Royally Screwed Part 12

"Hey, I can hold my own. Black belt in karate b.i.t.c.h."

"I'm f.u.c.king speechless I tip my hat to you sir." And she grabbed Miranda's hat from Mitch's head and made a show of tipping it.

"You okay?" Sebastian asked Kat, sidling up to put an arm around her.

She nodded her head. "Good. Because I'm the only one that should be hara.s.sing you. s.e.xually, or otherwise." That got a laugh. He knew she was fine when she punched him in the shoulder and walked away, perching herself on the arm of the couch near her brother.

Marco and his unwelcome appearance were quickly forgotten as they drank, laughed, and talked the night away. It wasn't until past two in the morning, when Miranda insisted that Mitch needed his beauty sleep, that the party started to break up.

"I'm staying in your room Kitty Kat I'm so f.u.c.king hammered I'd probably wind up at the wrong apartment and I d.a.m.n well can't go through that again," Lane said. "And we know you're not going anywhere Gio."

"You know I'm a rock sister I heel well."

Lane laughed. "Gio, Geo, Geode - rock humor. Whatever, I'm so smashed even that s.h.i.+t's funny."

"You're not going to win that bet Lane with all that foul language," Kat yelled after her.

"Bite me," she singsonged back, her and Giovanni already heading down the hallway with locked arms .

"Kitty Kat?" Sebastian asked with an arched eyebrow and a wicked grin. She shook her head and followed after her best friend.

Sebastian turned to find himself, for the first time that evening, alone with Kat's brother. "What are your intentions towards my sister?" Blaze asked.

"Been holding on to that one for a while, haven't we? Decided whether you're going to punch me yet?"

"You can never be too careful. You saw the 'boyfriend' didn't you?"

"I saw him. I wanted to sic one of my bodyguards on him but I saw him."

"Well," Blaze said, moving wine gla.s.ses into the kitchen, "you see my problem. There's no point in being ripped if you can't use it to instill fear into the hearts of men, is there?"

"You do that just fine Blaze, just fine. When I saw you tonight none of the things going through my mind were very royal or courageous. First thought this is why I have bodyguards."

Blaze turned to look at him, handful of wine bottles for the recycling, and couldn't help himself. "Are you really this playboy you pretend to be, Prince Sebastian?"

"Sometimes. Sometimes it's just easier than being something more." Blaze knew all too well what that felt like, letting an action or a station or a diagnosis define you. All too well.

They were silent for a minute before Sebastian added, "I don't have any. Intentions I mean."

"How can you not have any?"

"Everything else in my life is full of intentions and purpose and commitment. Your sister is my last bastion of recklessness. Kat has resisted my charms and refused my marriage proposals. She likes to tell me she's too hot for me to handle. She has all the intentions and control and I'm content with that. If everything works out, too soon I will have to make all decisions for my country. I will hold on to my last vestige of abandon as long as I may."

Blaze nodded his head in understanding he couldn't help but see parallels between them. Though the burdens he put on Kat were much more serious and real. "No punching," he said.

A charmingly relieved grin spread across Sebastian's face, a twinge of the attractiveness Giovanni kept espousing s.h.i.+ning through. "Promise?"

"Promise. Just stop giving my sister inappropriate gifts."

Sebastian finished off the last of his wine. "You should have mentioned that before the promise."

"Why the face?" Kat asked Sebastian when she strolled into his apartment.

"Just thinking about last night."

"I thought last night was great. What's troubling you about it?" She dropped down next to him on the couch, her lazy posture reminiscent of the night before.

"It was great. Your brother and your friends are very welcoming. I'm thinking about what prompted it all my dear Dya, Prince Vlad."

"Dya?"

"Uncle."

"Oh, Anton's father, right?"

"Right Kitty Kat." He grinned devilishly at her, turning so the both of them suddenly become much more intimate.

"What are you going to do about him?"

"I haven't decided yet. Not sure what I can do. Sergei says he will take care of it."

"Sergei called?"

"I called him on my way home last night. He said I have other things to be focusing on and should not trouble myself with the actions of another."

"I don't really like that answer," Kat said with a shake of her head.

Sebastian laughed. "Nor do I Kisa."

"Well maybe you should do something about it then."

"And what, streetwise New Yorker that you are, do you have in mind?"

"Maybe he just needs a reminder that you and Anton have a history of strippers, no?"

He grinned. "That can be arranged."

"Now that that's taken care of, tell me about how the other night with Tasha the opera lady went? Come on, give me all the gory details."

He raised an eyebrow to that. "Gory details? What am I, a train wreck?"

"That's a whole different can of worms," Kat said, patting him on the shoulder as she got up from the couch, made her way into the kitchen and started unpacking the bag she'd brought.

"What are those?"

"I know groceries are a foreign concept to you but still, what does it look like? I can't have you wasting away while Sergei's gone he'd never let me live it down."

"Groceries are not a 'foreign concept,'" he mocked, trying to imitate her droll tone of voice. His eyes followed the ap.r.o.n she tied around her slender hips and he couldn't look away.

"Really? When was the last time you were in a grocery store? Do you even know where the closest store is?" Sebastian settled himself on the barstool across from her and watched her work.

"I used to go in them to buy beer all the time in college." At her skeptical look he admitted, "Okay, Sergei used to go inside to buy us beer when I blackmailed him to but a few times I walked in with him just so when they carded us I could flash my diplomatic credentials."

"Us?

"Yeah, me and Anton."

"Hmm, beer and strippers did you two actually do any learning in college?"

"Oh Kisa, I learned a good many things in University." How did he do that? Imply the wink and keep looking at her with a straight face.

"I meant in cla.s.s. Anything academic."

"As little as possible." She shook her head and he added, "I take it you don't approve."

"You don't know how lucky you are, do you? I would have loved to go to college." There was a slightly wistful expression on her face as she thought of all those movies she'd watch just to see the red brick buildings and ivy; and students walking around carrying books and wearing sweaters with the school colors. Somewhere where she could see the leaves change in the fall and go to bonfires and have long philosophical discussions about the meaning of life over cappuccinos and scones. Maybe Maine or Virginia, she'd always thought.

"Well then why didn't you go?"

Kat couldn't stop herself from giving him a patronizing look. "Oh, well why didn't I think of that? I should have gone then." She turned to grab an apple and shook her head at him.

"Really, why didn't you?"

"Because college takes money and time. Neither of which I had just lying around."

"You have to make time for things you really want. No school you applied to made it worth your while?"

"I didn't apply anywhere."

Sebastian's eyebrows knit together. "You didn't apply at all? Well why "

Kat had reached her threshold for this conversation. "Look there was no way I could go, okay, so why be heartbroken over something there was no way I could have? My biology teacher said everyone has an urge to apply to Harvard and Yale to see if they can get in but if you don't plan on going you're just taking a spot from someone who would. So I didn't apply. I couldn't have paid for it and I couldn't have left home because someone had to take care of . . . everything so I just let that dream go, okay. I don't want to talk about this anymore, you're done deflecting. Now how did your date with Opera Lady go?"

Sebastian had the urge to wrap his arms around her but she would not have appreciated it. It would have made him feel better, at least attempting to blot out the pain of a decision she still regretted even if she wouldn't admit it out loud. He'd seen everything he needed to in her eyes. Including how much of his privileged life he so casually took for granted.

"Eh," he answered.

"Eh? What's 'eh' supposed to mean?"

"All the good women in America, they find me charming and irresistible "

"Naturally," Kat interjected with irony.

" but when I mention that I'm looking for a wife to marry in two months, they laugh or look at me like I'm crazy or just get up and walk out. The number of women who ask me if I'm a Nigerian Prince is staggering. Somehow I have become the embodiment of an internet scam. You should really just marry me and we can be done with it."

"Hmm," Kat thought, ignoring that last comment as her eyes laughed, "I never thought of it that way. What do you think we should do?"

"I've been thinking on that. I may have an idea."

Kat waited but he didn't continue. "Well are you going to tell me?" she finally asked, leaning across the counter conspiratorially.

Sebastian just winked at her. "Yes. Once I have it all figured out."

"Are you going to get that done soon? Time is ticking away."

A devilish grin spread across his face. "Kisa, you know I have impeccable timing. I know when to go fast, when to go slow, and always get the job done. You remember, don't you?"

"Pig," she murmured turning, hoping he missed the smile on her face.

"That man called for you," Blaze murmured darkly the minute they walked into the room.

"That man? Big brother?" Sebastian asked with a furtive look over his shoulder.

"That's the man," Blaze corrected with a quick grin. "That man is Kat's on again, off again leech of a boyfriend I refuse to acknowledge. They think they're Ross and Rachel. I think they're Kat and Dude Who's Nowhere Near Good Enough For My Sister."

"Did you take a message?" she asked idly.

"No but it was probably something along the lines of 'Yo, Babe, Grunt Grunt, Ayhhh.' You sleep with him, why, again? Oh, I forgot. His eloquence."

"Be nice," Kat chided.

"Don't hold your breath."

"Why can't you just leave Marco alone?"

"Because he's a snake," Blaze said.

"He's not a snake," she protested mildly.

Blaze turned to Sebastian with a disbelieving look. "How can she not see it?"

"d.i.c.khead blindness."

"Seriously guys, knock it off. I don't need to hear anything else about this. I get it, you don't like Marco. Moving on," Kat grunted with a roll of her eyes as she sorted the mail.

Blaze rolled his eyes in annoyance to match and Sebastian had an idea. "I have a story."

"Great, a new subject. Let's hear it and just let Kat drop the whole thing, shall we?" Blaze's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"So," Sebastian said, "my friend's boss's cousin "

"You have friends with bosses?"

" is twenty eight and "

"Is she blond? Is she stacked? I see where this story is going."

"Let me tell the story?" Sebastian said. "I promise, you're going to hate it."