Emrys smiled and checked his phone. Messages from Caitlyn. She’d been trying to get in contact with him this week, but the filming schedule had been grueling. They didn’t have a lot of time here, if they wanted to keep the film under budget, and that meant that he and Nina needed to be on their game at every moment. It also meant that he was sometimes too wiped out. Between his schedule, Caitlyn’s training, and the time difference, they’d fallen asleep on one another in the middle of a call twice now.
He trusted that his mother and sisters would keep Caitlyn occupied until he could get back, but it was vital to keep connected. This wouldn’t be the only time he was on location filming. Maybe he could convince his mother to release Caitlyn from manners school early, since he’d willingly given Caitlyn over to her. Caitlyn liked visiting new places so much that she would probably forgive his poor attentions over the last few weeks just for the chance to hit another place on her bucket list.
“Hello, darling,” Emrys greeted her. “Are you feeling well enough to come up to see the set?”
***
When caught between the prospect of fessing up to Emrys and spending another day in “Sébire Finishing School,” Caitlyn decided the former was marginally preferable.
The flight was incredibly long, but the private bedroom in the jet was comfortable. The jet took off midday so that Caitlyn could sleep through the tail end of the trip and arrive refreshed. From the jet, a private car took her to the hotel room where Emrys was staying, and all the way her heart thudded in her ears as she tried to think of what to tell him.
When she arrived at the hotel, however, the concierge informed her that Emrys had already gone to the set and left word that Caitlyn was welcome to join him. Although the driver would have taken her, she didn’t want to have this conversation with his coworkers watching. So instead, she settled her things into the room and decided that she could kill some time around the city. She’d never been to Seattle before.
After slipping on a pair of checkered leggings and a loose scarlet and violet striped sweater, Caitlyn returned to the car and had the driver take her downtown. There she got a large cup of tea and walked the streets for a while, taking in the ambiance of the city. Despite the cold, she liked the energy of the people bustling and biking by. She bought a bag of strawberry-glazed sweet rolls and munched on them as she wandered through a park and people watched.
It wasn’t a bad way to pass the morning, but eventually it began to drizzle. Caitlyn ducked into a shop for an umbrella. She pushed her damp hair out of her eyes as she looked. It was late enough now that she might be able to get Emrys to come out with her for lunch off-set, if they were on schedule. She shot off a quick text and then spotted the umbrellas. Unsurprisingly, the store stocked quite a lot of them, and the other customers who had walked in slightly wet seemed used to the rain. It was coming down harder now, and Caitlyn was glad she hadn’t tried to push through it. She could have her driver come pick her up, if the weather got too bad.
When she stepped into the line, she alternated between looking at the candy—tempting, if she hadn’t just eaten three strawberry rolls—and her phone. There were two people in front of her when her eyes lit on the magazines above the gum.
Blazoned across the cover was Emrys and a gorgeous woman with curly black hair and plump, pouty lips, which were nearly touching his as she leaned over him. “Things Heat Up for the Playboy Prince!” the headline declared.
Caitlyn covered her mouth, feeling as though she might throw up strawberry pastries all over the floor. Had she seen this woman before? She looked familiar, but Caitlyn wasn’t sure. She moved through the line mutely, picking up the magazine to buy with her umbrella. Once outside, she unfolded the umbrella and tucked the offending publication into her bag before storming down the sidewalk.
Not knowing the area, navigating in the rain with tears clouding her vision, Caitlyn was soon lost. She stopped at a proper café to get a cup of coffee and order some lunch. She had to think about this. The papers exaggerated, sure, and they got details wrong. But there was usually something connecting them to reality. Something there to spin. And that picture…it showed Emrys about to kiss that woman. And he was looking at her like she was a prime steak.
On her phone, Caitlyn searched the woman’s name—Nina Jones—only to find that the tabloids had caught them together once before. Having sex in the alley behind a popular European club. That was where she’d seen Nina’s picture before. She’d been mentioned in one of the articles a month ago that had rehashed Emrys’s “misspent youth.” And she was only more beautiful now.