Leo’s, erm, stature.
His remarkably fit, looks-amazing-in-distressed-denim stature.
“Okay, Eddie?” Leo asked. “Does that work for you?”
Edvin jerked his eyes back up to the prince’s face just in time to see a teasing smile play over his lips.
Leo slung Edvin’s bag over his shoulder and reached out to brush the hair that had been tickling Edvin’s forehead all day away from his face. “Say you don’t mind.”
The prince’s fingers lingered against Edvin’s temple for a moment, sending a whole new wave of flutters through him and completely distracting him from his embarrassment over almost-probably-for-sure having just been caught ogling.
“Yes,” he breathed out smoothly. Oh, wait. The question had been whether Edvin minded. Of course he didn’t mind. “I-I-I-I mean no,” he quickly corrected himself. “I don’t mind, Leo. It’s… it’s fine.”
Synonyms of which included wonderful, magical, a dream.
“Good,” Leo said, dropping his hand but still smiling down at Edvin in a way that made it very hard, and very important, to remember that Edvin wasn’t… wasn’t actually special to him, no matter how intoxicating it felt to be the recipient of all this inexplicable, and undoubtedly temporary, princely attention.
The whole attentive-and-ridiculously-charming thing was just how Leo was; that was abundantly clear from the media stories that Edvin may or may not have spent a fair amount of the last week Googling, and he really did have to remember that fact. If he didn’t, he’d be in serious danger of letting the Leo-induced flutters get out of control and accidentally misconstruing the prince’s interest as something that it obviously couldn’t be.
Edvin was excellent at research, and Googling had only confirmed what everyone already knew. Leo was straight. Leo was about to become formally engaged. And, even if neither of those first two factors had been true, Leo was the living, breathing definition of “out of Edvin’s league.”
Edvin deflated. But… but that was a good thing, because nothing good could ever come from fooling himself. He’d already been down that road, albeit on a much smaller scale, with Hans, and he didn’t care for where it led. Leo simply wanted Edvin’s help with something, so Edvin would just need to remember that that was what this date was abou—
Er, no. Not this “date.” Wrong word choice. Bad Edvin.
He needed to remember that this… this evening appointment he had with the prince was simply a chance to discuss whatever matter Leo thought Edvin could somehow assist him with, and as long as Edvin did remember that, he could probably make it through the rest of the… appointment… without embarrassing himself.
Simple enough. First, he just needed to stop feeling so infatuated—
Okay, no. That wasn’t going to happen. But at least he could make sure he didn’t make a fool of himself by letting it show.
Edvin cleared his throat, stood a little straighter, and forced his breath to stay even and slow so he could control his tongue.
Well, mostly control it.
“Y-Y-You had something to discuss with me, Leo?”
“Hm?” Leo said absently, reaching out to fuss with Edvin’s collar, tugging it a little straighter and then shifting his hand onto Edvin’s shoulder and sort of… petting him.
Not helping.
But so, so nice.
Edvin melted a little inside, hoping against hope that it didn’t show.
“Um, you s-s-said, ‘important matters’…?”
“Absolutely,” Leo said, employing unfair amounts of eye sparkle as he grinned down at Edvin. “Very important palace matters. Highly… urgent.” He kept a hold of Edvin’s shoulder and steered him toward the low-slung car. “Let’s get something to eat and we’ll discuss them in full, shall we?” he asked, helping Edvin into the buttery leather passenger seat. “What do you feel like, Eddie? Something Mediterranean, maybe? Or should we just grab a curry?”
Edvin blinked. He was completely at a loss about how to answer that question. Not just because his taste in food had been almost completely shaped by the constraints of his limited budget ever since his parents had died—both dinner options sounded just as mouthwatering as the prince was, and he honestly couldn’t even begin to choose—but also because there was no way he’d be able to eat anything while his stomach was dancing like this, filled with all the fluttery nerves that the prince’s firm touch kept stirring up in him.
“Let me guess,” Leo said with another one of those knee-melting winks of his as he lingered next to the passenger side of the sexy little Bond car. “You’re the type who prefers to let your date pick for you.”
“W-W-What?” Edvin stuttered, his eyes going wide.
Date?
Had Leo even heard