Page 74 of Royal Crush

“I read, mostly. I wasn’t allowed a lot of TV growing up. News outlets were always very critical about my family, and my parents and nannies didn’t want us traumatized.” My fingers drifted to his hair as he rested his cheek against the top of my shoulder. It was still wet from the shower and slick now that he’d washed all the product out of it.

“I kind of love that.”

I glanced down at him with a frown. “That the media was shitty about us?”

“No.” He rolled his eyes, then nudged up against my hand like a cat. I resumed stroking my nails over his scalp. “That you didn’t, you know, grow up with me or whatever.”

Ah. “Everyone’s teen crush?”

Aleric shuddered. “Don’t say it like that. It sounds weird.”

I laughed and held him a little tighter. “You weren’t my teenage crush. Don’t worry. And you wouldn’t have been even if I had known who you were.”

“Uh. Ouch?”

Burying my nose against his temple, I grinned. “I’m sorry, my darling. You just weren’t my type back then.”

“Who was? God, don’t tell me you were a boy band kind of?—”

“No,” I said in a rush. My chest heated, and Aleric pulled away from me, staring.

“There’s a story there.”

Pressing my hand over my face, I took a deep breath. “Do you…Christ, do you remember Phantom Harmony?”

He blinked, then burst into laughter. “Oh my God. They had a couple of really popular singles, right? Something about…knights and princes? They were really popular with like eight-year-olds, weren’t they?”

I blushed harder. “Mm. I wasn’t a fan, obviously. I liked classic music.”

“Like Mozart?”

“Like Ozzy,” I murmured.

His face lit up. “Oh, I like you so fucking much.”

I felt warm all over. “Anyway, my parents didn’t care—or they didn’t know. Maybe both. I think they asked one of their assistants what all the kids were into, and whoever it was had teenagers obsessed with the boy band craze. So my thirteenth birthday, the few friends I actually did have—and a bunch of kids from my school who took a day off from bullying me—showed up to see Phantom Harmony play.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” I breathed out. “I was humiliated. My parents didn’t notice. They didn’t actually come to my party.”

“Wait…really?” Aleric sat up a little further and leaned on his elbow, staring at me. “They didn’t even make an appearance?”

“We did a family dinner a few nights before. That’s how it always was,” I told him, waving off his surprise. “I think my mom forgot what day my birthday was actually on.”

“That’s bullshit. She pushed you out of her body.”

“I was surgically removed,” I told him with a tiny smirk. “She was on a lot of drugs. But it’s fine.”

“It’s bullshit,” Aleric said again. “You deserve to be remembered by your own parents.”

“Not when they’re the rulers of a whole country.”

He looked at me sideways. “Is that what you really think?”

I took a beat, then seized him and pulled him against me, enjoying the feeling of his heavy laugh against my chest. “No. It’s not what I think, but it is what it is. And back to your original question, my teen crush was?—”

“Ozzy.” He grinned up at me, propping his chin on my chest. “I liked him too. I don’t want to say daddy issues because that’s kind of gross, but…maybe parental authority issues? When you’re massively let down by the people who are supposed to take care of you.”

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