Page 72 of Tabloid Princess

“Well, as the eldest son.” He flashed me a grin. “I’m expected to be my father’s ambassador. Where he can’t go, I must.”

“Even if you don’t want to?”

“Normally.” The smile dropped a little bit.

I lifted myself up to perch on a chrome and black leather barstool alongside the black kitchen island. “So, what else do you do, other than be your father’s bitch?”

His face actually fell for a moment, but then lifted into a wide grin. “It’s just as well that’s not treasonable.”

I shrugged. “I’d still say it anyway.”

His gaze focused on me. “I’m working that out.” We watched one another for a moment.

I waited for the screaming to start in my head. I was with Prince Oliver in his house. I was in his home. He was pouring me a glass of wine.

Strangely it didn’t come.

He looked like he was also expecting the penny to drop as he handed me a glass of wine which I took and clinked against his.

“Can I just say something?” That lovely low tenor of his voice rippled inside me.

“Don’t hold back.” I flashed him a wicked grin, but then darted a nervous glance over his face, not sure if I’d crossed a line.

“You seem to be remarkably okay with being here.”

I nodded slowly and took a sip of the wine. God, that’s good wine.

“I wasn’t okay earlier.” I blushed at my burst of honesty.

“No?”

“No. I’ve been struggling to make sense of what’s happened. I’ve been telling myself our kiss was just that; a throw away moment. I don’t know what interest I could hold to you; the man who has everything, a whole kingdom almost.” I took another sip of wine, fortifying my resolve. “Then I worried that maybe you’d change your mind. That you wouldn’t send the car and I’d be standing there having decided that I’d come. That maybe you’d realised your mistake.”

He tilted his head, listening to my outpouring of lameness.

“Then I decided that if I could just get in the car, assuming there was one, I’d come and see what you wanted.” Another sip of wine.

“And now?” His gaze was intense. I struggled to swallow down my drink.

“My turn.”

He rolled his eyes which I think may well have been the cutest thing I’d ever seen—apart from Daisy; no one came above her in the cute stakes.

Daisy.

I tried to focus on all the reasons why I shouldn't be here, but they whirled around my head like wisps of cloud on a fast breeze and I couldn’t catch them.

“Why did you kiss me?”

My breath caught as I waited for his answer. It took a while coming, seconds ticking by painfully slow.

“Honest?” he asked.

“Brutal?”

A smile ghosted his lips. “Don’t be offended.”

I pulled a face. “Talking to the wrong girl.”