The Royal Contract

He did not want to sound rude, but seeing her was not such a great idea. At the moment, he was not in the mood since his stunt failed to do its job.

He thought after he had finished several laps. He would finally find something to calm him down. Unfortunately, it did not help. He was still on edge. Then, he rested for a while and repeated the process, but it was still the same result.

“What is wrong with you?” Eida asked, her voice climbing up a decibel higher, feeling her pent-up frustration was about to burst.

She could not believe how he was acting around her. It was like he was a completely different person from the one she had met several days ago.

The prince she talked to the other day in this same tracks might not be as charming as she wanted him to be. But he was not rude and arrogant either. This one turned out to be a first-class jerk.

“What is wrong with you?” His deep voice was louder than usual as he felt the last string of his nerve breaking. “I don’t need this now. I will just see you at the office tomorrow.”

.....

He turned around and walked away from her, striding fast toward the building. He had no plan to argue with her in front of his crew. He was going home to rest. If it was even possible in his current state.

“We are not done talking yet, so you should never turn back on a lady.” She yelled at him as he moved away, unable to control her temper anymore.

She did not care if she was shouting at the prince and if they were gaining some more attention from the few people around them. But she was not going to let him disrespect her that way.

She marched in his direction, following closely behind him. She was not going away just because he did not want to see her. She deserved an explanation why he, all of a sudden, was blowing her off.

Her job was on the line when she agreed with his conditions. She followed them according to his rules. Now, he had the nerve to tell her to f*ck off. Well, he could not get rid of her that easily.

“Stop following me.” He told her as he continued to walk in front of her, speeding up his strides.

But she would not cease trailing behind until he finally gave up and entered one of the rooms in the building. She still followed him inside without realizing what it was.

“Why should I stop? You still owe me a story, and you are reneging on your words.” She would not have bothered him like this if he only had fulfilled his promise to her.

She was not exactly looking at the signs as she stared at his back, still fuming in anger. “I will not leave until you give me what I want.” She continued to follow him further inside the room.

Then, she suddenly stopped, realizing what she got into when she started hearing whistles from around her. She turned around to see several men in different stages of undress.

Her eyes almost popped out of her sockets when a big burly man accidentally stood in her way. He had his towel in his hands, rubbing it on his still dripping wet hair. The rest of his body was completely naked.

“I am sorry.” She excused herself, quickly recovering from her initial shock, remembering that she had seen naked men before.

She stepped away from the man and pursued the prince, realizing that she had just walked into the men’s locker room. Finally, she found him in one of the lockers, pulling off his jacket and sweaty shirt.

“As my secretary probably already told you, I already arranged for us to meet tomorrow afternoon.” He faced her, repeating what he had already said earlier.

“No, I am not waiting until tomorrow.” She answered him adamantly. She had already waited for her story long enough. She had been patient with him and his entire family. She was done.

“As you can see, I am tired and not in the mood to answer any of your questions.” Lance tried to tone down his voice, wanting her to understand and leave.

“I am not leaving.” She continued, but Lance was done trying to compromise with her.

He did what he believed would make her go away. He unbuckled his pants and undid the buttons of his pants. Then, he pulled down his remaining clothes, not caring if she was looking.

She did not expect that he would get naked in front of her. His gesture suddenly made her feel more embarrassed. She quickly covered her eyes and turned around.

“I want my story now.” She demanded but kept her back on him, not backing down even after the stunt he pulled on her.

She could not understand why she would feel embarrassed seeing him without clothes when she had done far more than look at a male membrane before.

Maybe because he was the subject of her story. Her mind tried to reason with her, giving her different excuses for her unusual behavior. In her line of work, she had witnessed more embarrassing things done this.

“Now, sure.” He quickly replied. “Come on. Let us step into my office.” He jokingly said as he tapped on her shoulder to direct her to the shower where he was going.

She turned around, knowing well enough she was the subject of his ridicule. She could hear the controlled chuckles of the few remaining men inside the room. But she was not going to let them affect her anymore.

“I only meant to say that I can wait for you outside until you finish what you have to do here. But I am not waiting until tomorrow to talk to you.” She tried to control her eyes from wandering down as she faced him.

She knew that once she saw him naked, she would never be able to unsee it. Looking at his bare chest was tortured enough. What more if her mind would keep imagining what was down there?

“The door is right there. I am sure that there is no other exit here. Or, if you do not believe me, you can also watch me shower. That will give you more things to write about.” He teased her, trying to gaud her to give up.

“No, I believe you. But I think you are right. I should probably wait for you outside.” She kept her chin up, avoiding looking down as she turned around and finally left the room.

Once outside, she leaned on the first wall she could find, realizing her legs were about to give way. She took several deep breaths when her lungs were about to collapse.

She was barely breathing, holding on to the air inside her lungs, when he took off his pants. Thankfully she did not faint in front of him from the lack of oxygen in her brain.

However, she could not deny, not anymore, how much she was attracted to him, even from the first day she saw him. She had kept it bottled up, under control because she did not want to be obsessing about him.

“He is not worth it.” She mumbled to herself.

She never went after a client. Never dated one and never had a relationship with one. That was just unprofessional and borderline creepy in her book.