Up for Heir - Stella Starling Page 0,8

who cared what the prince called him. That was not the issue right now.

It was just that Leopold’s attention was flustering him.

“It’s… ahh, i-i-i-it’s actually Edvin, Your H-H-H-Highness,” Edvin said, fluster in full effect. “Edvin B-B-Blom.”

Was he supposed to bow?

He couldn’t, though, because the prince still had a hold of his arm.

Leopold smiled, finally releasing Edvin and giving his arm a little rub-pat that called up a whole new batch of tingles. “I like Eddie,” he said decisively. “May I?”

May he… what?

“And you can call me Leo,” the crown prince of the entire country said, making Edvin’s eyes widen.

Why was he being so nice? And… Leo? The crown prince had just invited Edvin Blom to call him Leo? Not that Edvin minded, or that he wanted Leopold—er, Leo—to be not nice. It was just that now that he’d managed to interrupt Leo’s attempted seduction of Linnea, Edvin wasn’t quite sure what was supposed to happen next.

“Okay,” Edvin managed, giving himself a mental kick for not having brushed up better on protocol. He honestly hadn’t thought it would be an issue since he tended to be more of a background type of person, but surely “okay” was not the way to address royalty.

“Good,” His Highness Crown Prince Leo said with another cocky wink but without making any move to go find someone more important to talk to. But surely, the prince didn’t want an actual conversation with Edvin, did he? Conversation was not an area Edvin excelled at, to be honest, especially with people—namely everyone—who didn’t have the patience for his stutter. And yet Leopold—Leo—didn’t seem to be in any hurry to move on to his official duties, or to go back to ignoring Edvin the way it would be expected from someone like him, either.

Wasn’t Leopold supposed to be the bad boy prince?

Didn’t that imply a certain level of arrogant disdain for mousy librarians?

And a… a general aversion to too much mingling with commoners in the first place? At least, commoners who he wasn’t trying to give private tours to?

Okay. Right. Edvin was being ridiculous. Leopold was being nice because he was a charmer who probably still planned on getting in Linnea’s pants, but that wasn’t going to happen. Not on Edvin’s watch. Besides, rumor had it that Prince Leopold was engaged.

Edvin quelled the silly surge of disappointment that hit him with that thought and shrugged off the fairytale fantasy of having a sudden and inexplicable connection with someone—someone who wouldn’t even remember his name five minutes from now, no matter which version of it the prince said he liked—and got back to the business at hand. Namely, looking out for his little sister.

“Linnea is only n-n-nineteen,” Edvin said, earning an irritated huff from her but hopefully appealing to the prince’s sense of propriety… except wait. Too late, Edvin realized that with Leopold’s reputation, hearing that Linnie was barely legal might have the opposite effect.

Okay, tingles officially and forever dead. Leo—Prince Leopold—was not someone Edvin needed to have any form of tingle for, not now and not ever. He was promiscuous and irresponsible and constantly photographed cavorting with barely legal women. Tingling for him would be even worse than pining for Hans.

“Eddie,” Linnea hissed in irritation, narrowing her eyes at him. “Leo was going to show me the rose gardens. The royal ones! Don’t ruin this for me.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re my brother, not my keeper.”

Edvin’s stomach cramped. Brother, guardian, provider… he wore so many hats in the family that some days, he felt like he was sinking under their weight, but she was right. Keeper wasn’t one of them, and Linnea was of age. Still, Leopold was right, too. Edvin was protective of his siblings and he always would be, no matter how old they got. He loved them, and he didn’t want to see any of them ever feel the way he had when Hans had dropped him so callously. And Linnea was wonderful, of course, but she was still a commoner. If she were to get involved with a prince—a prince engaged to someone else, no less—how else could it possibly end?

“The p-p-p-p-prince is here to dedicate the library, Linnie,” Edvin said, rounding on her. “N-n-n-not to… to… to…”

“Meet a beautiful woman?” Leo slid in smoothly, reaching past Edvin to take Linnea’s hand. He brought it to his lips, winking at her as he kissed it. “It’s actually something I was hoping to do today. In fact, you might almost say it’s