Fourteen: Prince Cadoc
1206 Words
Chapter Fourteen
Prince Cadoc
The first thing I noticed about Jasper was how much bulkier he had gotten since basic training. Gone were the curls I had known my entire life, and now he had a buzz cut. Even though I knew Jasper was trained in at least one hundred different ways to kill a man, I had never personally been intimidated by him. He was just Jasper. He was supposed to protect me. I wasn’t supposed to be afraid of him.
The thing was, I was secretly in love with his girlfriend. We had an unspoken agreement that, someday, in the future we would possibly date. Jasper wasn’t an i***t. He knew Penelope and I had feelings for each other. He also knew we were sixteen and couldn’t do anything about them.
Unless we wanted to end up broken and bitter.
“Are you going to let me in, or just stand there staring?” Jasper said.
He had gotten in early that morning, taking the private jet that his family had as part of their service with us. I moved away slowly, letting him inside the apartment. I’d put off telling him about Penelope’s insane plan because I didn’t want to distract him. That, and he didn’t have his phone on him while he was at training.
That rule couldn’t even be broken by me, and Reggie had made it clear that he had done everything that he could for me as far as breaking the rules. My father had been less than thrilled that I’d snuck a girl out to a secret training site. The only thing that had made him less pissed was that it had been Jaspers girlfriend, not mine.
Jasper’s eyes narrowed. “You look fidgety.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “I’m not fidgety.”
“You’re fidgety,” he said, “what happened?”
Well first mate, I’ve got the photographers stalking your girlfriend to make people think we might be more than friends. Second, she wants us to go on a double date to clear up the weirdness between us. Third, I’m still f*****g in love with your girlfriend and I’m taking her to a fashion show to get the seal of approval from my sister.
“Penelope wants to go on a double date,” I told him.
He blinked. “With you and Gwyneth?”
I nodded. “She’s tired of people thinking that we’re a couple. She thinks that if they get pictures of us all together, maybe they’ll stop.”
Jasper snorted. “Damn unlikely. Remember when they thought you were dating Audrey? She was attached to Lennon Lucas at the hip then, and people still thought she was going to be your future Queen.”
“Just humor her, okay?”
He sighed. “You’re still pining after her, aren’t you?”
I coughed. “We’re just friends. You know that. But those pictures of us getting off the plane together didn’t help, and there’s been more since then. Think it’s making her insecure.”
“Did you explain that kind of comes with the territory?” he said. “Hell, people thought we were dating for a while.”
I smirked. “You couldn’t handle me, Jefferies. Besides, I’m trying to play nice with everyone. C’mon. Agree to the double date.”
“But that’s going to require being in the same room as Gwyneth. I hate Gwyneth,” he reminded me.
It was true. The two got on like fire and water, and I suspected it was because of Gwyneth’s blue blood tendencies to think the worst of “the help”. So far, she hadn’t been too terrible with Penelope. But I suspected that was because she saw potential in her, or because I liked her and she didn’t want to piss me off.
Even though we probably weren’t lifers, Gwyneth knew that she needed to be in my good graces if she was going to be the first female prime minister. When I cared about someone, my opinion met something.
“It will be fine,” I said, “we’ll go to brunch. Low key, and the girls will do most of the talking for us. C’mon mate. I can’t have word getting out that the scholarship girl hates me.”
“She doesn’t hate you,” he grumbled.
He dropped his duffel bag in the hall and moved into the living room. I followed him.
“Hey. You know I’ve been supportive of you two,” I said, “I’m not trying to interfere or anything. Hell, I flew her out to see you so that she wouldn’t be alone the night of the ball.”
He scratched his head. “I’m not stupid, Cadoc. I know you two have a f*****g connection or whatever. I know you didn’t do that for her and me. The only person you did that for was you. Yeah, I’ll go on the double date, but only so that people will stop saying that my girlfriend is yours.”
“Mate, I haven’t tried anything.”
“Yet,” he said, “yet. That’s the problem, you’re always going to be a possibility.”
“Well, it’s my school. It’s my world that she’s in. What do you want me to do?”
He lunged at me, like he was getting ready to hit me, and then he pulled back. Remembering who I was. What would happen if he did what he really wanted to. “No, you’re not worth any of this. I shouldn’t have to fight for my girlfriend when she’s already said that she was with me. I’m not going on a double date to pretend like this is normal, because none of this is normal.”
“Jasper,” I said, “do you think I’m happy about this?”
“No, but that’s the problem. Do you need me for the night?”
“No,” I said, “but what does that have to do with anything?”
“I’m your servant, your majesty. Your future Captain of the guard. I work for you. If I’m not working, I’d like to go see my girlfriend.”
“Fine,” I said, “go see her. It will be good for the two of you.”
“I know,” he said with a sneer, then he left, leaving me alone in the apartment feeling as though I’d been challenged without even knowing how or why.
- Writer
