Page 62 of A Fierce Princess

“About that,” Chris says, raising an eyebrow and looking past me to Auggie.

“Seriously, Auggie? Is nothing sacred in this family?” I ask, turning my head to glare at him. He has the audacity to look a little sheepish.

I look back to Chris who is giving me his best stern big brother look.

“Are you sure we can trust Logan?” he asks.

I nod. “Yes, we can trust him,” I confirm. But if I’m being really honest with myself, a very small part of me questions this knowledge when Chris asks me.

“OK, then you have my blessing,” he says.

I roll my eyes. “Seriously?” I say.

He laughs. “What? It’s my brotherly duty,” he says.

I groan and slap his chest. “One more word about brotherly duties and I will kick your motherfucking ass,” I say as I stand.

“Wow, clean that mouth out with soap, Princess,” Auggie says. “Let’s go get Tessa’s cookies. I think we could all use some.”

“And something to drink,” Chris mutters as he follows us out of my room.

Chapter 25

We waltz into the kitchen and find Logan already sitting on a stool. We all plop down next to him, taking up the remaining seats. There’s a bottle of vodka in front of him and a shot glass.

He looks over at us and slides the bottle down our way.

“Goes well with the cookies,” he mutters.

“Rough chat with Daddy?” Auggie asks.

“Fuck off, Auggie,” Logan grumbles.

Auggie slaps him on the back. “Welcome to being a royal. I think your hazing is complete. I mean an assassination attempt, a long-lost king father, sleeping with a princess. I’m pretty sure you’ve covered all the bases…and I mean ‘all’ the bases,” he says, smirking at me.

I stand up and punch Auggie in the arm. “You are such a dick!” I say to him.

Tessa walks over and puts her hands on her hips. “That is quite enough, you four! This isn’t a sleazy bar on the wrong side of town. Now, I don’t care if you want to come drown your royal sorry asses in here, but you will not talk to each other or about each other like that in front of me,” she says in her best stern voice. Immediately, all four of us straighten up and there’s a chorus of “yes, ma’am” from our mouths.

“Now, you’ll need some food to go with that alcohol,” she mutters, tapping her cheek. She puts her finger in the air. I can almost see a lightbulb turning on over her head as she spins around and fires up the brick oven.

I look over at Auggie and Chris, and we all grin. Tessa makes killer homemade pizza, and it will go perfectly with the alcohol.

Tessa gets to work on the pizza dough, entertaining us, or maybe distracting us with funny stories about how she learned how to make pizza from some old Italian guy who owned a pizzeria and hired her to serve pizza when she was fifteen. She sets glasses down in front of us and like a real-life bartender she mixes up drinks and hands us each one.

She pushes a vodka tonic at Logan. “You need something other than straight vodka, boy,” she says.

He grins at her and takes the drink. The smell of pizza fills the room as we munch on cookies and sip our drinks. I know each of us desperately wants to forget about everything going on outside of this room.

When Tessa slaps the pizzas on the marble counter in front of us, we all dig in and devour them within minutes.

Liza walks in as we are stuffing our faces. “Go ahead on out, child. I won’t be needing your help tonight. The king has ordered food sent to his suite as has our guest,” she says.

Liza nods, looks at us with curious eyes, and heads back out. We all start laughing. I peel myself from the chair and lie down on the cool tile of the kitchen floor, patting my full stomach.

“That was sooo good,” I moan.

“Anna, get your ass off the floor,” Tessa chides.

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