Up for Heir - Stella Starling Page 0,97

in it.

Edvin bit his lip, immediately distracted by thoughts of the blueberry-scented activities that they may or may not have recently engaged in back in Leo’s suite.

“I th-th-think I’m becoming a f-f-fan,” Edvin said, swirling the tiny national fruits around inside the slender glass of bubbly.

Leo grinned. “Of Zasfer?”

“Of blueberries,” Edvin admitted, a blush heating his cheeks as Leo’s wicked smile told him that Leo had known exactly why Edvin liked them so much.

Fine, so the scented lube was growing on him. That was entirely Leo’s fault.

“So you like blueberries?” a teasing voice asked from Edvin’s left.

He whipped around to find a young man—teenager?—in a crown. Well, a coronet.

“How patriotic of you,” the young prince said. “But hold that thought until you have to sit through a formal banquet and pretend to actually like blueberry pizza.”

It was the national dish.

Leo made a face and shuddered. “Way to ruin the moment, Wren.”

Okay, so this was Prince Renford, then. And Edvin had eaten blueberry pizza before, of course. What Rosavian hadn’t? It was both savory and sweet, and he actually thought the blueberries complemented the cheese nicely. Clearly, though, his appreciation of it was going to be something he and his prince would have to agree to disagree about.

“Oh God, I can tell just by your face that you actually like it, don’t you?” Prince Renford said to Edvin, rolling his eyes. “And here I was prepared to like you purely on principle, Eddie Blom.”

He gave Edvin a cheeky grin as Leo growled something vaguely protective and big-brotherish, and Edvin laughed, feeling, for just a moment, well and truly relaxed for the first time since they’d entered the ballroom. It was the oh-so-familiar teasing. If it weren’t for the coronet and the distinctive Rosavian formalwear that Prince Renford was wearing—black trousers covered in red roses, a fitted black jacket embroidered with a subtle black-stitch floral design, black shirt, and subtly patterned complementary red-and-black tie, just like Leo—then the teasing would almost have had Edvin mistaking the younger prince for one of his own siblings.

“Wren,” said an older man standing next to him, giving the boy an admonishing look. “Be good.”

Prince Renford’s smile turned distinctly naughty, but before he could give the man what Edvin suspected would be a definitely-not-family-friendly reply, Leo stuck out his hand.

“Pierce,” he said as the older man shook it. “I’d heard you were keeping this one in line.”

“Always, Your Highness,” Pierce said, resting a possessive hand on Prince Renford’s back. “But it’s just Thom tonight.”

“And you know I’m always ‘just Leo,’” Leo said with a wink. He tugged Edvin into his side. “And this is Eddie, my fiancé. Eddie, my brother Wren and his—”

“Boyfriend,” Prince Renford cut in quickly, before Leo had a chance to finish his sentence.

“I was going to say ‘keeper,’” Leo said with a grin. “But that works.”

“Or you can just call me Thom,” said Thom dryly, officially introducing himself to Edvin.

“It’s… it’s n-n-nice to meet you both,” Edvin said, not sure where to go from there. Did he add “Your Highness” for Prince Renford? Did Thom have a title, too? Both of them seemed happy enough to keep things informal for the moment, and Prince Renford—Wren—was going to be Edvin’s brother-in-law, but still, Edvin certainly didn’t want to start out his introduction to the royal family by offending anyone.

“Oh, it’s very nice to meet you, Eddie,” Wren said before Edvin could work himself up too much about it. “Before you came along, I was starting to worry that Leo was going to let his blueberry lube expire.”

Edvin choked back a laugh. Okay then. He certainly couldn’t be expected to call the younger prince “Your Highness” if they were going to discuss lube, right? And since Wren’s wide grin seemed to imply that he wasn’t at all put out by Edvin’s failure to address him and Thom properly, Edvin was going to officially not worry about it.

“So the lube was from you, brat?” Leo asked Wren, his lips twitching as he wrapped an arm around Edvin’s waist and pulled him against his side again.

“Who else?” Thom muttered under his breath, eyes sparkling, just as Edvin noticed Queen Aubrey and King Alphonse walking over to them.

As in… the monarchs of the country were approaching.

Sovereigns of the nation, incoming.

The faces on two of Rosavia’s few remaining coins, right here, right now, in the flesh.

Oh Lord. It was… it was time to meet Leo’s parents.

“Mother, Father,” Wren acknowledged, grabbing his boyfriend’s hand. “Thom was just about to ask