Page 23 of A Royal Menace

I feel Royal’s presence behind me, but I don’t turn to chat with him the way the other educators in line are doing. My mind is still reeling as I mentally order my stupid nipples to stand down. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Grabbing a plate, I fill it with scrambled eggs, bacon, and some hash browns. At the end of the line, I grab a small bowl of fruit just to make the meal feel a bit healthier. Scanning the largeroom, I find a table that’s half-empty and make a beeline for it, not once glancing back at my temporary roommate.

I slide into a chair and set my tray on the table, then flinch back, startled as Royal plops down into the chair next to me. I stare at him, slack-jawed, for several beats, but he only smiles and picks up the squirt bottle of ketchup from the center of the table and douses his eggs and hash browns with it.

“Want some?” he asks, and my eyes snap up from his plate to the bottle he’s holding toward me.

I clear my throat and nod, ignoring the electricity I feel when my fingers accidentally brush over his as I take the bottle. Nope. Definitely imagined that.

You hear that nipples? We imagined it. Calm the hell down.

I’m just surprised because I thought Royal would sit elsewhere. Hasn’t he had enough of me by now? I feel him watching as I squirt ketchup over my eggs and hash browns the same way he did, and even though I’m not looking, I know he’s grinning. I canfeelit, like the sun breaking through a cloudy day to warm my skin.

“You want to be just like me, don’t you?” he jokes, and for once, I take it as the teasing it is and don’t overreact.

“There are worse people to emulate,” I murmur back, and I see his head jerk back a fraction in my peripheral vision.

I’ve shocked him. And that makesmesmile.

The feeling bursts like a bubble when something clatters on the table next to Royal. We both look left as a gorgeous blonde with way too much cleavage showing for a work breakfast slides into the chair on Royal’s other side. My whole body tenses as she gives him a Cheshire Cat smile, and I quickly turn away, fixing my gaze on my plate while all of my other senses are focused solely on the newcomer and her interaction with the man next to me.

“Royal Manning, as I live and breathe,” she says, a slight southern twang softening the syllables.

“Georgia,” he says by way of a greeting, and I nearly choke as the bite of eggs I was chewing tries to go down the wrong pipe.

Is that her name? Or is it a cutesy nickname he gave her because that’s where she’s from?

I move my eyes in their direction, careful not to turn my head, and I see Georgia lean in a bit closer, curving her shoulders forward to accentuate her breasts in a way that makes me wonder if she’stryingto trigger a nip-slip. She’s says something I don’t catch, and Royal’s answering chuckle vibrates through me…and not in a good way.

They obviously have some kind of history. I snap my gaze back to my plate, forcing myself to eat as I try to drive thoughts of the two of them being intimate out of my head.

Not my circus. Not my monkeys.

What Royal decides to do in his personal time has nothing to do with me. I don’t care. At all. Seriously.

The food curdles in my stomach despite my internal protests, and it only gets worse when Georgia laughs at something Royal’s saying and playfully swats at his arm. Her hand lingers there for a moment too long, her thin, manicured fingers almost caressing his skin.

I look away, determined to focus on the conversations further down the table, but my ears keep tuning into Georgia’s sultry tone and Royal’s responses. His deep voice sounds disgustingly flirtatious, and my jaw locks up as I grind my molars together.

And now, I’ve lost my appetite.

Pushing to my feet in a rush, I mutter, “I’ll see you later, Royal.”

His hand shoots out and latches around my wrist, stopping me before I even take a step. I stare at his fingers pressed againstmy skin for a long moment before Royal jerks his hand away like I’ve burned him. He balls the hand into a fist and shoves it beneath the table as he clears his throat.

“Where, ah, where are you headed?”

I stare at him, one eyebrow hiked up, and he sighs.

“Right. None of my business. Sorry. I’ll see you.”

I glance over at Georgia, who’s staring daggers at me so intensely, Iliterallyfall back a step. As Royal turns back to face her, Georgia’s expression smooths out instantly, and she goes right back to her outrageous flirting.

Wow. I need to get out of here.

I grab an apple from the buffet on my way out since I didn’t even eat half my breakfast. Wandering outside, I think about Emmett as the sun hits my face, and I take a moment to soak it in. Then I walk to the pool area and find a chair under an umbrella so I can sit and eat my apple while I think.

I’ve got a great view of the ocean from here, and I stare out at the waves as I ponder what just happened in there. My visceral reaction to seeing someone blatantly hit on Royal was…unexpected. Confusing. And I need to get this––whatever it is––under control.

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