Her smile drooped and she groaned as the guy ran off “Ugh, I gotta go do princess stuff. No champagne for me.”
“Poor baby,” I grinned. “It sounds so hard.”
“My aunt Helen made an appearance.”
I made a face. “Okay, you win. That does suck. She the one that refers to anyone not of royal blood a ‘commoners’?”
“Yep.”
I snorted. “Have fun?”
“Yeah, can’t wait to go see how many offensive terms she can cram into one sentence this time.”
“Well, good luck with that.”
She sighed. “Go have fun. Drink some champagne for me.”
“Oh, do I have your permission, ma’am?”
This was a running joke between us — exaggerating the whole “princess and her lady in waiting” dynamic.
“Indeed,” Adele said in her best snooty voice. “Just fetch my laundry first.”
“Bitch.”
She giggled. “Love ya. Have fun.”
“Good luck with the commoners.”
“Hey, you know, dealing with Aunt Helen and family stuff is going to be the rest of my night. You should go do something.”
“I thought we were going to hang later?”
She pouted. “Yeah, but trust me, this’ll take all night. Go find something to do!”
I made a face. “I don’t know. I might just hang in and—”
“Please? Let me live through you?”
I laughed. “You don’t want to watch Netflix ‘through me’?”
She gave me a look.
“Okay, okay, I’ll see what kind of trouble I can get into.”
“Thanks. Let me know so I can pretend I was there instead of biting my tongue at Helen’s racist jokes.”
I laughed as I hugged her before she trotted off, leaving me to find something to do.
Now where was that champagne?
Chapter 2
Anya
Without a partner in crime, I muttered to myself as I headed off to find a drink.
“You look lost.”
I whirled at the hand on my arm, turning to glance up into a smug, smirking face of a man I didn’t recognize.
“No, I’m fine.” I smiled thinly, eyes darting to where his hand still gripped my arm and shaking myself loose.
He raised a brow at the movement, but didn’t comment.
“Thomas,” he said in a rich, clearly practiced royal voice.
“Anya,” I smiled, raising a brow as he took my hand and kissed it.
Little old-fashioned, this one.
“Just Anya?” He said with a raised brow.
“Yep, just Anya. I work for Princess Adele.”
“Ahh,” he nodded, smiling this intense, though charming, smile at me. “Lady in waiting?”
I made a face. “If it’s the fifteen hundreds, then yes?”
He chuckled, though I did note the lack of apology. This guy was definitely smug, though he was fairly cute.
A second man suddenly came up, clapping the first on the shoulder before turning to flash me a smile.
“And who might this be?”
“This is Anya,” Thomas said, his eyes locked on me. “And Anya, this is Shawn.”
“Nice to meet you,” I smiled, again, curiously raising a brow at the way Shawn kissed my hand as well. It was like these two had just taken a class on being “princely” or something.
“Enjoying the event?”
I nodded. “Oh, absolutely.”
Thomas smirked, and I crumbled.
“Okay, actually—” I started.
“Somewhat boring.”
I chuckled at Shawn’s interjection.
“A little, yes.”
Shawn shrugged, his dark eyes sliding over me in this way that had me blushing while simultaneously making me feel a little uncomfortable.
“Looking for something more fun for your evening?”
I blushed. “Oh, I was planning on just—“
“What, staying home and watching movies?” He shook his head. “Nah, you can do better than that.”
I frowned. “Hey, I like watching movies.”
“You’ll like this better.”
I raised a brow. “Like what better?”
The two of them exchanged a look, smirking to each other like this was a private joke.
“There’s a club,” Thomas said slowly, shrugging. “I think you should come with us.”
“Oh, I’m not sure I—”
Adele’s words came to mind without warning. Adele, pushing me to go have some fun that night while she was caught up with family stuff. I glanced at Thomas and Shawn — both were cute enough, and somewhat charming in kind of a privileged way. In all honesty, they seemed like tools just a little bit. But then, the invitation did have an appeal to it too.
“A club here in Berne?”
They nodded.
“Which one?”
The two of them looked at each other again.
“It’s a new one,” Thomas shrugged, grinning at me. “You seem like the kind of girl who’d like it.”
I had no idea what that even meant, but I found myself nodding. I mean, having a drink and maybe checking out some new scene and what kind of DJ they had might be fun. Besides, I could always just cab it back to the palace whenever I got bored or if they got weird.
And so I nodded.
“Yeah, sure. I could check it out.”
Thomas and Shawn nodded, grinning slowly as something flickered behind their eyes.
“Oh, you’re going to enjoy this,” Shawn said, chuckling.
Well that was a little creepy.
“What time tonight?”
Thomas shrugged. “Now?”
I laughed nervously, nodding down at the formal, but not overly “dressy” burgundy red dress I’d worn for the event.
“Am I dressed for this place?
“Sure,” Thomas said abruptly, turning and pulling his cell phone out.
“You’re good,” Shawn said, his eyes flashing something as he grinned wolfishly at me. “Let’s go.”
His hand caught my arm, half-pulling me after him as we strode from the room. I pulled my arm away — I was not a fan of people being grabby — though I still followed them through the hallways to the front entrance of the library. Outside, a limo was waiting for us, and though part of me took pause, I forced myself to just get in the car.
After all, they might have been smug and a little pampered, but they were royalty. It’s not like they were two creeps or something.
Right?
The limo pulled away, and I instantly started to second-guess myself. I mean, royals or not, I’d just met these guys, and I was jumping into a car to head downtown with them?
I made a snap decision to spend ten minutes, tops, at this club, before I turned around and headed home. I quickly texted Adele that I was going out with some people I’d met, and it wasn’t until I looked up from that that I realized something was weird.
“Um, where are we going?”
We weren’t headed downtown at all. In fact, we were leaving the capital behind and heading out into the countryside.
“The club,” Thomas said with a shrug.
“I think I’d like to go back now,” I said quietly yet firmly.
The two of them chuckled.
“Aww, scared?”
I shivered as Shawn’s eyes slid over me.
“No, I’d just assumed we were going downtown to a club.”
Thomas grinned. “It’s not that kind of club. Actually, it just happens to be where it is tonight, here in Berne. The location moves all the time.”