Up for Heir - Stella Starling Page 0,38

undaunted by his little attack of nerves could attest to. “I do. I want to. Please? It’s just that I-I-I-I… I started to worry about… about disappointing you.”

A tide of shame threatened to sweep him off to humiliation-ville, but Leo wrapped a steadying hand around the back of his neck, anchoring him.

“I’m entirely sure that’s impossible,” Leo said, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper and pinning him with the same sparkling look that had gotten to Edvin from the start. As if they were sharing secrets, instead of just Edvin confessing embarrassing truths.

Edvin was still sprawled over Leo’s lap, and without releasing him—neither from the grip he still had on Edvin’s neck or the flutter-inducing one he truly held him in place with, with his eyes—Leo went back to undoing the buttons on Edvin’s shirt. “Is this okay, Eddie? Is this what you want?”

“Yes,” Edvin breathed out, forgetting all about the fact that they weren’t alone. Oh. And then… and then remembering it.

Nils, dang it. No offense to Nils, of course. He was doing a stellar job of chauffeuring and was undoubtedly a lovely person under all that gruff scowliness, but still, his presence made Edvin feel like he should amend his answer to a no.

“Erm, actually… m-m-maybe not?” he said, perfectly aware it came out sounding more like a question and half hoping that Leo would take the answer out of Edvin’s hands.

Leo went still, one eyebrow going up and his eyes dropping to Edvin’s incredibly obvious erection. His lips quirked up. “No? You don’t sound very sure about that.”

“Um,” Edvin said, wavering. He’d never been an exhibitionist, but really, Nils seemed the responsible sort who would keep his eyes on the road, didn’t he? Wait, no. That was ridiculous. Edvin needed to stop thinking with the wrong head. In fact, he’d really like to stop thinking about it at all and go back to just feeling it. “Can… can this be one of those dates where you decide?” he asked hopefully.

“Yes,” said Leo in a low, sexy growl, sliding one hand around to cup Edvin’s ass and pull him closer. His cock flexed under Edvin’s ass, and Edvin realized he did have an opinion on this particular matter, actually. Rather a strong one.

He still wasn’t entirely sure why on earth Leo would ever consider marrying him in the first place, but if it actually happened—a possibility that felt surreal and too good to let himself hope for, despite both what Leo had said over the weekend and the way he was looking at Edvin right now—but if it did happen, then Edvin couldn’t imagine anything worse than having his prince regret that choice after the fact because they didn’t suit in the bedroom. So clearly, the answer was that they needed to test drive that suitability first.

It was basically due diligence.

Edvin’s duty to crown and country.

Research, which, for the record, Edvin happened to excel at and would like to get started on immediately.

“We should sleep together,” he blurted, only realizing as the words left his mouth that he’d forgotten about Nils again, and—holy mortifying moments—now Nils had just heard him proposition the crown prince.

For the record, though, embarrassment apparently had no dampening effect on his libido.

“Now?” Leo asked, his lips curling up in that slow, sexy smile that always made Edvin want to lick it right off him. It also made it really, really hard to remember why “now” wasn’t supposed to be the correct answer.

Edvin twisted around to glance at the back of Nils’s head, nibbling his lip and trying to talk himself out of throwing all good sense out the window.

“M-M-Maybe… soon?” he whispered as he turned back to his prince. “To m-m-make sure that we… that we suit, I mean. Before making things, um, official.”

Leo gave him a wicked grin. He’d managed to undo all Edvin’s buttons before he’d stopped undressing him earlier, and now he released his hold on the back of Edvin’s neck to slip a hand inside his shirt, stroking his chest in an incredibly distracting way. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“It’s not?” Edvin would have been overwhelmingly disappointed to hear that if Leo hadn’t still been touching him and making it virtually impossible to feel anything but amazing.

Leo winked. “Not as a test of suitability.”

Oh.

“But if it’s something you’d like to explore…”

“Yes,” Edvin said breathlessly, squirming on Leo’s lap. “Please?”

Oh, wait. Nils, dammit. Edvin kept forgetting about him, and the prince quite honestly didn’t seem to care.

“Straddle me, beautiful,” Leo