by Noelle Adams
No longer able to delay, I went outside, wandering around to look for Stefan.
I couldn’t find him.
All our plans would come to naught if I couldn’t even find the man.
I was getting frustrated and was walking more quickly as I turned a corner of the path that meandered through immaculately sculpted hedges.
Stefan was immediately in front of me on the path. I couldn’t stop myself in time and ran right into him.
He reached out to stabilize me so we didn’t both end up on the ground.
“Oh. Oh! Sorry! I’m sorry!” I was breathless, but at least our near collision made that plausible. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
“It is no trouble,” Stefan said, his hands staying in place on my upper arms. “You are in a hurry?”
Damn. Now I needed a good excuse for rushing around the way I’d been doing. “Oh. No. Not really. Just talking a walk after dinner. I… I like to walk fast.”
The words sounded silly to me, but Stefan didn’t appear to question them. His dark eyes were moving over my face and body, and I suddenly realized he was liking what he saw.
He liked how I looked.
It was such a strange and exciting scenario.
As far as I knew, no man had really liked how I looked before.
“You have too much German in your blood,” he said in his lazy drawl. “You need to learn how to slow down and enjoy yourself.”
“I… I guess so.”
“Will you walk with me?”
“I… Of course.”
I was stammering more than I should, but he didn’t seem to notice or mind. He offered his arm, and I took it as we started to walk down the path, much more slowly than I’d been moving before.
“Now,” Stefan said. “This is better, isn’t it?”
I had no idea what to say to that. There was a lilt to his voice that made me think he meant more than the words themselves should denote. He was flirting with me, and I just wasn’t any good at responding to flirting.
I’d never had any practice.
“Are you always so quiet?” he asked after I failed to respond to his earlier question.
I gave him a rueful smile. “I am often.”
“What does it take to get you to open up?”
I blushed for no good reason. The words were innocuous enough, but the implication felt intrusive, almost inappropriate.
I was still trying to figure out what to say when Alex appeared ahead of us on the path. He gestured for me, in what was an obvious request for me to join him.
“Will you excuse me for a moment?” I asked, relieved to be rescued from this conversation. “He probably has a message for me.”
“Of course.”
I walked toward Alex and realized that Stefan was waiting for me on the path. The situation was working out perfectly. Now he could see how Alex and I interacted.
We were supposed to be making him jealous. I wondered if it could possibly work.
“Looks like things are going well,” Alex murmured when I approached him. He stood far more closely than normal, but I saw his eyes focused over my shoulder, back where I’d left Stefan standing. “He’s certainly leering at you a lot.”
“He wasn’t leering,” I said with a gasp.
“Yes. He was.” Alex’s voice was gruff.
“Well, that’s good, isn’t it?” I felt more flustered now than I had back with Stefan. “That’s the point. Why do you look so bad-tempered about it?”
Something shifted on his face—although what it was I couldn’t really follow. “I’m not bad-tempered,” he said in a normal tone. “I’m pretending to be jealous myself.”
“Oh.” For some reason my heart dropped at this realization. Of course that was what Alex was doing. “You’re a good actor.”
He reached to put his hand out so his fingers were spanning the side of my ribs. He used the grip to edge me closer to him. “That’s good then.”
“I… I guess.” I stared up at him, flushed and excited by the expression in his eyes and the feel of his hand on my body.
He was a really good actor. He looked all hot and possessive at the moment, like he was laying his claim on me.
And I wanted him to.
“Try to act like you want to be close to me,” he murmured thickly.
I took another shuddering breath and raised a hand to rest on his chest. “I’m not any good at this.”
“Yes, you are. Try to relax.”
“I am relaxed.” All I could feel was the heat and tension from his body, so close to mine now.
“No, you’re not. You’re uptight and nervous. I’m not going to hurt you, you know.”
“I know that.” I was starting to get annoyed. He might be right about me, but he didn’t have to make such a big deal about it. It would be more polite to let my nervousness go unremarked. “This is just weird.”
“Try to think about me like a man and not like your harmless friend.”
The words broke into my flustered mind and lodged there. “Of course you’re a man. What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means you need to at least pretend to think about me differently if this is going to be convincing.” He slid his hand from my ribs to the small of my back.
My whole body was throbbing now, and I couldn’t take a full breath. “I think about you just fine.”
It was a ridiculous argument, but I couldn’t think clearly enough to manage anything more coherent.
“I don’t think you do.”
I couldn’t even begin to figure out what his words meant because his face was leaning in toward mine.
Then his lips were pressed against mine. Very gently. Deliciously.
I was aware of nothing in the world except the internal roar that Alex was kissing me.
I was audibly panting when he pulled back.
“There,” he said, his voice still hoarser than it should have been. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“That was… that was… fine.”
He frowned. “You’re hard on a man’s ego, you know.”
“What?” My cheeks were still burning, and my hand was trembling slightly on his chest.
Alex’s mouth turned up in a wry, self-deprecating smile. “It would be nice for a kiss to be better than fine.”
I gasped as I realized what he was saying. “But it was just pretend!” It hadn’t felt like pretend to me, but I wasn’t foolish enough to even remotely convey that fact to Alex.
I wasn’t going to be humiliated like that again.
He let out a breath. “I know it was.” His eyes moved again to where Stefan was standing at a distance. “He definitely didn’t like that I just kissed you. You should be good to go.”
I’d totally forgotten about Stefan, but now I glanced back. I couldn’t read his expression, but maybe Alex had a better vantage point. “All right. Thank you. I’ll… I’ll talk to you later.”
“Of course.”
He sounded stiff, not really like himself, but I was too distracted to figure that out at the moment. I turned around and walked back to Stefan, both relieved and disappointed to leave Alex and all those intense feelings he’d evoked behind.
Stefan was frowning as I approached. “Who is that?” he demanded.
Alex had been right. He definitely sounded jealous.
I could hardly believe such a ridiculous plan had worked.
Maybe men really were like that. It took a little competition to pique their interest.
“That’s Alex,” I said. “He’s… He works here.”
“Then what is he doing with his hands on you?”
I gave a little shrug, having no idea how to answer that question.
The shrug was evidently effective. His frown deepened. “Is he your boyfriend?”
“I have no boyfriend. He’s just… interested.”
Stefan’s face relaxed, and he gave me a slow smile that was warm and almost seductive. “Is that right? Then he wo
n’t be happy when you go out with me tomorrow evening, will he?”
My lips parted. “I’m going out with you?”
“Yes, you are.”
I gave him a fluttery smile, and he clearly took this as agreement.
This was the strangest situation.
I’d just kissed Alex for the first time in my life.
And tomorrow evening I was going out with another man.
It wasn’t hard for me to figure out which of these two truths I was more excited about, but I really needed to work on being realistic.
Stefan might be a possibility for me.
Alex just wasn’t.
Four
The following evening, Stefan took me into Geneva so we could go to dinner at a fancy restaurant.
Everything went quite smoothly. The food was good, Stefan was charming, and I even managed to sustain a decent conversation the whole time.
But on the way home I was feeling kind of disappointed and let down.
I’d expected my first romantic date to be exciting.
And it just wasn’t.
The truth was, it had been rather boring.
It was probably my fault. I was nervous, and after having gone without my whole life, I’d built romantic dates up in mind to such an extent that reality couldn’t possibly match up to my fantasies.
Nothing bad had happened. Stefan was an attractive man, and he seemed like a decent one as well.
I couldn’t turn down a perfectly good possibility because it didn’t match what I had in my mind.
I was going to be mature and reasonable about this.
I was going to give Stefan another chance.
Assuming he wanted one.
When we reached the palace, he helped me out of the back of the chauffeured car we had taken. I stumbled slightly standing up, and he slipped an arm around my waist to stabilize me.
I smiled up at him, wondering why I felt like it was some other girl standing here, gazing up at this handsome Frenchman and wondering if he was going to kiss her.
My mind felt rather fuzzy, but my blood wasn’t throbbing the way it had when Alex had kissed me yesterday.
That had been pretend though, so the comparison wasn’t appropriate.
“Did you enjoy yourself tonight?” Stefan asked, his hand still pressed against the small of my back.
“Yes,” I said with a smile. “Thank you for dinner. It was delicious.”
I waited, but he just gave a small nod and then lowered his arm.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said, trying to fill the awkward silence in any way I could.
“Yes. Tomorrow. I look forward to it. And maybe we could go out again soon.”
“I would like that.” I smiled at him again, and then since the conversation seemed to be over, I turned around and started to walk up the front steps to the palace entrance.
I assumed Stefan was still standing by the car, but I didn’t turn back to see him.
As soon as I was inside, I pulled out my phone to text Alex.
Are you around or at home?
On the roof.
I’m coming.
Relieved at his proximity, despite the late hour, I hurried to the back stairway that led up to the roof.
When I stepped outside, I saw Alex standing next to the railing in his normal position. He gave me a strange little smile that didn’t reach his eyes as I approached.
“I guess it went pretty well then,” he said.
I frowned. “What makes you say that?”
“I saw you down by the car.”
Of course he did. His vantage point looked down onto the front drive and the courtyard, so he would have seen Stefan’s car pull up and then us getting out.
Stefan had put his arm around me, but otherwise nothing had happened between us.
“He didn’t even kiss me,” I said, realizing that Alex was waiting for me to reply.
“I’m sure he wanted to.”
“Well, he didn’t.” I wasn’t sure why I was pressing the point, but it seemed important that Alex realize this fact.
“Did he ask you about going out again?”
“He said something generic about how we might do this again, but it wasn’t definite.”
“So things didn’t go well?” For the first time, his expression looked natural again—relaxed, composed, observant.
“I don’t know. It all went smoothly. There just…” I stopped myself before I told him there weren’t any sparks between us since that felt like the death knell of a relationship. It was too early to know that anyway.
“There just what?”
“I just don’t know how interested he is.”
I wasn’t sure why, but it felt safer to place the blame for the bad date at Stefan’s feet.
Alex frowned, his forehead wrinkling in the way it did when he was thinking. “He looked interested to me. I saw him groping you.”
I gasped. “He wasn’t groping me! I almost fell, and he was catching me.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Don’t be snide. He wasn’t groping. I’m telling you, he didn’t really make a move.”
“It’s just the first date.”
“I know. I just… I don’t know. I guess I’ll just wait and see.”
“If he doesn’t want to go out with you again, then he’s obviously not the right guy.”
“I know,” I grumbled. “But eventually it gets old to never find anyone but the wrong guy.”
He reached out to smooth down a flyaway curl of hair that was blowing around my face in the breeze. “The right guy is out there for you. Don’t give up so quickly.”
“So quickly? I’ve been waiting forever! I can’t even seem to find the right-guy-for-now.”
Alex didn’t speak for a long time, and his eyes felt strangely intense as they rested on my face. Finally he asked softly, “So you’re giving up on Stefan?”
I cleared my throat, reminding myself that Alex had had every chance to make a move on me, and he’d never once done it. He wasn’t interested in me. Whoever the right guy was for me, it would never be Alex. With this in mind, I replied, “No. Not yet. You’re right. It was just the first date. I’ll wait and see.”
He let out a breath and took a small step backward so he wasn’t standing so close to me. He stared down at the empty courtyard. “All right then.”
I moved closer to the rail and gazed out at the old stone wall that surrounded the palace grounds and at the city beyond it.
We stood in silence until my phone chirped with a text. I pulled it out and checked the screen.
It was Stefan.
Can I take you out again on Tuesday evening?
I gasped. “He wants to go out again. On Tuesday.”
After a long hesitation, Alex finally said in a matter-of-fact tone. “See. He’s interested in you after all.”
“I guess.”
“You guess? He wants to go out with you again two nights from now. That’s definite interest.”
“Maybe. Or maybe he just wants something to do while he’s here.”
“This doesn’t feel like that to me.”
“Well, what do you know?”
“I thought I was supposed to be giving you lessons on men? He texted you fifteen minutes after you said goodnight to ask for another date. He’s interested.”
My chest felt weird and tight, but my blood still wasn’t throbbing in that way I would have expected.
This was all going well.
Really well.
I couldn’t even believe it was happening.
I should be a lot more excited about it.
“Are you going to say yes?” Alex asked, breaking into my contemplations.
“Yes. Of course I am.”
“Then do it.”
I wasn’t sure why he was being so terse about it, but I raised my phone so I could text back a reply.
When I hit send, I let out a breath. There. It was done. I was going out with Stefan again.
And I was going to be excited about it.
Eventually.
***
On Tuesday evening, my heart was racing, and my blood was pulsing as I stepped out of my bathroom into my bedroom, where Alex was lounging on an antique settee.
I’d told him he needed to come over to help me prep for the date, and the first step was to inspect my outfit.
I’d put on a new dress I’d bought this afternoon—not a formal gown but a more casual one appropriate for a dinner date. It was rust red and a lot shorter and slinkier than most dresses I wore.
I felt strangely naked as I turned around to show Alex.
He just stared at me without speaking.
“Well?” I demanded at last, pulling the fabric down around my thighs in a futile attempt to cover more of my legs.
“It’s good.” He cleared his throat and shifted on the settee. “Are you sure you want to wear it?”
I sucked in a breath and stared at myself in the mirror. “What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing’s wrong with it. It looks great. But it might give Stefan the wrong idea.”
“What idea?”
“That you want him to take it off.”
I gasped again, more loudly this time. “It’s not that bad! Don’t be ridiculous.” I frowned down at myself. “Is it really inappropriate?” I asked in a different tone.
I was completely clueless about dating, about men. Maybe Alex was right. Maybe I’d made a big mistake in picking out this dress.
Alex scowled and leaned back against the cushion. “No. It’s not inappropriate. It looks great.”
“But you said Stefan would think—”
“I was exaggerating. I’m sorry. You should wear it. Stefan will be blown away.”
“You think so?”
“Any man would be.”
His tone was thicker than it should be, so I studied his face, but he wasn’t looking at me now. He was focused down on the floor.
He looked stiff, uncomfortable.
With a sigh, I went over to sit down beside him. “I’m sorry, Alex. I shouldn’t have asked you to come up here. Helping me get ready for a date is probably the last thing you want to do.”
His eyes darted up so quickly they surprised me. “What do you mean?”
My lips parted. “I just mean most guys wouldn’t want to be thrown into the role of outfit inspector. I should have saved you the annoyance.”