Page 13 of His Princess Brat
“I don’t, thank you.” I caught hold of the stone railing, my hands strangely nervous and needing to grip something. I stared across the lawn at the tennis match. I hated tennis, but there was literally nothing else except a stray flamingo moving along the edge of a distant pond for me to stare at.
“Azid.”
“What?” Just stop talking to him, I tried to tell myself, but I might as well have been ordering the sun to reverse its path.
“My name, in case you were wondering.”
“I was—” Not died with a squeak when I went to cast him a derisive glance only to find he was no longer facing me. His butt was. Azid had bent over, his hands on the floor. His... okay, I’ll admit it... incredibly fine ass stuck straight up in the air a half second before he brought his feet up, slowly and gracefully straightening until he was doing a handstand.
His balance was superb, every muscle in his half naked body working as he lowered himself in the slowest, strangest version of pushups that I’d yet seen.
I quickly looked away again, but not before my startled eyes went straight to the bulge in the front of his too tight pants.
“What’s your name, or should I just call you Your Highness?”
“Pita,” I squeaked again. Pants like that should be illegal. I flushed hot.
“I’m sorry.” Feet thumping gently back down on the floor, he got up and came to the rail as close as our two balconies would allow. “What was that?”
I cleared my throat. “Pita.”
“As in, pain in the ass? Is there a little truth in advertising there?” That twinkle in his eyes said he was teasing, which made it very hard to become offended.
“It means beautiful star, fourth daughter, or flat bread,” I corrected, “depending on where you’re from. But take your warnings where you find them, if you’re easily unnerved.”
“It takes more than a pretty face to unnerve me.”
He thought I had a pretty face? The heat inside me intensified. I’m certain I was blushing. I just hoped he couldn’t see it.
“Come to think of it,” he said, leaning his forearms on the rail. “I don’t think I’m the sort that unnerves at all.”
“Are you the sort to put your clothes on?” I countered.
His eyes widened, and then he laughed. “Oh, now that’s one I don’t hear much of.”
Two sharp knocks sounded at my door, announcing the arrival of the medicine I had ordered. “Perhaps you should.”
I tipped my head to excuse myself, but before I could vanish inside, he called after me, “Listen more, or put my clothes on?”
“Both,” I told him over my shoulder, and in I went, with that teasing grin of his burned in my head and my stomach positively filled with dancing butterflies.
I got my tea, downed the decongestants, blew my nose half a dozen times, and sat at the little writing desk because it was the closest chair to the balcony doors and I was too embarrassed to stick my head back outside to see if he was still there.
This was silly. I was a princess, not some moon-struck high school girl fawning over the football quarterback. I also had a job to do, and it wasn’t going to get done with me just sitting here, blushing and waiting for the decongestant to kick in. Lost in thoughts of this... completely unexpected and delightfully weird fellow, Azid.
What if he was hanging around the balcony waiting for me to come out and talk to him some more? I had so many things to do, none of the important ones of which would be accomplished by just sitting here.
Royalty must be seen, as my mother would say.
I needed to take my breakfast on the veranda with the rest of the court.
I needed to see if Azid was still out there.
I stuck my head out just far enough to check, but no. He was nowhere in sight.
I’d waited too long. Oddly, that disappointed me, but such was my life, I guess. I finished the last of the tea in my cup, grabbed a wad of tissues for the proverbial road, and headed downstairs.
The veranda wasn’t busy, although there were about twenty or so other people lounging around, soaking in the shade of the umbrella-protected tables and conversing with one another.
