And it was not nice.
Without necessarily intending to, my eyes dropped below his belt. “You got awfully excited for that being your regular ‘nice’ kiss.”
He stood there for another second before wandering toward a table tucked along the wall the fireplace was on. A few fancy glass bottles were there, beside a handful of tumblers. I watched him pour a drink before glancing back at me with a second glass in hand.
I shook my head. “I thought you hardly ever drank.”
“I hardly ever do.” Edward took a sip of his drink as he replaced the stopper in the bottle. “But I hardly ever get asked to critique a young woman’s style of kissing or have said young woman reference a certain part of my anatomy and its response to that kissing.”
My legs swung, releasing some of the pent-up frustration roiling inside. When I was with Edward, I wanted Edward. Theo was nowhere on my mind’s radar. But Theo was the whole reason I’d convinced Edward to agree to this strange experiment.
Was it possible to like two people at once? It didn’t seem unlikely, though I’d never personally experienced it. My hormones liked Edward. A lot. My . . . something else liked Theo. I thought. My eyes squeezed shut when my skull felt about to fracture from the growing confusion.
“Sorry,” I said, keeping my eyes closed. It was easier to focus when I wasn’t looking at him. “I know this has got to be one of the more outlandish things a girl has asked you to do, and I’m grateful for your help.” Pause. Swallow. Process. “It would be helpful if you had anything to say other than one of the most overused, unexciting adjectives in the history of the English language. Harsh criticism, at this point, would be welcome, though constructive is appreciated. Give me something to work with here.”
I opened my eyes slowly. Edward was standing across the room, in front of the dark fireplace. He took another drink to fend off the emerging smile.
“Fine. You want feedback? I’ll give you some.” He cleared his throat, standing taller. “Charlotte Everly, on this seventeenth day of October, I hereby announce you have officially earned your degree from the school of necking. Graduating magna cum laude,” he added, when my arms crossed.
“I’m not smiling.”
“Well, your lips are exhausted after all of that work,” he replied with a straight face, tipping his glass in my direction.
“Great. I’ve graduated kissing. Yay me.” I hopped down from the table, pinning him with a look that had concern drawing onto his forehead. “When do we practice what comes next?”
Edward’s brows drew together. “What do you mean what comes next?”
“After kissing.” I smiled innocently. “My post-graduate work.”
Edward raised the glass to his mouth, watching me over the lip of it. “I hope what you’re talking about is saying good night and going home.”
I stopped a few feet in front of him, my head tipping to the side. “You know I’m not.”
His jaw moved. “That is not what I agreed to.”
“What did you think I had in mind when I asked you to help me gain some real-world experience?” I asked. “Two people can only kiss for so long.”
He left the fireplace, pacing down the wall of bookshelves and windows. “There’s way more to consider if you’re talking about . . . about . . .”
“Sex.”
The word rung through the room, freezing him.
“Charlotte.” His voice was lower, quieter. “No.”
“Why not?” I pressed, my foot tapping from nervous energy. I hadn’t, in so many words, spelled out the details of my proposal. And maybe I’d adjusted a few things on the fly after kissing Edward, but we were two twenty-somethings who’d admitted to exhaustive dry spells. Did he really think all I had in mind was making out?
Had I?
So much confusion had set in, I couldn’t remember.
“Because,” he answered at last. Though it wasn’t much of an answer.
“What more is there to consider?” I asked, echoing his previous objection. “Protection? I’ve been on the pill for years.”
He paced again. “It’s not foolproof.”
At least he was arguing something different than the sex part. “Nothing is.”
He stopped at one of the windows, turning toward it. The ever-present sounds the manor made seemed to grow, or maybe they were louder inside the library. Edward remained silent long enough I wondered if I should leave.
“You’re talking about having sex with the future king.” He slowly turned, his eyes drifting to mine. “There’s infinitely more at stake with an unexpected pregnancy.”
My heart beat a little faster from hearing the conflict in his voice. “You’re right. We’ll double up on the contraceptives.”
The seriousness bled from his face, giving way to a reluctant smile. “How can you be so relaxed about this?”
“Because it’s not a big deal. It’s sex.” I shrugged, moving toward him. I could see the indecision in his eyes, I could almost sense his desire to agree, but something was holding him back.
“You know, there’s a lot of territory between kissing and sex.”
“Wait.” I made my eyes go as big as they’d go. “There is?”
My act didn’t fool him. Setting down his glass, he came toward me, stopping when I was just out of reach.
“Why me?” he asked. “Why not James or Frederick or Andrew or any other eager young man for that matter?”
My feet shifted. “Because I trust you.”
His shoulders relaxed when he exhaled. “Not because I’m next in line to the throne?”
My nose crinkled. “Actually, I’d mark that in the con column as it applies to practice sex candidates.”
He grunted, smiling. “Good to know there’s some woman out there who doesn’t want to bed me only for my crown.”
“Nah.” I waved him off. “I just want you for your body.”
“So much more honorable.” Chuckling, Edward moved back to the table I’d found him at and grabbed the last book he’d been reading.
I watched him dive back into history as though we hadn’t been negotiating the deals of a sex treaty. I watched him flip through three pages before I accepted I’d probably be here all night if I was waiting for him to say something first.
“So you’ll do it?”
His eyes continued to scan down the page. “I think what you mean is, so I’ll do you?”
My skin prickled at his words.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered.
Chapter 11
“I don’t get why this is an important skill for me to learn.” Andrew handed me the carton of eggs, glancing at his three friends to back him up. “I’ve got people who do this for me. One day I’ll have a wife to make me a sandwich.”
“She’d have to be a desperate one to marry you,” Edward said as he thumbed through this morning’s newspaper. He ignored the middle finger Andrew brandished in his direction.
“You should learn how to prepare food for yourself for the sake of dignity, how about that?” Taking out an egg, I cracked it against the mixing bowl in demonstration. When Andrew didn’t move to reach for one, I grabbed one for him and set it in his palm.
“Not applicable.” He blinked at the egg he held. “That characteristic left the station years ago.”
From the table, all relaxed and sipping their coffees, Frederick and James snickered. That was fine. They’d each have their turn to demonstrate their ineptitude in the kitchen. Since they seemed content with loitering the winter away, I was going to turn them into productive members of society, if not this household.
“Okay, then you should know how to cook in the event of a worldwide apocalypse where title and wealth mean nothing.” I whipped the fry pan out from the drawer. James theatrically threw himself over Edward, shielding him. “Survival is the only currency of the land.”
Edward shoved James away, frowning when he saw some coffee had spilled on the political section o
f the paper.
“You see, now I get it. Real world application.” Andrew waved the egg at me as he nodded. “Show me how to make the damn eggs.”
“Pussy.” Frederick grunted as he pulled a flask from his bathrobe pocket and splashed whatever was inside into his coffee.
“Careful, Duke of Westington. Your turn tomorrow morning.”
Frederick lifted his hands, turning them over for me to see. “Do these hands look meant for hard labor?”
“Your cock would beg to differ,” James jested.
Edward smacked him over the head with the entertainment segment. He never read that section anyway.
“Sorry, Charlotte. It won’t happen again,” James said, sulking into his coffee.
“Good. See that it doesn’t.” I wagged my finger at James. “I don’t like your cocky attitude. Don’t cock your brow at me. Is that the cock crowing outside?”
Three people were attempting to keep from laughing, while the fourth looked anything but amused when I grinned at him.
“Thanks for your cockcern, but I’m not one of your well-bred ladies at court.”
Edward set down his paper, trying his hardest to look irritated with me. “No, you certainly are not.”
I rapped at the bottom of the frying pan, winking, before setting it on the stove.
“Guess who knows about one strapping young lad coming home two days early to surprise the girl he’s become besotted with?” Andrew elbowed me as he smashed the egg against the rim of the mixing bowl. Runny yolk seeped down both sides of the bowl, while Andrew gawked at the mess of shell in his hand with disgust.
“For those of us who don’t speak Shakespearian.” Frederick leaned back into his chair. “The current translation of besotted is horny as fuck.”
I could only imagine the look Edward gave him, since I was too focused on Andrew as he moved on to egg number two. Hopefully with more success.
“What? It’s true,” Frederick continued. “Theo Hamilton is the alpha of the horn dog pack. The guy can catch the scent of a female in heat from fifty miles, I swear.”
I fished out the eggshells from the second attempt. “That sounds like jealousy talking.”
“We should have a party then. Welcome him back.”
My reaction to Edward’s suggestion was the same as everyone else’s. Surprise.
James scooted his chair closer to Edward. “Did the word party just come from your mouth, or am I having another one of those wet dreams?”
I let Andrew get after the egg cracking on his own. He was at the skill level of a four-year-old and gaining speed.
Edward dropped his foot onto the front leg of James’s chair, pushing it away. “If I have even so much as a walk-on role in your wet dreams, I need to see about a restraining order.”
James twisted in his chair toward Frederick, lifting his hand. Frederick tapped it with the side of his flask.
“Should we invite the Watson sisters again?” Frederick asked of no one in particular.
“Obviously.” James pfted. “It’s not a party unless a set of triplets with low standards and nympho libidos are in attendance.”
“Not just any party. A toga party,” Andrew added, taking the wire beater from me when I handed it to him. He stuck the wrong end in at first but figured it out.
“No. No way.” I shook my head so hard, my braids beat my cheeks. “I did not take a year off of college to start hitting the toga party scene.”
“Toga,” Andrew chanted, lifted the beater in the air. “Toga. Toga.”
James joined in right after, Frederick following.
Edward had gotten back to his paper, though I couldn’t shake the feeling that his focus was anywhere but on the small black words spread out below him.
“We are not having a party where everyone is wearing bed sheets,” I said in a tone that boded no argument.
“Edward? Your Highness?” James snapped his fingers in Edward’s face. “What’s your vote?”
When he did look up, his eyes settled on me. “I think you’d look great in a bed sheet.”
I was about to attend my first toga party. And people said miracles didn’t happen.
I’d enlisted the help of Anne—thank goodness for Facetime—and I’d already talked myself out of showing up at a party with a bunch of strangers, wearing nothing but a queen-sized flat sheet ten times. I’d managed to convince myself to stay in the expected partyware eleven times though, so I was marching down the stairs with nothing more than a couple of double knots keeping me together.
For some reason, I’d agreed to let them throw the party in the ballroom. Not that Edward needed my permission to have a party in any room he wanted, but I appreciated the gesture. Of course I’d only agreed to it under the promise that they would clean the place top-to-bottom, and pay with both this and their eternal life if anything valuable was damaged.
James was stationed by the music, Frederick the drink table, and Andrew in the center of the popular Watson triplets, but there was no sign of Edward. However he had to be close as his trusty security guards were stationed throughout the party.
Theo had sent his daily text earlier, letting me know he couldn’t wait to see me in a couple of days. I figured I wouldn’t ruin the surprise by letting him know I’d see him tonight. But Theo wasn’t there yet either.
I was tempted to sneak away and come back in an hour, when I sensed someone behind me.
“I’ve never been so jealous of a square of white cotton in my life.” Theo’s greeting was capped by a low whistle as his arms folded around me from behind. “Surprise.” He kissed my cheek, squeezing me a bit too eagerly with his massive arms.
I practiced my surprised face before twisting in his arms to face him. “No way! What are you doing here?”
I sounded like a Malibu Barbie who’d been smoking a pack a day for a couple decades, but I must have been convincing enough. Theo seemed to buy my astonished act.
“Couldn’t wait to see you. And the fact you’re wearing a sheet doesn’t hurt either.” He stepped back to take me in.
My mouth opened when I noticed what he was wearing. “Wow.” I blinked a few times, but the image wasn’t changing. “I thought we were at a toga party, not a hand towel party.”
I wasn’t exaggerating the hand towel. By much. Theo was wearing a mere terry-loincloth and, from the protrusion, no underwear. He had on sandals and one of those gold leaf crown things, but he was a whole lot of golden, muscled flesh.
“It was all I could find.” He glanced down at his party attire. “Plus, I figure I’m more the Spartan type over these Roman elitists anyways.”
“Well, you certainly can pull off the hand cloth look.” I stepped aside to put a little distance between the Nearly Naked man and me. There was no denying Theo looked jaw-droppingly fine, but he wasn’t leaving much to the imagination.
Not even if he was or wasn’t circumcised.
My cheeks heated as I diverted my stare. I wouldn’t be able to look at him for longer than two seconds unless I wanted to spend the night choking on air.
“So what have you been up to?” He didn’t seem to understand my need for distance. Stepping into me, he tugged at the knot I’d cinched above my left shoulder. It didn’t budge. It was good being best friends with a sorority sister.
“Looking after this place. Trying to make sure the Neanderthals don’t burn it down. The usual.” I shook my head at my three roommates doing a line of shots.
The fourth had yet to make an appearance, I realized after giving the room another scan.
Theo watched the trio with me. “Sounds tedious.”
“On its good days.”
I found him looking at me from the corner of his eyes when I glanced at him from the corner of mine. Our shared laugh helped to ease my tension.
“So when do I get to take you on a date? Like where I can get dressed up for you and pick you up and open doors for you, buy you dinner, dessert after?” Theo’s dimples set. “You’ve bewitched
me, woman. Give me a chance to try to return the favor.”
His hand felt massive on the crest of my hip, making me feel almost petite. “Who says you haven’t already bewitched me back?”
Theo lowered his head so it was aligned with mine. “Your eyes do.” Rising to his full height, he winked at me. “But that’s okay. I like a challenge.”
The skin at the back of my neck prickled right as a dark figure appeared beside me.
“Theo. Glad you could join us.” Edward held out his hand, unblinking as he shook Theo’s.
“Yeah, me too. It’s been a long two weeks.” Theo’s arm wound behind my neck, guiding me to his side, giving me my first good look at Edward.
Where I’d been unable to look at Theo without blushing, I couldn’t look anywhere but at Edward, though it wasn’t quite a blush I felt rising; it was searing in nature, white hot.
He was wearing a simple sheet cinched at his waist, a sash running diagonally along his chest and falling over his shoulder. Most of the other guys were wearing their sheet the exact same way, but Edward looked different. Edward was different.
Unlike the rest, he wasn’t wearing a crown.
“I’m sure.” Edward’s attention drifted to me for a moment. His throat moved. “Don’t worry, I made sure to take care of Charlotte while you were away.”
Theo’s face pinched together, probably trying to figure out what Edward meant by what he’d said.
“Thanks for looking out,” Theo replied, pulling me a bit closer.
This time when Edward’s attention diverted my way, it wasn’t brief.
“It was my pleasure.” Edward shared a private smile with me, twisted in nature.
My lungs collapsed when, for a split second, I thought he was going to tell Theo about our kissing forays . . . and about the last request I’d made in the library.
My lungs strained again when I realized that part of me wanted Edward to tell Theo everything.
Instead, Edward left, moving toward the Watson triplets.
I angled myself so my back was to the party.
Glass Castle Prince Page 9
