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Chapter 15 You Don’t Have To, Kitten
“W–What are you talking about, Your Highness?” I stammered, still in shock that he was even there, let
alone what he was talking about.
“You heard me,” he replied concisely.
“But, Prince Theo, Your Highness, I was of the opinion you didn’t exactly care for me–
at all,” I reminded him. “Do you recall-”
I didn’t get to finish my sentence as he interrupted me. “This is an order, Ciana. I’m not here to
debate with you. Beginning tomorrow, you will be by my side throughout
all of the waking hours of the day, unless excused by me.”
“But you said that you didn’t want a woman–a wife–
and that you weren’t interested in any of us?” I tried not to argue with him, but he was definitely confusi
ng me. It made little sense to me that he had just said he didn’t want to marry any of us, but now
he wanted me by his side at all times.
“Things changed,” he replied, his eyes narrowed. “This is what I’m saying now.”
“You said if I even thought about trying to be around you, you‘ d kill
me, didn’t you? Isn’t that what you said, Your Highness?” I could hear the snideness in my voice, and it
was a bit rude, but my confusion was running over my manners.
“Are you questioning my order?” The prince’s eyes narrowed even further. His patience had run out.
“Alpha.” Thank the Goddess, Jake was here. As he
slipped into my room, his eyes settled on my hair for a moment, and a confused look took over his face
before he suddenly turned a bit red and took on the
initial, fleeting expression the prince had worn. “Sir, I believe she’s just gotten out of the shower. Perha
ps we should come back another time.”
Theo turned to Jake and concluded, “She’ll do what she was told.”
“But-” I still wanted to protest when Jake cleared his throat and drew my attention to him. He averted hi
s eyes, kept a safe distance between us, and stated in a professional tone, “Miss Black, the truth of the
matter is, Alpha needs your help with the king.”
Finally, someone I could actually communicate with!
Adjusting a bit beneath the blankets, I asked, “Help with him. how?”
“Well, if I
may be completely honest,” he continued, “the king wants to make sure that Prince Theo is making pro
gress with his search for a woman that he may be interested in
marrying.”
I pondered what he was saying for a moment before I blurted, “But… why?”
Jake looked at Theo, who was
staring at me, his expression still dark and unwavering. Since he wasn’t insisting that Jake stop speakin
g, his Beta went on. “It would be for the best if the king thinks that Prince Theo is trying to meet a girl th
at makes him happy, one that he could potentially marry and have an heir with. So… since you’re his p
ersonal attendant now, it may as well be you.”
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt“So… you want me to pretend that I am in love with the prince? And… he will pretend to be falling in lov
e with me?” I asked, my eyes shifting from one of them to the other.
“Precisely,” Jake said. “And we would like for you to put on a believable show
whenever the king is around.”
I was on the same page as them now. It was all meant to fool King Sebastian into thinking that Theo alr
eady found a woman he wanted to be with so he wouldn’t have to keep looking through the other girls.
“Why?” I asked, still thinking over the situation.
“Why what?” Jake asked me, not realizing I was just thinking out loud.
“Why would the king want so badly for His Highness to find a woman? Why doesn’t he want him to take
his time and be happy with whoever he finds?” Although Theo was also there, I asked Jake, who I coul
d carry on a normal conversation with.
The prince stared at me long and hard, and I realized then that
I’d made a mistake by overstepping. “That… isn’t your concern,” he said in a low voice.
His answer was to the point, but his tone wasn’t as angry as I would’ve expected. No, when I stopped t
o dissect it, the emotion I picked up on was more distress or perhaps even sadness than anger.
“Very well then, Your Highness,” I said with a nod of my head. “I’ll do it.”
Theo cleared his throat. “All right then… Ciana. I shall see you
in the morning.” With that, he whirled around and left the
room.
Jake let the Alpha go first and then moved to
follow him, but before he left, he said, “I’ll just… go ahead and lock this for you.” He flipped the button o
n the door so that when he closed it, it would be locked, and I was thankful for his thoughtfulness.
Falling backward onto the bed, I stared up at the ceiling. What in the world had I gotten myself into now
?
In the next few days, rumors of Prince Theo had found his new
favorite were spread in the palace. I was following him everywhere at his request, but most of the
time, I tried to keep myself entertained in his office while he was working.
For example, this afternoon, he had some war journals out at his desk and was taking notes or somethi
ng. I actually had no idea what he was doing, but watching him work wasn’t the most fun way to kill tim
e.
What I wanted to do was straighten his bookshelves. It seemed to me that the books were simply stack
ed on the shelf, without any rhyme or reason. I wanted to put them in order from tallest to shortest or co
lor code them. Instead, I sat in a chair across from him, staring at him, thinking this was a colossal wast
e of time.
I couldn’t even use the opportunity to speak to him to get to know him better because
he was working, and I knew better not to interrupt….
6
Just when I was about to ask if there was anything at all I could do to help him, the door opened, and th
e king came in.
We both stood and bowed to him until
King Sebastian waved for us to sit down. “Now, now, you two love birds, don’t mind me!” he tittered, sitti
ng down on a couch beneath the window.
I cleared my throat, not sure what to say to that, but I felt
my cheeks heating. I hoped the king would mistake my distress for passion.
“Yes, Father,” Prince Theo said, sitting back down. He picked up the coffee mug off of his desk and finis
hed it off, setting his cup back down with a disappointed look.
I’d just reclaimed my chair when I suddenly saw a way
to be useful. Hopping up, I said, “Let me get you some more,” and took his cup from the desk.
“You don’t have to… kitten.” The term of endearment fell awkwardly from his tongue, almost making me
laugh.
“I want to,” I said. “How much cream do you take again, dear Prince?”
“Just a
splash,” he told me, forcing a smile that looked unnatural on him, so rarely did he actually wear such an
expression.
I hurried into the other room where I’d seen the coffee maker earlier and
poured him a cup of coffee. Then, I opened the refrigerator to get the creamer and froze. There were tw
o different kinds. One was
toward the front of the fridge and looked to be recently used. It was banana cream pie flavored. The oth
er one, pushed all the way to the back, was caramel
macchiato.
“Which one would he prefer?” I asked myself aloud.
It
seemed that he would be more of a caramel macchiato sort of a guy, but then, he had just finished a cu
p of coffee, and that creamer was way in the back.
So… I went with the banana cream pie.
He’d said just a splash, so I poured a little in, but the color of the coffee didn’t change at all, so I added
a bit more
until it was a light brown. Then, I took it back to the prince and set it on his desk before resuming my ch
air.
I kept a wide grin on my face the entire time, remembering that I was asked to put on a show for the kin
g.
“Th… thank you,” the prince said. It must be so rare for him to thank anyone that the phrase of appreci
ation didn’t sound natural at all. He waited a few moments to taste his coffee, so my eyes were
focused on the king. He had brought some files with him and was working in his chair.
The sound of Theo nearly
choking on his coffee had my attention drawn back to him. He coughed a few times and set the cup ba
ck down.
“Is everything all right?” I asked him, wondering if he needed a pat on the back. “Do you not like it?”
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm“Uh, yeah. It tastes… fine,” he said, coughing again. “You… certainly make an interesting cup of coffee.
”
I had chosen the wrong one. Dang it! “Oh, uh… do you want me to try again?” I asked him.
His father shifted his files, likely watching Theo to see if he would lash out at me for messing up.
The prince looked physically pained as he said, “No need.” Then as if he was trying to convince me, he
I almost wanted to laugh. It hadn’t been my intention to make him drink something he obviously
didn’t like when I’d made the coffee, but it was
sort of his fault since he was the one who’d come up with this silly scheme.
“Theodore, where is that book with the facts about the Lake of Wallup? I need to check how many
varieties of fish live there before I approve this request for another pier to be installed in the port.”
“Oh, uh… it’s uhm-” Theo strained to look at the bookshelf without getting up.
I hopped out of my seat. “I can fetch it for you, Your Highness,” I said, looking for
a book that mentioned Lake Wallup.
“It’s that
purple one near the top shelf.” Theo’s vice was unexpectedly tender. If he always spoke to other girls thi
“You won’t be able to reach it, kitten.” He
tagged that last word on when he realized he’d been too harsh with his statement. This time, however, it
“I see it!” I exclaimed, stretching up on my tiptoes to try and pull it down, but he was
right, I could hardly get my fingers on
1. it.
He got up from his chair. “Move aside.” Coming
up next to me, he whispered in a low and soft voice. His breath blew in my ear, and a chill coursed throu
Stop, stop, stop! I screamed at myself in my mind. What was I thinking?!
I snapped back to reality and warned myself not to be distracted again. “I’ve almost got it.” I strained to
and move out of his way.
“I’ll get it,” he signed gently, his tone almost… doting.
However, I was still standing there when he reached up, and his gloved hand brushed mine.
I lost my balance slightly and toppled backward, my head knocking into his shoulder.
For a moment, his other arm came around me to steady me.
A bolt of electricity shot through me and my thoughts all went fuzzy. I inhaled the scent of
the woods after a rainstorm, pine and cedar, leather and bergamot. He smelled masculine, delightful, an
As quickly as my legs could function again, I pushed away from him, holding my breath and trying
to make sense of my reaction to him. I shouldn’t be feeling this way. Prince Theo had made it clear that
ייייז ניי
I
So… why were the tips of his ears red, and why was
he looking at me through his eyelashes, his breath caught in his throat?
“Thank you,” I muttered.
He nodded
once and then blinked a few times before taking the book from the shelf and stepping over to hand it to
cruel Dark Prince?
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