The Prince's Bride (Part 1) - J.J. McAvoy Page 0,73

thighs,” the butcher said, handing it over to her.

“Thank you,” she said and once more and looked at her list. “Three pounds of chicken thighs, salt, ground black pepper, cooking spray, olive oil, two bulbs of garlic, chicken broth, heavy cream, thyme, cayenne pepper, lime, and butter. Yep, we have everything.”

“So, we are done?” I asked as she put away her phone. “How do you pay then?”

The guy behind the counter looked at me as if I had two heads.

“Super-rich kid,” Odette whispered over to him, though seeing as we could all hear her, there was no point.

The guy’s mouth made a large O, and he just nodded. He looked me over and then shook his head. “Must be nice,” he said with tone.

“She is a—”

“Come on, Mr. Warbucks.” She linked arms with me, preventing me from outing her as a super-rich kid herself. “This will be your last obstacle of the day. The self-checkout lines. You’ll be my bagboy.”

“Wait. Your what?”

Chapter 18

My first day here had taught me cooking was much harder than it looked. Now, after days of being here, I had learned that cooking was still hard, and I did not belong in a kitchen.

“It burns!” I hollered, grabbing hold of the sink, trying to wash out my eyes only to have Odette rush to me.

“No water!”

“It burns! Agh!”

“Why would you rub your eye as you’re cutting peppers?” she yelled at me.

“I forgot!”

“Who forgets something as they’re doing it!”

“I am in pain! Why are you yelling at me?”

“Because! Ugh!” She grabbed my arms and led me from the sink.

“Where are we going?” I panicked because I could not open my eyes.

“Don’t worry. I have you. Come on, sit.” She guided me to the stool, helping me sit down. The panic was gone, but the burning still ate its way through my cornea. It hurt so bad my legs shook.

“We should take him to the hospital,” Iskandar said from my left, and I wished I could see his face because he sounded worried.

“You do not take people to the emergency room for this—get me milk,” she said back.

“Milk?”

“Ms. Odette—”

“Iskandar, do you know anything about the American medical system? No. You don’t. If you did, you would know that all the time we used to get there, explain what happened, and did the paperwork, would only leave him like this for longer!” she snapped at him.

“I would not prefer that,” I muttered, wincing in tears that only spread the pain.

“Here’s the milk,” Wolfgang said to my right.

She did not say anything back, but I did feel the soaked paper towel she dabbed on my eyes, milk seeping into them, calming the fire. It did not take too long for my legs to stop trembling. I exhaled with relief.

“You are like a little kid trapped in a man’s body. You know that?” she whispered, her face directly in front of mine.

So close that I could feel her breath on my skin as I could also feel her hands on my face. She turned my head in any direction she needed without even asking.

“I have been told that once or twice,” I whispered. Though I doubted a little kid would fight the desire to touch her like I was. I felt exactly where her body was in front of me. The temptation to wrap my hand around her waist and bring her into me was strong.

“How does it feel now?” she whispered, and a shiver went up my spine.

It felt like I needed more pepper in my eyes to make her stay this close. “Better,” was what I actually said.

“Can you open your eyes?”

I did but only for a half a second before having to close them. Her brown face was a blur, but a very pretty blur.

“Why are you smiling?”

Shit.

“Ugh, am I? I’m just trying to keep my eyes from watering,” I sort of lied.

“Okay, you should lie down.” She put her arm over my shoulder and hugged me... Oh, I definitely need more pepper to the eye.

“I can get him—”

“No, you cannot,” I uttered back to Iskandar in Ersovian.

“What did you say?” Odette asked, her arms still around me.

“I told him not to panic. I’m better.”

“Okay, watch your step,” she said, making us circle around something for a moment. It took a bit more maneuvering before she finally got me to the couch. “Okay, lie back.”

Her hands on my chest and shoulder burned worse than my eyes. When she put a wet towel on my eyes, I reached up,