Page 38 of Heavy Crown

Her jaw tightens before she faces me again. “So he says. I could never be with someone who thinks cheating isn’t a big deal. He tried to brush it off like he ordered an extra dessert at a restaurant. Called her a weakness.”

“Hmm.” I mull over her answer while trying to discern the best way to bring up her body language in front of the press without seeming creepy or jealous. “Do you know many people on the island?”

She laughs. “No. Derrick’s family. The employees in every department of the golf course. Some of his friends from high school. No one I would call a friend, unfortunately. That was part of my panic when I left the apartment. I didn’t have anywhere to go that wasn’t tied to him.”

“Everyone who works in the kitchen here is ancient; they’ve been with my parents forever. But Julia’s sister, Posey, is a few years older than you. I can connect the two of you if you want?”

“So,” Rory says with a hint of a smile, “you’ve found me a job, an apartment, and now you’re going to get me some friends?”

When she puts it like that, she makes it sound as though I’m running her life. Maybe I am. I spend my days making big decisions for an entire country. Getting her Bellerive experience in order is more pleasure than pain.

I hold up my empty hands, the brownie long gone. “Merely an offer.”

She searches my face, and there’s a softness around the corners of her eyes. “Who would ever believe that totaling a vehicle and almost falling off a cliff to my death would be the best thing to happen to me since I landed in Bellerive?”

Her candor takes me by surprise, and I shift forward, closing the distance between us. “Is that a yes to meeting Posey?”

“How do I repay you? You don’t need my money.” She splays her hands out. “Though, I mean, I’m going to pay rent or whatever.” She flushes. “And that was not—I’m not suggesting…” The redness in her cheeks deepens.

A slow grin spreads across my face at her discomfort. She’s adorable. “I’m not looking for that sort of payment anyway.” I wink.

She covers her face. “Oh God. I cannot believe I just implied that you—” She shakes her head. “Why would you ever need—I should stop talking now.”

Her embarrassment elicits a genuine laugh from me. She peeks out from between her fingers.

I inch closer to her on the couch, and I tug her hands from her face into mine. “There is one thing I’m in genuine need of,” I admit.

She meets my gaze, and I’m struck by the deep-jade shade. How is she so lovely?

“Name it,” she says with confidence.

“I have very little in my life that isn’t linked to the monarchy in some shape or form. My life is my job, and my job is my life.” When the corners of her eyes crinkle, I continue, “Boring, I know.”

She presses her lips together, but the edges turn up. “I can’t imagine your life is boring.”

“I’d like a slice of my life which has nothing to do with being the future king. When I’m with you, I’m Alex instead of Alexander, and I haven’t felt like him in a very long time.” There’s a chance she’ll turn me down, but my instinct tells me that whatever is stirring in me is in her too. “I’d like us to be friends.”

“Just friends?” Her voice is breathy.

Somehow, one of us has inched even closer, and when I breathe out, my breath stirs the tendrils of her blond hair that have fallen against her cheeks. I’m tempted to brush them back, cup her face, and kiss her deeply. The urge is primal, instinct more than thought, but I’m used to suppressing my urges.

“That’s all I can offer.” Desmond and my mother might be right about this path being dangerous, but if I’m clear from the start, neither of us will want something we can’t have.

She keeps focused on me as she leans forward. She kisses my cheek, her lips lingering on my stubble. Everything in me longs to press her back into the couch, to eat up her lips with my own, to test my theory about the way she’ll taste.

She draws back, and our gazes meet.

Does she realize how turned on I am? A simple kiss on the cheek has never been so fucking hot.

“I’d be honored to be your normal slice of life.” Her voice is husky.

Despite how appalled she has appeared at being my mistress, electricity jumps between us. If I kissed her, would she stop me?

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and reluctantly I put some distance between us. When I remove it, there’s a message from Desmond with a schedule change for tomorrow. We’re meeting about potential wives first thing in the morning.

The reminder is exactly what I need.

I clear my throat and rise to my feet. “Duty calls.” I grab my suit jacket off the island and open her door. “I leave for Europe in a few days, but if it’s okay with you, I might stop around at the end of work this week, if it’s not too late.”