Page 38 of Fit for a King

Gabriel pushed off the door and walked over, shaking his head. When he stopped in front of me, he slapped my hand away and then unfastened the top two buttons.

“You don’t have to be so buttoned up in your own goddamn bedroom,” he said.

The second the buttons were undone, I could breathe again, and I closed my eyes, nodding.

His hands gripped my shoulders, and I felt like they were all that was holding me up right then. “You okay? Gonna pass out on me, big brother?”

I shook my head. “Five minutes.” It was what I always said when I felt resentful of the fact that it was me in this position and not Gabriel. If only he’d been the first twin.

Though that didn’t help the situation with Noah, because a prince couldn’t be with a footman either. We were from two different worlds, and no matter how much things had changed with modern times, class distinctions, and all the rules and stipulations that came with them, had not.

“You have seen this guy, right?” Gabriel said, giving my shoulders a little shake before dropping his hands. “He’s not exactly hard on the eyes. Maybe relax a little and you can enjoy him.” He waggled his brows at me, and where I would’ve normally laughed, I could only groan.

“Gabriel.”

“What? I know you’ve heard it too.”

“What, that he gets around?”

“Uh, translation: fucking good in bed. What’s the problem?”

I couldn’t exactly tell him why Alejandro held no appeal for me. I loved my brother, but he was far too friendly with the staff, and what if he let it slip about Noah, or treated him differently—or worse, joked about it when Baxter or Noah were around?

No, I couldn’t tell him. Nothing could happen there anyway, so what was the point?

“If you’re interested, I could make an introduction,” I said.

“Oh no you don’t. First of all, I’m not the king, and second, I don’t need help getting laid.”

“And I do?”

Gabriel quirked a brow, and I didn’t need to hear him say it. I wasn’t as social as my brother. Not that I hadn’t indulged in relationships, because I had, but none of them had been considered serious or long term because the guys I’d been with didn’t provide enough advantages for my future position. I hadn’t been thinking about marriage yet anyway, and truth be told, I was more grateful that it wasn’t a requirement to marry a woman to produce an heir or five, not when there were ways to still have a biological child using a vetted royal surrogate. That, at least, was one way the monarchy had changed for the better, but the match for a king still had to be a politically advantageous one.

“When was the last time you had sex?”

“Unlike you, I don’t keep a little black book.”

Gabriel shrugged, completely unbothered by my barb. “Maybe you should. Keep a black book. That way you could’ve called someone last night to relieve this little…itch you seem to be having.”

“I don’t have an itch.”

“You sure? Seems to me you could definitely use a good scratch.”

“Are you quite done?”

Gabriel walked over to the chaise and sprawled out on it, kicking his legs out. “Yes, but we still haven’t worked out a solution to your little conundrum.”

I turned back to the mirror and began to refasten my buttons. “I didn’t realize that’s what we were doing. Also, since when has tying one’s life to another ever been considered a little issue?”

“Conundrum is the actual word I used, because that’s what it is.” Gabriel pursed his lips. “A confusing little problem we need an answer to.”

“This isn’t a mathematical equation, brother.”

“No, it’s a meeting between two men to see if they’re compatible, and all you have to be is agreeable.” Gabriel turned his head in my direction and winced. “Yes, I see where the problem is now.”

I turned to face him, hands on hips. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re so…” He gestured up my body to my rebuttoned shirt.