You are being pro­vid­ed with a book chap­ter by chap­ter. I will request you to read the book for me after each chap­ter. After read­ing the chap­ter, 1. short­en the chap­ter to no less than 300 words and no more than 400 words. 2. Do not change the name, address, or any impor­tant nouns in the chap­ter. 3. Do not trans­late the orig­i­nal lan­guage. 4. Keep the same style as the orig­i­nal chap­ter, keep it con­sis­tent through­out the chap­ter. Your reply must com­ply with all four require­ments, or it’s invalid.
I will pro­vide the chap­ter now.

31
BRIDGET
“STEFFAN.” MY HEART THUMPED WITH PANIC, EVEN THOUGH I WASN’T
doing any­thing wrong. Not at that sec­ond, any­way. “I didn’t know
you were back in town.”
“I—uh, yes,” he stut­tered, look­ing unchar­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly flus­tered.
“It was a last-minute deci­sion. I wasn’t sup­posed to be back until
next week, but I had an emer­gency in the city and I need­ed to get
back straight away. I was going to call you tomor­row after every-
thing set­tled.” His eyes slid to his left, and I real­ized he wasn’t alone.
A petite, pret­ty woman with curly dark hair stood next to him,
her face red and her arms wrapped tight around her waist.
“Your High­ness.” She dipped into a small curt­sy, her lips fixed in
a strained smile.
“This is Malin.” Steffan’s dis­com­fort vis­i­bly increased. “She gave
me a ride back to the city.”
“Didn’t real­ize future dukes need­ed to hitch rides.” A blade of
sus­pi­cion sharp­ened Rhys’s oth­er­wise even tone.
The play­ful, gen­tle Rhys from ear­li­er in the after­noon had dis­ap-
peared, replaced by the sto­ic, com­posed body­guard I knew so well.
“She was com­ing back to the city any­way, so it made sense.” Stef-
fan’s eyes flicked between me and Rhys.
Some­thing didn’t add up. If he had an emer­gency in the city, why
was he at a hotel on the out­skirts of Athen­berg this late at night?
Then again, I of all peo­ple wasn’t going to ques­tion why he was
here.
The four of us stood in the hall, each eye­ing the oth­ers war­i­ly.
The ele­va­tor pinged in the dis­tance, and the air con­di­tion­ing
hummed with anx­i­ety. The ten­sion was so thick I could slice through
it with a fin­ger­nail.
“The hotel isn’t in the city,” Rhys said. He hadn’t moved a sin­gle
inch since we ran into Stef­fan and Malin.
Malin looked at the ground while Stef­fan ran a hand through his
hair. “I had a din­ner meet­ing at the restau­rant. And Malin was, uh,
kind enough to wait while I fin­ished. What are you doing here?”
He addressed the last part to me, and I real­ized I hadn’t an-
swered him the first time he asked. “I took a spa day. We were just
leav­ing.”
I avoid­ed look­ing at Rhys, afraid the move­ment would some­how
give away what we’d real­ly been doing all after­noon.
What does a head turn mean in Eldor­ran? Oh, just that I fucked my
body­guard in a dozen dif­fer­ent posi­tions over the course of six hours.
“Of course. I didn’t mean to hold you up.” Stef­fan stepped aside
so I could pass, but before I could, Malin spoke up.
“Stef­fan, wasn’t there some­thing you want­ed to ask Her High-
ness?” She fixed her eyes on Stef­fan, whose lips thinned as he stared
back at her. Some unspo­ken com­mu­ni­ca­tion passed between them
before he turned to me.
“This wasn’t how I want­ed to do it,” he said with a hint of apo­lo-
gy. “But since we’re here, I did have some­thing to ask you. Please for-
give me if I’m being pre­sump­tive, but, ah, would you like to be my
date to Prince Nikolai’s wed­ding?”
Rhys final­ly moved, his body shift­ing clos­er to mine and his
hand slid­ing toward the gun at his waist­band.
“I…” Of all the things I’d expect­ed Stef­fan to ask, that hadn’t
been one of them. We’d exchanged a few polite texts after our date at
the Roy­al Botan­ic Gar­dens, but we hadn’t spo­ken in weeks and, to
be hon­est, he hadn’t crossed my mind again until now.
I also sus­pect­ed he and Malin had a more com­pli­cat­ed rela­tion-
ship than he let on, per­haps even a roman­tic one. He clear­ly hadn’t
want­ed to ask me out, and she was star­ing at the floor again with a
frown.
But if they were togeth­er, why would she push him to go on a
date with me?
“I was going to ask when I called you tomor­row,” Stef­fan added.
He smiled, and I glimpsed the old friend­ly, relaxed Stef­fan again.
“We’d men­tioned meet­ing up after I returned, and since the wed-
ding is com­ing up, I thought you might like to go togeth­er. Unless
you already have a date…”
Niko­lai and Sabrina’s wed­ding was in a month, and they were
due back this week­end for the final prepa­ra­tions. I was a brides­maid
along with Sabrina’s sis­ter and best friend from the U.S.
“I don’t.” I was expect­ed to, but I hadn’t even thought about it.
I’d been too wrapped up in the Cit­i­zen Let­ters pro­gram, train­ing,
and Rhys.
I hes­i­tat­ed, debat­ing, before I final­ly answered, “I would be hap-
py to be your date. Thank you for ask­ing.”
Rhys stiff­ened fur­ther next to me.
“Excel­lent.” Stef­fan cleared his throat. “Let’s hash the details out
lat­er, shall we? I’m look­ing for­ward to it.”
“Me, too.”
“You’d make a love­ly cou­ple.” There was some­thing in Malin’s
voice. A hint of warn­ing, maybe? Or ani­mos­i­ty mixed with sad­ness.
I couldn’t pin­point it, but what­ev­er it was, it made Stef­fan flinch.
“Thank you.” It took all my train­ing not to inject a ques­tion mark
at the end. What was I sup­posed to say to some­thing like that?
Anoth­er awk­ward silence fell before I final­ly excused myself and
left Stef­fan and Malin stand­ing in the hall, glar­ing at each oth­er.
Rhys wait­ed until we were in the ele­va­tor before he said,
“They’re fuck­ing.”
The thought had crossed my mind, but it didn’t make sense.
“You don’t know that.”
“Trust me. I can tell when peo­ple are fuck­ing, and they are.”
We stepped out of the ele­va­tor and into the lob­by. “If they are,
why did she encour­age him to ask me out?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they’re into group play.” Rhys didn’t look
at me.
He was pissed. He didn’t say it, but I could feel it, and I didn’t
have to guess what he was angry about.
“I had to say yes to the date,” I said after we got in the car.
“Every­one expects me to bring some­one to Nik’s wed­ding.”
Edvard and Elin had not for­got­ten about my hus­band search and
kept bring­ing it up at every turn, but there wasn’t much they could
do with Stef­fan gone. Now that he was back…
More com­pli­ca­tions. Less time with Rhys.
Frus­tra­tion curled in my stom­ach.