This story is based on the charaters from the movie The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2, which are property of Meg Calbot and Disney.

I made no monetary gain from this story.

This is OneShot Story. Clarisse and Joseph are in a secret relationship.

A special thank's to Clarisse Renaldi and to WildMeiLing. Your support means a lot to me!

Kisses

Maria

The summer in Genovia was hot. Very hot. Joseph closed his eyes and thought he should go take another bath and change shirts. He was standing by Clarisse's office door and even though the palace had thick walls, the heat made sure to make its presence noticed. A few minutes later the doors opened and the parliament representatives who were in a meeting with the queen left. Joseph took this change to go in.

"Good afternoon, Your Majesty."

"Good afternoon, Joseph. I need to walk, I need to leave this place! I've been thinking I will go crazy these last couple days." Clarisse put down her glasses and left her desk. "Do the parliament members think I need to listen to their every complaint with a smile on my face? This day isn't being a very pleasant one."

"Your Majesty, it would be my pleasure to accompany you." Joseph lowered his head in consent. Clarisse smiled and left the office. Her phone rang but Charlotte picked it up immediately.

"Of course, I'll ask Her Majesty and return your call as soon as I have an answer, Your Lordship ." Charlotte hurried to find Clarisse.

"Your Majesty." Charlotte was very out of breath when she got near the queen.

"Yes, Charlotte? Is something the matter? You are so flushed and breathless" Clarisse continued walking until she found a tree with a nice shade.

"Terribly sorry, Your Majesty, but I had to run when I saw you were no longer in the garden."

"But what's wrong?"

"The Duke of Arly is on his way to the palace and would like to be greeted by you, Your Majesty."

"Peter is in Genovia?" Clarisse didn't hid her smile. "Of course, Charlotte. And arrange everything so he can have dinner as well. How good that Peter is already here! Warn me immediately as soon as he reaches the palace. I'll return to my room and freshen myself up a bit. Joseph, our walk will have to be on another day." And she went back to her room. "Dear peter…"

Charlotte was amazed, Joseph froze with anger, but unfroze for the same reason shortly after.

"Peter? What Peter? Who is he?" Joseph asked without realizing Charlotte was smiling at him.

"Relax, Joseph. If you don't, everyone will know you are bursting with jealousy."

"Jealousy? Nonsense. Simply… Things aren't like that. We need to think about security! Just who is he anyway?"

"I don't know but I am planning of finding out. Now relax Joseph, you'll have a heart attack."

She smiled and vanished immediately. He was not in a good mood.

Joseph followed her and headed to the security room to investigate this Duke. He couldn't stop thinking about her expression of happiness. It was too much for him. Clarisse… His Clarisse, happy to receive an unknown man. But he would always be close. It would take more than a little Duke to scare him. Besides, he had his diplomatic immunity. He could always shoot him….

Charlotte warned him by the headset that the Duke was arriving and he couldn't finish his research. Clarisse received Peter by the Wall, with a big hug and two kisses in the cheeks. Joseph felt his chest hurting and his left arm was having a funny feeling. He was about to have that heart attack.

"Peter, I'm so glad you could make it. I missed you so much, dear. You still look like quite the lady's man too." She said, stroking his cheeks.

"How I missed you, my queen. I dreamt of the hour where I could hug you again. I see you still use the same perfume." He grabbed her by the waist and nearly pushed his nose on her neck. Joseph was now ready for a trip to the hospital, he felt that his blood was far too hot. He felt like it was burning. He wanted to choke the Duke to death and claim he intended to bite the queen's neck, leaving a deep wound.

"Your Majesty…" Joseph said, locking elbows, getting ready to leave.

"Oh, Joseph, I didn't notice you were there. Peter, this is Joseph, my Head of Security. Joseph, this is the Duke of Arly. We'll be sitting by the pool, please have Olivia take us some tea."

They left, arms locked, smiling, A smile Joseph hasn't seen in Clarisse for a long time.

Trying to control himself, Joseph returned to the security room to continue his research and turned as many cameras as possible to where they both were.

His research didn't reveal anything suspicious, he was 65, divorced, didn't have kids and had the hobby of collecting girlfriends. Joseph heart was still beating fast. He had to find an excuse to get him away from the palace. His queen was endangered. Or he felt that he himself was in danger.

He was lost in thought when Olivia entered the security room.

"Sir?..." She said, knowing what was coming.

"Yes, Olivia?"

"The Queen ordered all the guards near the pool to leave their posts."

"She what?" Joseph was angry. He raised himself and went to the pool. "She'll kill me one of these days…" he thought.

"Your Majesty?" He said, stopping two steps away from her, in a cold, professional voice without looking into her eyes.

"Yes, Joseph?" Clarisse was sitting by Peter and their hands were intertwined. Pain shot through his jaw as he tried to keep quiet about that.

"Your Majesty, as your Head of Security I can't allow you to stay without security. I can send the other guards away but I'll have to stay." His voice didn't allow for rebuttals. Clarisse looked at him for a few seconds and said:

"Very well, Joseph. However, our conversation is private, and I must ask you to move away as far as possible."

Joseph was angry. Very angry. He didn't notice a small smile either. He moved away without saying a word. This was too much. She'll have his resignation letter tomorrow. He was by a French window when he saw Maurice, begging to leave.

Clarisse and Peter were now standing in front of one another by the pool. Peter stroked her shoulders and she hugged him. That was the last straw, Joseph was driven mad by desire. He looked at Maurice and opened the window to let him out. "Look, look, it's the queen!" Maurice jumped around him but when he saw someone was holding his owner he went for the bite at the leg. Chaos was set.

"Maurice, don't!" Said Clarisse, trying to get his attention. Peter was scared and tried to run. Maurice kept his chase and Peter went into the pool, dragging Clarisse with him. Joseph was too late to do anything.

"Maurice, leave!" Said Joseph, helping Clarisse out of the pool.

"Oh my God, I'm sorry Peter!" Clarisse ran her fingers through her hair and tried to fix her clothes. Joseph was speechless and the sight of Clarisse took his reasoning away.

"It's okay, dear, he was trying to protect the owner." He smiled and tried to help her fix her clothes. Joseph went mad. With an amazing punch on the jaw, he made Peter go back a couple steps.

"Joseph!" Yelled Clarisse, grabbing his arms.

"Don't you dare touch her ever again!" He said, in a voice that would freeze anyone. Clarisse put herself between them.

"Joseph, how dare you? Stop this at once. Peter, I'm sorry!"

"It's okay. You have a Head of Security that's very jealous." He said with a sarcastic tone, fixing his jaw.

"I'll be talking with him later. Joseph, you may leave."

Joseph looked her for a few seconds. It was obvious how much she cared for the Duke. Without turning his eyes, he spoke into the headset while she's cleaning some blood from the Duke's face with a napkin.

"Shades, please, you and Charlotte are needed by the pool right now. Her Majesty had a small accident and requires assistance. And ask Olivia to prepare a warm bath for the queen. Your Majesty, my resignation letter will be on your desk tomorrow. I'll leave tonight."

"Joseph?..." Clarisse looked at him without knowing what to say… He stopped thinking he might be showing too much familiarity with the Queen.

"Your Majesty, I'm terribly sorry for my flaws as the Head of Security, as they may put you at risk. Shades will be a good and loyal replacement."

He left without letting her speak.

"Follow him, sis. This went too far."

"He is overreacting, Peter." But Clarisse watched him enter the palace and had a bad feeling.

Minutes later, Shades and Charlotte arrived.

"Your Majesty, Joseph gave me a hand-written letter of resignation. He also mentioned he would leave the palace tonight. He seemed quite decided."

"Nonsense. Tear it, Charlotte. I'll take a bath and then I'll have a few words with him."

Half an hour later, hair still wet, she was knocking on Joseph's door. He didn't answer, and the door was unlocked, so she went in.

"Joseph?..." The room was only half lit. Joseph sat on the bed, bags packed, whiskey bottle in hand.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" She slowly went closer to him.

"Your Majesty, I'll be leaving in 5 minutes. I take this chance to wish you the biggest of happinesses." His speech was starting to become strange.

"You have no idea what you are saying."

Joseph threw the bottle against the wall, mad with jealousy.

"I don't know?! I didn't see?! I didn't hear?! He touched you everywhere he wanted! Only thing he didn't do was jump on yo-" She cut him off with a slap. These words had hurt her.

"How dare you? What kind of woman do you think I am? Peter Handley, Duke of Arly, is my brother. Illegitimate son of my father. He's five years older than me and we've always known one another. For the first time after my father's death he came to Genovia to visit me. When I saw you were jealous, I found it funny and let it continue, despite Peter's warnings. I never told you because I find it humiliating to have a brother and not being able to mention him in public. And you are stupid. You don't believe me and-"

He didn't let her finish. Pulling her by the waist, he kissed her like his life depended on it. A kiss to which she couldn't resist.

"One of these days, you'll be my ruin… You will kill me, that's for sure!" He took her to the bed, never stopping the kisses.

"I'll ask for forgiveness from the brother later. Now it's the sister's turn."

The brother's apologies were left for the next day.