Page 34 of The Prince Falls First
They chatted for another fifteen minutes or so, Gen not contributing much but no one seemed to mind.
“I’ve got another meeting, unfortunately,” the Queen said as she rose, and everyone rose with her. “It was lovely to see you again, Miss Ruffin. I hope we’ll meet again soon.”
Gen curtsied. “I hope so too, Your Majesty.”
After Agnes returned from walking her mother out, she smiled at Gen. “The car’s waiting to take you back home.”
“I’ll walk her out.” Gabriel held out his arm and Gen had no choice but to take it.
“It was lovely to see you again, Miss Ruffin. I look forward to our picnic.”
Gen curtsied, still holding onto Gabriel. “I as well, Your Highness.”
Once they were in the corridor outside the office, Gen expected Gabriel to leave and let the other staff escort her out, but instead he kept walking. By the look on Lady Louise’s face, Gen wasn’t the only one surprised by his behaviour.
He didn’t explain himself—then again, maybe a prince didn’t need to?—and simply waved Louise away.
They continued walking slowly down the long hallways towards the exit. When they were far enough away from his security detail, she spoke in a low voice. “Why did you lie to the queen about a picnic?”
“To spend more time with you, of course. And I wasn’t lying to the queen in that moment, I was exaggerating to my mother, which is quite different. She likes you, you know.”
She sighed. “I doubt she’ll like me much when she realizes how ill-suited we are to each other, and that I am not ‘queen’ material.”
Gabriel scoffed. “I really dislike it when you put yourself down. I don’t think you realize how unkind you are to yourself.”
“I’m honest with myself, that’s all.”
“Hardly. Don’t confuse the lies you tell yourself—that were probably fed to you by your mother—with honesty, my dear. Trust me to always tell you the truth.”
“How can I when you’d lie to your own mother?”
He grinned. “But there we are the same. Do you not also lie to your mother?”
Instead of admitting that, she simply said, “See? You admitted it. I knew you were lying to your mother. Calling it something else doesn’t change anything.”
He shrugged. “I merely did what I needed to do. It occurred to me that we’ve not had a proper date and I wanted to arrange it without drawing too much attention to it.”
“And instead you’ve got a full picnic with all your siblings and more. I’m not into group dates myself, just so you know.”
“If I thought I could arrange a private date, I would do so. There are too many eyes on me at present.”
“Won’t walking me out of the palace cause a stir anyway? You don’t want to give people the wrong idea. When you inevitablyrealize we aren’t right for each other and dump me, I’m the one who will have to deal with the fallout. It could hurt my chances of getting married.”
“Not if I don’t ‘dump’ you, as you put it.”
“Are you proposing again? Because my answer is still no.”
He merely grinned and brought her hand to his lips for a kiss. The bristles of his mustache tickled her skin and she again remembered how his mustache felt on her thighs.
Why did she like the feel of his facial hair so much? Maybe she was just yearning for physical affection. That must be it. It had nothing to do withhim, she merely realized she liked men with mustaches.
She glanced around as he wound her hand through his arm again and they started walking again. The security agents following them weren’t paying obvious attention to them, and there wasn’t another soul in sight. She should be happy no one caught him fawning over her, yet why did she feel a pang in her chest? Surely, she didn’t want to be caught with him, did she?
“I wasn’t proposing to you, for the record, just as I wasn’t proposing last time. However, that doesn’t mean I won’t do so in the future. Now, on to the picnic. What kinds of foods do you like?”
He spent the rest of their walk grilling her on her likes and dislikes. Whenever she asked him the same question in return, he’d answer but also mention if one of his siblings had different preferences.
He kissed her hand again as they arrived at the car. “I’ll call on you in two days, at ten in the morning. It’s a bit of a drive, but it’s one of my favorite places to go. You’ll like it, I’m sure.”
