Page 9 of Tempted By the Princess

Genny’s voice came from behind me, her tone soft and questioning.

“Yeah?” I asked, my attention focused on rinsing the plates.

“Am I imagining it?”

“What?” I asked, even though I knew what she was asking. At least I thought I did.

“There’s an attraction between us, right? You feel it too?”

I turned to face her, both impressed and uncomfortable that she was calling it out.

“I feel it,” I admitted. “But we are not going to act on it.”

From the moment I’d laid eyes on her I’d felt drawn to her. I’d been a horny mess trying to sleep last night, knowing she was on the other side of the wall from me. But this was a bad idea. A very bad idea.

She nodded like she agreed, then said, “Okay. But why is that, exactly?”

“First, you’re in a weird situation, hiding out like this. And you’re only going to be here for today. Second, you are way too young for me. And third, we come from very different worlds. You are a temptation I have to resist, Genevieve.”

She frowned at my use of her full name, and I had the sense that I’d hurt her feelings, so I kept talking.

“It’s not that I don’t want you. I totally do. But this is way too complicated. I don’t do complicated.”

I’d had a relationship that was complicated and observed most of my friends deal with relationship drama. I’d promised myself I wouldn’t do that. This runaway princess was the definition of complicated.

She took a step towards me, then two more until she was standing just a few inches away from me.

“There’s nothing wrong with casual sex,” she said softly.

That was exactly the problem. I was fine with casual sex, in fact I preferred it, but somehow I knew this couldn’t be casual, not for me. If I slept with her I’d want more. Much more. And that was a fool’s wish because as much as my heart wanted this woman, there was going to be no happily ever after for us.

“I’m going to go get dressed.”

Resisting the urge to hurry, I made my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face before pulling on a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. It was still early, just past eight, and I wondered how long I had before Genny left.

When I came back out, she was sitting on the couch, flipping through a magazine.

“It’s killing me not to look at my email,” she said. “But I know if I turn on my phone people can track me.”

“Do you want to borrow my laptop?” I asked.

She gave me a happy smile. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all.”

I got her set up at the kitchen table, then finished loading the dishwasher. After a few minutes Genny huffed out a sigh.

“I have an email from my sister,” she told me even though I didn’t ask. “She wants to know why my phone is off and where I am. Says our parents are freaking out.”

“Are they freaking out because you disappeared or because you ran out on your fiancé?”

“Probably the latter,” she said as her fingers flew across the keyboard. “I’m just going to tell her that I went away for the weekend, and I’ll talk to her early next week. Hopefully, she can get my parents to settle down with that information.”

She paused, then looked over at me. “Um. Do you mind if I stay here for a few more days?”

Before I could respond she added, “Wait, no, that’s rude of me. Maybe you can give me a ride to a hotel somewhere? Maybe there’s one that takes cash? I don’t want to use my credit card. Oh, I don’t really have a lot of cash on me either, I usually use my debit card. Damn it, that won’t work either. Where can I go?”

“Are you finished?” I asked when she stopped talking to herself.