The Wicked Prince

Chapter Eleven

Joslyn

I woke up at some point in the middle of the night and noticed rather quickly that Aramis was sound asleep beside me and I was in his bed. As I sat up and rubbed my eyes looking around, he groaned and stretched out, reaching for me. My heart launched to my throat as his arm wrapped around my waist. I looked down and stared at it, unable to move. I should have. I should have wanted to push it away and run out of there, but somehow, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. When I was a teenager, this would have been my dream, having Aramis wanting me to stay in his bed, but I was no longer a teenager. I no longer saw the world through rose-colored glasses. Too many things had happened in the years between our experience together and now. Besides that, his timing was awful. Somewhere on the premises, David was probably looking for me. Though, if last night was any indication, he was probably somewhere with Cassandra of Greece, charmed by her wits and beauty. My eyes rolled at that. Finally, I moved Aramis’s arm and got out of bed, picking up my coat and purse along the way. I walked out quietly and peeked inside Oscar’s room, where he was still sleeping soundly, before leaving the cottage.

As I shut the door quietly behind me, I put a hand up to shield from the sun and looked to my right to see David walking out of my own cottage. The judgment his expression cast rivaled the sun’s rays behind him. I walked over to him, fighting the guilt that weighed me down with each step. I’d done nothing wrong. Nothing. It looked awful on paper, I knew that, but still.

“Hey.” I cleared my throat.

“Have a good night?” He raised an eyebrow.

“It’s not what it looks like.” I sidestepped him and walked into my cottage, beelining toward the restroom. To my surprise, he followed.

“What is it then?”

“It was nothing.” I met his gaze in the mirror as I brushed my teeth.

I definitely wasn’t going to pee in front of the man. I’d only been seeing him casually for a month. Things like that were definitely not acceptable yet. I frowned at my own thought. We’d already had sex. Surely peeing in front of someone after you’d had their privates in your face wasn’t unacceptable. I shook the thought away as I rinsed my mouth and looked at him again.

“You walked out of another man’s cottage in the morning . . . after you invited me to come and spend the night with you . . . and you call it nothing.” David said the words slowly. So slowly that even I stumbled upon each punctuation, wondering if it had been nothing.

“It was nothing. I didn’t have sex with him or anything.”

“So what were you doing in there?” He folded his arms.

“I was . . . ” I stopped myself. No one outside this palace knew about Oscar. No one was to know about him until the family deemed it acceptable. Aramis wasn’t ready to push the kid into the limelight and I understood why. Whenever the scope of the public was on the family, they were instantly tarnished. It was just another reason to stay behind the scenes and try to fix that. I licked my lips. “I’m not at liberty to say, but I was not with him.”

“Okay.” David gave a nod. “Even if you weren’t, I think we should take a break from whatever this is.”

“Whatever this is?” My eyes narrowed. “Dating? You mean us dating?”

“Yes, if that’s what you want to call it.”

“What would you call it?” I crossed my own arms. “We slept together, we spoke on the phone nearly every night, I introduced you to my friends.”

“Who also happen to be my friends, so no introduction was necessary.”

“You know what I mean.” I paused, blinking. “You tried to take my job from me last night!”

“I did not try to take your job.” He uncrossed his arms. “I just so happened to know someone who was perfect for what you were looking for and I stepped in. To help.”

“It felt like a takeover.”

“Interesting choice of words coming from the person they asked to find a suitable mate for the man she spent the night with.”

“I already told you . . . ” I lowered my voice and uncrossed my own arms. “I already told you that I did not spend the night with him. Not like that.”

There was a clearing of throat behind me. I felt a presence and turned around to find Cassandra standing there, a deep blush on her face as she bit her lip. She glanced at me, then at David.

“I’m so sorry. I have to get going. It was a pleasure to meet you, Joslyn.” She smiled small and walked toward the front of the cottage quickly.