“Agreed.” He leaned closer to me, the heat from his body warming my arm. “There are much more enjoyable ways of losing sleep.” He winked jauntily and looked toward the curb. “Our ride.”
The black limo pulled up to the hotel and the attendant opened the door for us. Alex led me to the car and I tried to not focus on the fact that he was still holding my fingers. I felt foolish sliding into the luxury car. The last time I had been in a limo was prom, a thousand years ago. My date had been drunk and thrown up on my dress. Not exactly good memories.
Alex slid into the seat and looked at me. I started to shift uncomfortably. “What?”
“Your address?” He smiled and I found myself flushing again.
“Oh.” I rattled off the street address and watched as Alex nodded at the driver. Once we pulled away from the curb, the driver closed the window between the front and back. I leaned into my seat and watched as the lights of the city flew by.
“Do you have a roommate? Or do you still live with your father?” Alex shifted in his seat. I found it odd that we were in this huge car and yet both sat on the smallest bench in the very rear. Should I have scooted around once I climbed in? Was there limo etiquette?
“Yes. Jess and I have lived together since our freshman year.” I snorted. “And her boyfriend Bert, he practically lives with us.”
“And your boyfriend?” Alex watched my face carefully.
“Did you really just ask if I had a boyfriend?” I laughed.
“Apparently not very smoothly.” He laughed. “Are you ducking the question?”
“No boyfriend. I don’t have time for that type of stuff.” Boyfriends required time and patience. Not to mention energy, and lately all that was spent on my degree or taking care of my father.
He hmm’d to himself for a minute and I felt one of my eyebrows rise in amusement.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, if the only thing holding you here is school and your father, then there’s hope you will come home with us. No bothersome boyfriend to worry about.” He leaned back comfortably, his eyes trained on my face. “Besides, you’ll be on all the men’s radar when you get there. Beautiful, American, intelligent, and funny. Not to mention your comic-book knowledge. I might have some competition.”
“Oh.” Had he just called me attractive? Competition for me? I should know better. He was just being friendly, trying to convince me to go. Alex couldn’t be interested in someone like me. I was light-years from the type of women he was probably used to. I wasn’t sophisticated or fashionable. Hell, I hadn’t even known what fork to use at dinner tonight.
“Why does it matter to you?” I hoped he didn’t hear the irritation in my voice. I was mainly upset with myself for being disappointed. “Is there something in it for you if I go to Lilaria?”
He ran a hand across his jaw, taking his time before answering. “I’m not sure. You’re intriguing.”
“What does that mean?” Intriguing? As in a possible pawn he could use? Intriguing ideas? “Look, if I go to Lilaria and take a seat on the council, I’m not going to side with you on things just because you told me I was from a long-lost line of royalty. So if you’re planning on using me for some political maneuvering, you’d be sorely disappointed.”
“And that’s exactly why we need you.” Alex chuckled. “Lord, you’re a feisty woman.”
I snorted and started to respond but was interrupted by my beeping cell phone. I pulled it out of the little clutch I was carrying and checked the text message. Jess was making sure I was okay, so I sent her a quick message letting her know I was on my way home. She replied that I shouldn’t text and drive. Little did she know I was in a limo.
Before I could put the phone back in my purse, Alex held his hand out. “May I?”
“Uh, sure.” Not sure if he needed to use the phone or if he was being nosy, I watched as he unlocked the screen and typed something quickly. He held the phone to his ear and nodded.
“Now you have my number.” He turned it off and handed it back to me. “If you need anything or have any questions, let me know. Anything at all.”
The limo pulled off the expressway and turned toward my neighborhood. “Thanks.”
As we pulled up to my little house, I grew nervous. I berated myself, because it wasn’t like this was a date. He wasn’t going to be looking for a good-night kiss.
“Well, this is me.” I nodded toward my little house and watched his reaction. Would he think my house was sad? Or would he think it funny that a long-lost line of royalty lived in such an old home? I liked our little place. It was ours. Well, not really ours. We rented it but had been there for three years. It was home.
“Lovely place.” Alex opened the door to the limo and held his hand out for me. His warm fingers wrapped around mine to help me before moving to the small of my back as we walked through the snow-covered grass. I knew it was a gentlemanly thing to do, to assist a woman walking through the snow, but it amused me. I didn’t need help walking through my own yard. In fact, I was the last person to cut the grass.
“It does look pretty cozy all covered in snow.” When we got to the front stoop I turned to look at Alex and smiled. I pulled the keys out of my purse and looked for the door key. “Thank you for making sure I got home safely.”
“Thank you for letting me keep my dignity.” Alex stepped closer and brushed some of the hair away from my face. My breath caught as he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to my cheek. “It’s been… an honor to meet you, Samantha.”
I looked at him sharply to see if he was joking, mocking what I had said when we first met, but it brought our faces nose-to-nose. There was an amused glint in his eyes, but underneath that was something much warmer. We stood there, neither moving, only our breaths tangling in the cold air between our lips. Part of me demanded to move closer, to press my hungry mouth to his, while another part of me screamed to run for the hills. He shifted closer and I tilted my head up as his hand moved to cup my cheek.
The front door was pulled open in a rush of warm air, and I almost stumbled off the top step. Alex’s warm fingers closed around my elbow to help steady me. I turned to look into Jess’s wide eyes and smiled weakly.
“Sorry, I thought you were having trouble with your key again.” Jess swung her gaze from Alex to me and back. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You didn’t. Alex brought me home when my truck wouldn’t start.” I cleared my throat and turned to smile at the prince standing on my tiny front porch.
“My pleasure.” Alex winked at me before tipping his head to Jess. “You must be Jess.” Holding his hand out, I watched as my roommate looked at it like it was something unreal before slowly leaning out of the front door to shake it.
“Yes. Jess. I am. I mean, I am Jess. Um, nice to meet you.” Jess looked at me and then back at Alex. She yanked her hand away from him. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to hold your hand like some kind of crazy stalker. Boyfriend! Bert! My boyfriend is in the living room.”
My eyes grew wider with each word out of Jess’s mouth and I had to fight to not laugh out loud. I looked over Jess’s shoulder to see Bert staring at us with the same look of amusement.
“Right. This is my roommate, the not-stalker and that’s her boyfriend, Bert, back there.” Bert raised his hand in greeting.
“Nice to meet you both.” Alex looked back at me, and I could see the amusement rippling in the blues of his eyes. “I’ll be in touch, Samantha.”
“Sure.” I nodded my head, trying to make everything seem very businesslike. “I look forward to it.” My heart stopped. Had I really just added that? What was wrong with me?
“As do I.” His eyes held mine before he bowed his head and backed down the steps. I didn’t move as I watched him walk across the lawn and climb through the limo door, which the driver was holding open. Turning, I shooed Jess back into the house and closed the door behind me. I leaned against the heavy wood and kicked the heels off my feet.
Jess stood there staring at me, her eyes the size of saucers. I sighed and shrugged out of my coat. “Go ahead and get it out of your system.”
“Prince Yummy brought you home.” Jess pointed a finger at me like I was in trouble. This was going to be bad.
“His Royal Highness, Prince Alex, brought me home.” I frowned at her. “You have to stop calling him that. It was stuck in my head all night.”
“His Royal Highness, Prince Alex of the Yummy, brought you home. In a limo.” Jess took a deep breath. “And you were about to kiss him. Right there. On our porch!”
“What? No. No I wasn’t.” I shook my head and dropped my coat on the rack before walking to the kitchen.
“I’m not blind, Sam. You were, like, this far apart!” She held her finger and thumb up so I could see the sliver of space between them. “You were going to kiss him!”
“Don’t be ridiculous. He’s European. They kiss cheeks. That’s all.” I fixed a glass of water before hauling myself up onto the counter.
Bert followed us into the kitchen and leaned against the doorframe, his arms across his chest. I didn’t like the look in his eyes. Jess could jump to conclusions. She was brilliant, but I also knew that me being involved with Alex would be the stuff of her daydreams. Bert, however, was a practical guy with an eye for detail.
“Look, I met with the duchess and she brought Alex. When it was time to leave, the parking attendant said my car wouldn’t start, so Alex insisted on seeing me home.” I took a sip of water, trying to calm my nerves. I could still smell him—it was like he had permeated all my senses. “Some kind of princely chivalry. That’s all.”
“I’m not stupid, Sam. I know what I saw.” Jess smiled. “Prince Yummy likes you.”
I shook my head and hopped down from the counter. I needed to derail that thought process before it got out of hand.
“Even if he did, which he doesn’t, I’m not interested. You know me, Jess. A guy like that is nothing like what I want.”
“We usually need exactly what we think we don’t want.” Bert’s quiet voice filled the tiny kitchen and Jess nodded her head like a madwoman.
“Give me a break. Save your psycho mumbo jumbo for someone else.”
“What did they want to see you about, anyway?” Bert cocked his head to the side. “Are they donating money to the program?”
“No.” I let that rattle around in their heads for a minute. “Apparently I’m royalty.” You could’ve heard a pin drop because I was pretty sure they had both stopped breathing. “Go figure, right?” I refilled my water glass and squeezed past Bert’s giant frame before heading for my room.
“You know what the best part of my night was, though?” I stopped at my door and turned to look at Jess and Bert, who were both standing in the doorway staring at me with open mouths. “It was seeing Jess meet Prince Yummy in her giant college football jersey and fuzzy socks.”
“Oh my God.” Jess’s voice followed me as I walked into my room and I couldn’t help but snicker.
Chapter Five
A Royal Hidden Among Us
—Minnesota Daily
Something beeped in my room and I groaned. I rolled over, thinking it was probably just the e-mail notification on my phone, but it beeped again. Without opening my eyes, I felt along the bedside table and grabbed my phone. Cracking open one eye, I read the messages.
Unknown: Don’t go outside.
Unknown: I’m sending someone to help.
Sitting up in bed, I rubbed the crusty mess out of my eyes and glared at the phone. Who the hell was telling me not to go outside? Who was sending someone to the house for me? I looked at the number again and my brain kicked into gear. I checked my outgoing calls, and sure enough, it was the same number. My heart rate picked up as I realized Alex was contacting me.
I swung my feet over the edge of my bed and gasped when my warm toes touched the cold hardwood. I slid into my slippers and opened my door. Sounds of the TV drifted to me from the living room, so I padded out to see who was awake. Jess was sitting on the couch, curled up under a blanket and staring at the TV with large eyes.
“What got you out of bed so early?” I sat down next to her and tugged some of the blanket over to cover my legs.
Jess just pointed at the TV. I looked at the bright screen through slitted eyes and gasped. “Why is there a picture of our house on the news?” A sinking feeling filled my gut. The next picture flashed onto the screen answered my question. It was me and Alex outside the Parallel, his hand on my shoulder. That was followed by a picture of him helping me put on my oversized coat. “Oh no. Oh no.”
“My mom texted me at five this morning.” Jess looked at me with large eyes. “I didn’t want to wake you up—I figured you’d need your sleep to deal with it.”
“Alex texted me.” I held up my phone for her to see.
“He’s sending someone here? That’s good.”
“Why is that good?”
“How do you think the news station got a picture of our house?” Jess cocked her head to the side.
“You’re kidding.” I turned and looked at the closed blinds. “They’re really sitting out there still?”
“Three news stations.” Jess nodded. “Bert checked earlier.”
“Three news stations?” Part of me wanted to go peek out the window, but the saner part of me just wanted to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over my head. “Where is Bert?”
“Back in bed. He has a class in a couple of hours.”
I groaned. I had classes to teach today and Dr. Geller wasn’t going to be back until tomorrow. “Oh, today is going to suck.”