Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 97633 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97633 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Tossing down the pen, I closed the book before lying back onto the couch. We had been back for almost half an hour, and I was still fuming. I did not understand Odette at all. If she had a good time, why did she look so resolved to walk away? Why did she seem so proud of herself for leaving me standing there like a deer-eyed idiot?
ZZZhzzzz
I sat up, trying to find the source of whoever was snoring.
ZZZhzzzz
There was Wolfgang, sitting on the kitchen stool, though the rest of him was tilted over, snoring loudly with his mouth hanging open.
“Wolfgang!” Iskandar snapped, slamming his book closed.
I had not noticed him sitting beside me in the other chair, but apparently, there he was. Wolfgang jumped up off the stool with his eyes wide, arms at his side, like he was still in the academy. He looked to his left and then his right, clearly confused, before realizing where we were.
“Your Highness! I’m so—”
“Iskandar, I’m going to bed,” I said, rising off the couch, taking my journal with me.
“Goodnight, sir.” He nodded in response, but I could see him shooting Wolfgang an annoyed glare.
“Do not lecture him. We all need the rest.”
“I will not. Do you have a time you wish to wake up tomorrow?” Iskandar stated back formally.
I shook my head as I walked up the stairs. “No, just wake me up when you do...actually, no, after Wolfgang does. I need to think of what to do next.”
“Goodnight, Your Highness,” Wolfgang said, and just before I opened the door to the room, I heard a hard smack
I glanced back down to see Wolfgang rubbing the back of his head.
I bit my lip to keep from laughing. I told Iskandar not to lecture him, so I guess all he could do was smack him. It was not that serious, but then again, to someone like Iskandar, the duty of palace guards and royal aids was a serious one. You do not sleep until they sleep.
Putting my journal on the nightstand, I took off my shoes first, and when I did, I thought of her feet, and the look of pleasure on her face when she had slipped off her heels. Which then led me to think of how her body felt in my hands. Yes, I touched it through the fabric, but still, feeling her as we danced was...something. She smelled like warm vanilla and roses, and I wanted to know if that smell was just the actual rose or if my face were at the nape of her neck, would I smell it there, too?
“Go to sleep, Gale,” I begged myself, falling onto the bed, trying to close my eyes.
But seriously, why the hell did she reject me?
But sleep did not come. Sighing, I tossed and turned only to hear my cell phone vibrate on the side table. Thinking it could be Odette, I reached for it far too eagerly, but sadly, it was not.
“How was the date?” my brother asked the moment I answered.
“It’s actually still going, and you are interrupting,” I lied.
“You are aware that Iskandar notified me when it was over.”
My jaw cracked to the side. “Do you not have enough to do, Arthur?
“Yes, but I will always make time for you, little brother.” He chuckled.
“It is not necessary, big brother. Please stop using my bodyguard as a spy.”
“The date, did it go well?” he asked clearly, not agreeing to stop.
“Can I go back to bed now?”
“That bad?”
“It was fine!” I snapped, causing him to snicker into the phone. I fought the urge to hang up directly. “Arthur, I’m exhausted. I’m going to—”
“Pout and kick your feet because she did not fall into your arms like every other woman, and you have to actually work for her to care.”
“I am not asking her to fall at my feet...wait, how did you know she didn’t fall at my—are you serious? You had Iskandar listen in and report the whole night? Or did you have a camera set up to watch? That is disturbing and abuse.”
“Stop being ridiculous. I do not need a spy to figure out you are upset that she doesn’t fawn over you. I know because if she had fallen for your charms, you’d be bragging about it right now.”
“I would not,” I muttered more annoyed with myself now because I sounded like a six-year-old. “Anyway, I feel like this is a sign, so thanks for setting me up for years of misery, big brother.”
“Would you like some advice?”
“You, give me advice on women?” I scuffed.
“Women? I would not dare. How to get an arranged marriage to work? I think I might know a thing or two.”
“Again, you’ve loved Sophia forever.”
“But did she always love me?”
I paused. Sophia married him because her family and ours wanted her to be the next queen.