Word Count: 643 <-- not me overshooting my self imposed 500 word limit. 🤷‍♂️
Rating: PG13 lol
Warnings for this chapter: none
My other stuff: Master List.
Max slumped against the wall at the back of the ballroom, watching as Liam twirled his wife around the floor…. again.
It was the fifth time in as many weeks that they had been invited, personally, to a palace event. He knew it wasn’t his company that Liam wanted. And that wasn’t counting the time Riley had been spending with Liam outside of these social gatherings.
Museum tours, dinners, and one overnight trip to Paris. Paris! Who takes another man’s wife to fucking Paris?
The goddamn king that’s who. He banged the back of his head against the wall with a sigh.
“Hey, Beaumont, what’re you doing back here?”
Max’s head jerked forward to find Drake Walker standing next to him, whiskey in hand, gaze piercing through him to his very soul. “Oh… I… ah…” he fumbled over his words. “I just needed a break… um… from all…. That.”
“Huh.” Drake lifted his glass to his lips as he turned his gaze out toward the dance floor. His eyes scanned the room until they fell on the source of Max’s discomfort. Understanding washed over him as he watched Riley glow under Liam’s attention.
His best friend did tend to have that affect on women.
Lowering his drink, he turned back toward Max. The younger Lord Beaumont was known for his gregariousness, extroversion and love of a good party. The fact that he was moping at the back of the room told Drake all he needed to know about the answer to the question he decided to ask anyway. “So, how’s the Cordonian Agreement going?”
Max shrugged. “Fine.”
“Fine?” Drake lifted an eyebrow in amusement. “Have there been a lot of takers?”
“She’s had a few.” None of the others had gotten under his skin the way Liam did though.
“I meant for you.”
His eyes widened in surprise. “Me?”
“Yeah, you.” Drake watched him intently over the rim of his tumbler as he lifted it for another drink.
“Oh…uh… I’ve…had a couple,” he confessed with a shrug.
“Just a couple?”
His gaze dropped down to focus on the toe of his well polished shoe. “I’m just really not interested in other women to be honest.”
“Other women?” Drake snorted. “What about men?”
“I…what?” Max’s head jerked up to find the other man standing closer than he had been a few moments ago. “I mean I haven’t….I’ve never….uh….what?”
Drake leaned closer, “I was under the impression that you liked both. Am I wrong?”
“N…no,” Max stammered as his heart thudded in his chest and his palms were suddenly inexplicably sweaty. “I mean… I just haven’t… er, I mean, I haven’t really pursued…. Where did you hear that?”
It was Drake’s turn to shrug. “Things get around.”
Max and Riley may have started dating at fifteen, but before Riley, there had been a boy. A boy that Drake had briefly dated a year later.
Max wanted to fall through the floor. Not because he was embarrassed to be bisexual, but because he was mortified at how flustered he was.
Drake Walker was a dream. Tall, athletic, handsome, and confident in a way that Max just wasn’t. There was no way a man like that was into him…. Was there?
“So…” Drake propped an arm on the wall and leaned in, putting his mouth close enough to Max’s ear for his breath to send goosebumps cascading down the other man’s back. “Do you wanna keep staring at them, or do you wanna get out of here and have some fun of your own?”
“I…” Max gulped as he slowly lifted his cobalt blue eyes to meet Drake’s gold flecked copper ones. He wasn’t sure he trusted his voice or his knees at that moment, but he managed to croak out, “I want to get out of here.”
Drake’s face broke out in a grin. “Follow me.”
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Liam was actually enjoying himself at one of his stepmother’s endless galas for once. He was mesmerized by the woman sitting across from him. The way she tilted her head when she laughed, the way her whole face lit up when he said something that amused or interested her, the way her eyes sparkled with intelligence and good humor. Everything about her did something for him. He’d always been fascinated by her, but there had been an invisible line he couldn’t cross.
She had been funny and kind and charming from day one. Warm and inviting but without the sucking up or the fearful deference he was used to from most of the court. She had treated him exactly the same way she treated everyone and that had been irresistible to him.
Unfortunately, she’d never looked at him that way. Not until tonight that is.
He’d heard about their arrangement from Leo, who had found out from Bertrand, who had learned about it directly from Maxwell himself. Riley and Max were experimenting with other people. Liam was other people.
He saw a chance, and he was taking it. The small matter of being married wasn’t going to stop him. He was in possession of his own Cordonian Agreement. It had been a non-negotiable for him during the marriage contract discussions.
He hadn’t married for love, he’d married for duty and he had done his duty admirably if you asked him.
His father wanted heirs? He’d given him plenty. His wife was carrying his fifth legitimate heir, and the official royal mistress had three.
But Madeleine was cold and calculated where Riley was warm and spontaneous. Penelope was beautiful but shallow and a little dim where Riley was deep and sharp as a tack. She was the total package and he was determined to unwrap that package, to peel back the layers and find out what made her tick.
She leaned in toward him, hand on his arm as she laughed. “Liam, you’re so funny!”
She was definitely flirting with him and there was no way in hell he was letting this opportunity go to waste despite the daggers Madeleine was shooting him from across the room.
He covered her hand with his own as he leaned in even closer. “Could I interest you in a dance?”
Her smile lit up the ballroom. “Why yes, I’d love that!”
He stood, took her hand and led her to the dancefloor. He swept her into his arms, pulled her close against his body, and spun her around the room completely oblivious to the displeasure of both his wife and her husband. Â The object of his affection was wrapped in his arms, his goal clearly within grasp and nothing was getting in his way.
Series: Hmmm.... I need to name this one, and I haven't yet
Fandom: The Royal Romance
Pairings: Riley x Drake, Riley x Liam
Word Count: 814
Rating: MA
Warnings for this chapter: none
A/N: This is the follow up to Lost and Found. I wasn't sure if I was going to do anything more with it, which is why the series isn't named. But I feel like things just took a turn in this chapter so I have to write more! LOL. I do love my romances toxic.
My other stuff: Master List.
“Why are we running?” Riley laughed as Drake pulled her through the back door of The Cordonian Cowboy. Â
“Just trust me!”
“I do,” she assured him as she dropped into the passenger seat of his car. “It’s Liam, isn't it? Who did he send this time? Bruno? Bastien? Mara? Alec? Marco?” Â
“It’s Liam alright,” he agreed as he reversed out of the parking spot, spraying gravel as the car rocked to a stop then shot forward toward the parking lot exit.
She twisted in her seat to see who would burst out the back door of the venue. Her heart dropped from her chest into her stomach when she saw Liam himself come barreling out that door, with Alec and two other guards hot on his heels.
Her stomach clenched as a wave of guilt, regret and anger swept over her, but as that subsided, she felt the sharp satisfying sting of vengeance. A bit of payback for how he'd thrown her over for that bitch Madeleine.
She wasn't over it.
The public humiliation was nothing compared to the utter, overwhelming shame that had engulfed her that night. She hated herself for her own stupidity, and she hated him for exploiting her vulnerability. For making her think he loved her, for making her love him, and then throwing her away like yesterday’s trash.
She had stood there in that ballroom with bits of grass still clinging to her hair, her dress still wet and muddy from their encounter in the hedge maze. His essence still sticky on her thighs. His declarations of love and promises of a future still ringing in her ears as he stood there on the stage without an ounce of remorse and called out another woman's name, held another woman’s hand while smiling triumphally for all the court to see.
And all of it had happened while she was being literally dragged out of the palace.
Like some thief. Like a trespasser. An outsider. A criminal.
His Royal Highness King Liam Nicolai Ulysses Augustus Rys was about to find out that Riley Nicole Brooks did not fucking play like that.
He may have blindsided her with that engagement announcement (that she had never agreed to), and he may have convinced her to go along with it (in the moment at least) in order to protect Drake and Max, the two men that had actually stood up for her, that had stood beside her, helped her clear her name and who had each, in turn, held her while she cried. Who had each, in their own way, picked up the shattered fragments of her heart and glued them back together again.
She was willing to sacrifice a lot to protect them both, but Liam was one hundred percent mistaken if he thought she had intentions of doing anything other than making his life a living hell. She wouldn’t be owned, she wouldn’t be controlled and she would never forgive him.
“Oh, he’s mad!” She sang out gleefully as she turned and slid back down in the seat.
Drake shot a glance at her as he shifted gears. She was far too happy about Liam’s ire.
He loved the girl. He wanted her. No, more than that. He burned with desire for her, he was stupidly in love, he was weak for her. Here he was betraying his best friend for her, and still, he had no idea if she really wanted him, or if he was just the most efficient knife to plunge in Liam’s heart and twist. He wondered on an almost hourly basis every single day if she was really into him, or if she was just using him.
He couldn’t tell, and that was the whole problem. He prided himself on knowing what people where thinking and feeling, despite what they said. It was a skill he’d developed early growing up at the palace. It had served him well both personally and professionally over the years. But he was just too close to this situation. He couldn’t read her precisely because he cared so fucking much about the answers. It made him second guess everything.
He put his foot in the gas as the car shot out of the parking lot and power slid around the corner. He wasn’t going to think about it right now. Not tonight.
Tonight, he was getting her out of Cordonia City completely. Away from the palace, away from Liam, from Max, from all the distractions. But first, they were going to need a car that couldn’t be tracked.
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A/N: I think I might make this a drabble series like Lavender and Crimson (each chapter under 500 words). We'll see how it goes.
My other stuff: Master List.
She stared out the window as she felt the heat from his back, pressed close against her own. Exactly the way they always slept, spine to spine, facing away from each other yet touching all night. She could feel the rise and fall of his back as his breathing deepened. Comforting. Familiar. Routine. Predictable. Boring?
“I think we should see other people.”
His body whipped around to face her. “Blossom?”
“I mean,” Riley sat up, drawing her knees to her chest as she continued, “I love you and I would never leave you, that’s not it. I just…. remember we talked about an open marriage before?”
Max was now sitting upright as well, his eyes glued to her face with a stark intensity. “Yes… but we were sixteen then and not even engaged.”
“Right. I know. But… don’t all the reasons still apply?”
He scrubbed a hand down his face in frustration. It had been his stupid idea to bring up an open relationship. Mostly because they had started dating when they were fifteen and everyone kept putting it into his head that neither of them had ever experienced anything, or anyone, else.
They had agreed that if they were still together after university, and still in love, they would get married, but in order to stave off the possibility of one or both of them ever feeling cheated out of the sowing their wild oats phase, they would have an open marriage.
It had made perfect sense at the time.
“We have a Cordonian Agreement,” she reminded him.
His jaw clenched. “We do.”  Bertrand had insisted on it, convinced that his brother would eventually tire of his high school sweetheart.
He hadn’t. He wouldn’t.
“So, let’s try it. We can always go back to the way things are now if it doesn’t work out.”
He studied her face. “Are you unhappy with the way things are now?”
“What?” Surprise flashed across her face. “Of course not. I love you and I love our life together. I just… don’t you ever wonder what else is out there?”
“Not really.”
“Oh! So…. You don’t want to—”
“I’m not saying that.”
He wasn’t saying it, but he was sure feeling it. His mind spun through the possible scenarios and what it landed on was the one that he could not live with.
He could not, he would not, risk losing her by stifling her. It was better to let her explore within their marriage than to risk losing her because she felt constrained or trapped in it.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying,” he drew in a fortifying breath, “let’s do it.”
“Really?” The delight in her voice was evident.
Series: This is not a series yet. Could it be? Maybe. Will it be? I honestly can't say.
Fandom: The Royal Romance
Pairings: Liam x Riley, Drake x Riley
Word Count: 939
Rating: MA for mature themes
Warnings for this chapter: Drama. Mess. Toxic relationships.
A/N: Ok, listen. A long time ago, someone asked me what it would look like in Bad Romance if Riley had actually turned Liam down and married Drake. I have been meaning to write an alternative timeline BR ever since. So that ask, combined with this song -> Lost and Found by Brooks and Dunn, tumbled around in my head to create this. And now I've finally finished it. (yes, it's been sitting, half written, in my WIP folder for at least a year if not longer.)
My other stuff: Master List.
Liam knew the moment he entered the suite that it was empty. He couldn’t have said how he knew. An empty building, house, or room just had a different feel to it than one that was occupied. He was sure there were some subtle details that his subconscious was picking up on but he didn’t know what they were; he just knew that he could always tell when a space was vacant before he entered it.
He was certain it was pointless, but he called out anyway, “Riley? Love…are you here?”
He pulled roughly at his cufflinks as he crossed the room to the drink cart. The first one gave but he fumbled with the second, his irritation growing by the second.
There was no answer. She was gone.
Again.
He yanked the offending piece of jewelry from his cuff and flung it across the room before pouring himself a generous helping of thirty-year-old scotch. He untucked his shirt with one hand and lifted the tumbler to his mouth with the other as he backtracked to the door. Flinging it open, he barked at his head guard, “Alec!”
“Yes, sir?” Alexandros Eliades stepped into the room, confusion playing across his features. Liam had been perfectly calm, happy, and downright chatty on the walk from his office up to the royal suite of Winden Palace.
“Ah,” the confusion cleared as Alec bit back his annoyance. Of course, that was the problem. “With all due respect, Your Majesty, I’ve been with you all day. How would I know-“
“You are the head of my King’s Guard, are you not?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then get on your com and find out where she went. And if she’s not somewhere in this palace, then whoever was on her detail at the time she disappeared is fired!”
“Really?” Alec grumbled as pulled his walkie off his hip. “Because at this rate, we’re going to have to replace an entire bloody platoon…”
“What was that?”
“Nothing,” Alec backed through the door, “I’ll let you know as soon as I find out something.”
“You do that.” The moment the door shut, Liam hurled the leaded crystal Waterford tumbler emblazoned with the Rys family crest at it. “Fuck! I’m surrounded by incompetence!”
He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed her number.
No answer.
He hadn’t expected one. He should have seen this coming. She got bored when he worked long hours. They’d been fighting more lately.
Ever since he’d blindsided her with that press conference and more or less forced her into the engagement, she’d been bitchier than usual.
While he normally liked it when she was mean, he hated, no, he loathed it when she ran from him.
He liked a challenge, but he hated losing complete control.
“Sir?” There was a rap on the door, then Alec stuck his head in. “We know where she is.”
“Excellent. Let’s go!” Liam rolled his sleeves up as he tread across the room to the door.
Forty-five minutes later they pulled up to what Liam imagined a honky tonk looked like.
There were haybales strewn across the front of the building as if they were decorations. A neon guitar flickered on the roof.
Liam crinkled his nose as he stepped out of the back of the SUV. The parking lot smelled like bad liquor and piss.
“Sir,” Alec tried to wave him away, “You should really stay in the vehicle and let us handle this.”
“Let you handle it?” Liam snorted.
“Yes, sir. You’re too recognizable and—”
“People see what they expect to see,” Liam snapped his fingers at one of the guards that had just exited the second SUV. “Give me your sunglasses and hat.”
The guard handed the items over and Liam donned them. “There. This will do.”
“But, sir,” Alec tried again, “There’s really no need. We can just pop in there and—"
“No,” the king snapped as he strode toward the establishment, pulling the cap down further on his head. “If she sees a guard, she’ll just bolt. And clearly, you can’t stop her.”
Alec ground his teeth as he bit out, “Do you want us to detain her by any means necessary? Physically drag her out even if she’s screaming and fighting?”
“No, of course not!”
“Then how in the name of all that’s holy are we supposed to-“
“Exactly my point! That’s why I have to go in.”
Alec shook his head, but he stopped arguing. It’s not like Liam ever listened to him anyway. Especially when it came to that girl.
It took a moment for Liam’s eyes to adjust to the darkened interior. He pulled the sunglasses off as his eyes scanned the bar and the tables situated along the perimeter of the dance floor.
Nothing.
He moved onto the dance floor, turning this way and that, searching through the throng of bodies moving and gyrating to the music.
The crowd parted for a moment, and he caught a glimpse of glossy curls and a heart stopping smile.
She was wrapped up in a pair of arms that weren’t his as she twirled around the room. Liam’s gaze tracked up to find the face that was attached to those arms. He froze as his onyx eyes met a pair of oh-so-familiar copper ones.
The smile on Drake’s face disappeared as he spun Riley in the other direction, and they disappeared into the crowd.
“Mother fucker!” Liam pushed his way through the throng, but he was too late. By the time he reached the other side, they were gone.
Pairings: Riley x Max, Riley x Liam, Riley x Rashad
Word Count: 513
Rating: MA
Warnings for this chapter: none
My other stuff: Master List.
Max watched gleefully from the back of the ballroom as his wife flirted with another man. He felt like dancing for joy. Not because his wife was flirting with another man, but because the other man wasn’t Liam.
For a while there, he had been worried that he was losing her to Liam, but Riley seemed to have lost interest in the king.
Max wasn’t the only one who had noticed Riley’s flirtation with the crown’s top lawyer. Liam’s eyes fell on the object of his affection standing a little too close to his friend and solicitor, the future duke of Domvallier. He made a beeline for the couple, sidestepping his wife as he went.
“Liam, we really should—”
“Not now!”
Madeleine’s eyes narrowed as she watched him swoop in on Lady Beaumont. She could, and would, make Riley’s life a living hell. It was bad enough that she tolerated Penelope under her roof.
Liam had certainly made the most of his social season, wooing and bedding most of the suitors. Penelope had been the only one dumb enough, or smart enough if you asked the queen, to get herself pregnant. Not a week after the engagement announcement, Penelope had announced her pregnancy. Being neither able, nor particularly willing to break a council approved and legally contracted marriage agreement, he had done the only sensible thing and made her the official royal mistress.
Penelope was one thing. But damned if she was going to tolerate a second mistress. She turned with a huff and made her way through the crowd. She needed a plan.
Liam was oblivious to his wife’s machinations as he swooped in to stake his claim. His hand landed on her shoulder then slid down her back possessively. “Riley, what are you doing, love?”
Riley stiffened in annoyance and frustration. She liked Liam, and they had a lot of fun together. Parties, dinners, dances, trips to Paris. He was funny, smart and amazing in bed. But he was a little too intense, a little too possessive. She and Max had opened their marriage to experience new things and different people. Not to immediately hop into a second committed relationship, which is what her situationship with the king was starting to feel like.
She had already experienced Liam. Now she wanted to experience the adorably shy adonis standing in front of her, but Liam was making that difficult. He had both a wife and mistress, so she had not anticipated his jealousy.
She forced a smile to her lips and replied, “I was just making a new friend.”
“Hm.” Liam’s eyes flicked over to Rashad and back again. “Well, if you’re done with that, I was hoping that we could—”
“Sorry,” she demurred as she pretended to read a message on her phone, “My husband just texted me that it’s time to go. We have a family thing that we need to attend to. But you can text me later.”
“Oh, well, I…”
She gave Rashad a brilliant smile over her shoulder as she hurried away, “Call me, okay?”
