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“I hope so! Must be my bad American influence.”
Andi slides her arm through mine. “Let me borrow Eva. We’re going to powder our noses. Be back in a few minutes.” She tugs me away.
The ladies’ room is as elegant as the rest of the place. A beautiful couch and armchairs sit in an elegant room with a thick carpet and gentle lighting. Pale pink paint covers three of the walls, with bold pink and black striped wallpaper on the fourth. A door leads to an inner room with two marble-topped vanities and a huge mirror in a gilded frame. A couple of closed doors hide the toilets in tiny rooms. I use the facilities while Andi checks her makeup.
When she sees me in the mirror, her brow creases. “I’m sorry my aunt is such a—” She makes a kind of growling noise that’s remarkably descriptive.
I wash my hands. “Whatever. We don’t have to talk to her again, do we?”
She shakes her head, the dangling jewels in her tiara tinkling gently. “Nope. It’s the one advantage of being first in line—we’re done.” She grabs my wrist and pulls me back into the sitting room. She turns so we’re standing together in front of the accent wall. “Selfie time!” She wrestles her phone from her tiny white purse and snaps a few pictures.
I plop into one of the chairs while she types. She waves the phone at me. “How about this: partying with my princess peeps in the palace?”
“Sure.” She’s already used this phrase on a dozen earlier posts, along with #palaceparty #GalaGlamour and #makeovermagic.
“Teo was on fire tonight.”
I look up from my own phone in surprise. “How do you mean?”
She shakes her finger at me. “When the Grand Duchess greeted Hans instead of you—that was a total cut. You were supposed to slink away in shame.” Her hand snaps to the side, indicating a quick exit. “Instead, he introduced you. It was like ‘Don’t you dare ignore my girl, you old hag!’ Total alpha male thing to do.”
I stare at her, my mouth open. Teo went alpha for me, and I missed it? “It was? I am so not in tune with this royalty business.”
She rolls her eyes. “Lucky you. But yeah, I’ve never seen him stand up to our aunt like that. In fact, I’ve never seen anyone do that, except my mother. If someone did that for me—someone who wasn’t my brother—” She fans herself. “So hot.”
“You’re saying it was like Wesley standing up to Humperdinck? Except without all the insults.”
She snickers. “More like Buttercup demanding Humperdinck send his four fastest ships.” She makes a face at me. “What? He’s my brother. I can’t make him sound too sexy.”
I get up. “Well, if he went alpha for me, I should go be appreciative.”
She grabs my arm. “What’s up with you two?”
I drop back into my chair, my heart thumping faster. “What do you mean?”
“He’s clearly head over heels for you. And I think you feel the same?” Her gray eyes pin me in place. “Do you?”
I swallow. “I—” I’m crazy about him. I have been for ages—I just wouldn’t let myself see it. And now—knowing he stood up to the ruler of his country on my behalf? I thought it was hot before, when it was just Eddie in a hallway. Now… Well, Andi said it. That’s Princess Bride levels of romantic. But I’m still not sure about this whole royalty thing. Or tying myself down to anyone. I take a deep breath. “I think I should be having this conversation with him, not you.”
She looks at her phone, a small smile playing on her lips. “You know he’s leaving tonight—at midnight, like Cinderella? You should probably go have that conversation now, if you’re going to do it.”
I bolt out of my chair as if propelled by rockets. “He’s leaving tonight? I thought his flight was tomorrow?”
“It’s at three in the morning. He’s already got his bags in the car. Lukas is driving him to München at midnight.” She waves her phone at me. “It’s past nine already.”
“I gotta go.” I yank the door open, ripping it out of the hand of the woman entering. Her eyes widen, then she seems to recognize me, and her nose goes up. “Entschuldigung.” I push past. Who cares what she thinks? I’m an alpha American woman on a mission to find her man.
Chapter Thirty-One
TEO
While Eva and Andi are in the ladies’ room, I loiter at a table with Hans and Lina. They’ve loaded tiny plates—three, in Hans’s case—with all the delicacies the palace kitchen has provided for the biggest event of the year. Caviar, crab, chocolate. And that’s just the Cs. Or Ks and Ss, if you’re speaking German.
A man wearing one of the ridiculous traditional uniforms unearthed annually for this event appears at my side, his loops of sleeve braid brushing my shoulder. “Eure Hoheit, Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess requests your attendance.”
I tip the last swallow of my champagne down my throat and rise slowly. I need to talk to Eva before I leave, and I don’t want to get sidetracked. The family isn’t supposed to have any official duties tonight. One of my grandfather’s edicts was that any business was to be handled by the monarch and the heir—hence the receiving line. The rest of us were supposed to enjoy the party. “I’ll be back.”
Hans laughs. “You gotta work on your Austrian accent.”
