Royal Ruse - Emma Lea Page 0,11

asked, leaning my elbows on the bar and resting my chin on my fists.

He nodded and smiled. “Yeah.” His smile dropped. “But it was getting dangerous just before we left. I remember growing up with this carefree feeling and then suddenly my parents were hustling us off the island and into the U.S.” He blinked up at me. “You’d love it there,” he said.

“It sounds amazing,” I replied. “Maybe we could go over summer? Not to do the king thing, but, you know, just to get away and do some exploring. Just the two of us.”

Lucas nodded, his eyes not leaving mine. “Yeah,” he mumbled.

Lucas

Maybe it was the alcohol muddling my brain, but I was getting an idea. It was a crazy idea and something I would never have even considered if my inhibitions weren’t compromised, but…

I shook my head and sighed. Nah. It would never work.

“What were you just thinking?” Frankie asked, straightening up and narrowing her eyes at me.

“It’s nothing,” I said, reaching for the water again.

“No, you can’t give me a look like that and then withhold,” she said, cocking her hip and crossing her arms. “You have to tell me now. I’m invoking the BFF code of conduct, rule twelve.”

“The BFF code of conduct?” I asked with a wry grin.

Frankie nodded. “Specifically rule twelve which states clearly that a BFF cannot start saying something and then stop abruptly.”

“But it’s stupid,” I said, taking a sip. “Does the rule still apply when I’m drunk and coming up with really idiotic ideas?”

“That’s specifically why the rule was created,” Frankie said. “You know I always want to know any and all of your ideas, especially the idiotic ones you come up with when you’re drunk.”

“Do I do that often?” I asked.

“Stop avoiding the matter at hand and just spill it. What were you thinking just now that you think you can’t tell me?”

“You’d never agree to it.”

She quirked an eyebrow at me and I couldn’t help but grin. Frankie had a way of making everything okay. My life had crashed and burned tonight, but here I was smiling, because of Frankie.

“Just tell me,” she said. “You never know what I might say. I could surprise you, you know. You don’t know everything about me.”

I was pretty sure Frankie and I knew each other better than we knew ourselves, but I shrugged.

“This might be too crazy, even for you.”

It was like waving a red flag at a bull. I had her hooked now, as I knew I would by throwing that comment out. Frankie was my opposite in every way and yet I enjoyed living vicariously through her. Where I was timid and shy, she was confident and loud. Where I was cautious and patient, she was spontaneous and carefree. She was always dragging me out of my comfort zone but doing it in such a way so I always felt safe. I wished I was more like her, and maybe that was why I was even contemplating this brash and out-of-left-field idea.

“Tell me, Lucas,” she said, mock-frowning at me. She was cute when she did that, like a furious kitten. “Let me decide what is too crazy.”

“Well,” I said, hedging. “I was just thinking…it really is crazy, more like a joke actually—”

“Spit it out, Andino,” she growled.

“Well, what if you came with me to Kalopsia?”

“I just suggested that,” she replied with an eye roll.

“Yeah, but you meant as a holiday, I meant as…”

Frankie stilled and blinked at me. “As friends?” she asked quietly. “I mean, would you tell your parents you were taking me as a friend so I could protect you from all the women throwing themselves at you?”

I dropped my eyes, finding the label of the bottle extremely fascinating. “We could pretend to be engaged,” I mumbled.

“Pardon?” Frankie asked. “That sounded a lot like you were asking me to pretend to be your fiancée.”

I groaned and looked up. “See? I told you. It’s a terrible idea.”

“Now hang on a minute,” Frankie said, leaning a hip against the bar, her shirt riding up to expose a sliver of tanned skin that I found ridiculously fascinating.

Frankie on the beach in Kalopsia in a bikini? I was suddenly eager for that to be a thing. It wasn’t like I’d never seen Frankie in a swimsuit before, but I’d never really taken notice. Okay, that was a lie. It was more that Frankie was so far out of my league I didn’t think we were even playing the same game. I’d