Chap­ter 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 every­thing 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 dis­ap­peared, replaced by the sto­ic, com­posed body­guard I knew so well.

“She was com­ing back to the city any­way, so it made sense.” Steffan’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 answered 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 High­ness?” 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 apol­o­gy. “But since we’re here, I did have some­thing to ask you. Please for­give 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 rela­tion­ship 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 wed­ding 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 hap­py 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.