Up for Heir - Stella Starling Page 0,53

tongue not tangling at all this time. “Not when I’m with you.”

Because I love you, he didn’t quite have the courage to add.

“Eddie,” Leo said, his eyes lighting up until they were sparkling exactly like they had the first time they’d met, as if maybe he’d heard those last few unspoken words anyway. He smoothed Edvin’s hair back from his forehead, then cupped his jaw, holding him like he was precious. “After your fitting with the tailor… stay the night with me?”

Giddy, joyful, Zasfer-like bubbles exploded inside Edvin’s heart. He already knew that Leo had sent someone to the apartment to help Astrid with her homework, and Ollie had promised to stay home to make dinner for the girls tonight. And yes, he still felt a twinge of guilt at the idea of leaving them all to fend for themselves without him, but they’d be all right, wouldn’t they? Besides, even if it was selfish, he wanted to stay… and hadn’t he just decided to fight for what he wanted?

“Say yes,” Leo said after Edvin had paused for too long, giving him one of those slow, sexy smiles that always made Edvin’s heart beat faster and his toes curl with want.

“Yes,” Edvin said, smiling right back. And then—because for all that he loved it when Leo took the lead in certain things, he didn’t always need him to—he straightened his glasses and vowed not to worry about the mustard stain anymore and went up on his toes. Wrapped his arms around Leo’s neck. Plastered his body against his prince and kissed the living daylights out of him until they were officially late to meet the tailor… until Leo was the one looking flushed and mussed and decidedly unkempt… until Edvin finally had to come up for air, because breathing was a thing, and they had all the time in the world, and later… later they’d have all night for kissing.

Although honestly, Edvin was hoping they’d spend all night doing a lot more than just that.

After Edvin had been thoroughly fussed over by the royal tailor and his two apprentices, fitted for a bespoke suit to wear to the Royal Ball along with a bunch of other clothes Leo had insisted he wanted to have made for him, and enjoyed the most amazing dinner of his life—delivered to Leo’s “suite,” which turned out to have more rooms, more square footage, and be far more luxurious than the apartment Edvin shared with his siblings—Edvin was feeling tipsy and happy and spoiled and a little bit horny. It wouldn’t take much to upgrade that to achingly horny—especially if Leo was going to insist on listening to him gush on and on about a new shipment of books the library had received and not only act interested, but say smart, sexy things about it, too—but for once in his life Edvin didn’t have pressing responsibilities to get back to and was totally content to just be in the moment. It was nice to feel like he didn’t have to rush around trying to get a bunch of things done, even if one of those things was sex… which, for the record, he absolutely did hope they’d get to eventually. But for now—

“…and it was actually a f-f-first edition,” he said happily, throwing himself backward into a truly mountainous pile of decorative-but-really-very-comfortable pillows on Leo’s massive, king-size bed after several smartly-dressed someones had come and cleared away all the dinner dishes. “I never thought I’d s-s-see one, Leo! Not in person, at least. Do you know… know how few of them were printed? And the binding was still intact, which is kind of inc-c-credible since it was originally—eek!”

Edvin suddenly leapt off the bed, arms flailing like windmills and glasses knocked askew by his momentum.

The pillows had… had moved.

“Eddie?” Leo asked from across the vast room, his lips twitching like he wanted to laugh as he clicked the lock closed on the door of the suite. “Is everything okay?”

Everything was definitely not okay if Leo’s bed was haunted by the ghosts of past royals or there were disturbing things in the palace like rats or booby traps or animatronic throw pillows, but Edvin didn’t want to unnecessarily scare his prince with any of those possibilities without further evidence, so he held his tongue and tried to slow his racing heart and just pointed.

Leo looked toward the bed, his brow furrowing for a moment before a flash of something ridiculously sweet passed over his face and was