The shock on his face is priceless. I burst out laughing.
He doesn’t look amused. “Be straight with me, Gigi!”
“It didn’t end because it had never started. I was into Darrel, but it wasn’t reciprocal.”
He gives me ayeah-rightlook.
“When Darrel became Theo’s bodyguard, I had this crazy idea to seduce him,” I begin, watching Henri’s reaction.
He quirks an eyebrow. “And how did that go?”
“Darrel resisted. Can you believe it?”
Henri raises his glass. “Well done, Darrel, my man!”
“At the time, I found that infuriating.” I shake my head, recalling the frustration that Darrel’s uptight ways caused me. “He was handsome, single, vetted by MESS, living conveniently at the palace, devoted to my family body and soul…”
I almost add “unlike you” but stop myself at the last moment.
Henri curls his lip. “What’s not to like?”
“Indeed, he was perfect!” I tut-tut, feigning dismay.
“Did he reject you because he felt inferior, too far beneath you in the social food chain?”
“No, no, nothing so melodramatic!”
Henri peers at me. “Then what?”
“He simply didn’t see me as a woman, a flesh and blood female equipped with boobs and a pussy, you know?”
Did I just say, “boobs and a pussy”?I’ve never used that kind of vocabulary before, not even when discussing my miserable love life with Sophie.Why now?Is it Severin’s cocktail talking? Or is it Henri sitting so close and staring at me like he does?
His eyes darken. He mutters something under his breath that could be “love that pussy.” Or could be something completely different. It’s hard to tell.
I continue, “I think Darrel saw me as a humanoid of an asexual royal species whose female attributes are an optical illusion. He couldn’t picture himself banging such a humanoid.”
Here we go again!I’ve uttered more crude words in the last five minutes than in the last five years.
Henri laughs. “Or maybe he just cared about his job and didn’t want to risk losing it. Anyway, that must have been quite the blow to your ego.”
“Devastating,” I say, mock vexed. “Not sure how I survived.”
He shoots me a big, toothy smile.
Oh, how I love that smile! How I missed it!
The bar buzzes around us. Audrey keeps a watchful eye from the counter. But here, in our little corner, it feels like we’re in a world of our own.
I look Henri in the eyes. “You never saw me as an asexual humanoid.”
“No, never.”
“How do you explain it?” I ask. “You were only twenty, way beneath me in the ‘social food chain,’ to borrow your term, yet you weren’t impressed by my pedigree and status. Why?”
I’m secretly hoping to hearBecause I was in love with you.
“Because I was thinking with my dick at that age,” he says. “While erectional intelligence can get a man in trouble, it has one big advantage. I didn’t overthink it, like Darrel. When a woman begged me for sex, I gave it to her.”
