Dating the Duke (The Aristocrat Diaries 2)

“Well, what did you do last night after you’d banged his brains out?”

“Evangeline!”

“What?”

My sister was something else. “I obviously spoke to him then.”

“What did you say?”

“We, uh… played chess.”

Silence, and then… She burst out laughing. “You played chess after you fucked? Jesus, Adelaide!”

I groaned and rolled over, trapping the phone between my ear and the pillow. “He kicked my ass at it.”

“That’s not what I’m calling for!”

“I text you for some moral support.”

“A terrible mistake, truly,” Eva replied. “Was he good?”

“Eva.”

“What? You knew I was going to ask.”

Another groan courtesy of me. “So good,” I muttered.

She squealed. “The best?”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“Oh, my God!” she yelled down the phone, making me jerk away from it.

I sat up and put the phone back to my ear when she was mid-sentence. “I didn’t get a word of that.”

“I was saying that I knew it. I knew he’d be good. He’s got big hands.”

“You know that’s just a myth. It doesn’t correlate at all.”

“So he has a small cock?”

He most certainly did not. “I should have known you’d go down this route.”

“Ah, so it’s a big cock.”

“Eva!”

She laughed. “You’re the one who text me! What did you expect from me?”

“This.” I sighed. “Exactly this.”

“Precisely. What are you going to do now? I’d suggest never seeing him again, but that’s not an option for you.”

No shit.

She was not being helpful.

“Can you try to be helpful? I don’t know what to do, Eva. It really did just happen, and now I don’t know how to speak to him. I’m still here for another two-and-a-half weeks.”

“I know,” she grumbled. “Our birthday.”

“Not helping!”

“Oh, for the love of God, Adelaide. You’re an adult. He’s an adult. Either use it to pursue something or never let it happen again. It’s not terribly difficult.”

I swallowed. “I don’t think he’s interested in me like that.”

“He is. It’s obvious.”

“It’s complicated.”

“It always is.” She sighed heavily. “But you’re going to have to get out of your room soon, because I’m pretty sure your lesson with Olympia starts in ten minutes.”

I checked the time on my phone and jumped up. “Shit! Bye!” I hung up before she could respond and scrambled up, leaving my phone lying on the bed.

I was still in my pyjamas.

I hadn’t brushed my teeth or my hair, and I wasn’t even sure if I’d done enough laundry to have suitable clothes for the day.

What even was the weather today?

Bollocks.

I was utterly buggered.

At least I’d showered and dried my hair before bed last night—although my hair did rather resemble a rat’s nest right now.

I stopped panicking and got moving. Thankfully, all my years as a student where I had spent a little too many hours in the bar and not enough in my bed came in handy right here. All too often, I’d had to rush out of the door with little more than fifteen minutes to get ready and get to class, so this was child’s play.

A few minutes later, I was, in fact, presentable.

Barely.

All right, so there were pandas on my yoga pants, but at least I was fully clothed.

And if nobody else appreciated my pandas, then I knew Olympia would.

I headed downstairs to the study room, yawning. My laptop was tucked under my arm, and the plug from the charger whacked against my knee more than once.

Ouch.

Plugs were stupid.

“You’re late!” Olympia declared the moment I walked into the study room.

I gasped. “I am not! I’m one minute early!”

She shook her head and showed me the tablet. “Two minutes past. You’re late!”

I grimaced. Bugger it. “All right, all right, you got me. I’m sorry.”

She pouted at me. “Why are you late?”

“I woke up late,” I lied. “And I couldn’t miss brushing my teeth. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Why don’t we bake a cake later to make up for it?”

“Cupcakes, and we have a deal.”

I held out my hand, and she shook it emphatically.

“Chocolate ones,” she added, letting go of my hand.

“You can’t make an addendum after you’ve agreed the deal.”

“I can,” Olympia replied. “Or I’ll cry.”

I shook my head. “Blackmail. Fine, chocolate cupcakes. Luckily for you, they’re my favourites.”

She grinned. “Can we see the baby bunnies too? Peter said I can help him take photos for the Internet so they can find new homes.”

“When we’re done,” I promised. “And since I was two minutes late and we’ve wasted the last…” I checked the time. “Three minutes making a deal, we are definitely running behind.”

“Oh, dear.” Olympia wiggled in her chair so she was sitting upright and put her hands flat on the table in front of her. “Let’s do this.”

“What did you have for breakfast this morning?” I asked, booting up my laptop. “Weetabix?”

“Three of them,” Alex said from the doorway, holding a tea tray. “And half a punnet of strawberries, plus what I’m pretty certain was an entire carton of apple juice.”