by Quirah Casey
The scruffier twin’s eyes rake over everyone, pausing on the dark man a second longer than anyone else. The dark man stares right back, his face still hard as stone, yet there’s something softer lurking right underneath the surface in his eyes. The twin’s mouth pulls into a wide, genuine smile before his gaze starts to move again. His gaze sweeps right over me before he pauses and returns it to me. His brow raises the slightest fraction before he nudges his twin who also turns to gaze at me.
I wait for the protest and snarky comments, but they never come. Instead the two just continue to watch me with matching grins on their faces before the scruffy one winks at me, and they go back to conversing amongst each other.
Not what I expected.
The chatter carries on as I wonder where the man of the hour is. He’s got to be here. I mean, this is a competition to see who’s going to be his champion.
Another five minutes of chatter passes by in which the orange headed man from the check in line sits next to me, the twins continue to laugh and giggle, and I catch the dark man shooting me glances.
Finally, there’s a commotion as everyone gets to their feet when the man I’ve been waiting for walks through the arch of the entrance. Short black hair, with silver accents peeking through that have nothing to do with age, complementing smokey grey eyes. The man is just over six feet, not one of the tallest or broadest men I’ve seen, but what he lacks in size he makes up for in confidence as he walks in, his shoulders up, his back straight, his gait strong and steady.
The other competitors get to their feet, knowing they’re in the presence of high royalty, someone much more prominent and powerful than themselves.
The crown prince.
A throat clears, bringing my attention to the non scruffy twin who raises a brow and makes a small gesture with his hand for me to stand up. Shit. Unlike my companions, I have no respect for the royal family. It didn’t even cross my mind to stand up and show respect for a man who comes from the family whose past is covered in the blood of my own.
The twin continues to watch me, and while there isn’t anger in his eyes at my blatant disrespect, there is a bit of warning. I stand, dusting off my clothes, and he finally moves his gaze away. I look around to see if anyone else noticed the small hiccup and only find the gaze of the dark man on me. I turn away before I can make eye contact with him for too long only to fall into the deep pits of cold grey eyes.
“What the hell are you doing here?”