Because we couldn’t, that’s why.
Sighing, I walked into the warm interior of the academy. There was nothing in my life that was normal right now. Not the men I was associating with, not the family I potentially belonged to.
Not even the way I conducted my college education.
When would my life return to normal? What was normal anyway? I wasn’t really sure at this point. I had to, however, figure out what I was going to do next before someone else figured it out for me.
**
Royce
I drove like a bat out of hell back home, cursing myself as I did so. While I had enjoyed myself tonight with Anna, I hated the fact that I was going home alone. I thought that maybe I could wear her down, bring her back to my place, and take her in my bed until we both couldn’t see straight. I craved her, not only her body, but damn, her company as well.
But she had turned me down. I couldn’t blame her. The three of us were all over her and I imagined she was starting to question everything we were doing.
She should. Hell, she shouldn’t trust any of us.
“Bloody hell,” I said, gripping the steering wheel tightly. There were times, very few times at that, that I wished I was someone else.
That I didn’t have the weight of my family’s future on my shoulders.
That I wasn’t on the verge of failing.
That I wasn’t a fucking king.
This was one of those times. What would it be like to be just another bloke, lusting after a girl that had a smile like that?
Shit, I was turning into some sort of poet.
I chuckled as I pulled my car into the drive, waiting until the garage door rose before I pulled in. For a small moment in time tonight, I had felt normal. Anna hadn’t looked at me as the king I was, or the man who was trying to ruin her future, but as a regular guy out on a regular date with a girl he fancied.
And I did fancy her, a hell of a lot.
Climbing out of the car, I shut the door and walked up to the back door of the house, holding my key fob up to the door lock to unlock it. The warm interior greeted me, but also the silence, too, and I sighed, crossing the kitchen to reach for the good-ass brandy I kept in the cabinet, away from the other kings.
After locating a glass, I poured a healthy swallow and drained it, the fiery liquid burning a path to my gut. Damn her. She made me think of things that I hadn’t ever.
She made me question who I was and what I was doing.
She made me feel human and not at all like the superior that I should be. I had responsibilities to my family, to my country, to every fucking body, and Anna was making me question if I even wanted that sort of responsibility.
I poured another glass, wasting no time with the chaser. Maybe I should just get fucking drunk tonight and forget about everything for a while.
But as I placed the glass on the counter, I knew I couldn’t drink her away. Hell, I had tried to do it already, more than once. She had gotten under my skin, in my thoughts.
In my fucking dreams.
Shit.
Chapter 17
Anna
The next afternoon was my weekly session with Arthur. While had forgotten about it when I got tangled with Royce, I had texted Arthur and re-upped our time together, curious to know what I could find out from the king.
Max was right. I needed to practice using Arthur and Royce as pawns in my own game because that was what I was in.
A game.
I found Arthur waiting in one of the empty classrooms in the senior hall, his body leaning up against the desk there. His expression was inscrutable, and I gave him my best ‘I’m not worried’ look, though inside I was worried. What had he heard?
Did he know about Royce?
What about Isauros? Had someone told him about my encounter with her?
I found it hard to be around Arthur lately. After our encounter in the hall that day, I knew he had a difference of opinion when it came to what I should be doing and who I should be hanging out with.
The interesting part was that he thought I shouldn’t be with anyone but him, the same guy that had lied to me about his interest. Didn’t he remember that he was part of the same pact as Royce and Max had been?
Maybe that was selective memory.
“Hey,” I said, shutting the door behind me.
“Hey,” he said, pushing away from the desk. “You ready for your lesson?”
I nodded. “What will it be today? The way I walk?”
“We are going to practice court decorum,” he answered, completely ignoring my joke. “The court is very important when it comes to being a royal. It is where you can make one misstep and completely insult another country without even knowing.”
“Great,” I muttered, sliding into one of the chairs. “How do you remember all this? Do they play this in your crib when you are a baby?”
His grin was fleeting. “Maybe. You get a book and a shitload of lessons until it’s like second nature.”
“Must be difficult,” I answered, leaning back in the chair.
“For a dude, yes,” he replied, reaching into his back pocket. I watched as he produced a slim book before he threw it at me. I caught it and turned it over, breaking out into laughter.
