He dipped his head as he shook it and I felt his breath tickle my neck as he said, “I like that you are yourself.”
I felt my head tilt away from him and he pressed a kiss to my neck. “How will your date feel if she finds you kissing someone else in the conservatory?” I asked him coyly, complete with a totally intentional bite of my lip when he pulled away to look at me.
In the shining lights, I saw his eyes flash hot and felt his hand tighten slightly on my waist. “I told you last week she is not my…date.”
“Oh that’s right. You’re just her escort.”
“Miss Schuller is a social obligation only.”
“You seem very sure about that.”
“I am. I want you to be very sure about it also.”
I bit my lip against a smile, feeling a hope in his words I had no right or need feeling. “Is that so?”
“It is.”
“One has to ask why you would escort her to two balls merely a week apart if you didn’t want her to think there was something more there, Dmitri.”
“I have obligations I am unable to avoid.” He ran his finger under my jaw. “That does not mean I do not wish it could be different.”
Well my chest fluttered so much it made me giggle nervously. I looked down for a moment in an effort to get myself under control. I wasn’t the girl who went unnecessary and shy and silly around boys. I could hold my own and be assertive and… Dmitri sent all that out the window to the point I wasn’t hopeful I’d ever see it again. And quite frankly he made me not care at all.
Dmitri softly tilted my face back up to his and pressed and gently kiss to my lips.
The kiss did not continue in the manner in which it started. As soon as I slid my arms around his neck, his went around my back and the only thing between us was my swathes of skirt. We moved slightly and my back was against a wall or pillar behind me, Dmitri’s arm between my skin and the stone. His other hand slid down my body until he got just past my hip and I laughed against his lips.
Our noses bumped as I said, “Yeah, these dresses really aren’t made for making out.”
“I am well aware,” he grumbled.
“Speaking from experience?” I chuckled.
“Are you?” he countered playfully.
Now that transformed him. Not literally. He still looked the same, but all of a sudden it was like he was just a normal guy with no worries. It was almost like he wasn’t the crown prince of Gallyr, like he didn’t so often seem like he carried the weight of nations on his shoulders, like he was a guy I could completely fall for.
“How often do you think I make out with people in ball gowns?” I asked him.
“This is at least your third chance. Fourth if I heard correctly about your…formal?”
I snorted. “Okay. I may have hooked up with my formal date. But that dress was not nearly as poufy as this one. And I don’t make it a habit of kissing strange men.”
“Are you calling the royal family of Gallyr strange, Tati?”
“Are you suggesting I’ve kissed more than one of them?”
“Have you not?”
I swallowed. “Technically Nico did kiss me…”
Dmitri pulled away, muttering in Gallyrian. I couldn’t pick it out word for word, but I was pretty sure the gist was something about me and Nico dating and so Dmitri wasn’t supposed to have touched me.
I put a tentative hand on his arm. “Mitya…” I said slowly.
He froze, his whole body going rigid. I watched him swallow hard before he looked at me. I couldn’t read his expression. I wasn’t sure if I regretted calling him by his nickname or if he was just surprised. I was hoping the latter.
“Mitya… Nico and I… He kissed me once, weeks ago. There’s nothing between us, though. Not like that. We’re just friends.”
“The reports?”
“Are all they ever are. Rumour. You didn’t actually think that I’d…?”
A look of such soft vulnerability crossed his face that my chest hitched. But it was gone as quickly as it had arrived. “He went to see you at Genovich. I have seen you together. Tonight… I…”
“Assumed?” I guessed.
“Agonised would be a more appropriate term,” he huffed a humourless laugh. “But yes. I assumed you and he had…grown close.”
“Even after the other night?”
He shrugged. “Even so.”
I took a step towards him and reached up to cup his cheek. “Nico is not the one I wanted to…be close to.”
I barely had a chance to register the expression on his face before he was kissing me again and I leant into it completely.
I knew it would only be a matter of time before one or both of us were missed inside and, truth be told, his kisses – steamy and lust-inducing as they were – could only keep me warm in the chilly conservatory in the middle of the night for so long.
But when we finally did go inside, he danced with me. He held my hand a little longer than he needed to. He looked at me with a little more tenderness than he had before. And, for just one night, I let myself be infatuated with a handsome prince who kissed me like the bad boy in one of my most sordid romance novels.
I didn’t know what the New Year held, but I could guess this was a one night only sort of deal. Besides it wasn’t like I wanted it to be more than a one night only sort of deal. Did I?
Lady in Training
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I’m No Princess Novella Series
The rest of the series is available now for pre-order.
Part Two Part Three Part Four
Available now Out Jan 23 2019 Out Feb 14 2019
Pre-order for the complete collection in print and ebook now.
Complete Collection
Available in ebook and print March 15 2019
Thanks
My first and foremost thanks go to Renate for this for taking the time out to have a look over my first ramblings and assure me I was in fact going in the right direction. While this definitively suggested that the slow progress was everything to do with me being terrible, at least I knew it wasn’t the story being terrible :P
I like to give a personal shoutout to Christmas for distracting me and meaning that it took me a million times longer to write than expected. But at least I had a nice break.
I’d also like to thank timezone differences for giving me an extra hour and a half (how?) to get the final files ready.
Lastly and certainly not least, I’d like to thank my readers – whether you pre-ordered, whimsy-ordered, found me by accident, thank you for choosing my book and letting me keep doing what I love.
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You can find where to buy all my books in print and ebook at my website; www.elizabethstevens.com.au/books.
About the Author
Born in New Zealand to a Brit and an Australian, I am an emerging writer with a passion for all things storytelling. I love reading, writing, TV and movies, gaming, and spending time with family and friends. I am an avid fan of British comedy, superheroes, and SuperWhoLock. I have too many favourite books, but I fell in love with reading after Isobelle Carmody’s Obernewtyn. I am obsessed with all things mythological – my current focus being old-style Irish faeries. I live in Adelaide with my long-suffering husband, delirious dog, mad cat, one guinea pig, two chickens, and a lazy turtle.
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