Up for Heir - Stella Starling Page 0,18

himself?

Obviously, the prince didn’t mean a date-date. It was just a turn of phrase, one that Edvin’s brain had gotten stuck on earlier, too. But when Leo’s only answer was one of the cocky grins that had been captured by thousands of ravenous paparazzi over the years and another blush-inducing wink, it was tempting—ridiculously tempting—for Edvin to go ahead and let himself pretend it was true.

Farging piddle. He was definitely going to make a fool of himself tonight, wasn’t he?

With Leo, though, somehow that thought didn’t seem scary at all.

“So your youngest sister, Astrid, is fifteen?” Leo asked, leaning forward a little with that sparkling, chocolatey gaze locked onto Edvin, just like he’d been doing all throughout dinner.

Edvin nodded, definitely not falling a little bit in love as Leo kept ticking off family members on his fingers, because that would be foolish, and even if he’d given himself a bit of a pass on that, there were limits.

“Tilde is the seventeen-year-old, Linnea is nineteen, the same age as my brother Wren—” Leo shook his head a little at the mention of Prince Renford, an exasperated-but-loving big-brother look crossing his face that Edvin could absolutely relate to, “—and Oliver,” the prince went on, “who I haven’t had the chance to meet yet, just turned twenty-one. Did I get them all?”

“Yes,” Edvin said, feeling all warm and syrupy inside about the way his prince—no, the prince—seemed to genuinely want to know about his family. Although some of that delicious warmth could also have been from the bottle of sparkling rose wine—Zasfer, from the royal vineyards—that Leo had ordered with their dinner, come to think of it. Or had it been two bottles now? Edvin couldn’t quite remember… possibly because he didn’t normally drink much, and Leo was—

No, he meant the wine. The wine was delicious. Well, both were, to be honest, but the point was that Edvin had definitely had more to drink than he was used to and now everything was starting to feel lovely and… and a little soft and fuzzy around the edges. Not that Edvin was drunk, of course—

Wait, was he?

Maybe a little tipsy, but definitely not drunk, because Edvin didn’t get drunk. Too many people to be responsible for, too little time or disposable income to indulge in it. Although… tonight was different. Oliver had agreed to stay home with the girls after Edvin had gotten Leo’s text earlier, and Leo was making all the other decisions, so Edvin, for once, wasn’t really responsible for anything at all. It was novel and wonderful and a little intoxicating. It was lovely, just like Leo and the bottle of Zasfer.

“You’re smiling,” Leo said, sounding extremely self-satisfied about the matter… which for some reason made Edvin want to giggle.

Giggling probably wasn’t very dignified around a prince though, was it? So instead, he took another sip of the Zasfer.

The delightfully bubbly wine was actually one of Rosavia’s claims to fame. Oliver and Linnea both liked it. Why hadn’t Edvin ever tried it before? Oh, right. Responsibility, being sure never to drink too much, blah blah blah. Still, not drinking one of his own country’s national products was… was a little unpatriotic of him, wasn’t it?

“I’m s-s-sorry, Leo,” he said, wracked with sudden guilt as he stared down into his almost empty wine glass. “As a loyal… loyal citi-citizen—”

Had he slurred that last bit? Surely not. His tongue didn’t feel tangled at all. Just… just a little slippery.

“—I-I-I really… really should have… have done a better job of shupporting the… the econo…the econ… the grapes.” He drained the rest of the glass. “I should drink more wine,” he clarified, looking back up into Leo’s really quite beautiful eyes. “To… to do my part for Ro-Roshavia.”

For crown and country.

For the crown jewel of the country.

No, for the crown… for the crown prince of the country.

Edvin definitely wanted to do more for the crown prince. In fact, he was pretty sure he would do anything for the crown prince, and it was… it was devastating to think he might have let Leo down. Let down Edvin’s prince, his favorite prince, his pretty, pretty, beautiful prince who smelled like roses and not having responsibilities and… and soap.

But sexy soap.

Scrumptiously sexy seductive soap that Edvin wanted to lick.

Ew. No. Scratch that. Edvin definitely didn’t want to lick soap.

Licking Leo, though… that would be lovely.

“You’re lovely,” Edvin said dreamily, setting his empty glass down and smiling a little sloppily at the crown jewel of his amazing country.

Oh,