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He might have done a little light reading of his own that day on the royal traditions of Gaoxing. No one was supposed to touch a member of the royal family, short of a few selected servants. The shit he was doing was very wrong.
Jerking his hand back to his side, he jumped to his feet and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Maybe we should…um…go into your parlor there and talk. The sooner we talk, the sooner you can get some proper sleep.”
“Oh! Yes, of course. You’re right.” Jin rose and crossed his arms over his chest as if he were cold, despite the flush of color to his face.
“I saw you visited your father today. How is he doing? Any improvement?” West asked when the silence between them felt uncomfortable. And that was the weird thing. Since their first meeting, being in Jin’s presence had never felt uncomfortable. The problem now was that he’d bothered to look up some of the proper protocol and etiquette for being in Jin’s presence. Now he knew everything he’d done was wrong.
Great examples of that were the facts that he wasn’t supposed to speak first or ask personal questions. Shit.
“Sorry if I’m not supposed to ask that,” he murmured. Why was this so hard?
Jin stopped just past the entrance to the parlor and grinned up at him. “You can, and I like that you asked about my father. You didn’t ask about the emperor.”
West winced and scrubbed a hand through the back of his hair. “Sorry. I’m getting this all wrong. I was also supposed to bow to you when we first spoke.”
Jin’s laugh opened a cage of butterflies in West’s stomach. He had the sweetest laugh, soft and subtle, like a spring breeze. “You were sitting on my bed when we first spoke. It’s difficult to bow like that.” Jin stepped closer and narrowed his eyes at him. “Have you been reading articles on royal etiquette?”
“Yes,” West mumbled.
The prince reached up and flicked West in the middle of the forehead. “Stop. Forget whatever you read.”
“But—”
“Forget. It.” Jin repeated, flicking him for each word. He would have done it a third time, but West captured his hand in both of his. “I want you to treat me exactly how you have been. I’m enjoying it. Plus, I’m going to continue to treat you exactly how I have been, if you don’t mind?”
“How I want to treat you and how I should treat you are two very different things, Dianxia,” West warned. He didn’t miss the soft catch in Jin’s breath or that some of his fingers squeezed West’s hand.
“It’s just us here. I would rather you be you and feel relaxed around me than worried about how the world expects you to act.”
“I don’t want to insult you.”
Jin’s smile softened. “You can’t insult me over something small and silly like you forgetting to bow or asking me something personal. Don’t forget, I already asked you to call me Jin.”
“No, Dianxia.” That was a line that he couldn’t cross—wouldn’t let himself cross.
That sweet smile shifted into a wicked smirk as he took another step closer. “Soon,” he replied with supreme confidence.
Oh God. There was too much of him that wanted Jin to win this battle.
But that smirk slipped away, and Jin resumed his walk into the parlor as if nothing had happened. “My father’s health is not good. The doctor confirmed today that he needs a heart transplant, and he has an extremely rare blood type, which makes that…difficult. I’m waiting to discuss this news with my brother before we tell my father together. We will need to make an announcement to the country as well.”
After flicking on a lamp to cast the room in more warm, golden light, he sat on the rosewood sofa with a delicate floral pattern material. The entire thing looked too perfect for West to sit on, but after that news, he wasn’t about to remain standing. He sat next to Jin on the sofa and placed his hand on his arm.
“I’m sorry, but at least there’s still hope. I’m sure your father will continue to fight as they try to find a heart for him.” West pulled his hand away and threaded his fingers together in his lap to keep from touching Jin further. “But your father and brother will need you in the days ahead. That means you need to cancel that damn contract now.”
Jin’s shoulders slumped, and he dropped against the pillow in the sofa’s corner. “I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that since we parted this morning. I held to my stubborn belief that this was the only way to get the country out of this mess and to maintain our independence from foreign support. But then, I’ve been reminded all day that my younger brother, Jin Ming Tao, is heading home as we speak. All I can think is, what if the assassin mistakes my brother for me? What if to get to me, this person kidnaps my brother? What if they just kill both of us?” Jin squeezed his eyes shut. “If anything happened to Ming Tao because of me, I could never forgive myself.”
