Suddenly Royal(77)

“I want to kiss you, Samantha.” He took a deep breath and moved a little closer. “But I’m not going to kiss you again until you ask me to.”

“What?” I jerked my head back at the same time he pulled the book from my arms. “Hey!”

I made a grab for the book but he held it above his head. Embarrassment and anger flared through my system. He had gotten me all worked up just to steal my book? The book I wanted so badly?

“You jerk!” I grabbed at his arm and tried to pull it down, but he was too strong.

“You can tempt me all you want, crawl all over me, but I meant what I said. I won’t kiss you again until you ask me to.” His eyes sparkled with his own frustration. “I’ve made it clear what I want. You need to decide.”

I stopped and looked at him. “You were right. This is difficult.”

“And I plan on doing my very best to get what I want.”

“C’mon. Let me get the book.” I changed the subject. The truth was, what I wanted was quickly outweighing my concerns.

“Nah uh. I got it fair and square. I was looking for a gift for a friend.”

“Fair and square? You stole it out of my hands.”

“I did, didn’t I?” He smiled with pride.

“Fine.” I still had my other two books, so I hadn’t lost everything. I marched out of the back room and to the counter to pay for my selections.

The shop owner asked how I was enjoying Lilaria and if I’d read any of Reinhardt’s or Ross’s books before. We chatted about the author and then I moved so Alex could buy his book. When she announced the total, my eyes almost popped out of my head.

“Thank you. I have a friend who will really enjoy this.” Alex calmly handed over a credit card and smiled when she handed him his bag.

“My pleasure, Your Highness. I hope you both enjoy the rest of your night.” She dipped a quick curtsy as we left.

“Where to now?” Alex opened my door.

“I don’t know. I didn’t even think we’d be able to come here without being followed.” I set my package in my lap while he took his seat. “What is there to do for fun around here?”

“There’s the movies.”

“Too many people.” I shook my head.

“Then I guess the clubs are out.” He raised an eyebrow.

“Definitely.” I frowned. “What about a museum?”

“Too late. Most of them are closed by now.” He narrowed his eyes. “We could go to the zoo.”#p#分页标题#e#

“No, thank you.” The thought of running into Jeremy made me cringe.

“That’s right, you’ve already been. There was a very nice picture of you and Jeremy in the paper saying you’re going to work together.”

“What? I didn’t see that and—wait a minute. Are you jealous?” I twisted in my seat to look at Alex. It was sad but the thought brought a little bubble of excitement in my chest. “Nice segue there with the whole zoo option.”

“Should I be jealous?” He turned away from me and started the car. “You have made it very clear that you want someone normal, to be out of the spotlight. And Jeremy would love nothing more than to have a royal girlfriend.”

“Hey! First of all, I don’t want anything to do with Jeremy.” I didn’t mention that he’d made passes at me. “Second of all, we’re in your ex’s car, which is a really weird place to be having this conversation. And thirdly, I don’t want someone normal, I want to be normal. To be just me. Not America’s Duchess. Just Sam.”

“You’re not just anything.” His voice rose a little and he snapped his mouth shut for a minute. He pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the city. “You’re not just anything. Even ‘just Sam’ is something special.”

I looked at him as my heart slammed in my chest. I wanted to say something, anything, but my mouth was frozen. Fear ran through my body and my mind wrestled with my heart. I wanted Alex. I was scared of what that would mean, where it would lead.

I opened my mouth and shut it. I opened my mouth again and closed it. Neither of us said anything else, just rode in silence. I had no idea where we were going, but I didn’t ask. Alex eventually pulled into a small restaurant that wasn’t too busy.

“Let’s grab some dinner.” He got out of the car and walked around to my side. I climbed out and followed him inside. Everything was in Lilarian: the sign, the menu, the words on what I thought were ketchup packets.

The man behind the counter said something friendly to Alex and then to me. We had covered basic greetings in the car, so I tried to say, “Nice to meet you.” The man chuckled and his smile grew.