And when Grant suddenly whitened in front of her, it seemed like he knew it, too.
“Fawn.” His voice was hoarse, but when he seemed to walk towards her, the prince stalled him, coming to stand beside Fawn.
Grant froze, and so did Fawn.
“You should go now,” the prince advised gently. “There seems to be an urgent matter with the council.” As the prince spoke, he placed his hand on the small of Fawn’s back, and she bit her lip at the way Grant jerked in reaction to the prince’s gesture.
“I’ll take care of her, so you have nothing to worry about.”
Grant’s eyes swung to her.
She swallowed. “Grant, I...” She didn’t know what to think or do, but the prince made the decision for her as his hand on her back moved and his fingers began to gently caress her spine. With his friends forming a half circle around them, she knew that the movement of his hand was completely hidden from other people’s views, but even so—-
She could feel her cheeks heating up at the prince’s caress.
In front of her, pain flashed in Grant’s eyes.
Oh.
A moment later, Grant straightened, and it was like seeing the old Grant again, handsome and smiling. “I’ll entrust Fawn to you then.” But he didn’t look at Fawn as he spoke, and after a quick wave, he turned and walked away.
She waited for him to look back. She wondered painfully what she would do if he did.
But he didn’t.
****
When the prince joined his friends in Derek Christopoulos’ office and they saw that he was alone, all four of them smirked.
He bristled. “What?”
The prince’s defensive tone was more than they hoped for, and their laughter rang out, causing the female employees outside the office to sigh dreamily.
Boyfriend goals, they all thought admiringly.
Squad goals, the few male employees present thought enviously.
“I need a fucking drink,” the prince muttered as he threw himself at the vacant wingback chair next to the recliner where Derek was seated.
Nathan got up from the settee. “I’ll pour you one since I need a drink myself.” As he walked to the bar, the prince raised a brow at the others. It was rare for Nathan to drink more than a glass during daytime.
The twins, who were sharing the couch, shrugged.
“He’ll tell us when he’s ready,” Derek said simply.
In the act of pouring a shot of whisky into two glasses, Nathan stilled, and without turning back, he said drily, “I know you’re all talking about me.”
“I meant you to,” Derek returned. “You’re starting to worry us with how unusual you’ve been the past few days.”
Taking the glasses from the counter, Nathan walked back to his friends and gave one to Reid.
“Thanks,” the prince murmured.
Nathan returned to his seat, saying calmly, “We can talk about my problem next time. For now, we need to concentrate on what’s more important.”
Jason raised a brow. “Such as?”
As Reid raised the glass to his lips, Nathan murmured, “What else...but Reid Chalkias acting jealous for the first time in front of us?”
The prince choked on his drink, and laughter from his friends rang out, and squeals once again erupted from the growing crowd outside Derek’s office. Nick slanted a distracted glance at them, unintentionally meeting a couple of girls’ gazes, who then let out excited shrieks.
Nick started in surprise. “What the—-”
“He looked at me, he looked at me!”
“No, did you see that? He looked at me!”
When the two girls actually started pulling each other’s hair, Nick swiftly turned his back on the crowd with a shudder. Damn. Women these days could be seriously deranged.
“Aren’t you bothered by them?” Jason asked.
Derek grimaced. “There’s nothing I can do about it. You know about the Montfort scandal, right? Since then, the board came to a decision that all offices in the university should have transparent windows.”
“Makes sense,” Nathan acknowledged. “Although obviously, it has its downsides.”
“It’s worse in this office,” Derek reluctantly admitted. “All the interns who applied are female.”
“Does Jaike give you hell about it?” Jason asked sympathetically.
“Occasionally,” Derek said wryly. “But since I also like seeing her jealous face from time to time...” He paused as something occurred to him, and looking at the others, the same thing appeared to have occurred to them as well.
The prince found himself the center of everyone’s attention once more, and knowing exactly what they were thinking, he said stiffly, “No. I was not jealous.”
Derek grinned. “You fucking were, Chalkias.”
Color stained the prince’s high-boned cheeks.
Pfft. Out of respect for Reid’s badly dented pride, the four men did their best to control their laughter.
The prince stared stonily at his friends. “Fuck all of you.”
This proved too much, and the office once again rang with his friends’ laughter.
Outside the office, chaos erupted anew, but this time, the prince and his friends knew better than to pay attention to the ongoing hysteria, knowing that their attention would only make it worse.
“You do know you’re worrying for nothing, don’t you?” Nathan finally asked when he managed to rein his amusement in. “The whole time I’ve known you, a girl only has to spend a few minutes in your company to want to fuck you. Or at least have a crush on you.”
Derek scowled. “Jaike’s not like that.” Right?
“Lilac isn’t either,” Nick said grimly. Right?
Jason cracked his knuckles. “Keanne sure as hell isn’t.” Right?
Nathan rolled his eyes. “Let me rephrase. Any single girl who isn’t in love with any of you three would likely fall head over heels for Reid. And you have to know that, Chalkias.” When the prince didn’t answer, Nathan’s look turned pensive. “Have I gotten you wrong about this girl? Is she extremely experienced and that’s why you’re worrying—-”
“She’s innocent,” the prince said stiffly.
The Christakos twins looked at each other. The girl was a virgin, and her cheating boyfriend an asshole who could and would never compare to their friend. There was clearly nothing to be worried about, and yet...Reid was, visibly so.
This was not like the Prince of Darkness
