I couldn’t say anything; he had caught me off guard with that. Luckily, the doorbell rang.
“I’ll be right back.” I didn’t want him to say anything. Dashing to the front door and without even thinking, I opened the door.
There was my sister in the flesh, dressed in track pants and an Etheus active, long-sleeved shirt under her zipper jacket, with a headband in her hair. Her light-brown eyes widened as she saw me.
“Where have you been?” she screamed at me, pushing her way into the house. “I’ve called over and over. I went to your place, and the doorman would not let me up. I tried calling again. No answer. Your shows were over hours ago. Why didn’t you come today? Are you seriously so pissed off at me that you wouldn’t even show up? I had the press asking me why you weren’t there. There are rumors all over the place saying we are fighting—”
“Augusta, breathe.”
“No, I’m angry!” she hollered. “Yes, I was wrong for getting married and not telling you. But you know why I had to do it! We have been in litigation for a year. We need to pay lawyers and bills. It was a simple solution. I didn’t tell you because I knew you were going to judge me! ‘Oh, you will do anything for money? Oh, Augusta, we can find a way.’ I couldn’t. I don’t have another career like you do to fall back on. And don’t say I could go work at a restaurant or something—as if that could pay our kind of bills! I kept lying because I was embarrassed. This wasn’t some elaborate plot by me to take all the money.”
“Augusta—”
“Okay, maybe my mom was plotting something, but I told her I would never do anything to hurt you. You can’t blame me for what she does! You know she acts crazy whenever it comes to your—”
“Augusta, shut up!” I screamed back.
She stopped, crossing her arms, exhaling from her nose like a raging bull.
“Thank you! I get it. I’m sorry I missed it today. I will call you tomorrow. This is not a good time.”
“You are kicking me out after everything I just...” her voice trailed off as her eyes went wide, clearly focused on someone behind me.
Dammit.
“Hello,” Gale said.
Augusta didn’t reply and instead focused on me. She stepped closer, turning to hide her body from him and whispered in a very hushed tone “Odette, I’m not sure if you noticed, but there is a white guy with a strange accent and a lace-front wig on behind you.”
“Yeah, I know,” I whispered back.
She was ridiculous, sometimes. She leaned over and looked back to him for a second before coming back up. “He’s kinda cute, but what’s with the hairpiece. Is he bald?” Why was she like this?
“Can we talk about this later?” I begged, but it was like I was cursed.
Both Wolfgang and Iskandar appeared at the end of the corridor to see what was happening. She, of course, noticed, and her eyes widened farther.
“Are you conducting interviews or something?”
I reached forward with one hand and started to push with the other. “Goodbye, Augusta. I will see you later.”
“No, wait. What’s going on?”
“Come on.” I pulled her out into the cold.
“Fine, don’t tell me.” She huffed. “But at least bring one of them for next weekend. Malik is having a second youth active day.”
“Okay.”
“So, we’re good?”
“Yes, we’re good.” I would say anything at this point to get her to leave.
She nodded and walked off my porch to her red Porsche. “See you later.”
I waved and waited for her to drive off, shivering again and running back inside. Gale was back where I left him, the rest of everyone else now gone.
“You and your sister are a bit alike,” he stated.
“We are not,” I said.
“If you say so. Are you still mad at her?”
“She refuses to let me be,” I muttered, standing in front of him. “And now that she thinks I’m apparently interviewing all of you for my future husband. I don’t have the right to be mad, either.”
“Wolfgang is too young for you. And Iskandar...well, he’s married to his career, so that’s not an option, either.”
“Taking out your competition?” I teased.
“Am I still in the race?”
“You are the only one—only one competing,” I added that second part quickly. “If you still want to, I guess. You don’t seem as enthusiastic as before I left, though.”
“I’m trying a new approach,” he replied. “My brother told me to try to be your friend first. However, you are really making that hard for me.”
His gaze dropped to chest again, so I crossed my arms over my nipples quickly. Why were they so damn sensitive? Jeez!
“I’m not doing it on purpose.”
“That’s the problem.” His face was closer to mine now, and I couldn’t look away from his lips. “You are not doing anything, and yet I keep thinking about you, wanting you. I am not just saying that, either. If you knew how badly I wanted to kiss you...you’d disappear again or reject me again. So, I am trying to take it slow...very slow.”
I didn’t want very slow, though.
“So here is to our growing friendship.” He stretched out his hand.
I saw and ignored it, closing the distance between our lips.
She was evil.
She was purposely trying to torture me.
And I was just going to let her because it felt so damn good. Feeling her lips on mine as I wrapped my arms around her, pressing her body against mine, and doing exactly what I had wanted to do for days now had me overflowing with excitement. When her mouth opened for me and her breasts brushed up against my chest, my heart began to pound faster, and I knew I was in heaven. I wanted to stay there so badly. I wanted to kiss her like this until the sun rose and set again.
If only, I thought as our lips separated. When I opened my eyelids, her brown eyes seemed to sparkle. Sighing, I put my forehead to hers, holding her face.
“Why are you torturing me like this?” I whispered, truly hoping she would answer. “Why am I always on the wrong page with you? When I tried to get closer to you, you backed away. When I back away, you come close. What am I supposed to do?”
“Think of it like dancing?” she replied half-heartedly, reaching up to place her hands over my own. “I’m sorry if I’m confusing you. But I’m confused, too. I get scared when you get close. But I don’t want you to back away, either.”
“Why are you scared?”
“Because I do not like to be hurt and men seem to always the worst.”
“I won’t hurt you.”
She frowned and tried to step back. “No one ever starts out thinking they will, but somewhere down the line they do, Gale.”
I held her still. “I, Prince Galahad Fitzhugh Cornelius Edgar of the House of Monterey, will not hurt you, Odette.”
She opened her mouth, but I shook my head.
“Remember what I told you on our first date,” I said, brushing her curls from her face. “Do not try to look at the end. Instead, enjoy the present with me.” I was not sure what she was trying to see in my eyes, but she stared for a long time before nodding.