Free Prince With Benefits: A Billionaire Royal Romance by Nicole Snow

feeling my eyelids flutter as they pinch shut.
    “That meeting with the Prince, you staying behind, sending me here alone on a private goddamned jet...congratulations, Erin. Seriously.”
    “What?”
    “Congrats. You must've landed something amazing over there with the palace. I know, I know, you're too modest. Only have myself to blame for bringing you up that way. You don't have to tell me the little details until you're ready. I'm so happy for you, honey. You're gonna leave me in the dust before you're thirty. Everybody'll be tuning in to see the Erin Warwick report.”
    I'm laughing. He thinks it's because I've been caught red handed, bursting with pride.
    I wish. Laughing is the only thing I can do to avoid crying hysterically.
    “Let's leave off here. Lord knows we can both use some good news after everything that's gone down.”
    “You're right,” I say, grabbing my belly. It won't stop twitching, heavy with the guilt and ten ton stress my father has no clue about, pressing down on me.
    “I've got to go. They want to run a few more tests this afternoon. I'll check in again when I know something more, Erin. You take some time to settle in. If you wind up meeting with the Prince or the Queen, I want to hear everything. ”
    “You will,” I promise. Another sharp pang stabs me below the breast because I honestly don't know what I'm promising anymore.
    I don't even believe myself.
    “Love you, baby.”
    The line goes dead. I hang up, throwing my phone across the table. My elbows hit the dirty tabloids laid out beneath me, wrinkling Prince Sicko's smug, sexy face.
    God. Before I'd picked up the phone, I'd secretly hoped for a small miracle.
    Dad could've said something to make me re-think this. Anything to put the brakes on this twisted ride I'm about to sign up for to save his life.
    If the universe were kind, he would've already had his tests, and the doctors would've told us his cancer had mysteriously gone into remission.
    But that isn't going to happen. Not unless I marry – yes, marry – the playboy Prince, the tease, the last man on Earth who should've been born to royal blood.
    Running my hands over my face, I wait for my temples to stop throbbing. After another minute, they do.
    The weight inside me shifts, settles. I'm making peace.
    I think I'm ready.
    I'm going to do this. I just need to swallow my pride, pretend it's just another job, and brace myself for the public eye.
    It's worth dad's life. I'll humiliate myself a thousand times over to keep him from dying young.
    Though in this case, I doubt I'll ever get the chance to do it alone. Prince Silas will be more than happy to embarrass both of us if he doesn't give me a heat stroke first from all the blushing, teasing, red hot agony he's bound to bring, too.
    When I stand up and press the intercom on the wall to his valet, asking for an audience with the Prince, I want to believe I'm doing something noble.
    Noble. Ha! Ha ha.
    No, not this time. It feels like I just told my warden I'm ready for my execution, and now I'm just waiting for him to lead me down the long walk to my doom.

4
    Terms (Silas)
    S he's standing in front of me on the balcony, holding her hands in front of her like I'm her priest at confession, and she's about to tell me something filthy.
    I wish. I'd love to know all her dirty little secrets, but I want her agreement more.
    “I'll do it, Your Highness. But I have terms.” Erin looks up, her soft brown eyes glowing in the moonlight, the wind flipping that chestnut hair I want to pull so fucking hard over her shoulder.
    “Terms?” I look into my glass of scotch and give the melting ice a shake. “Let's hear them.”
    Her mouth is moving, but I'm barely comprehending what she's saying. I'm only on my second drink of the evening, so it isn't the booze.
    It's that dress. She's wearing the first thing that isn't some mass produced casual horseshit, one of many fine pieces I had left in her room, and she looks gorgeous. The lily