“Stay,” he said, and I inhaled deeply, shaking my head.
“Someone will get suspicious,” I replied.
“Wow, wisdom came, albeit late,” he mocked, and I sighed in frustration.“Come on,” he said, and I couldn’t explain why my feet moved toward him as he gestured for me to sit on the couch across from him.
“I cannot,” I said, gulping nervously, shaking my head, fisting the couch’s backrest.
He insisted, gesturing for me to sit. Again.
I bit my lower lip, clenched my hands on my skirt, and walked around before sitting on the couch. He leaned forward, tore off a tiny piece of chapatti, and began eating after keeping it in the corner.
“Can I ask you something?” I asked softly, and he nodded.“What does‘dinner notdinner’mean?” I murmured, and he smirked, pointing at the food with his index finger.
“Dinner,” he said, then lifted his finger toward me and repeated slowly,“Dinner.”
I immediately stood up from the couch; my heart raced like a horse.
“Are you…” Mad? The words hung in my throat.
Smiling, he said,“As I said, I’m not in the mood today. You can calm down.”
I shook my head mentally, not believing it.
How could he say that? He was to be married in less than six months. And what was I doing here?
“Are you okay?” he asked, catching my attention,
The silence followed. His change of tone reminded me of his teasing nature.
He was teasing me.
I nodded.“Yes, it’s just the memory won’t fade away,” I said, and he nodded in understanding.
“Try distracting your brain somewhere else,” he suggested, taking another bite.
I bit my lower lip, unsure of where to put it.“Like what?”
He smirked.“Like being…dinner,”
I sighed, rolling my eyes. I couldn’t believe it. How could he talk like that?
I shot him a glare.“I pity your wife.”
He cocked his left eyebrow at me.“Really?” while taking another bite, and I nodded.
“Yes, no girl would ever want her husband flirting with another woman. She’d be devastated. You need to be loyal to her,” I tried to explain, and he looked at me, responding while taking a deep breath.
“Says the one who is becoming a hurdle in that cause?”
I furrowed my brows, not understanding him.“What do you mean?”
He pushed the plate away, and I could sense he had gotten angry as he replied.“If you keep coming here, talking to me, and thinking about me, I won’t be loyal to her. Not at all. We’ll have to forget that, and you can’t keep coming here,” he said, more like an order, leaving me agape.
“You asked me to stay,” I reminded him.
“Ah, th… that’s because you wanted it,” he retorted.
I inhaled sharply.“And since when did a royal prince care about the wants of a maid?” I raised my voice.
