Up for Heir - Stella Starling Page 0,95

he had absolutely nowhere else to be but wherever Edvin was.

“Nervous, darling?”

“N-N-Not nervous,” Edvin answered with a slightly wobbly smile, since it was almost all the way true when Leo looked at him like that, and definitely what Edvin would like to be true. He took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders. “I’m… I’m fine.”

And he would be, because yes, he’d be walking into the Royal Ball on the arm of the crown prince, but the crown prince was just Leo, who loved him and who Edvin most definitely loved in return.

He could do this.

He wanted to do this.

And honestly, he hadn’t been nervous, at least not earlier, when he’d still been locked in the archives wishing with all his might that he could make it to the Royal Ball. He hadn’t been nervous when Hugo had insisted on setting up all that fancy spa stuff, either, or when someone had delivered a fancy crown to the suite for Leo to wear… a crown that Leo insisted was “only a coronet” even though it pretty much looked like a crown to Edvin.

Edvin hadn’t even been nervous when he’d been getting ready for the ball himself, dressing in a tuxedo much nicer than any formalwear he’d ever hoped to own and presented with a pair of intricate rose cufflinks that Leo had told him were traditionally worn by the royal family, including those who married into it. (Although honestly, his lack of nerves while dressing might have been entirely due to Leo’s insistence on “helping,” which had made the whole process take twice as long and also resulted in yet another orgasm for Edvin… a fact that Edvin was absolutely not complaining about, for the record.)

But now, as the sound of conversation, muted laughter, and refined music all swelled from behind the double doors leading to the ballroom and Edvin took in the overwhelming grandeur of the room they needed to pass through just to get there—and yes, Leo had called it a “hallway,” but a hallway was the narrow passage back in the apartment Edvin and his siblings called home, the one that connected their bedrooms with the bathroom; this grand passage with its vaulted ceilings and ornate decor was something entirely different—then okay, fine. Maybe it was fair to say that Edvin was currently feeling a bit nervous.

That didn’t mean he had to let it show, though. At least, not if he could help it.

Leo searched his face, then smiled, making no mention of the death grip Edvin had yet to get himself to loosen. “Good,” he said simply, turning to lead them down the stairs again… as if Edvin had actually pulled it off. As if Leo actually believed him.

Although maybe—Edvin realized when Leo stopped them at the bottom of the stairs one more time, one step lower than Edvin so that they were perfectly eye to eye, and gave him the slow, sexy smile that always made Edvin’s knees a little weak—maybe it wasn’t so much a matter of believing him, as simply believing in him.

“Remember, love. We’re in this together.”

Edvin nodded, trying not to think about the fact that he was just a junior librarian about to walk into a room full of foreign dignitaries, international heads of state, and the entire Rosavian royal family who also just happened to be his future in-laws, because… because he was also Edvin Blom, affianced to the crown prince of Rosavia, and Leo probably did know that he was nervous, but maybe he also had faith that, just like when Edvin had taken over the guardianship of his siblings, Edvin wasn’t the type to let a case of nerves stop him from being there for someone he loved.

Edvin took a breath, willing his nerves to settle. Leo was right to believe in him, because nervous or not, Edvin wasn’t about to let him down, and he wasn’t going to let anything intimidate him out of sharing this moment with Leo, no matter how fancy or formal the party on the other side of those double doors was. He may have been out of his league, but he was—

“Leo, is that… is that Treble?” he blurted as the cat in question suddenly waltzed out of the ballroom with her tail held high, derailing Edvin’s inner pep talk with a fit of the giggles. The adorable little furball looked the opposite of nervous, as if of course she’d had every right to be in there but was now so over