"Do you want my help or not?"
"Oh it"s not just your help I want."
The door opened then, interrupting the rest of Sebastian"s flirty come-on. Sergei was already talking rapidly though Kat couldn"t understand a word. When his eyes fell on her and the Prince he just glared down his nose. His words did not sound happy.
"English Sergei," the Prince chided. "And I told you Kat was going to be my matchmaker. You, my friend, are fired from that job. Your t.i.tle was getting too long anyway."
"Okay," Kat said as Sergei grunted a greeting to her, "let"s start matchmaking."
Chapter 9.
"I"m serious Kat." Blaze was starting to sound like a broken record or a CD stuck on repeat. "I want to meet the man you"ve been spending all week with."
"You"re really starting to get on my nerves."
"How would you know? You"re never home long enough to find out."
Kat turned and gave him an affectionate smile. "Is that what this is about? You miss having me around big brother?"
"No," he scoffed. Though Giovanni"s bored nod in the background gave it away. "I"m just worried about you. You"ve been spending every waking hour you"re not at work with some European gigolo for the past week and . . . I"m worried for your safety."
"My safety? The guy has more security than a Swiss bank account. But nice try." She turned to walk out of the room but his voice stopped her again.
"Are you really not sleeping with him?"
"Blaze?!"
"What? I find this whole thing suspect. All you"re doing is trying to help him find a wife? There"s no one else to do that? How are you even qualified for that? Are you sure he"s who he says he is and not some guy trying to steal your ident.i.ty or your kidneys or something?"
She huffed in annoyance. "I"m not sure whether I should be more upset about the fact that you think I"m a s.l.u.t or too stupid to realize when I"m getting played. That"s gonna take a while to untangle." He opened his mouth to speak but her hand came up and cut him off. "Listen. You haven"t met him because neither of us are sure whether you"re gonna shake his hand or kick his a.s.s. Obviously you still think of me as your virginal little sister, which, stop. I"m not sleeping with him but if I was, where, when, and however often is none of your G.o.d d.a.m.ned business."
Kat leaned around the hulking frame of her brother to lock eyes with Giovanni. "You," she said, pointing at him, "are supposed to be making sure he doesn"t go crazy. Man up."
"You got me in trouble," Giovanni said the minute she left the room. He smacked Blaze with his magazine when he dropped down next to him.
"You agree with me, don"t you?"
"Not really," he replied lazily. "The guy made sure Donahue wouldn"t grace the same kitchen as her ever again, that deserves a few brownie points. Let the girl have a little fun. Lord knows she deserves it." He laughed. "Aren"t you the one always wishing she"d stop obsessing over you? Now you get it and what, you"re over it already?"
"She"s gonna get her heart broken," Blaze murmured.
"As Kat once told me, she can take care of her heart just fine. Plus, a little heartbreak might be good for her. It"s better than whatever the h.e.l.l she does with Marco."
Kat waved at the bodyguards as she slipped past them in the lobby. Her phone beeped as she waited for the elevator and she shifted her bags to grab it.
The doors of the elevator opened just as she saw Lane"s name flash across the screen. "Fancy meeting you here," a princely voice laughed. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the elevator.
"Wait," she said, stopping the door from closing as she peeked her head back into the foyer now that she"d read the text message. "Lane needs another escort tonight. Anyone gonna be off the clock?" Kat yelled to the bodyguards.
"Yes," one of them said as he raised his hand.
"Okay, letting her know. Seven-thirty." The elevator doors slid closed in front of her.
"Should I feel flattered that your best friend is using my employees like a dating service?"
"Yes."
"Good to know."
"She"s just looking for a little help and a little fun," Kat murmured, slipping her phone out of sight.
"I"m a little fun," he purred.
Kat eyed him critically. "I"d be careful where I wink," she said. "Lane would marry you in a heartbeat."
"I could never marry someone who"s had their way with so much of the hired help," he drolled. Kat smacked him and he laughed. "What? We don"t need any more royal incidents in Sezynia, believe you me."
"You been holding out on me? What kind of royal incidents are there to be had?"
Sebastian was quiet for a moment and Kat was on the precipice of asking again before he put on an overly friendly face and said, "Besides the d.u.c.h.ess seducing her husband"s cousin and the princess marrying a too liberal commoner, absolutely nothing."
"Hm. Your family sounds like a lot of fun." They exited the elevator and were in the apartment before she asked, "So, you really are holding out on me how was the girl last night?"
He shrugged. "Eh."
"Eh? All I get is eh? Marjorie was cultured, educated, sophisticated, and a dancer. After all of those slightly disastrous dates from the c.o.c.ktail party, I spent almost all week finding her. How much closer are we going to get?"
Sebastian dropped down onto the sofa and held up his hands in a "what can you do" gesture. "She had an annoyingly nasal voice, spent the first half of the meal giving me false information about wine I checked with my brother-in-law to make sure I was right and was also a little boring. Oh, and all she ate was salad."
"You"re blaming her voice? You really need to stop judging these books by their covers it takes a little longer than the span of a dinner to figure out who a person is."
"Says the one that doesn"t have to sit through the dinner. And no, I"m not blaming her voice. Actually I"m blaming you."
"You"re blaming me?" she squeaked in shock.
"Yeah, it was like that though a little bit higher."
Kat smacked him in the arm again; if she did it many more times, he was going to get a bruise. "How can you blame me?"
"You didn"t give me a kiss for luck."
"You"ve got to be kidding me. That"s a cop-out and you know it."
"Nope truth. You really need to do a better job of hedging your bets.
"Fine. But this time you"re coming looking with me."
"You look happy," he said dryly later that night.
Kat laughed. "And why wouldn"t I be?"
"You"re actually excited, aren"t you?"
"Yes," she said with a shrug. "It isn"t every day I get taken out to the opera you know."
"I hate the opera."
"Really? I never would have guessed," she deadpanned in the doorway as she removed her coat.
"But," he said lasciviously, "it might have its uses." He approached her and leaned down to whisper right in her ear. "You, my dear, look good enough to eat."
"Come now Casanova, did you forget I"m much too hot for you to handle." She gave him a friendly pat on the chest before turning, hoping he missed the tiny wobble in the movement. She was not going to let him seduce her with a simple whisper, not again.
"You do like saying that, don"t you?"
"The truth is always the best excuse."
"Excuse?" he questioned with a raised brow. He started to follow that one up but there was a knock at the door and Sergei entered, not waiting for a response.
"I think that means we"re on," Sebastian said. Sergei was already helping her on with her coat and Sebastian glared at him for a moment before grabbing his own from the closet.
"What about her?" the prince asked. He nodded at the bartender who"d just handed him his drink.
"You do have a type, don"t you? The point was to find someone who could be a Queen, not listen to Queen." Sergei snorted in amus.e.m.e.nt, hiding it quickly in a cough, and stepped back a few feet. "She looks promising," Kat murmured. She nodded discreetly at a tall, willowish girl with her hair pulled back into a fastidiously neat topknot.
Sebastian shook his head. "She looks fussy."
"Cultured," Kat countered.
"Stiff."
"Cultured."
"Prim."
"Meaning what? She won"t put out on a first date?" He didn"t say anything, just tapped a finger against his nose. Kat rolled her eyes. "I thought this was about finding you a wife, not a one-night stand."
"I can multi-task. Can"t you?" He took a sip of his drink and his eyes darted towards Sergei in the corner. He couldn"t help but send him a mischievous wink. The man peered back at him unamused.
"You"re a s.l.u.t, aren"t you?"
"Player, Kisa. We"re called players."
"Pig," she snorted with another eye roll, crossing her hands across her chest in annoyance and drawing attention to the low scooped neckline of her dress. He smiled it was why he"d chosen it for her in the first place.
"Player Pig. Has a certain ring to it. Not quite Casanova but I"ll take it."
The house lights flashed and they made their way to their seats. When the lights dimmed Kat became distracted by the drama unfolding before them. Sebastian became distracted by Kat"s bare skin. Halfway through the act he bent down and pressed his lips against her shoulder, timing it perfectly so her surprised gasp was drowned out by a loud clank on stage.
"What are you doing?" she whispered fiercely, looking at him with daggers in her eyes.
"What does it look like I"m doing?" he asked softly, placing another kiss right under her ear.
"Acting stupid," she answered, shifting away.
"You told me to go after what I liked. I like the look of you."
She snorted and people around them looked their way. She smiled wanly and turned bright red Sebastian just chuckled. "When are you going to stop using those horrible lines? You are way too preoccupied with finding the easy lay."
His grin grew to wolfish proportions. "You"re an easy lay are you? I knew you"d been holding out on me." She gave him one of her exasperated expressions and he basked in it he liked that he could get her all worked up and steal her attention away.
"You know what I mean." She leaned in to whisper in his ear. "You"re only using your playboy senses not your princely ones. We know you can spot a one night stand from fifty yards with no moon. It"s harder to find the quality girl in all this quant.i.ty, isn"t it?"
"Are you saying I can"t do it?" he whispered with his lips lightly brushing her skin. His hand had moved to her neck, making lazy circles with his thumb.
"If you could, would I be here?"
"Fine. I"ll pick someone good out. Just you wait and see."
"I"m on the edge of my seat." She leaned away from him and forced her attention back to the stage. Sebastian didn"t spare another look at the action instead his eyes discreetly scanned the crowd, watching. He could tell fake, fraud, and French from fifty yards away too, he just never put it to much use. By the time the curtain went down and the house lights came up he"d made his decision.
"I"ve decided," he said to her as she stood.
"You can"t sleep with them tonight."
"I know."
"Or tomorrow. Or the next day. Or next week."
"What am I, celibate now?" he asked with the quirk of a brow.
"Only you would think a week without s.e.x is the end of the world."
"A lifetime," he murmured. It had been longer than a week, much longer. He hadn"t hooked up with anyone since he decided it was time to get married and settle down. That made Kat his last conquest, official or otherwise.
"Give it to me," she said suddenly. Sebastian"s eyes got round with surprise considering where his thoughts had been just a moment ago. She looked at him with suspicion. "Your choice give it to me."
"Oh," he laughed, covering, "for a minute I thought you wanted my little black book."
"Hmm, that too." And before he could move she slipped her hand into his breast pocket and extracted it. She dropped it into her clutch and closed it with a definitive snap. "I"m still waiting."