He came toward me, scraping the food off his shirt, and as I turned to look at the food on the table beside me, he lunged.
Theo’s palm met my cheek, noodles smooshing into skin and falling into my shirt, as I stumbled back a step. But I wasn’t going down without a fight, even if it was a food-based one.
I grabbed hold of his wrist and shoved him back a step, then, once I was free of him, grabbed up another fistful of food. I hurled it toward him, aiming for whatever I could hit, but when it landed in his hair, I couldn’t help my snort of laughter.
Well, would you look at that? It wasn’t every day you saw a member of the royal family with lo mein in his eyes.
Theo reached up and slowly swiped the noodles from his face, then growled.
“Lookin’ good there, Your Serene Highness.”
“You’re going to pay for that one.”
“Am I?”
“Oui, et tu vas en chier.”
Nowthatwas definitely a threat, and the sound of it falling from Theo’s tongue was music to my ears—and so were the knuckles he cracked before he rushed me.
He bent at the waist, aiming for mine, and even with my feet braced, the impact had me jolting back and hitting the corner of the table, and before I could catch myself, the two of us tumbled and fell.
We hit the ground with a loud thump, my back cracking on the hardwood, my front cushioning his fall as the rest of the Chinese food fell to the floor under and around us in a sticky mess.
I cursed as the breath whooshed out of me, but if I thought Theo was done, I was in for a rude awakening. He shoved up until he was straddling my thighs, then that scheming fucker grabbed an egg roll off the table and turned back toward me, aiming for my mouth.
The second I realized what he was planning, I clamped my lips shut and the fried flour shell smashed into my mouth.
“Eat it,fucker,” Theo growled, his eyes dancing with glee and mischief as he made a total mess of my face. It wasn’t until Igrabbed hold of his hands and rolled him to his back that he let out a grunt of surprise.
But he wasn’t giving up without a fight. He twisted his legs around mine and then shoved me with all his might until I was once again beneath him.
“Shit.” I always forgot what a cunning fighter he was, but as sauce seeped through the material of my shirt and I stared up into Theo’s wild eyes, I didn’t care that he’d one-upped me. Because instead of the stern, angry line that had been stretched across his lips all night, a wide smile had finally appeared. “You’re fucking unhinged.”
“Well,” Theo said, his breathing coming in heavy, hard pants, “you already knew that.”
“This doesn’t mean you won,” I said as he reached down and picked several of the long strands of noodle from my shirt.
“Non?Sure looks like it from where I’m sitting.”
I stared at the food dangling between his fingers. “What? No one’s ever thrown noodles at the Prince of Monaco before?”
“Can’t say they have.” Theo tossed it aside, then leaned down and licked a path up my cheek to say by my ear, “But I’m glad you were my first.”
I let out a relieved sigh then started to laugh, the tension between us finally defused, as we lay there on my living room floor surrounded by our dinner.
“A food fight, huh?” Theo said as he stared down at me, and I leaned up to take his lips with mine in a fast kiss. “I didn’t think Shepard O’Neil Winchester the third was the type to play with his food.”
“Maybe I just hadn’t found the right person to play with.”
“Ohreally? So for next time?—”
“Next time?”
“Mhmm. Next time maybe I should play a little…gentler.”
“If you mean maybe paint on me with ice cream or something, instead of throwing it at my back in a temper tantrum, then yes.”
“A temper tantrum?”
