Chapter 5
“Believe it or not, I really think you’re ready.” Adelaide leaned back in her seat at my kitchen counter with a satisfied smile.
“You can admit it, you are the one who didn’t actually believe it would happen,” I goaded. I smiled as I tucked my study notes for the next day’s final exam away between the pages of my Spanish-to-English dictionary.
Adelaide laughed, a sparkling sound that made my heart constrict.
“You weren’t ever that hopeless,” she assured, shaking her head.
“And I have had a few students who did seem pretty dire, so I’m not just saying that to inflate your ego.
” She cocked an eyebrow. “You know, I never did ask you: Why did you choose Spanish for your foreign language requirement? Did you not take French in prep school?”
I rose, circling the marble countertop and going to the Sub-Zero refrigerator.
“No, I did,” I answered as I pulled out two beers.
I tipped one toward Adelaide and raised my brows, a silent question.
She paused from where she was packing up her laptop and notebooks, then dipped her head in a “why not” gesture.
I popped the cap and handed her the bottle, opening the second for myself.
I leaned against the counter and took a sip, then continued, “Most of us noble kids took French; it’s sort of the default.
But I was absolutely rubbish at it. Too many letters, not enough syllables in each word.
It makes me feel like I’m swallowing my tongue.
” Adelaide chuckled at that, taking a drink of her own beer.
“So, when I got here, I just…sort of ignored the language requirement until I couldn’t anymore.
When it was finally clear that I had to, as Knox would say, ‘shit or get off the pot,’ I thought I’d try Spanish, hoping it would be a bit easier.
And it is—I mean, at least you get to pronounce pretty much all of the letters in each word—but it turns out that I’m just not very good with languages. ”
Adelaide shrugged. “Languages are, like many things, a bit of a gift. You can practice and become better, but some people just naturally have a talent for them. You play guitar, right?” I nodded. “Was that easy for you to pick up or did you have to work hard at it?”
I thought for a moment. “It was actually pretty easy, I guess.”
Adelaide snorted. “Knowing you, that means you were probably a fucking prodigy. Well, our neighbor tried teaching me how to play the piano when I was little. You want to talk about hopeless, you should have heard me struggle my way through ‘Für Elise.’ Our neighbor finally gently suggested that perhaps my talent lay elsewhere and all but barred me from ever touching her piano again.” Her eyes sparkled as she laughed at the memory.
“Languages, on the other hand, have always been easy for me. Music is easy for you. We all have our fortes.”
I bobbed my head, considering this. “I just wish music was a more useful diplomatic tool,” I noted wryly.
“Even though being the spare allows me to fade into the background a bit more, I’m still afraid there will come a time when I inadvertently offend a foreign ambassador with my dreadful language skills. ”
Adelaide eyed me as she set her bottle on the counter.
“First of all, you never know what will or won’t be a ‘useful diplomatic tool.’ Music might be that for you someday.
Second, don’t call yourself ‘the spare’; you are more than that.
Xavier might be the Crown Prince, but I’ve seen how people act around you.
They adore you. And I know you’re more than just ‘the spare’ to your parents, too. ” Her tone, while kind, was also firm.
I met her eyes, the green of them threatening to swallow me whole. “Thank you,” I murmured. “Although,” I continued with mock seriousness, “I’m not sure you would have said that at the beginning of the semester. I don’t think you were particularly enthused about tutoring me.”
Adelaide’s face twisted into a grimace and she blushed furiously. “It was that obvious?”
I nodded, my face deadpan.
“Dang.”
I broke into a laugh. Adelaide crinkled her nose as she picked up one of the discarded bottle caps and threw it at me. I dodged it, still laughing.
“Okay, okay, yes!” she exclaimed, now laughing too.
“I admit I wasn’t exactly happy about this arrangement when we started working together, but it wasn’t as personal as you think it was.
” She caught her breath, her laughter calming.
“I just…I have a hard time with aristos. We already talked a bit before about how Dash and I were bullied as kids. And then I watched from afar as your brother used his status to get himself out of myriad scrapes and that always kind of rubbed me the wrong way. And then my ex—” She stopped, her eyes on her beer bottle as she turned it on the counter.
My heart fell into my stomach and my grip tightened around the beer bottle.
This was the first time Adelaide had mentioned her ex since the night they had broken up two months ago.
Despite us hanging out during spring break and her joining my friends and me at pub quiz a handful more times since then, the topic had never come back up.
“What about your ex?” I asked gently.
“He’s Theo Wiltz,” she said. I pretended like I had not already known this bit of information; I asked around after their breakup to find out his name.
I, of course, knew Theo and, quite frankly, had always hated him.
He was the kind of asshole who would lay on the charm to your face but became arrogant and cold as soon as your back was turned.
Adelaide continued, “Well, I won’t get into the details, but it turns out that he wasn’t ever really interested in me, just in finding someone to smile and look pretty on his arm and make him look good.”
Something in my chest growled at the hurt in her eyes, at the idea that anyone had ever made this beautiful woman feel expendable.
I reached across the counter, covering her delicate hand with my own.
Despite her skin being soft and cool, a surge of warmth flooded up my arm.
“You are far too good for someone like him. You never deserved to be treated like that.”
She smiled shyly.
I would do anything to make you smile every day for the rest of your life. The thought came to me unbidden, sending a jolt through my body and straight to my cock.
Adelaide’s insistence that we were “just friends” was the only thing that had stopped me from asking her out. But now, with the end of the semester upon us, it was time to take my chance.
I squeezed her hand and pulled away, standing straight again, trying to keep my voice casual.
“Listen, Vince and Chauncey are throwing a party Saturday evening as a last hurrah before commencement Sunday morning. Come with me. After all, I would probably be stuck trying to pass summer classes and not actually graduating yet if it weren’t for you. ”
Adelaide eyed me with an expression somewhere between wary and curious.
“It’ll be fun, I promise. And if you don’t have a good time, I’ll take you right home.” I tried not to sound too pleading, even though I was desperate for her to say yes.
“Fine,” she said, the corners of her mouth turning upward slyly. “Tell you what. If you get at least a B on your final tomorrow, I’ll go with you.”
I threw my head back and laughed. “Ever the teacher.”
“An A minus. I still can’t believe it.” Adelaide shook her head from where she sat beside me in the backseat of the SUV. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m proud. But you did this just to get me to this party, didn’t you?”
I shot her a self-assured smile. “I don’t know what you mean. I simply followed the study guide put together by my very brilliant tutor and the rest took care of itself.” Lies. I had followed her notes, but I had also studied my ass off, determined to escort her to the party tonight.
Adelaide rolled her eyes and muttered, “Suck up.”
I chuckled and—to my own surprise—leaned over and kissed her gently on the cheek. “Truly, thank you. And I am glad you are here tonight,” I murmured before I pulled back, trying to ignore the fire now roaring inside of me from such a simple kiss.
Adelaide blushed, ducking her head slightly as she lifted her fingers to brush her face. “You’re welcome. And coming with you gave me an excuse to get dressed up.”
She did indeed look stunning. She had insisted on meeting me at my flat, and I lost track of my breath for several seconds when I opened the door and saw her in a devastatingly sexy body-hugging red dress that hit right above her knees, her blonde hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail.
She had a neutral palette across her eyelids, and it offset the crimson lipstick that made my dick hard just looking at it.
I had hardly taken my eyes off her on the ride to Vince and Chauncey’s place.
We pulled up to the apartment building in the heart of downtown Cadence, nestled among an array of businesses and chic flats.
As Jackson opened the door for us to step out, you could hear the thrum of a bass line rolling through the street.
Whether it was from a club down the street or the party above us, my heart matched the beat.
I wasn’t sure what the night held, but my body hummed with excitement.
A doorman opened the glass door to the building’s lobby, and I led us to the private elevator that would take us up to the penthouse where Chauncey and Vince lived.
Steffan, one of the security guards escorting us for the evening, swiped the keycard we had been given and hit the button once we stepped inside the mirror-lined elevator.