“Glad to meet you, Malik,” he said simply, his face still red. Léo decided to intervene before Ben got scared away.
“Let’s sit outside,” he said, gesturing toward the balcony overlooking the sparkling Mediterranean. As Malik followed Ben, Léo raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing here, Malik?”
Malik shrugged as he settled himself at the café table on the balcony. “I brought your things that you left at the hotel when you didn’t come back last night.” He didn’t leer or put any special emphasis on the words, but Ben’s gaze dropped to the tabletop and the color that had begun to die down flared again.
“Well, thank you for that,” Léo said, then added, “I came back here. You know I never wanted to stay at the hotel. That was Karim’s ridiculous idea.”
Ben shot him a grateful look. Léo was not shy when it came to sex, and the idea that Ben was embarrassed about Malik thinking they’d slept together was a surprising turn-on.
“Did Karim enjoy his visit?” Ben asked Malik politely.
Malik rolled his eyes. “Oh yes. He’s having a very good time on his European tour. He said something about maybe passing back through later, but I’m hoping one of his other stops will distract him.”
“He’s distractible,” Léo murmured, his attention on the curve of Ben’s neck. He wondered if Ben would let him bite it. “He’ll have forgotten all about us and Monaco before he goes to bed tonight.”
Ben chuckled, and Malik grinned.
“So, Ben,” he said, “how long are you in Monaco?”
“Just another three days,” Ben said regretfully. “This was supposed to be like a break from my holiday, because I’ve been pretty much constantly on the go.”
“Where have you been so far?”
As Ben began to recount his journey and Malik asked questions and made comments accordingly, Léo murmured that he would fetch drinks and retreated to the kitchen. Despite the fresh breeze off the water, he felt overwarm. Malik was not malicious or cruel, but he did love to tease, and Léo had honestly expected him to tease Ben. After all, the bunny, with his blushes and stammers and fumbling, was so very teaseable. Instead, his cousin was treating Ben like an old friend.
Léo quickly set up a tray with chilled glasses and sparkling water. He briefly considered wine, or cocktails, but they’d had wine with lunch, and he wanted Ben’s head clear—in case Malik learned to read his mind and left soon.
When he returned to the balcony, Ben and Malik were laughing. “You’re having me on!” Ben exclaimed, turning his smiling face toward Léo as he set the tray down. “Tell me it’s not true,” he demanded.
“What is?” Léo asked indulgently, taking a seat and filling a glass for Ben.
“Thank you,” Ben said as he took it. “Malik says you got stuck climbing over a fence once,” he informed Léo, who immediately shot Malik a dark look.
“It’s true,” he said reluctantly. “But it wasn’t exactly a fence. It was a two-foot-thick nine-foot wall with barbed wire on top.” He wondered what other stories Malik had been telling.
Ben blinked. “But….” He looked at Malik. “You said it was the fence around your school.”
“It was,” Malik said, still grinning. “Léo and I were not the most obedient students. By that time we’d been through several schools, and our parents were reduced to sending us to what was essentially a prison for teenagers.”
“Don’t exaggerate,” Léo told him. “It’s one of the top-rated schools in France. Just not as liberal as some of the other schools we went to.”
“Léo, they tried to make seventeen-year-old boys go to bed at nine o’clock!”
Léo remembered all the nights he’d huddled under blankets with a flashlight, forced to rely on a book for entertainment for hours until he was tired enough to sleep, and made a face.
“But still,” Ben said, “even if it was a nine-foot wall with barbed wire, how did you get stuck for twenty minutes?”
Malik laughed again, and Léo silently vowed to avenge himself. Then a thought occurred and his stomach plummeted. Please don’t—
“You don’t have to take my word for it,” Malik said. “There are pictures. The quality isn’t great, because it was almost dark and they were taken with a camera phone in 2004, but you can tell it’s Léo and the pictures are time stamped.”
Ben’s face lit up, and need clenched low in Léo’s belly. He could handle a bit of humiliation if it put that look on Ben’s face. After all, it wasn’t as if half of Europe hadn’t seen the pictures already.
“Can I see them? Are they here?” Ben was asking eagerly.
“They’re online,” Malik answered smugly. And well he should be smug, since he was the one who’d posted them, ostensibly to celebrate having been “free” of that school for ten years, but in reality as revenge for Léo telling his then girlfriend that she wasn’t worth Malik’s time. Léo still maintained he’d done the right thing, especially since the stupid woman had been married and divorced in the two years since, and was engaged again—to a richer and more powerful man than her ex-husband.
Ben had his phone in hand and was asking Malik where to look. Malik also had his phone in hand, sending Ben a friend request on Facebook and tagging him in the post that featured the photos so he could find them more easily. Léo sipped his water and wished it were gin.
Several very long minutes later, after the photos of Léo straddling a cold stone wall with his trousers ripped and yet somehow still caught on the barbed wire had been examined and laughed over, Ben set his phone down on the table and smiled at him.
“I’m so glad you’re not perfect,” he said guilelessly.
Léo reined back his amusement and lifted an eyebrow. “I’m not?” he asked, while Malik snickered.
“Nope.” Ben’s answer was cheerful. “I didn’t think you were anyway, because you’re kind of arrogant, but you were close. Now you’re more human, and I like you better that way.” He was slightly pink when he finished, and Léo swallowed hard. The silence drew out for long moments, and Léo wondered distantly why Malik was choosing this to be the first moment of his life to be discreetly silent.
“Anyway,” Ben mumbled finally. “Can I use your bathroom?”
Good manners sprang to life. “Of course,” Léo said. “Down the hall, first door on the left.” Ben left them, and Léo sipped again from his glass, his throat suddenly dry.
“That was not what I was expecting at all,” Malik said, and Léo met his surprisingly serious gaze.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, to begin with, I thought you’d have fucked him last night and moved on. I was expecting you to come back to the hotel and was already surprised that you’d stayed with him.”
“I didn’t—”
“I know, and that’s even more surprising. Basically, you went on a date with the little bunny.”
Léo opened his mouth to protest, but closed it when he realized it was true. He’d wined and dined Ben, then left him chastely in his hotel room after just a few kisses. When was the last time he’d done something like that?
Never.
“And then,” Malik continued, “you took him out again today, went to an aquarium, of all places”—Léo winced, realizing he’d left them too much time to talk while he’d been fetching drinks—“and brought him back here. You hardly ever bring men here.”
“Well—”
Malik held up a hand. “Not finished. You look at him like he’s edible, which doesn’t surprise me, but also like he makes your day better. He babbles, and you smile indulgently. It’s… surprising. Not bad, really, but surprising.”
Léo waited a beat. “Are you done?”
Malik nodded.
“Good. I like him. He’s… refreshing. And….” Léo searched for the right word. “Cute,” he decided. “He got all upset last night when he found out I don’t need a reservation at restaurants.”
Malik blinked. “Why?” he asked, bewildered.
Léo shru
gged. “No idea. But he was all riled up, and it was adorable. And I hate myself for even using the word adorable, but it’s the only one that fits. He’s here for a few days, and I enjoy his company, so I’m going to enjoy him while he’s here.”
Malik looked at him with a carefully blank expression. “Okay,” he said finally. “Moving on, Karim asked me if you were gay.”
Léo shrugged again. “I thought it might come up after he saw me leaving with Ben. What did you say?”
“I told him you were, and that if he had a problem with it, he needed to keep it to himself. He asked a lot of questions, mostly around what your parents and friends thought. He also asked me three times this morning if you’d be back before he left.”
That took Léo aback slightly. “Did he seem angry?”
Malik shook his head. “No. As annoying as the little pest is, you may want to make time to talk with him. It may be that Europe will suit his… temperament… more than Saudi Arabia.”
Léo rubbed his forehead. “Uncle wouldn’t like it if his son decided to forsake his responsibilities and live in Europe.”
“Uncle would like it far less if his son were discovered to be gay,” Malik said dryly. “And it’s not like Karim is his oldest son.”
On the table, Ben’s phone dinged and vibrated. Then again. And again. Malik glanced at it, then picked it up.
“Malik!” Léo hissed.
“Who’s Dani?” his irrepressible cousin asked.
“His best friend. Put that down!”
“How did lunch go?” Malik read. “‘Did you seduce him?’ I think Dani deserves bonus points for using ‘seduce’ in a text message. ‘OMG are you having sex right now?’ And the last one is really weird. ‘I hope he didn’t kill you after all.’” Malik glanced at Léo, brows furrowed. “What could Ben have told his friend that would lead her to think you’d kill him?”
“I have no idea,” Léo admitted. “She found the Wikipedia page, so she’s probably seen some of the tabloid articles too, but I don’t think anything in them paints me as a murderer.”
Malik shrugged. “Sounds like the friend is a lot like Ben.” He put the phone back. “But in case you were worried about whether you were going to get him into bed, it seems like he’s a pretty certain bet.”
“Thanks,” Léo said dryly.
Ben rejoined them, and Léo had a moment of utter relief that they hadn’t been caught invading his privacy. He might have to find a way to subtly suggest Ben change his phone settings so the contents of text messages weren’t displayed on the lock screen. Léo had done that years ago, as his family couldn’t be trusted not to look.
Gabriel had once gotten quite an education by being nosy.
“Your phone beeped a few times,” Malik said helpfully.
Ben smiled and picked it up as he sat down. “Thank you.” He glanced at it and blanched. Malik watched, smirking, as Ben swiped the screen. “Excuse me,” he muttered. “It’s Dani. I just have to—” He tapped away for a few moments before slipping the phone into his pocket. “Sorry about that.”
“Is your friend also here?” Malik asked.
Ben shook his head. “No, she’s at home in Australia. She just likes to know everything I’m doing.”
Malik frowned. “Isn’t it quite late in Australia?” He looked at his watch. “I can never keep all the time zones straight, but I’m certain that early evening here means wee hours of the morning there.”
Ben winced. “Yeah. It’s about two in the morning, I think. She’s, uh, she stayed up because she wanted… she wanted to hear about my visit to the Musée océanographique.”
Léo couldn’t hold back his smile, and he doubted Malik even tried. “She’s a marine fan, then?” his cousin teased.
Ben studiously looked out at the water. “Yeah. She, uh, loves the ocean.”
Léo took pity on his bunny and changed the subject. “We haven’t yet talked about your plans while you’re here.”
Ben seized on the lifeline and began to chatter about visiting the Prince’s Palace, wandering through the streets and “soaking up atmosphere”—Léo and Malik exchanged bewildered glances at that—and possible jaunts to Nice. Malik helpfully suggested some areas in the countryside surrounding Monaco that might be of interest—Léo recognized all of them as places Malik had taken women for “romantic” dates—but Léo could tell from his cousin’s expression that he was plotting something.
“So, Ben,” he finally said, and Léo kicked him under the table. It mustn’t have been hard enough, because he was ignored. “I couldn’t help but glance at your phone when it went off before—my apologies—and I noticed something that made me curious.”
Ben’s eyes widened. “Er….”
“What did your friend mean when she said she hoped Léo hadn’t killed you?”
Relief crossed Ben’s face, followed closely by mortification. “Um… that was just a silly joke,” he said weakly.
Malik cocked his head. “Really? I don’t get it.” He smiled charmingly. Léo could actually see Ben relax in the face of that smile. He’d always wondered how his cousin did that. He picked up his glass, wondering once again if it was something that could be learned.
“Well, it’s like…. You know those movies, where some random, ordinary person sees something that turns out to be highly classified? And then a government assassin is sent to silence them?”
Léo choked on his water, and Malik’s jaw dropped.
“You… thought Léo was a government assassin sent to kill you?”
Ben screwed up his face. “It sounds stupid when you say it like that.”
“Really?” Léo asked incredulously. “Only when he says it like that?” He looked down at his clothing, wondering what about his custom-tailored designer apparel said “government flunky” and “murderer.” He looked back at Ben, and his dick surged to life at the sight of Bunny chewing on his lower lip.
“I know it’s silly,” Ben admitted. “But it seemed to make a lot of sense when I was talking to Dani this morning. Well, kind of.”
“How exactly did that conversation go?” Malik asked curiously.
Ben flushed and shook his head. “Look, it was stupid. I was telling her about last night, and she said it sounded kind of like a movie.”
Léo found himself utterly befuddled yet again. It seemed to be a common thing when he was speaking with Ben, and he wasn’t sure he liked it. He ran the events of the previous evening through his mind and came up blank.
“What the heck did you two do last night that sounded like a movie where the government assassinates someone?” Malik demanded, his gaze on Léo, who just shrugged.
“No, that’s not….” Ben trailed off helplessly. “Léo, you explain it.”
Léo stared at him, astonished. “You want me to explain it?”
Ben nodded.
Léo shook his head. “What, exactly, am I explaining?”
The sigh Ben gave contained the weight of the world. “I guess you don’t see it, but try to be me.” He cast a doubtful glance at Léo. “Okay, that may not be within the scope of the possible. Just…. So I’m in the casino, and this incredibly hot guy approaches me. He turns out to not only be gorgeous, but also really nice and incredibly wealthy and the son of a princess, for God’s sake.”
Léo shifted, a little uncomfortable. He’d always been aware that fate had been kind to him, but hearing it all itemized was… unsettling.
“And then not only does this—this Adonis deign to speak to me, he buys me incredible champagne and takes me to dinner at a fully booked restaurant and we have drinks overlooking the ocean in a casino that is considered one of the bywords for glamour in the modern world. Things like that don’t happen to normal people. So when Dani said it sounded like a movie….”
“You immediately thought of the kind that didn’t end well for the ‘normal’ person,” Malik said understandingly. Ben nodded. “That’s not very flattering to you, Ben.”
Ben shrugged. “The
odds all point in that direction.”
Léo leaned forward, hooked a hand around Ben’s nape, and pulled him forward into a kiss. Finally, finally, after hours of waiting and flirting and looking at turtles, he sucked on that lip, licking into Ben’s warm, delicious mouth.
Distantly, he heard Malik excusing himself, and then the sound of the front door slamming. When Léo eventually drew back, they were both breathless and Ben’s eyes were glassy.
“You are not a ‘normal’ person,” Léo whispered.
Ben’s expression changed from dreamy to hurt, and he pulled away. Léo watched, bewildered, as he got up and began gathering the glasses from the table.
“Ben?”
“Yeah, uh, just… I’ll call a cab or something. Or I bet it’s not too far to walk back to my hotel from here. I mean, nothing’s really far in Monaco, right? Ha ha.”
“You’re leaving?” Léo was shocked. Why was he going? After their day together, and that kiss…. Also, Dani’s message had all but said outright that Ben had been planning to have sex with him. “Ben, put that down. What’s wrong?”
Ben set the tray back on the table, took a deep breath, and looked Léo in the eye. “I know I’m a bit… well, odd sometimes. I know I talk a lot and make some weird leaps of logic. And I know I’m really nothing like you and your friends. But it kind of stings to be kissed like that and then told I’m not normal.”
Léo blinked, then started to laugh. He couldn’t even blame it on a language barrier, just a stupid miscommunication. Ben made a hurt sound and spun around, and Léo lunged out of his chair to grab his bunny’s hand.
“Wait, please. I apologize, I shouldn’t be laughing. It’s just… we are talking at cross-purposes.” Bunny wouldn’t meet his eyes. His face was flushed, and his lower lip trembled slightly. Léo couldn’t resist; he bent and dropped a kiss on that mouth. “When I said you weren’t normal, I meant in the sense we were talking about before. You said that wonderful, exciting, ‘fairy-tale’ things didn’t happen to ‘normal’ people. You’re not one of those people, Ben. You’re extraordinary. You’re worthy of a Hollywood movie plot, and before you start thinking about assassination and bets and whatever else, I mean that in the best way.”
The Bunny and the Billionaire Page 6