Maid For You 2

Chapter 33

He smiled. "Okay. It's a deal." He looked out to the view with a funny sort of smile on his face.

"What?" I asked. "What are you smiling about?"

He wore a cheesy grin. "You really think my looks are perfect?"

I slumped over the balcony and rested my cheeks in my hands. "Oh, there you go again! Embarrassing me!"

"How am I embarrassing you?" he laughed.

"Because!"

"Because...?"

"Because I tell you that you're handsome and you never say anything nice to me."

"This time, I really wasn't trying to embarrass you!" He exclaimed.

"Oh sure."

"Really! I wasn't going to say anything, but you asked me why I was smiling." He was looking at me, his eyes alight. "And what's so wrong with being happy that a pretty woman thinks I'm handsome?"

Thump thump.

I felt my heart slam against my chest.

"Do you really think I'm pretty?" I asked. Perhaps I should have been more concerned with matters of 'do you find my soul charming?' or something like that.

But gosh darnit sometimes a girl likes to be told a simple thing like she is pretty.

Prince Coleman didn't say anything for a second or two. Finally, in a voice just a hair above a whisper, he said, "Of course I do."

I stared at him with wide eyes.

"What?" His voice came out with a breathy laugh. "Are you really so surprised?"

"I guess." A gust of wind blew through, but his fleece coat kept me warm. Prince Coleman shivered for a second. "You're cold," I said.

"I'm fine."

"I feel bad," I said. "I've stolen your coat."

Prince Coleman took a couple steps toward me and placed his hands on my arms. "Don't feel bad, Cassie. I'm the one letting you use it."

It came again, just as it had a few nights before. That powerful magnetism drawing me towards him. I wanted to kiss him and hug him and feel his warm, strong arms around me.

But apparently he wasn't feeling any of that because he dropped his hands and said, "Tomorrow is a big day for you."

I looked deeply into those lovely green eyes of his as they gazed upon me kindly, happily, blissfully. Or maybe I was just seeing things.

"It is. I can still hardly believe it all. That little old me is the Queen Maiden," I said.

He tilted his head to the side. "Little old you?"

I laughed. "I guess that sounds contradictory."

"You know, I'd probably better head out soon," he started. I felt a thud in my chest, a pang of disappointment. "You're going to have to get up early, and you'll need your rest."

"Right," I said.

But then his fingers reached up and brushed my cheek and ear as he tucked a long strand of hair that had escaped my braid behind my ear. "I think...tomorrow will be a good day." His hand lingered by my ear a moment longer than perhaps it should before he lowered it. "I am very much looking forward to seeing you." And then he carefully took the long sleeve from his coat on my arm and rolled it up to reveal my hand. He then took my hand in his own, bowed down, and pressed the back of my hand to his lips. An explosion of butterflies and euphoria erupted within me at the gesture.

"If I acted like a gentleman towards you..."

"Shall we go inside?" He asked, his cheeks rosy and his face split with a happy grin—free from its usual mischief.

I nodded, my ability to speak having been completely knocked out of me. We reentered the room, and I shrugged off his jacket and handed it to him.

"Thanks," I managed to say.

"T'was my pleasure," he answered as he began to put the jacket back on. "And Cassie?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know what you said to me when we first met?"

"What?" I asked breathlessly.

"I called you a stupid commoner when we first met. And do you know what you said?"

"I can't remember."

He finished up buttoning his last button, then looked at me carefully in the eyes. "You said that you were neither stupid nor common. And you should remember that. Because it's true."

"If I acted like a gentleman towards you..."

Prince Coleman turned around and headed for the door, but before leaving, he looked back at me with a glowing smile. "Goodnight, Cassandra." And with that, he exited the room and shut the door behind him.

"If I acted like a gentleman towards you...

You'd fall in love with me."