Chapter 5
five
I merely want some fucking rest. Is that too much to ask? ~ from Gen’s diary
GENEVIEVE
“Someone get that!” her mother shrieked at the sound of someone banging on the front door.
Gen sighed and forced herself to get out of bed. She felt like shit, probably looked like shit, but she knew no one else would get it. Henrietta was just like their mother and wouldn’t lift a finger to help, and Diana slept like the dead.
She didn’t even have the energy to put on a robe and didn’t bother with slippers either. It was probably Sam anyway so it didn’t matter what she wore; Sam liked to stop by the morning after a party and take her out to brunch at their favorite spot.
She clung to the handrail as she went down the stairs, yawning the whole way and rubbing her eyes clear.
She winced as the knocks came again, this time just as she was behind the door. Her head was throbbing and she couldn’t stand the noise.
She sneezed, then sniffled, then opened the door. She blinked her eyes several times, sure that her fever had made her delusional. “Y-Your Highness?”
It was him, Gabriel, there on her doorstep.
He looked just as surprised and gave her a long, intense look over.
He started at the top with her unbrushed, bedheaded blonde hair, down to her very short pale pink cotton nightgown, which had a deep vee, ruffles that didn’t hide anything (including her lack of bra), and stopped just below her ass.
His eyes continued down her naked legs and even lingered on her toes for a moment.
“Oh fuck.” She slammed the door in his face, then whimpered.
She sneezed again.
“Are you unwell?” he asked muffled through the door.
She nodded through two more sneezes.
He knocked gently. “Genevieve? Would you open the door?”
She shook her head, knowing full well he couldn’t see her.
“Please?”
“Oh fuck.” She glanced back up the stairwell but it didn’t seem like her mother or sisters were coming to see who it was.
Slowly, she opened the door barely a crack, and hid her body except for one eye.
He had a broad smile on his face though, and she couldn’t tell if he was laughing at her or the situation. Her toes curled into the hardwood floor and embarrassment flooded her cheeks.
“I’m sorry to stop by so early and unannounced. I wanted to check on you after last night and, since the weather was so beautiful this morning, I thought you might like to take a drive with me. I’d like to show you one of my favorite spots.”
He was speaking way too fast for her sick-addled brain to understand it, but she did comprehend that her mother would force Gen to go if she found out the prince was here.
Her voice was raspy and rough from sleep and being sick. “I’m not well. I’ll make you sick.”
“I’ll take that risk.”
Her heart fell. Maybe another woman would want to hear those words, but not her.
She wanted a man to tell her to rest, and that he’d take care of her.
She didn’t want another person in her life to force her into situations that compromised her health or who didn’t put her first. It was just another example of how ill-suited they were to each other.
“No, thank you. I’m sure you can find another woman to take, Your Highness. Good day.”
She shut the door again, and heard him say, “Wait! Please. Hear me out.”
She was literally sick and tired. All she ever did was sacrifice herself and her future for her ungrateful family (except Diana). She had no desire to marry a man who treated her like her mother did, or marry into a family that would treat her the same way, even if they were royalty.
Fuck that. And fuck him.
“Genevieve?”
“Please leave, Your Highness, before my mother sees you.” She sneezed again twice, then walked away from the door towards the bathroom.
The cold had come on hard and fast in the middle of the night and she’d quickly run out of tissues and cold medicine but didn’t have the energy to get more.
Maybe she could ask Diana if she caught her when she woke up.
She grabbed the toilet roll from the bathroom—the next best thing to a tissue box, and usually cheaper anyway—headed for the kitchen to drink some water despite how much her throat hurt when she did, then made her way back towards the stairs.
She hesitated by the front door, then dipped into the nearby sitting room to peek through the window.
He wasn’t by the door anymore, but his car was still outside the gate.
She wanted to go out and yell at him, tell him to leave her alone even though he didn’t seem to be listening to her. What more could she do? How else could she say ‘leave me alone’ in a way that the prince would believe it?
She sighed, then went back to her room and crashed on the bed. She wasn’t sure how long she slept, but Diana came into her room at one point and cuddled with her. Diana promised to bring some more meds home, and she once again fell into sleep.
The next time she woke was by her mother yelling at her and shaking her awake. There was a dinner or something and she was supposed to go, but she could barely stand and told her mother to go instead or send one of her sisters.
The next time she woke, she saw some medicine and a glass of water on the bedside table. As she reached for it, she noticed movement in the corner of the room and screamed. Then screamed again when she saw who it was.
Prince Gabriel was in her bedroom, and had been watching her sleep. What the fuck?
“How are you, Genevieve?”
GAbrIEL
Gabriel watched as Genevieve scrambled up to sitting on the bed, blinked several times, then gasped and pulled her covers up and over her chest.
Shame. Though nothing had been revealed, so to speak, he liked her body and liked seeing it. He’d really liked seeing the full view of her in her nightgown this morning, though he had a feeling she wouldn’t be happy knowing it. For him, though, that moment had changed his life forever.
He’d fallen in love with Genevieve in that moment, though she’d never believe him, at least not now.
“W-What are you”—a sneeze—“doing here?” she asked and sneezed twice more.
She groaned and reached for the medicine on her bedside table, but he quickly got up and helped.
He’d never taken cold medicine like this before, so he handed her the bottle. As a prince, he was always just given things to take or hooked up to an IV in the rare case he was ill.
In a ballroom, dressed in elegant finery and surrounded by lavish decorations and rich food, it was easy to pretend they were similar but, here in her simple and overly pink bedroom—did she really like pink this much?—watching her swig some medicine, it was harder to pretend.
He took a seat on the bed facing her. “Is that how you usually drink medicine?”
Her voice was congested and deeper than even this morning. “It is when there’s no spoon. Diana must’ve forgotten to leave it when she dropped by.” Her eyes widened. “Diana. My mother. Do they know—”
He held up a hand and shook his head. “I waited until everyone left the house before sneaking in. The security here really is lacking, you know.”
“Said the man who lives in a palace. This is how normal people live, Your Highness.”
“Didn’t we drop the formality last night? Surely we can be on a first-name basis. I am in your bedroom, after all.”
She tugged the covers up more, though it was more difficult now that he was sitting on top of them. “You’re not here by my invitation. How long were you creepily watching me?”
“Creepy is it?” Hmmm. Possibly. It was definitely inappropriate in any case, and he knew it.
“I hadn’t intended on it. I simply wanted to check on you, but you looked so peaceful and beautiful that I couldn’t resist staying.
” He leaned in just a little bit closer.
“Besides, I think a part of you liked that I was watching over you.”
She bristled on the bed, futilely tugging the covers again instead of answering.
He looked around the room to hide his smile, then wondered why he had so much fun teasing her. This wasn’t how he usually seduced women.
She tugged at a loose thread in the covers. “Did you…did you do anything else besides watch me?”
His smile dropped in an instant as fury took over and he stood up, the bed creaking at the loss of his weight. “Of course not! How could you accuse me of that?”
Her eyes flashed with anger right back and, fuck, if his cock didn’t like that. “I don’t know you, Your Highness,” she said, spitting out his formal address. “I don’t know what you’ll do to an unconscious woman after you break into her house and bedroom.”
He took a deep breath before answering. “Let me make it clear, dear Genevieve.”
Her eyes widened at the endearment, but the anger didn’t leave her.
“I did not now, nor have I ever taken advantage of a woman in that way.”
“Not ‘in that way’ then, but in some way?”
He leaned down and placed his hands against her headboard, boxing her in but not touching her.
He kept his voice low and even and hoped his sincerity was coming across.
“In no way. Stop twisting my words. I’m not innocent, Genevieve.
I’ve been with women before, but they were all consensual encounters.
If some women wanted more, they knew better than to ask for it, or ask for it more than once.
None of them were going to be my princess. ”
She pursed her lips. “Am I another one, then? Another to fuck and flee from?”
He shifted one of his hands to cup her face, and brushed a thumb across her lips, watching as they reddened with his touch. “Is it wrong to love when filthy words come from those lips?” he murmured, almost to himself.
He met her eyes again. “You’re not like anyone I’ve ever met, dear Genevieve. That’s a good thing, by the way. I like it.” He leaned forward some more. “I like you.”
Her breath caught. “What do you expect me to say to that?”