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“Thanks to me? You jumped me, remember?” he said, coming up behind me.
“You set me up with the letters.”
“Guilty.” He chuckled and kissed the side of my head. My ponytail was a bit smooshed, but it had managed to hang on. “Besides, it’s a bedroom; they had to know we would use it for something other than sleep during this trip.”
“But on the first day?” I replied, leaning back into him. “Rozem isn’t even the smallest trek of the journey.”
“Stop worrying. No one will say anything. Now, have you seen my belt?” He stepped back, but because of the flowers, he nearly fell over.
I laughed, turning to face him. “You didn’t think the flowers through, did you?”
“I did!” he said quickly. “We’ll move some of them to the other cars.”
Shaking my head, I bent down in front of him.
“Again?” he asked me, and when I looked up, he was grinning down at me.
Smacking his leg, I hollered, “No!” before grabbing his belt off the floor and rising back up.
“Oh, thank you, but next time warn me when you are about to go down like that. You had my heart skip a beat for nothing.” He winked, taking the belt from me.
“Oh, my God! Is sex the only thing on your mind?”
He leaned forward. “When you are in front of me…yes.”
I pushed his face away from mine, trying not to smile. “This is why I forget when I am mad at you.”
“You were mad at me? Why?” he asked like he didn’t know.
“Why?” I repeated. “You completely dismissed me earlier. Basically, kicked me out of the conversation. In front of everyone, like I was a kid.”
“I did not,” he said just like a kid, causing me to cross my arms and give him a look. “Honestly, I wasn’t trying to dismiss or kick you out anywhere. You looked uncomfortable. I wanted you to feel free to go.”
“I was not.” Okay, now I was the child.
“Really? Is that why Wolfgang made something up last time for you to leave. You shot up like you had sat on a spring. Barely looked back at any of us before rushing to leave.” He gave me a look before he resumed fixing his cufflinks.
He was right. But still.
“I wasn’t uncomfortable. I was more…”
“Uncomfortable,” he restated.
“Overwhelmed,” I corrected, helping him fix his cufflinks. “There was your grandmother and then your mother and then the team. And the conversation was so fast.”
“Which is why I was trying to help you escape earlier,” he interjected, lifting his other wrist for me. “There is no need for you to force yourself, Odette.”
“There is. I can’t just be ignorant of everything. I have to learn to find a new comfortable. And I am working. I’m having Wolfgang prepare me a full palace list of everyone…”
“Everyone?” His eyebrow rose. “Even I don’t know everyone.”
“You can get away with that. I, on the other hand, need to be knowledgeable. So I will do my best to learn about everyone and everything I can.”
When he opened his mouth, I knew he was about to tell me something like, don’t stress yourself out, or it’s not that serious. But it was.
“Gale. I need to learn and truly be part of all of this. Don’t discourage me or let me be lazy.”
“Fine. But you better not turn into a protocol robot again,” he demanded, causing me to smack his arm, which only made him kiss the side of my cheek. “Come on, let’s go before they gossip about us more.”
