of how to make that mutually satisfying if he were to be presented with a different set of equipment anyway—there was nowhere else Leo wanted to be.
“So, what is it?” Eddie asked a little breathlessly, his eyes glued to the sight of Leo’s fingers on his skin. “The… the important m-m-matter, I m-m-mean.”
“Hm,” Leo answered noncommittally, buying some time because, as was so often the case in his personal life, he’d acted impulsively when rattling off that excuse with no real plan beyond seeing his librarian again. Normally, making that sort of thing happen was simple to arrange and required no subterfuge whatsoever, but Leo had quickly realized that Eddie wasn’t the type to drop everything and make room in his schedule just because Leo was a prince and happened to want him to. Not when, as Eddie had brought up repeatedly when Leo had tested the waters throughout the week, he also had other people counting on him. Responsibilities that, unlike Leo, he seemed to have no desire to avoid.
Leo had checked up on Eddie after he’d finally left him the weekend before—it was simply good manners—and he’d been genuinely relieved to hear that the Blom girls’ sickness had, in fact, just been a case of food poisoning. Everyone had recovered quickly, according to Eddie, but after that information had been exchanged, Eddie had thanked Leo profusely for his help, and a date had been set—in the summer, after the Royal Ball, to accommodate Linnea’s schedule at university—to follow through on the promised rose garden tour Leo had promised the girl… and then Leo’s suggestion that Eddie drop by the next day for a tour of his own had been politely, apologetically, but firmly shot down.
Leo grinned at the memory, oddly charmed by how often Eddie had already said no to him in their short acquaintance. It was a new experience, but he didn’t hate it.
In the case of the proposed garden tour, Eddie had already been scheduled for a shift at the library that he’d categorically refused to skip out on. And after that, he’d cited homework he needed to assist his youngest sister with, university applications to help another sister complete, summer intern-abroad opportunities to research for Linnea, and something—Leo’s eyes had already crossed, preventing him from remembering the details—he’d needed to do for his younger brother, Ollie, after that. It wasn’t just that day, either. From what Leo had been able to determine, all Eddie’s days seemed to revolve around working long hours at the library, getting too little sleep, and constantly racing around to accommodate his siblings’ needs when he wasn’t busy doing one of those first two things. There seemed to be a distressing lack of fun, luxury, or any form of self-indulgence in Eddie’s life, and Leo—although in the past he’d avoided taking on additional responsibilities like the plague on his freedom that they were—had inexplicably decided that it was his responsibility to correct those lacks.
He had no qualms about playing on Eddie’s own overdeveloped sense of selfless responsibility to get what he wanted, either, because if anyone deserved some fun, luxury, and self-indulgence, it was most definitely Edvin Blom. But what Leo didn’t want to do—not now, not ever—was make Eddie feel foolish. That had never been his intent. With Eddie’s sweetly earnest offers to help him tonight, though, accomplishing that meant that instead of coming clean, Leo was going to have to come up with something plausible. An “important matter” that Eddie could help him with.
Before he managed to think of one, though, Eddie solved the problem for him.
“L-L-Leo? Is it… is it about your engagement?”
His voice dropped to a whisper on the last two words, eyes darting around the dimly lit restaurant in a slightly exaggerated, wine-fueled way, as if he wanted to make sure he wasn’t overheard, and Leo grinned, charmed all over again by Eddie’s instinctive consideration for others. For Leo. Not, in this case, because of who Leo was, but just because that was who Eddie was.
Leo had made sure to have them seated in a quiet corner of the upscale-but-not-pretentious Greek restaurant—and had paid extra to make sure it stayed that way—but he still found it incredibly sweet that Eddie, even in his still-intoxicated state, was clearly so concerned for Leo’s privacy. Leo had grown up with the understanding that his position would never afford him much privacy, and he’d not so much made his peace with it as he’d simply chosen to give it the