“The one you may or may not have had sex with.”
I threw the book at him. He laughed and swatted it away as it reached him. I turned around and busied myself with things behind the register as Etienne kept talking. I completely tuned him out. My mind was too busy racing. Would Prince Elias recognize me? No. He wouldn’t. Right? I was supposed to deliver a basket to his door every night at seven thirty sharp. Those were my uncle’s orders. It was a simple task, one my uncle had left perfect instructions for. Five large wicker baskets were already stacked up in the guest room in my villa, along with the contents of what went in each of them. I hadn’t really paid much attention to any of it, but I would tonight. My stomach coiled. I’d see him tonight. Maybe not. I’d seen security outside of the villa I assumed was his, the same one we’d . . . my face flamed. Oh my God. I couldn’t do this.
“Adeline?” Etienne walked over to me and stood on the other side of the counter. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” I blinked up at him. He looked concerned. I sighed. “I don’t want to deliver the baskets.”
“If you want, I’ll take it tonight,” he said. “But I’ll be gone tomorrow.”
“Why do you have to leave?” I groaned.
“Because my girlfriend is waiting for me in London.”
“Can’t you tell Mira to come here?” I rested my elbows on the counter with an exhale.
“No.” He laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Elias won’t bite you, and even if he is the guy who took your virginity, he . . . I don’t know how to say it in a way that doesn’t sound awful, Addie, but he’s slept with a lot of women.”
“He didn’t take my virginity. I gave it to him. There’s a difference.” I met his gaze. “He didn’t even know I was a virgin.”
“I don’t think I would know either, to be honest.” He pursed his lips to think. “Unless a woman starts bleeding.” He shrugged. “And even then I may just assume she’s on her menstrual.”
That made me laugh out loud. Men were so clueless about women’s bodies. Maybe Etienne was right. Prince Elias had absolutely no reason to remember me. Even though I remembered the night I had with him, I was just a notch on his bedpost.
“Why don’t you prepare the basket and go with me to deliver it? That way he’ll know that you have a mutual friend.”
“Okay.”
“Good. Let’s finish up here, please. I’m starving and feel like I’m going to die under a pile of romance novels.”
“Hey, there are worse ways to go.” I raised an eyebrow. “You could die under a pile of autobiographies.”
The look he gave me told me he wasn’t impressed by my joke, so I went back to work, trying to ignore the fact that I may or may not be seeing the prince tonight.
Chapter 2
“Stop fidgeting,” Etienne whisper-shouted.
I stopped. We were standing outside the door, waiting for someone to answer. When it opened, I held my breath, then let it out when I saw one of the security detail standing on the other side.
“Monsieur Bouchard told us he’d be sending his niece to bring the baskets,” the man said, eyeing Etienne with curiosity.
“I’m a friend of his niece and the princes’. You must be new,” Etienne responded.
“What is your name?”
“Etienne Bellerose IV.”
“Oh. Monsieur Bellerose,” the man said, bowing ever so slightly. “My apologies.”
Etienne wasn’t a prince, but as the great-grandson of a duke, he had his own pull on society’s strings. The Bellerose name carried prestige and honor and unlike my own name, which had been on the decline in some circles for reasons that had nothing to do with me or my leaked sex tape, Etienne’s was respected on all grounds. The man before us opened the door wider and stepped aside, allowing us to walk inside the villa. Etienne offered me his arm, which I gladly took, and I stepped inside with him. He was holding the basket in his other hand and I was unsure of what to do with my free hand, so I brought it up to hold his arm with both of mine. It was either that or I’d start fidgeting again and I didn’t want to seem like a silly young girl with heart eyes for a prince I hadn’t even seen in five years.
“I’ll tell His Royal Highness that you’re here.” The man shut the door behind us and disappeared into one of the halls. I let out a breath.
“Am I supposed to curtsy?” I whispered. “I don’t even know how to do that. Do you bow when you say hi to him?”
“He’s not the king,” Etienne whispered back.
“Yet.”
“Yet,” he agreed gravely.
“So I can just shake his hand like normal?”