inspired by the Zasfer they’d been drinking. And being the recipient of that look? For some inexplicable reason, Leo found it far more intoxicating than the sparkling wine.
He hadn’t been lying when he’d told Eddie he wanted to talk to him about everything. There was just something about the little librarian that pulled at Leo like a magnet, and the more time they spent together, the stronger that pull got. He’d wondered, after such an unprecedented, unexpected evening playing nursemaid with Eddie the weekend before, if he might have just imagined how compelling the other man was, but now—three hours and two bottles of Zasfer into dinner—he had his answer.
No, he hadn’t imagined it.
“You said you… you need my help with an important m-m-m-matter?” Eddie prompted, his stutter smoothing out a little the way it seemed to do whenever he got intensely focused… although, like Eddie’s slightly slurred speech, that could also be a side effect of the wine.
“Very important,” Leo confirmed with a wink, not feeling even a little bit guilty about having fabricated the “important matter.” A chance to see Eddie again was the important matter, as far as he was concerned. He did feel a slight glimmer of guilt over getting Eddie drunk, though—it hadn’t occurred to him how affected Eddie would be by a few glasses of wine, although maybe it should have, given his small stature—but that guilt was mostly offset by the knowledge that Eddie was enjoying himself. Leo knew Eddie was, because the man was delightfully easy to read. There was no subterfuge about him, and it was… refreshing.
More often than not, people outside the royal family either wanted something from Leo, fawned over him, or simply wanted to be seen with him. It had been a fact of his life for as long as he could remember, but Eddie was different. Eddie didn’t ask him for anything and seemed perpetually surprised when Leo offered, and when he said he wanted to help Leo, Leo knew down to his bones that it wasn’t to curry favor.
Really, how could he not want to spend more time with him?
“Okay,” Eddie was already saying even without having been given any details. He adjusted his glasses, nodding vigorously as he leaned forward with that same sweet earnestness that made a previously unknown and unexpectedly tender part of Leo want to wrap him up and keep him. “Anything you n-n-need,” Eddie went on. “I’m your man, Leo. I’m… I’m yours.”
His.
A smile spread across Leo’s face before he could stop it, and Eddie paused, sucking his lower lip into his mouth as his eyes went wide and a gorgeous blush flooded his cheeks. “Yours t-t-t-to help you, I mean,” he whispered, blushing even harder. “If you… if you want me?”
Leo’s smile got even wider, a warm fizz starting in his blood. “I do,” he said, which he was starting to suspect might be more than just a turn of phrase. Unexpected, to be sure, but also quite possibly… true.
His answer made Eddie squeak a little—adorable—and blush even harder, and Leo was just as enchanted by Eddie’s uncensored response to him as he had been from the start. He reached across the table and took Eddie’s hand. The cuff of his shirt sleeve was lying dangerously close to the edge of his plate, after all, and Leo figured Eddie wouldn’t want it soiled.
Or maybe… maybe it was Leo who didn’t want it soiled.
He felt oddly compelled to make the evening perfect for Eddie, which wasn’t how he’d expected to feel—not about anyone, not ever—and the unprecedented attraction that was brewing under the surface wasn’t the only thing surprising him. The protective instincts Eddie inspired, the need Leo felt to… to take care of him, that wasn’t Leo’s usual style at all. His much publicized “dating” life had always tended to be more about spur-of-the-moment, indulgent mutual satisfaction than the innocent but delightful conversation of tonight, or the unglamorous but oddly satisfying experience of helping Eddie care for his sisters the week before.
And on the topic of the unexpected, none of Leo’s past experiences had ever involved another man.
Regardless, when he straightened Eddie’s cuff and then let his fingers linger to stroke Eddie’s wrist, there was no denying that he enjoyed the resulting hitch in Eddie’s breath immensely. It was a far cry from an athletic sex-a-thon with a stunning set of triplets, but even with no expectation of getting naked later—and truly, Leo was a little hazy on the mechanics