the gut, and a small sound of distress escaped before Edvin could stop it. There was no good reason that the simple truth, direct from the prince’s lips, should feel like more of a blow than Hans’s break up with him had, but it did.
That feeling was stupid and ridiculous and completely inappropriate, though, and Edvin knew it, so he straightened his shoulders and shook it off, determined to be whatever his prince needed.
“S-S-Sorry,” he said, because Leo had immediately stopped talking when Edvin had let his silly feelings slip out and was now looking down at him with an expression of quizzical concern that wasn’t helping. Too sweet. Too focused. Too sincere-looking.
“Eddie? What’s wrong?”
Edvin tugged his hands out of Leo’s deliciously warm grip for self-preservation purposes and pasted a helpful smile on his face. “N-N-Nothing, Your Highness. You were s-s-saying? How can I help?”
Leo cocked his head to the side. “Your Highness?” he repeated in a teasing tone that belied the confusion in his eyes.
Edvin could feel himself turning pink, but hoped that if he just kept going, Leo would somehow ignore both Edvin’s blush and his failed attempt to distance himself from all those foolishly smitten feelings.
“I m-m-meant, ‘L-L-Leo,’” Edvin corrected himself, standing even straighter and wishing that the prince didn’t smell so dang good. It was unfair and distracting and not what he needed to be focused on. “S-S-Sorry. H-H-H-How can I help with your… with your…”
He paused, swallowing hard, then finished by waving his hand in the air because fudging dammit, his tongue was rebelling again and ruining Edvin’s intentions of being helpful to his prince, even though he hated it.
Well, not hated helping Leo, of course. Never that. But the subject of discussion was, to put it mildly, not Edvin’s favorite.
“With my engagement?” Leo asked after a moment.
Edvin nodded, and Leo smiled, placing a hand on the small of Edvin’s back and leading him into the main foyer. It was, quite simply, the most beautiful place Edvin had ever actually seen in real life. It was just as romantic on the inside as the castle had seemed from the air, managing to feel both luxurious and airy, grand but welcoming, gorgeous but not nearly as intimidating as the royal palace back in the capital would have been.
But it was still a castle, and therefore, it also served as a convenient reminder of just how far out of Edvin’s league a prince—the prince, the crown prince of the whole country—actually was.
Right. Reminder acknowledged. Foolish fairytale fantasies over.
“We’re eating out on the terrace,” Leo said, guiding Edvin in that direction as he added, “And in regards to my engagement, I still need a fiancé, Eddie. That’s how you can help. I need you.”
Something hot and delicious and utterly magical shot through Edvin’s body, stopping him in his tracks.
That was how he could help?
The prince… the prince needed Edvin? To be Leo’s fiancé?
“B-B-But I’m a commoner,” he whispered, whirling around to face Leo as a thousand dead hopes he’d never have admitted to suddenly burst back to life, making him feel like he was bubbling over with the vineyard’s signature sparkling wine. But then, almost immediately, good sense kicked in, and the fizzing joy inside him flatlined. “Oh,” he said, more embarrassed than he’d ever been in his life. “Oh. Of course… you d-d-d-didn’t mean… I’m a-a-an idiot. Yes. Anything I can… can do. Erm, what?”
Oh, Lord.
Worst-best day ever.
He pushed his glasses back into place, then didn’t know what to do with his hands. At his sides? Folded behind his back? Casually resting on Leo’s chest? Wait, no, not that last one. Bad Edvin. Not really his fault, though, because Leo was still smiling down at him as if the prince had failed to realized what an utter fool Edvin had just almost made of himself by assuming even for a second that Leo would break five hundred years of Rosavian tradition to marry a commoner… or shrug off thirty years of documented precedent and suddenly choose to be with a man… or defy all common sense and want Edvin to be that man. But apparently, sparkling brown eyes that looked at Edvin as if he wasn’t common at all muddled his judgement even worse than drinking Zasfer.
See? Totally not his fault.
“You’re adorable, you know that, right?” Leo… surely could not have just said.
Edvin shook his head, wondering if altitude changes caused hallucinations. He needed to focus… on something other than Leo’s yes-it-still-felt-like-it-was-just-for-Edvin smile.
“Your engagement,” Edvin said instead