It made me all warm and buzzy, and it eroded my inhibitions with every sip.
"About the indoor festival you set up for Rokbury…"
Daniel stabbed at a piece of beef, ignoring the table of women ogling him from the corner.
"What about it?"
"My friends didn't know what I was talking about when I mentioned it to them." I'd checked with Emily and Madison too, just in case, and they'd both stared at me like I'd grown two heads.
"So?"
I finished my wine, my nerves jumping all over the place.
"So, you said my friends helped you with the setup."
Daniel chewed quietly, not answering me.
"Did you…" A strange lump formed in my throat. I blamed it on too much food. "Did you come up with the idea? And set it up all by yourself?"
"It's not a big deal." He continued eating without looking at me.
I'd known it was him since my phone call with Chloe, but hearing him confirm it was a whole other matter. The butterflies in my stomach escaped all at once, and the lump in my throat grew.
"It is a big deal. It was…very thoughtful. As was tonight. Thank you." I spun my silver ring around my finger. "But I don't understand why you didn't tell me it was your idea, or why you did it all. You don't even like me."
Daniel's brow scrunched. "Who said I didn't like you?"
"You."
"I never said that."
"You implied it. You're always so grumpy and scolding me."
"Only when you don't listen."
I bit back a tart reply. The night was going so well, and I didn't want to ruin it, even if he made me feel like a misbehaving child sometimes.
"I didn't tell you because it was inappropriate," he added gruffly.
"You're my client. I should not be…doing those types of things."
My heart crashed against my ribcage. "But you did it, anyway."
Daniel's mouth flattened into a displeased line, like he was angry at his own actions.
"Yes."
"Why?"
He finally lifted his eyes to meet mine. "Because I understand what it's like to be alone."
Alone. The word struck me harder than it should've. I wasn't physically alone. I was surrounded by people all day, every day. But no matter how much I tried to pretend I was a normal college student, I wasn't. I was the Miss of Yorkshire.
It meant glamour and celebrity, but it also meant bodyguards and round-the-clock protection, bulletproof vests and a life that was planned, not that I lived.
The other royals I knew, including my brother, were content with living life in a fishbowl. I was the only one clawing at my insides, desperate to escape my own skin.
Alone.
Daniel somehow recognized that inherent truth about me before I did.
"Thoughtful and observant." He was observant of his surroundings, but I hadn't expected him to be so observant of me he saw parts of me I'd hid from myself. "You really are full of surprises."
"Don't tell anyone, or I'll have to kill them."
The tension cracked, and a small, genuine smile blossomed on my lips. "Humorous too. I'm convinced aliens have hijacked your body."
Daniel snorted. "I'd like to see them try."
I didn't ask any more questions after that, and Daniel didn't offer any more answers. We finished our dinner in companionable silence, and after he paid, he'd refused to entertain the idea of splitting the check. We walked off the food in a nearby park.
"You're really letting me walk around here without my vest?" I teased.
The bulletproof vest hung in the back of my closet, unused since our trip to the mall. An image of Daniel's hands on my skin in the dressing room flashed through my mind, and my face heated.
Thank God it's dark out.
"Don't make me regret it." Daniel paused before adding, "You've proven you can handle yourself without me breathing down your neck."
He said it almost grudgingly. I had been more careful with my actions in recent months, even without Daniel's explicit instructions, but I hadn't expected him to notice. He'd never said anything about it until now.
A pleasant warmth unfurled in my stomach. "Mr. Carter, we might not kill each other after all."
His mouth twitched.
We continued walking through the park, where we passed couples making out on the benches, teens huddled by the fountain, and a busker playing his heart out on the guitar. I wanted to stay in that peaceful moment forever, but dinner, alcohol, and a long day conspired to drive exhaustion into my bones, and I couldn't hold back a small yawn.
Daniel noticed instantly. "Time to go, princess. Let's get you to bed."
Maybe it was because I was delirious from fatigue and the high emotion of the day, or maybe it was because of my recent dry spell with the opposite sex, but a mental image of him "getting me to bed" flashed through my mind, and my entire body flushed. Because in my imagination, we were doing anything but sleeping.
Images of Daniel naked, on top of me, under me, behind me…they all crowded my brain until my thighs clenched and my clothes rasped against my skin.
My tongue suddenly felt too thick, the air too thin. My first sexual fantasy about him, and he was standing less than five feet away, staring right at me.
I was a princess, he was my bodyguard. I was twenty-two, he was thirty-two. It was wrong, but I couldn't stop.
Daniel's eyes darkened. Mind reading didn't exist, but I had the eerie sense he could somehow crawl inside my brain and pick out every dirty, forbidden thought I had about him.