not really. It’s just—”

“I don’t want hear some bullshit about how this is your world and people have sex while other people listen or watch. Jesus, do you want to save the bloody sheet for your mom? So you can prove you took my virginity?”

I stomped out to the bedroom with my back stinging and a bad taste in my mouth. He grabbed me, dripping and naked still, and spun me around. Lightly dabbing, he dried my back. “Do you have bandages?”

“Under the sink. I’ll get them—God knows I don’t want the servants fetching them for me.”

“This is exactly what I was referring to. You have to get used to the way things are done. I’m not afforded the same freedom as you and I never will be.” He stomped to the bathroom, still very naked, and came back with the box of Band-Aids. He pushed me around again and started to place them on my back, gently. “I love you. The guards know that. I don’t do this sort of thing regularly. They don’t listen. They pay attention to their job.” He kissed my back above the scrape. “There. All patched up.”

I walked away from him and snatched my robe, pulling it on roughly and going to the door. I ripped it open, not even caring about him being naked, and looked at the two men in the doorway. “Do you listen to people having sex?”

Both of their faces looked to the prince. I snapped my fingers. “Don’t look at him; look at me.”

They both looked down on me slowly. Their faces never changed from stone cold.

“Do you listen to people having sex or watch them?”

They both nodded once.

“Do you think it’s hot?”

“FINLEY! ENOUGH” He grabbed my hand and I regretted it instantly. He pulled me into the room and closed the door. I looked down to see he had his pants on. He let go of me and did them up. “You have to learn to look past it. I will let this one slide, and they won’t say a word of your indiscretion, but that can’t happen again. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I did. He was saying he couldn’t be with me if I couldn’t learn to shut the hell up. I nodded, swallowing all of the hateful things sitting on the tip of my tongue.

He pointed. “The look says it all. You don’t have to say everything you’re thinking all the time. I know you don’t approve or understand, but my hope is that you will. There are plenty of things I don’t understand about your world and you would never know it. I understand we are from two very different lives. That’s what you do when you love someone.”

I nodded and turned back to the door. I opened it and looked at the backs of the two men. “I’m sorry.” I closed the door and looked back at him. “A heads up might have been nice.”

I stalked to my closet to get dressed. When I closed the door, I wondered if it was karma for being so mean about Stain-A-Melena? I had been so cruel to her that she had left our school. Was the scrape and the guards and everything else actually penance for my bad behavior? My mom had believed in karma. I remembered that from her journal when she was a kid.

I pulled on a super-sexy, three-quarter-sleeve dress with a bunched square chest and an empire waist. I needed something to hide the fat on my midsection. It was odd how Aiden hadn’t even noticed it. I had tried to suck in, but there were times I hadn’t been able to. I pulled on my Spanx, certain no one would be seeing them anyway. I would be snorting cut-up Advil off the counter before I would have sex again for a while. I didn’t want to talk about it, but it did hurt. It made me think about the John Mellencamp song that Hattie made me listen to a thousand times, “Hurt So Good.” It was true. The song must have been about sex.

I left the closet to find my bed stripped and the door to my bedroom open. I walked out past the two guys, stopping and turning. “I’m Finley.”

They both looked at me, confused. One man bowed slightly. “Isaac Van Kempt.” The other man frowned at him and then gave me a look. “Tracy McConnell.”

I smiled wide, noticing they weren’t all that old or mean looking when you saw them beyond their hard faces. “Nice to meet you both.”

They looked lost but smiled. It looked like it hurt to do it. I turned and walked to the laundry room. Aiden was starting the wash. “What are you doing?”

He looked at me, and I could still see his annoyance. “Don’t try to be friends with them. It makes them feel uncomfortable. Don’t look at the help and don’t try to make them feel better about their job. They are paid for it, not doing it out of loyalty to me. They are loyal, but this is their work. You looking down on them makes it seem as though you are better than them and gracing them with your friendship out of guilt for everything they do for you. It is a business transaction. Kindness is expected but BFFs, as you always say, is not.”

I sighed. “Whatever! Why are you doing my laundry?”

He looked confused. “Do you know how to do laundry?”

I shook my head. He smiled. “I do. Regardless of a privileged life, I can do simple menial work—you should see my capabilities as a brick mason.”

It made me smile. He smiled back. “There it is. I knew you still had a smile.” He looked at my dress. “Why are you dressed like that?”

“Christmas party in an hour.”

He started the wash and led me back to my room. I tried not to look in their eyes when we passed the guards. I was never ever going to be good at the whole having guards thingy. We had always had a maid. She was always doing the cooking and baking. This was the first time I’d ever had guards though. I felt like a prisoner.

He finished putting all his clothes back on. It was nice to watch him dress, but I had the oddest desire to take his clothes off as soon as he got them on.

Isaac opened the door after a light rap. “There is a Miss Jessica Roze here to see you both.”

My gaze narrowed, making Aiden laugh. “Please, let her in.”

Jessica came into my room, freezing as soon as her eyes met his. “Okay, so the dudes outside the door are cool?”

I shook my head. “No, but they’re a permanent thing.”

She looked past me at Aiden and then at my stripped bed. Her face pinched a bit. I shook my head. “We aren’t ready. Can we meet you at the front door in like fifteen?”

She swallowed hard. “Okay, whatever.” She turned and walked back out. I didn’t feel much like going out.

Aiden wrapped himself around me. “When we get to the house in Andorra la Vella, you will see how normal my life really is. I go to school, I spend time with my family, I ski, I hike, and I eat and sleep like a regular person. The guards are for when I am out of Andorra.”

I didn’t believe him. The images of the cute guy in the jeans and tee shirts seemed like it was a friggin’ year ago. “Where were they before?”

“Around. They stayed hidden for me.”

“Can they do that again?”

He laughed, “No. They prefer to be close.”

I went to my bed and curled up in the huge comforter. “I don’t really want to go out.” I didn’t say the part that included him being a prince and me doing a ton of explaining.

He curled up around me. “We can go back to my hotel room and stay there for the weekend.”

I looked back at him. “No. We have to go to this party. I just wish you were Aiden the new guy still.”

He kissed my neck. “Me too.”

The party was actually fun. Everyone was dancing and drinking when we arrived… with the guards. Thankfully, him showing up at school made it so everyone knew. I didn’t have to explain. They all knew and thought he was the most badass person they’d ever met. The girls had more cleavage and makeup then I recalled them ever having, and the guys were all about their dad’s portfolios and drinking beer from a glass. It was funny to watch them try so hard. I understood why he thought my hatred of him being a prince was so refreshing.

I was literally alone in that.

Well, not entirely alone. Jess stood next to me and sighed. “This sucks. Now that they all know, he’s like a celeb.”

“But watch how he is. He’s just, like, normal and shit.”

She nudged me. “Did you give him something extra special today?”

I winced. “Afterward, he stripped my bed. I’m so embarrassed.”

She wrapped an arm around me and whispered in my ear. “I’m just going to say, Stain-A-Melena.”

I laughed. “I know. God is punishing me for that shit.”

She scoffed. “You don’t believe in God. Don't you think it’s weird no one made a nickname for Danny when him and Melena did it? The stain on the couch was his too. Why did the girl end up with the name?”

I shrugged. “I don't know.”

“Feminism is a joke. So did it hurt?”

“You guys haven’t done it yet?”

Jess shook her head, fighting the pained expression on her face.

I smiled. “Yeah. But it hurt in a good way. It was awesome actually. I’m pumped that I never just lost it ‘cause I had to. This is gonna sound so cheesy, but it was special.” I covered my face. “Oh my God, I can’t believe I said that.”

She hugged me tighter. “Me either, actually. But I’m glad you did. I don’t feel like such a nerd for saying I’m scared. He wants to so bad, but I’m scared.”

I lifted my completely flushed face. “Make him sweat a little longer. We’ve been off and on since last summer, and Aiden’s been sweating, let me tell you.”

“Yes, he did. You know he freaked out about the ring, right?”

“What?”

She nodded. “He left your room on Thanksgiving and Hattie told me she followed him. He LOST his mind on the phone in the yard. I guess his mom was the one who told Jack to give him that ring. Hattie listened. He threatened to leave the family and disown them all if you wouldn’t take him back after that fiasco. He was freaking mad. He smashed his phone and stomped off like a nutbar.”