Up for Heir - Stella Starling Page 0,35

simply how things were. No one’s fault. Just an accident of birth. One Leo had spent a fair amount of his adulthood rebelling against, to be sure, but one that, ultimately, he knew he’d have no choice but to embrace.

But if he was going to embrace it—and he was, that fact was inescapable—he would do his duty while living up to his rebellious reputation, all the way to the altar. This time, not rebelling in the same media-frenzy-inducing ways he had for so many years, but by choosing a commoner as his royal consort. Someone who Leo knew he still had a million things to discover about, but who he already knew melted in his arms and kissed him back like it was what he’d been made for… someone who had a smile that was more of a rush than any impulsive, adrenaline-inducing risks Leo had taken over the years… someone who was an open book, easy to read, and who looked at Leo like he wanted him. Not the crown prince, but like Eddie just wanted… Leo.

And quite honestly, Leo couldn’t imagine anything at all more suitable than that.

Chapter Eight

Edvin

Edvin slung his messenger bag over his shoulder and made it halfway to the door before Maja’s voice stopped him. And he liked her, he really did—she was fun to work with and good at her job and had given him tips on girlie things for his sisters that he otherwise would have had no clue about—but honestly, now that the longest and least productive shift of his life was over, he would really like to just leave already.

“Edvin,” Maja called out again, snatching her bag from underneath the circulation desk and bustling over to catch him. “Let’s walk to the tram stop together! I want to hear all about that picture.”

Of course she did.

Edvin bit back a sigh, adjusting his glasses as she fell into step next to him. The horrid reporter who’d interrupted when Leo had taken him out to dinner two Fridays ago had published a picture of them in The Daily Chronicle over the weekend, and even though Edvin hadn’t been identified by name, he’d been fielding inquiries from coworkers all day. It meant that instead of actually getting his work done, he’d spent the bulk of his shift suffering through a series of nosy questions, requests that he ask the prince for favors, and—in the case of his ex, Hans—sneering disbelief and sexually inappropriate innuendo about what Edvin had “done” for the prince in order to finagle the dinner invitation.

For the record, Edvin would love to do things for, to, or with his prince. Not in exchange for dinner, but just because… because… gah, Leo.

A delicious shiver went through Edvin at the thought, but now wasn’t the time or place, so he ignored it the way he’d tried to ignore all those nosy questions.

“Alice thinks it was Photoshopped,” Maja said, which wasn’t the first time Edvin had heard that theory. Why on earth a sensationalist paper like The Daily Chronicle would bother to Photoshop a picture of Leo with him wasn’t something anyone had bothered to explain, but it was probably easier to fathom than the truth.

Which seemed to be that Leo… liked him. That Leo maybe even really liked him.

Edvin bit his lower lip, trying to hold in a smile. Honestly, it was more than he’d ever let himself hope for. Not the part about Leo being the crown prince, but the fact that Leo genuinely seemed to feel the same way Edvin did. Or at least… at least close to it. It made all the annoyingly intrusive curiosity worth enduring. Although, if… if this was really going to happen, if it ever got as far as Leo actually proposing to him, it wasn’t just about how hard Edvin was falling for him, it was about stepping into a whole different kind of life.

Edvin’s feet slowed. One day of intrusive curiosity had been a lot. But a lifetime of it? How did Leo handle it?

Could Edvin?

He swallowed, his stomach getting a little queasy at the thought. But there was another side to that coin to consider, too: a lifetime of Leo. And that part…

“You’re smiling,” Maja said.

“What?” he asked absently.

A lifetime of Leo? Yes. Edvin could do that. Edvin would be thrilled to do that.

“I said, you’re smi-ling,” Maja sang out, nudging his shoulder as they both stepped out of the double doors of the library’s main entrance. “Does that mean the picture is