Royal Ruse - Emma Lea Page 0,56

was a warm night and I had a hundred and one reasons why it was perfectly fine for me to wear this dress. I’d had to list them all to Selena before she would consent to helping me get dressed and doing my hair.

My makeup was soft and Selena had worked some sort of magic on my hair to get it into an updo that looked stylish and soft at the same time. I looked…pretty. I wasn’t insecure about my looks, but when I looked in the mirror, there was something different about me, something soft and romantic—two words I would never have used to describe me.

“You look like a woman in love,” Selena said with a satisfied smile as if she could read my mind.

“Yeah,” I murmured in response.

A knock on the door pulled me out of the weird place I’d gotten lost in and I plastered a smile on my face as I left the bedroom to meet Lucas. He stood in the sitting room and turned when he heard me coming. His eyes raked over me and I swear my body heated under his gaze.

“You look beautiful,” he breathed, coming closer and pressing a soft kiss to my cheek.

“Thank you,” I replied.

It felt like a first date, even though we’d been doing this same thing every night since we’d come to Kalopsia. I was nervous and excited and almost giddy with anticipation. It was an altogether weird feeling. I’d never felt this way before and I doubt I’d feel this way about anyone else ever again.

Lucas tucked my hand through his elbow and escorted me out of the suite and down to the terrace where the others were gathering.

“Can I get you a drink?” he asked.

“White wine,” I replied, surprising both of us.

“Okay,” he said, pressing another kiss to my cheek before heading over to the bar to get us drinks.

“You two are looking rather cozy,” Dorian said coming to stand beside me with a glass of scotch in his hand.

“We are engaged to be married,” I replied.

Dorian grunted, and I turned to look at him. “What’s up with you? Your usual sunny disposition is decidedly gloomy tonight.”

“I never have a sunny disposition and how dare you accuse me of it,” he replied, and I grinned. He was right. Dorian was not a happy, smiley person. He was more of a Wednesday Addams…no, he was one of those alpha-hole CEO billionaire types that romance books loved to cast as heroes. Tall, dark, brooding and with a trust fund big enough to finance several small countries, that was Dorian and he was a bit of a snob to top it all off. Arrogance wafted off him like a bad smell and caused most of the others to give him a wide berth, but I liked him. He had a wicked, dry sense of humor and once you got past his self-entitlement, he was a decent guy. Bad boy billionaire with a heart of gold? No, not exactly, but I believed half of the arrogant rich playboy persona was an act.

“Dorian,” Lucas said in acknowledgement when he returned with my wine and a glass of something clear for himself.

“Lucas,” Dorian replied, lifting his glass for a drink.

Lucas handed me my wine and then placed his free hand on the small of my back in a possessive gesture that I couldn’t say I didn’t enjoy…just a tiny bit. There was nothing between Dorian and me apart from friendship, but I liked that Lucas felt the need to stake his claim. The big honking diamond on my finger should have been enough, but I liked the personal touch.

This was what I loved about people watching and why I studied sociology with a little psychology and anthropology on the side. The way people interacted fascinated me. Sometimes I felt like I was in my very own David Attenborough documentary following the curious life of the human species. The bar was a gold mine for watching all sorts of different human behavior and I loved it.

Right now I could see Dorian and Lucas sizing one another up with me in the middle. I knew Dorian had no interest in me in that way, but he couldn’t help but stir Lucas up. They were like a couple of junk yard dogs circling one another, even if they were both richer than Midas and wearing suits.

I nodded to Lucas’ glass. “You didn’t have enough this afternoon?” I asked, raising my glass to my lips. The