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What in hell’s bells was wrong with her? She didn’t like Anton. Not anymore. So why was she wanting to rub herself against him like a cat in heat? She licked her lips, mind racing. This had to be the effects of him rescuing the evening. Gratitude was a hell of a drug when it came to her libido it seemed.
“Science minions?” he asked.
“Mmm.” Grace swallowed down her glass in an impressive gulp. In her defense, the glass was tiny. She wasnotnervous. She also wasn’t into him right now.
Absolutely not.
Anton chuckled. “What does that make you, if they are minions?”
“Their queen,” Grace replied smoothly. “Obviously.”
“Mm, a queen? Well, now that I’m looking at you…” He stopped and gave her a considering look, a look that moved over her body slowly. The kind that went from head-to-toe and made a woman’s toes curl. Grace blushed hot but kept silent under his assessing gaze. She had daydreamed of him looking at her like this. “I can see it.”
She gave a jerky nod. “That’s right,” she said, voice coming out hoarse.
“No one told me I was in the company of royalty. You’ll have to excuse my manners, your majesty.” She leaned away from him, but Anton matched her step with one of his own and then dropped into a low bow, one that mirrored the bow he had given her on their first meeting...but this time it was different. For all of its silliness, the bow felt sincere. Anton raised his eyes to her as he straightened and nodded at her empty cup.
“May I?”
A giggle escaped Grace. She clapped a hand over her mouth in shock and took a quick step away from Anton, but the man was undeterred. She should not be falling into their easy banter like this. It was too soon. Didn't she have any sense of self-preservation? She couldn’t trust him. She had to remember that no matter how much champagne he served her, or how much he made her laugh.
“May you what?” she asked, not registering the question. She was far too taken aback by her response to him. She’d gone from wanting to punch himto wanting him.It was a lot to take in.
“A refresher? You seemed thirsty,” Anton said, pointing at the bottle he held.
“Oh, yes, please.” Grace held out her cup to him, grateful for something to do that didn’t require her to meet his eyes. He had eyes too fine to be staring at on a pretty starry night, when one had been imbibing at top speed on a path lit up like something out of a romcom. Dangerous territory. Downright perilous, even.
Anton poured her a fresh glass and the pair resumed walking, but this time the silence was nice, comfortable even. Grace had almost worked up the courage to ask after Anton’s day when he spoke.
“I’m very sorry for my behavior.”
“I-what?” Grace stopped in her tracks so fast champagne spilled over the edge of her cup.
“Yesterday,” Anton said, turning to face her and swallowing hard before he continued, “I was an absolute ass. You didn’t deserve any of it. I’m sorry. I know it isn’t enough. That an apology isn’t enough to fix what I broke, but I want you to know that I am sorry.”
“Oh,” she sighed and looked down at her feet, unsure what to say. “Thank you.” She paused then and added, “I forgive you.”
Anton’s face brightened and he raised the bottle of champagne to her. “Ah, I see you are a benevolent queen.”
Grace nodded, smiling back. It was impossible not to when he beamed at her. His smile was downright infectious. How was this the man who had mistreated her? It couldn’t be.
“A good queen forgives, but I should apologize, too,” she told him quietly.
“Oh? How so?”
“Well,” Grace said, and took a step down the path. “I wasn’t as patient as I could have been. I...let you have it pretty fast. That wasn’t okay, and I should have tried to diffuse the situation, but I didn’t.”
“How the hell were you supposed to do that? Our first time,finally,” he said, drawing that word out in a way that had Grace’s pulse hammering, “meeting, and I was hungover and I took it out on you. There wasn’t any time to figure it out, Grace.”
“That’s besides the point,” she said, ignoring the way Anton’s handsome face scrunched up in dismay. She lifted one shoulder. “I owed it to Lou to make sure our first run-in went off without a hitch. No matter your behavior. You’ve been practically bankrolling Betsy’s fancy new facelift.”
He looked at her in confusion. “Betsy?”
She gestured towards the sky with her plastic cup. “Ah, the telescope. Beta, or whatever Lou calls her, is so boring.”
Anton hummed and nodded, eyes moving ahead of them to where the rest of the science crew had disappeared into the night. “So I have been. And you think me bringing that ramshackle-”
Grace made a face. “She has character.”
