“Alix sounded really happy.”
“Hmmm,” he murmured noncommittally. He’d finished his pastry and was tracing a light line up and down her arm with a finger. Her breath caught in her throat at his touch.
“Do you want to go out to lunch later?” she ventured, his eagerness giving her hope that he was out of hibernation.
His hand stopped, inches from her neck. He pulled away, shaking his head.
“I need to get back to the studio today,” he said. “I was so close last night. I can see it finished in my mind now.”
With a tightening in her chest, she realized what was wrong. It wasn’t the fact that he was cutting short their morning to go to his studio to work. That was nothing new.
Until that moment, she’d thought she was happy with her arrangement with Anton. She’d gotten her prince, and had kept his attention longer than any girl he’d ever been with. He hadn’t been with anyone else in over two years, despite what the papers tried to sell. He’d seen how well she’d kept everything private, and wasn’t about to give that up. It had been hard for her at first, but it had been worth it to get what she wanted.
But was she getting what she needed? She didn’t have all of him. Not even half, or a third, or a quarter. While Alix has been forming a real life together with Duncan, she had basically gotten two years of booty calls. She’d even said it last night—he could bother her whenever he wanted. But she couldn’t bother him.
“I can’t do this anymore, Anton,” she said suddenly, putting down her half-eaten pastry and looking around for her clothes.
“What? Eat pastry?” he chuckled. “Are you doing that weird caveman diet again?”
She sighed, and rolled her eyes.
“You know what I mean.” She located her dress and pulled it on quickly, not taking the time to look for her underwear. She could see his reaction to that fact growing by the second, so she hurried to explain before he got her going again. With him, all it took was a look. “Alix and Duncan are for real. We’re not. Let’s stop pretending.”
A line appeared between his eyebrows. Stella felt her resolve weaken at seeing him so adorably perplexed.
No, she had to stay strong. She had to do this quickly, and not think about it too much. She’d already spent enough time on him the past few years.
“I thought you were fine with everything,” he said slowly, as if trying to remember the exact words of some official conversation they’d never actually had. “We have fun together, and we keep it private. I have my work. You have your work. This way we can both focus on our careers without it being a whole big public thing.”
Stella bit her lip. Her “career.” As a financial analyst at her father’s bank, it wasn’t exactly hard to move up when daddy was in charge. Sure she’d gotten the degree, and decent grades at that. But she’d never really had to try that hard. Not like Alix. Stella was such a joke compared to her.
“With the wedding, all eyes will be on you—on us,” she said, bending down to put on her shoes. Seeing his eyes follow her ass as she leaned over, she decided to sit back down on the bed instead. She sat on the corner farthest away from where he was laying with his hair all rumpled and his arms crossed over his chest. She ignored the pull in her own chest to curl up against him. “Neither of us wants that kind of attention. This has always been a private thing. Less messy, right? So let’s keep it that way.”
“If that’s what you want,” he said, the line on his brow deepening. “I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to.”
“Oh, trust me, everything we’ve done, I wanted to,” she reassured him, a half smile playing on her face as she pulled on her jacket. “In fact, I’m pretty sure you’re the one who said no to that last idea I had.” She stood in the mirror facing his bed and winked at him as she fixed her hair. In the reflection, she saw him tilt his head to one side.
“I don’t know what to say.”
She took a deep breath.
“We’ve said it all before.” Her eyes met his in the mirror. Well, they hadn’t technically ever talked about anything this seriously. But not saying things was sometimes the same as saying them. “Don’t worry about it.”
She returned to the bed and leaned down to kiss him, deeply, one last time. As she pulled away, she gave him a smile to let him know she’d be fine. His brow was still furrowed, but he returned her a small smile with a wave as she walked out, her head high, a confidence in her steps she didn’t completely feel inside.
So what if her fairytale prince hadn’t turned out the way she’d expected? She’d just have to look elsewhere for her happily ever after.
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Available June 19, 2018
A Royal Distraction Page 12