In his lapel pocket was a burst of flowers, their colors a complement to her own attire.
Breathless, she watched him cross the stage, his long legs eating up the short distance quickly.
His scent enveloped her, an erotic caress in the room full of people, as he reached around her to shake Jasper’s hand in greeting. It wasn’t the King’s first appearance on the show.
He sat on the other side of Mina, his body language relaxed and open, for all the world to examine. She wished she could project that kind of ease when she didn’t feel it.
“Welcome, Your Majesty. It’s lovely to have you back on the show—even if you are late.”
Zayn smiled at the mock censure in the other man’s tone, and there was a great sense of contentment in his expression. “I apologize for that. Traffic in this city is just out of control. Someone should do something about that...”
The audience laughed, just as Zayn had intended, and Mina enjoyed the thrill of pride that came with recognizing that he was more than a match for Jasper.
And he was hers.
At least on paper.
She was getting used to the stabbing sensation in her chest whenever her mind lingered on him too long.
“Well, before you distracted all of us with your arrival, our lovely Queen Mina here was going to reveal to us all how she captured your heart.”
Zayn caught her eyes then. The violet of his gaze was warm and welcoming, with no hint of the resistance she knew he was committed to.
And yet despite that, even in front of an audience, she was still arrested by the locking of their gazes, frozen and lost at the same time.
He would forever be the most beautiful man she had encountered in her life.
His lips curled up at the edges and she felt the movement deep in the wet heat of her core.
“Oh, was she, now?” he said, drawing out the words with a suggestiveness that had her blushing. “I’d love to hear that.”
Jasper grinned, sensing the kind of show content that spiked ratings lurking in the heightened awareness thrumming between them, and Mina swallowed.
“Then again,” Zayn said, drawing the focus to himself effortlessly, “you could just get the information from the source.”
Jasper turned to the audience. “What do you think audience? His or hers?”
Mina’s stomach dropped, and in that instant she realized she didn’t know which would be worse: hearing his answer, or having to fabricate her own.
The audience, it seemed, was most concerned with accuracy, choosing to go with testimony from the primary source, and Mina braced her heart—as much as it was possible to brace the kind of organ that attached itself to another person regardless of whether or not he reciprocated that attachment or not.
Zayn turned a wide smile toward the audience, ready to tell some canned lie, no doubt. “Now. You were asking how to win a king’s heart?”
Jasper pointed to the King and said, “This guy!” before shrugging and adding the words, “Close enough.”
The audience laughed, but quietened quickly. They wanted to hear what he said.
Mina’s stomach turned.
He slipped his hand around hers and squeezed, before beginning. “It helps to be the most brilliant scientist in the country. That’s a strong first step to getting caught by a king.”
Rather than cringe, Mina found herself fighting the urge to snort. Getting “caught by a king” was certainly one way to saygetting arrested. The tight knot in her chest eased just a fraction.
Jasper pretended to take notes on his desk. “Step one: be a rocket scientist.”
Zayn laughed along with the audience, the sound unfettered and genuine and, for Mina, completely disorienting.
“Next,” he said, “one must naturally be stunningly beautiful.”