Chapter One
Stephanie has finally finished her Ph.D. in Communications and Media and she is hoping to land her dream job at the local university in Valeska. It is a cold winter’s evening as she arrives at her new apartment in Valeska with her five-year-old triplets, Aldon, Jake, and Brandon. With three kids to feed and no income, she decides to bury her old grudges and overcomes her embarrassment so she can call Scarlett. Scarlett is one of Stephanie’s old college friends who runs a PR company in the city and Stephanie is hoping that she will be able to offer her a job until she can get on her feet.
“Thank you for calling Entangle Public Relations. This is Scarlett speaking. How may I be of assistance?”
“Hey Scarlett, this is Stephanie, how are you?”
“Stephanie, it is so good to hear from you after all these years. I am great and how are you?”
“I am good… sorry to bother you at this hour, but I just arrived in the city and I’m looking for a job. I was wondering if you have any positions available.”
“I am sure I can arrange something. Why don’t you come by my office tomorrow and we can discuss it.”
Stephanie lays down on the couch as relief flows through her. She finally has a job in her field and she will be able to keep her children fed with a roof over their heads, which is more than she can ask for right now.
“Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me. I’ll come by at around 9 am if that works for you.”
“Yes, that will be perfect. See you tomorrow,” Scarlett says.
Stephanie wakes up early. She needs to get the kids ready, and she needs to find someone to look after them for the day. She makes the children some breakfast and calls an agency who agrees to send over a nanny for the day. She couldn’t be more relieved as she wakes up the triplets and helps them get ready for the day.
Happy that everything is falling into place, she walks to her bedroom to get ready for the day. She puts on her favorite black knee-length dress with matching black heels before turning to the mirror to do her hair. She ties her long auburn locks into a bun and quickly puts on some light makeup with a matching light pink lipstick. She stares at herself in the mirror and her brown eyes sparkle with her excitement; she is ready for this and she won’t be backing down.
Stephanie arrives at the address Scarlett gave her and stares up at the huge steel frame building that houses Entangle Public Relations. It makes her feel so small and suddenly she’s very anxious. She takes a deep breath and walks up to the building. She walks into the building and sees a large foyer with large white tiles and a few couches scattered throughout.
“Hi, I am here for Entangle Public Relations,” she says, smiling at the receptionist sitting at an oak desk at the end of the foyer.
“You will need to go to the seventh floor. The elevator is around that corner,” the receptionist responds, and points to the corner she means.
“Thank you,” Stephanie says, and walks in the direction that the receptionist pointed.
She rounds the corner and sees a corridor full of elevators. She pushes the button next to one of the elevators and waits for it to come down. Her nerves creep back in as the elevator arrives, and she steps in. She was not expecting it to be such a large operation, but she’s happy that she got a job in such a prestigious establishment. She arrives on the seventh floor and steps into a large room filled with offices and cubicles.
She walks up to the receptionist and says, “Hi, I am here to see Scarlett.”
“You must be Stephanie and you are right on time! Scarlett is expecting you. She is in the office at the end of the hall,” the receptionist says, smiling up at her and points to the hall.
“Thank you,” Stephanie says, and makes her way down the hall.
She knocks on the door of the office at the end.
“Come in!” She hears Scarlett calling.
She opens the door and walks into the office. She looks over at Scarlett and she can’t deny that she is as beautiful as she’s always been with her signature cherry red lips and perfectly done makeup. Her long strawberry red hair falling around her shoulders looks like it’s caressing her small frame and her light green eyes light up as they fall on Stephanie. She stands up and Stephanie looks at her from top to bottom. She’s wearing a skin-tight black skirt that shows more skin than it should and a nearly see-through blouse with quite a bit of cleavage, typical Scarlett Stephanie thinks to herself as Scarlett embraces her.
“Darling, it is so good to see you again. I’m really glad you called,” Scarlett says, as she holds Stephanie at arm’s length and looks her over.
“It’s good to see you as well. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with you.”
“Oh, sit down. I have just the job for you. So this is what I will do. I will be appointing you as a specialist to assist in a PR case involving a member of the royal family.”
Stephanie sits down as she tries to absorb everything she just heard. She wasn’t expecting to get such a big job on her first day, but she won’t be turning down the opportunity to work on something this big.
“So what is the case about?” Stephanie asks, trying to get her bearings.
“There is a viral video of him beating the hell out of another member of nobility.”
Scarlett types ‘a royal showdown’ into the search engine of her laptop and pulls up the video. She turns the laptop around so Stephanie can watch the entire video and decide how to deal with it. Stephanie is shocked by the violence of the attack, but she’s even more shocked by the fact that the attacker resembles Prince Aerin...
“This looks like a PR nightmare,” Stephanie says, as the video comes to an end.
“That’s why I decided to give the task to you. I am sure you will find a way to deal with this situation. You are nothing if not persuasive,” Scarlett says, taking Stephanie by surprise.
“When do we start?” Stephanie asks.
“Right now, let’s get going,” Scarlett says, as she gets up.
Stephanie follows. Scarlett grabs her handbag and coat and the two of them make their way to Scarlett’s car. Stephanie is still a bit shocked by it all and she’s just going with the flow at the moment. Her mind lingers on the video she just saw as she tries to think of a way to deal with this mess. She can’t help but wonder if the man in the video really is Prince Aerin or if it is just someone who looks like him and she wonders what she would do if it really was him. She can’t think about that right now. She returns her focus to the video and thinks of scenarios that might make it less dramatic in the eyes of the public.
Scarlett pulls into a property out of town. The driveway is lined with beautifully trimmed rose bushes and it leads to a parking area in front of a large white mansion. Stephanie can’t help but stare at it for a moment as she gets out. They walk up to the door and Scarlett rings the doorbell.
Standing there, just waiting, is enough to make Stephanie’s anxiety spiral out of control. But she has to keep it together. She has to be professional no matter what. She doesn’t have any answers to her questions. For now, it could be a totally different person altogether.
An older man in a suit opens the door. “How may I help you?” the man asks.
“We have an appointment. We are from Entangle Public Relations,” Scarlett says, smiling at the man.
The man grunts and lets them in. He leads them to the living room before disappearing into a corridor. Stephanie’s breath catches in her throat as her eyes land on the smoking hot bad boy every woman wants to get their hands on, Prince Aerin… His medium-length black hair perfectly combed back, his hazelnut-colored eyes burning into her, and his muscular frame not really hidden by his tight-fitting suit. Stephanie instantly recognizes him as the one and only hook-up she has had in her entire life, the distraction she needed from her broken heart and the father of her children… He just doesn’t know it and he never will.
Prince Aerin doesn’t seem to be himself either. He seems distracted and upset. His eyes burn into Stephanie as they slowly roam from her heels all the way up her body and meet with hers once more. She can’t help but feel like he’s undressing her with his gaze and she doesn’t appreciate it. Aerin instantly recognizes Stephanie as the girl he had a scandalous one-night stand with five years ago and he is surprised by her presence.
“Good morning ladies, thank you for coming on such short notice,” he says, as he eventually finds his voice.
He walks over to Scarlett and shakes her hand before approaching Stephanie; he takes her hand and lightly kisses the top.
“Well, we do pride ourselves on being the best in the industry, and in this industry, we have to act fast,” Scarlett says.
She seems nervous, and it’s understandable, any woman would be nervous in the presence of royalty, especially when the royalty is this good-looking. Well, any woman apart from Stephanie.
Prince Aerin waves towards the couch as he takes a seat, and the girls sit down as well.
“So how do you plan on dealing with this situation?” Aerin asks.
“This is Stephanie, she is our newest hire, and she excels at dealing with situations like this one. So I will hand the situation over to her shortly but first I will need to get all the details of the case.”
Prince Aerin is excited and stirred by Stephanie’s appearance and he can’t seem to keep his eyes off of her. She looks different than she did five years ago. She looks more mature and sophisticated. Like she’s ready to take on the world and that intrigues him, not to mention the fact that she looks absolutely stunning in that dress. She seems to be brushing him off, which intrigues him even more. No woman has ever brushed him off and he likes it.
Unlike her boss, she seems calm and professional. She means business, and that’s exactly what he needs right now, but he can’t believe that this is fate or a coincidence. He has been in the royal life for far too long to believe in such things; he knows that if something is too good to be true, it normally is and there are far too many people who would like to see him taken down so he can’t just let this slide.
She must be here for a reason, someone who wants to get to him must have sent her, sending his scandalous one-night stand to fix his PR crisis threatens his reputation even more than it already is and he can’t help but wonder if this is blackmail or some kind of sick joke from someone who is trying to get to him.
“Well, as you know, there is a video of someone who looks like me punishing someone going around the internet and I need to have that taken care of before it harms my reputation.”
Aerin watches on as Stephanie pulls a notebook and pen from her handbag and starts making notes about what he’s saying. Stephanie stops writing for a moment and stares at Aerin. He doesn’t know what to make of this situation or how he feels about all of this, but he needs to have this matter resolved as soon as possible and he doesn’t have time to look for another agency.
Aerin stands up and walks toward the large bay window.
“So the guy in the video isn’t you?” Scarlett asks.
Aerin turns towards them once more and rests his hands on the couch as he leans forward. “Tell me about this new addition of yours. How do you know that she will be capable of handling this situation?” Aerin says, taking both Stephanie and Scarlett by surprise.
“You can’t judge me without knowing anything about me or what I do. I was hired by Entangle for a reason, and that reason is that I am good at what I do. If you are not happy with what we have to offer, you can find someone else to do your dirty work,” Stephanie responds, leaving Scarlett speechless.
Aerin, on the other hand, finds her response very amusing and decides to wind her up some more. “How dare you address me in such a way? My reputation is on the line here and I will not let some girl without a plan drag my name through the mud,” he says.
Stephanie is fuming. She can’t believe his arrogance, and it’s getting on her nerves.
“You did a pretty good job of dragging your name through the mud without my involvement. Now if you want to fix your fuck-ups, you will drop the attitude and get to the point so we can deal with this situation.”
Scarlett looks like she’s about to have a heart attack. She is turning red as she tries to keep her mouth shut and she’s tapping on Stephanie’s hand, trying to get her to keep quiet, but Stephanie will have none of it. She believes that the royals should have a little more respect for the commoners, especially when one of those commoners is trying to help them get their name cleared up.
Aerin laughs as he looks down at her and folds his arms over his chest. “I like this one. She doesn’t take shit. She will be great when it comes to handling the press,” Aerin says.
Scarlett lets out a sigh of relief and sinks back on the couch. Stephanie is surprised to find that it was just a test and slightly embarrassed by her reaction to it. She knows better than to raise her voice to a client, but she let him get the better of her. She turns her attention back to the notebook, but she can feel Aerin’s eyes on her and she wishes she could be invisible right now.
“Well now Aerin, you don’t mind if I call you Aerin, do you? I would send only my best to help you out of this situation,” Scarlett says, as she crosses her legs, which causes her skirt to pull up a little.
Stephanie looks from Scarlett to Aerin and back to Scarlett as she tries to figure out what’s going on but she’s still reeling about what happened between her and Aerin and she can’t seem to focus, especially not while his eyes are all over her. She does realize that Aerin isn’t paying much attention to Scarlett and she can’t help but wonder why. Scarlett is a beautiful woman, and she is obviously trying to get his attention.
“You may call me Aerin. I’m glad to see that you are taking this matter seriously. I have been disappointed by PR agencies in the past and I would hate for that to be the case this time around,” Aerin says.
He is surprised by Stephanie’s forthrightness and by her attitude, but he finds it thrilling that she isn’t afraid to speak her mind, even to royalty. He is tired of people always hiding what they truly feel when they are around him just because he’s a prince. He likes it when people are themselves and are not afraid to express what they think or feel because he has never really been able to do so. Yes, he acts out sometimes and yes; he enjoys having fun, but he always sticks to the royal protocol. He is the crown prince after all and he won’t let his wild ways affect the way the kingdom should be ruled, but this is something he has never experienced before.
Stephanie feels like such a fool right now and she’s hoping that her inability to control her rage won’t cost her this job. She really needs to start thinking before she opens her mouth, otherwise she won’t have it for much longer and that is especially important when she is dealing with royalty.
This is not her first rodeo when it comes to them and she knows how they want to be treated, so that’s exactly what she needs to do. She needs to treat them like she knows they want to be treated and in this particular situation, she needs to be very careful about what she says. So far it seems like Aerin doesn’t remember her and she wants to keep it that way. She doesn’t want her past to interfere with any of this, so she needs to watch herself.
“I can assure you that you won’t have that problem with us. We take this matter very seriously,” Scarlett says, and pokes Stephanie in the ribs with her elbow.
“Huh? Oh yes… We take this matter very seriously and I promise that you won’t be disappointed with us or our abilities,” Stephanie says, looking up.
Stephanie can’t believe she actually had a drunken one-night stand with this man and she can’t believe how much he seems to have changed since that night. She looks up at Aerin and his eyes are still on her. His gaze is burning into her, making her feel uncomfortable, and she shifts in her seat. She doesn’t understand why his eyes are on her the whole time and she really wishes this meeting would come to an end so she can get out of this awkward situation.
