She laughed and reached over to squeeze Christian’s hand. He felt like never washing it again. When she tried to pull her hand back, he held it tightly. Her look said, “Are you really being that immature right now?” But he merely smiled and kept holding tight. He wasn’t letting her go.
She eventually gave up and relaxed her pull. Christian brought his attention back to Duncan.
“In a nutshell, our future duke’s favorite food is spaghetti. Boring, I know. His favorite color is black, because according to him, it always looks dashing. He likes novels and is guilty of reading all of the Vandenbrook series, and adores scary movies. I think he has all his teeth, and at this point believes one day tea will take over the world.”
Kessen looked stunned.
“My turn, my turn!” Nick shouted. “Our friend Kessen loves bread, bread of any kind; she likes baked bread, burnt bread, hard bread.”
“We get it, she likes bread,” Duncan interrupted.
“Fine,” Nick said. “She adores any sort of fuzzy animal but will deny it to her grave, talks way too much about nothing all that interesting, also loves Italian food—although her knowledge of it extends to SpaghettiOs and macaroni and cheese.”
“Pity,” Duncan said.
Nick nodded. “She can speak three languages, has her master’s degree, but tends to play dumb, because it was what people expected of her. She is obsessed beyond reason with the Wall Street Journal, and her dream would be to star in the Broadway musical Cats.”
“That’s a lie!” Kessen yelled, lunging for Nick’s throat. Christian pulled her back just in time.
“Okay, fine. I lied about the whole Cats thing, but it would be funny to see her in a cat suit. Plus, she fights dirty.”
“Agreed,” Christian said dryly.
Kessen laughed. “I only fight dirty because I have to. Nick gave me no choice growing up, and Christian’s too cocky for his own good. Duncan, sorry, but you’re guilty by association.”
“Hey, that’s not fair!” Duncan put his hands on his hips. “You know, after learning more about you, it’s easy to see why Christian adores you.” He threw a challenging glance towards Christian. Christian felt his fists clench.
“I’ve been told I’m the better kisser between us. How about we give it a go? Just in case. I don’t want you to think you have no options.”
Christian jumped out of his seat, barreling towards Duncan. Lucky for Duncan he was able to hide behind a now panicking Nick. “You know,” Duncan said from behind Nick. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him react that way before.”
“Most peculiar,” Nick pointed out calmly.
“Agreed.”
“Well, time for bed!” Nick clasped his hands together, while Christian was still breathing heavily in front of him “Kessen, if you’ll just follow me upstairs, I’ll make sure your room is locked so nobody sneaks in during the night.”
Christian rolled his eyes. “As if I have no self-control.”
All three of them looked at him doubtfully.
“Oh, for the love of—”
“Language!” Duncan shouted, sounding exactly as Kessen had earlier that day.
Chapter Twenty
Kessen brushed a quick kiss on Christian’s cheek. “Thanks for the date.”
On pure instinct he crushed her to his chest and kissed her firmly on the lips, as if marking his territory in front of Duncan, even though he knew Duncan valued his pretty face too much to try anything.
“Until tomorrow,” he whispered huskily.
Kessen looked dazed as Nick tried to push her up the stairs.
“Shoot, Christian, you didn’t have to kiss her senseless. She probably doesn’t even know where her room is,” Nick grumbled as he led her away.
“You know I would never take advantage of her, right?” Duncan asked casually.
Christian fell silent for a moment. “Yes, I know I can trust you.”
“But, if for any reason you back out of this, you should know I’m sweeping in for the kill. She’s too much of a catch to let go. And if you let her go, my friend, you are a complete fool.”
Duncan slapped his back and ran up the stairs, leaving Christian alone in his thoughts. If he was being honest with himself, that was the last place he wanted to be. Where he really wanted to be was in Kessen’s room, leaving marks of his kisses all over her body.
He shuddered at the thought. The wisest course of action would be to take a cold shower, especially since he had six lonely nights ahead of him.
****
Kessen did, in fact, feel dazed as Nick graciously led her into her large bedroom at the end of the hallway. She collapsed onto her bed with a smile bigger than Texas plastered across her face.
“So, you love him, then?” Nick asked it in such a way, it was almost as if they were discussing the weather.
She sat up. “What would make you say that?”
Nick chuckled. “Oh, Kessen, where to begin? The kissing, the teasing, the flirting—it’s like I’m back in middle school with you all over again.”
“Except you don’t have to fight off the boys anymore, Nick.”
“Don’t I, though?” His expression turned serious as he walked across the room with his hands in his hair. “I’ve never been good at letting you grow up.”
“Are you going to turn all serious and sentimental on me?”
He flashed a wicked grin. “Never. But you’re like a sister to me. Heck, you are my sister; as much as I tease you two, I really do want you to be happy. Even if it does mean that by protecting you from yourself, I am in fact taking my life into my own hands.”
“What do you mean?”
Nick’s gaze fell onto a sharp letter opener in the corner of the room. Oh, she mouthed, then looked down at her hands and laughed.
Nick laughed. “Remember the chocolate chip cookie incident?”
Her stomach coiled just thinking about it. “How could I forget?”
Nick sat down next to her and sighed. “Your mom said you couldn’t have any more cookies, so you took it upon yourself to prove her wrong and eat the entire bag.”
“I threw up for hours.”
“I held your hair.”
“You’re a good friend.”
He snorted. “Yeah, I know. Not many friends would do that for each other.”
Nick grabbed her hand and sighed. Honestly, it was freaking Kessen out a bit. It was rare she saw the façade of “everything’s funny and nothing is serious” Nick fall. It wasn’t that he was faking it; he just did an excellent job of shielding his emotions. It was his one fault, or so Sammy said.