what you mean.”
She drops her voice to a whisper. “Oh Ingrid, please, call me Lars. I’m so charming and elegant and royal.”
I grin at her. “Is that jealousy I hear?”
Pippa looks irritated. “What? No.”
“Are you sure about that, little witch?” I ask.
She shoots me a glare and pushes her shoulders back, hurrying after Ingrid. I press my cheek with my tongue, trying to decide just what to make of that.
Is Pippa really acting jealous? I mean, we did have four amazing nights together. But… she knows that it’s going to come to an end.
…right?
We meander through the rest of the tour. I keep a close eye on Pippa, but she just seems irritable for most of the time. After the tour is complete, I shake hands with several generals and scientists that oversee the space program. Everyone is smiling, but I can sense an edge to Pippa’s cool smile.
She also pulls out of any embrace I initiate after a few seconds.
By the time we finally get out of the building and into the chauffeured limo, I level her with a look. “You are pissed off at me?”
She licks her lips and looks out her window. “No. It’s not… I’m just tired.”
“I’ve known you for more than half my life, Pippa. I’ve seen you tired. I have never seen… whatever that was back there.”
She puts her hands over her face and sinks lower in her seat. “Sorry.”
I grab her elbow, slowly pulling one of her hands away from her face. “If we were trying to put on a happy front to the world today, we failed.”
She squints. “Ja. Ja, I’m sorry. You, uh… you hit a nerve, I guess.”
My eyebrows lift a little. “Wait, I did?”
“Oh god. This is so embarrassing.” She sinks lower in her seat, her cheeks burning bright red. “You called me jealous. And a little voice in the back of my head knew you were right. God, how much of a child am I?”
She closes her eyes, shaking her head.
I pull at her hand, easing her onto my lap. “So… you got jealous. You didn’t feel that way on purpose, did you?”
Her light blue eyes open just a slit. “No.”
I run my fingers down her arm, enjoying how pale her skin is against mine. “It didn’t hurt anyone, did it?”
She wrinkles her nose. “No. But… that’s such a ridiculous thing to feel. I mean, we just basically hooked up one time. Like… that doesn’t give me the right to feel jealous. Especially not just because you were flirting with some tour guide.”
She lets out an exaggerated exhale.
My lips curve up. “I have to say, I didn’t really expect jealousy from you. But as it turns out, green looks pretty damn good on you.”
She eyes me. “I embarrassed you.”
I let out a sharp bark of laughter. “Hah! No. I can’t be embarrassed. I have an immunity.”
She sighs again, sitting up. “I’m sorry, Lars.”
I am tired of this conversation. So I change it by kissing her full, lush lips.
And she doesn’t exactly seem to mind or protest…
20
Pippa
I swallow as I watch the palace grow closer and closer out the window of my limousine. Momse, Lars’s grandmother, called me and personally invited me to a soiree she is throwing to celebrate our coming nuptials.
She barely let me get a word in edgewise about the party tonight. She just spent most of our brief time talking about what I would wear. At the end of the call, she said she’d just ‘send some dresses over’.
Which is how I came to be wearing a very expensive, very fine strapless ballgown made of ivory silk. The dress itself is absolutely gorgeous. But as I try to adjust it while the limousine pulls around to the grand entrance, I remember all too well that the dress is very heavy.
Keeping that in mind, I touch the back of my hair, which has been piled up on my head. The car comes to a stop. I take a deep breath as the car door is opened for me.
Then I smile and get out of the back seat, only wobbling a little bit. This dress almost forces me to have perfect posture as it trails behind me. I hug my wrap, made of the same silk, and smile at the palace guards as I head inside.
A red carpet leads me up the stairs. My heart races thinking of all the people that I am going to lie to tonight.
At least no one would dare stop me and