Suddenly Royal (31 page)

“
I want to kiss you, Samantha.” He took a deep breath and moved a little closer. “But I’m not going to kiss you again until you ask me to.”

“
What?” I jerked my head back at the same time he pulled the book from my arms. “Hey!”

I made a grab for the book but he held it above his head. Embarrassment and anger flared through my system. He had gotten me all worked up just to steal my book? The book I wanted so badly?

“
You jerk!” I grabbed at his arm and tried to pull it down, but he was too strong.

“
You can tempt me all you want, crawl all over me, but I meant what I said. I won’t kiss you again until you ask me to.” His eyes sparkled with his own frustration. “I’ve made it clear what I want. You need to decide.”

I stopped and looked at him. “You were right. This is difficult.”

“
And I plan on doing my very best to get what I want.”

“
C’mon. Let me get the book.” I changed the subject. The truth was, what I wanted was quickly outweighing my concerns.

“
Nah uh. I got it fair and square. I was looking for a gift for a friend.”

“
Fair and square? You stole it out of my hands.”

“
I did, didn’t I?” He smiled with pride.

“
Fine.” I still had my other two books, so I hadn’t lost everything. I marched out of the back room and to the counter to pay for my selections.

The shop owner asked how I was enjoying Lilaria and if I’d read any of Reinhardt’s or Ross’s books before. We chatted about the author and then I moved so Alex could buy his book. When she announced the total, my eyes almost popped out of my head.

“
Thank you. I have a friend who will really enjoy this.” Alex calmly handed over a credit card and smiled when she handed him his bag.

“
My pleasure, Your Highness. I hope you both enjoy the rest of your night.” She dipped a quick curtsy as we left.

“
Where to now?” Alex opened my door.

“
I don’t know. I didn’t even think we’d be able to come here without being followed.” I set my package in my lap while he took his seat. “What is there to do for fun around here?”

“
There’s the movies.”

“
Too many people.” I shook my head.

“
Then I guess the clubs are out.” He raised an eyebrow.

“
Definitely.” I frowned. “What about a museum?”

“
Too late. Most of them are closed by now.” He narrowed his eyes. “We could go to the zoo.”

“
No, thank you.” The thought of running into Jeremy made me cringe.

“
That’s right, you’ve already been. There was a very nice picture of you and Jeremy in the paper saying you’re going to work together.”

“
What? I didn’t see that and—wait a minute. Are you jealous?” I twisted in my seat to look at Alex. It was sad but the thought brought a little bubble of excitement in my chest. “Nice segue there with the whole zoo option.”

“
Should I be jealous?” He turned away from me and started the car. “You have made it very clear that you want someone normal, to be out of the spotlight. And Jeremy would love nothing more than to have a royal girlfriend.”

“
Hey! First of all, I don’t want anything to do with Jeremy.” I didn’t mention that he’d made passes at me. “Second of all, we’re in your ex’s car, which is a really weird place to be having this conversation. And thirdly, I don’t want someone normal, I want to be normal. To be just me. Not America’s Duchess. Just Sam.”

“
You’re not just anything.” His voice rose a little and he snapped his mouth shut for a minute. He pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the city. “You’re not just anything. Even ‘just Sam’ is something special.”

I looked at him as my heart slammed in my chest. I wanted to say something, anything, but my mouth was frozen. Fear ran through my body and my mind wrestled with my heart. I wanted Alex. I was scared of what that would mean, where it would lead.

I opened my mouth and shut it. I opened my mouth again and closed it. Neither of us said anything else, just rode in silence. I had no idea where we were going, but I didn’t ask. Alex eventually pulled into a small restaurant that wasn’t too busy.

“
Let’s grab some dinner.” He got out of the car and walked around to my side. I climbed out and followed him inside. Everything was in Lilarian: the sign, the menu, the words on what I thought were ketchup packets.

The man behind the counter said something friendly to Alex and then to me. We had covered basic greetings in the car, so I tried to say, “Nice to meet you.” The man chuckled and his smile grew.

“
Nice to meet you, too,” he responded in English.

Alex looked at me and shook his head. “We might need to hire a professional. You just said, ‘Nice to leave you.’”

“
I’m sorry.” I grimaced.

“
They’re very close words.” The man motioned toward the back of the place. “Have a seat. I’ll bring you some drinks.”

“
Thank you.”

Alex picked a booth in the back and pulled his jacket off. I set mine next to me in the booth and tried to not fidget in my seat. Alex passed one of the menus to me.

“
Thank goodness there are pictures.” I stared at the images in relief.

“
I wouldn’t let you order something nasty.”

“
Sure, sure.”

“
Well, not too nasty.” He laughed and it eased some of the tension gripping my shoulders.

“
So, this is the burger joint Cathy was talking about?” I let my gaze drift over the pictures and tried to pick apart some of the descriptions. “Laitu?”

“
Lettuce.” He set his menu down. “And yes, this is the best burger in Lilaria. I thought maybe after this week you could do with some familiar food.”

I smiled because he was right. We ordered our food and went back to working on my Lilarian. I was seriously lacking in the language department.

“
I feel like I’m trying to cram before a final.”

“
Cram?” He raised an eyebrow.

“
You know, pull an all-nighter studying. Cram in as much information as possible before the big test.” The waiter deposited our food and whisked off to another table.

“
Ah.” He picked up some fries.

“
I’m really unprepared.”

“
I think we need back up.” He frowned. “If we had more time, you’d pick it up just fine, but it wouldn’t hurt to have someone with more practice helping you.”

“
What about the bargain? I won!”

“
I’ll still help.”

“
Oh, no. You’re not getting out that easy. I want the picture.”

“
You don’t even know what I was working on.” He laughed.

“
Doesn’t matter. A bet’s a bet.”

“
Okay.” He took a sip from his water.

“
Okay?” I frowned. “Just like that?”

“
You’re right. I can’t hold up my end of the bargain, so I have to do something else.” He polished off the rest of his burger while I watched him.

“
All right.” I took another bite of my food and thought about it. “What is it of?”

“
You’ll see.”

“
You’re frustrating.”

“
I warned you.”

I rolled my eyes. He had said I’d either end up hating him if I didn’t end up in his bed.

People at the restaurant had started to recognize who we were and had turned to look at us. Alex threw some money on the table and stood up. He pulled his jacket on and held his hand out to help me stand up.

“
Time to get out of here.”

We took a scenic route around the city and Alex pointed out some of the places we hadn’t seen the other night. After a while we ended up back at the palace. The guard nodded us through the gate and Alex parked back by the kitchen while I tried to guess what he had been sketching.

“
It’s a bird.”

“
No.” He shook his head.

“
A plane?”

“
Not a plane and not Superman either.” He held the kitchen door open for me.

“
Kyle with devil horns?”

He laughed. “Now that would have been a good idea.”

We made our way through the kitchen and to my room and I looked down the hallway. “Maybe we should go get the drawing now so you don’t try to back out.”

“
Are you trying to find a way in my room?” Alex asked.

“
If that’s what I was looking for, I’d just drag you into
my
room.” I bit my lip. His eyes focused on my mouth and I thought about asking him. Asking him to kiss me. Asking him to come into my room. Asking him to let me get lost in him.

“
You’ll have to wait. I sent it out to have it framed.”

“
Oh. I didn’t realize it was something you wanted to keep.” I looked away from him. “You don’t have to give it to me if it means something to you.”

“
I want you to have it.”

I touched the necklace and looked up at him. “Thank you for tonight. It’s the first time I’ve felt like myself since I got here.”

“
Be you, Samantha. No one can ask for more than that.”

I stood on my tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. I lingered for a moment, breathing in his smell before turning and going into my room.

When I closed my door, I leaned against it and took a deep breath. I was in trouble.

Is Your Man a Prince?

—
The Jolene Waters Show

The next couple of days were a blur, except for the angry meeting with Duvall where I was told not to duck my security detail again. Becca had not been a happy camper either. I’d had to explain that going out to the bookstore hadn’t seemed like a thing I would need security for, but they only seemed slightly mollified. The only bright spots were the lunches I had with Cathy at a small table tucked away in the kitchen. She gave me the gossip about some of the royals and local celebrities. She was also full of information on the upcoming events and charities.

“
What about politics? I know Royals don’t vote or run for office, but is there anything I need to be on the lookout for?”

“
Mainly you want to do the political dance if you’re ever on the spot. Vague answers, smiles, and hoping for the best stuff. Anything else can come back to bite you in the arse.” Cathy took a bite of her sandwich.

“
So what is our job exactly?” I sipped at the soda I had found in a pantry.

“
We host dignitaries, advise parliament, lead charities, and see to our own lands. When something tragic happens in our districts, it’s our job to try to help. Sometimes that’s with money, other times it can be with connections or a simple friendly hand.” She stopped and thought for a minute. “Actually, we’re really busy. It probably feels like you’re doing a bunch of things that don’t matter right now, but you can’t think of it that way. Think of it as networking. You’re building a base of people who might be able to assist you in the future. “

“
And in turn I need to help them in some way.” I thought about it. “Oh, man, Cathy. This is such a bad job for me. I’m terrible at keeping my opinions to myself. I’m likely to piss someone off and not on accident. It’s a miracle that I’ve gotten through this week without doing it.”