There are few things Prince Alexander Barrington is ever wrong about. So when he's charged with teaching Joy Simmons the ways of being a royal, he begrudgingly finds that not only is he wrong about her, but with the way things are going, she might j...
I looked away from the book in my hands to see a boy about half my height smiling toothily up at me just as I'd stepped out of the library. He had sandy hair; a blended mixture between blonde and brown, and bright blue curious eyes that were on me at the moment.
"Are you lost, little guy?" I grinned at him.
"No," he continued to smile. "I'm playing hide and seek with my brother. And it's my turn to hide."
Brother?
Oh please no.
"And hundred!" I heard loudly from somewhere at the end of the hall in a familiar voice. No. "You're going down, kiddo!"
That's when Alexander came into view as he made his way down the hall and paused, the smile on his face—damn him, seriously, damn him for looking that gorgeous smiling—freezing before slipping off entirely as his eyes fell on me.
Damn him for looking gorgeous not smiling either.
"Nicholas, you aren't hiding," he said to his brother.
"I was distracted," Nicholas said in response and I had to suppress a smile at that.
Alexander muttered something unintelligible under his breath before looking back at me. "I'm sure you have things to do?"
"Not really," I retorted. "I'm good."
"You could play with us!" Nicholas suggested enthusiastically and I just blinked at him.
No, now that had backfired.
"Come on! I love hide and seek, it's awesome! You'll love it too!"
Oh boy.
"I like playing but it gets kinda boring with us two. Come on, you're it! You can start looking for us after hundred!" He declared to me as he tugged his brother's hand to get him moving. A brother who, incidentally, looked tired of the world and all the shit it was handing him.
Well.
I guess I was it.
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"You're pretty good," Nicholas commented as we sat by the fire in the television room. "Really good even. I give you an A in hide and seek."
We'd spent approximately half an hour playing the game on the first floor and in the start I'd purposely gone for all the places I knew Alexander would not be hiding—behind the sofa, in the kitchen, underneath the bed in the guest room and the like. Alexander, of course, wasn't super psyched to play hide and seek with me and I realized a couple of games in that he was only humoring his brother at this point, which was probably why he didn't even try.
