54.2
Thirty minutes into this fiasco, and I’m worthless. All of my brain cells are now devoted to maintaining my composure while Kev turns on the vibrator again.
I will not have an orgasm here in the middle of this, I tell myself. It would be deeply humiliating.
Nevertheless, I can feel it building in my core.
“Are you okay?” Christine asks. “You look flushed. Should I send for a doctor?”
“No!” I snap, then quickly lower my voice, clearing my throat as I look over her shoulder. I'm desperately trying to find Kev in the sea of people, to telegraph the message that he has to stop what he's doing. “Um. I need…some water. Or some air, maybe. Champagne.” I’m babbling, making no sense. She must think I’m on drugs or something.
“Ten minutes,” she says, curtly, whirling around and walking briskly in the other direction, her hand on her earpiece.
I breathe a sigh of relief when the vibrating ceases, even though it does little to stop the pulsing between my legs. I mentally calculate how far it is to the ladies room and whether I can get through the crowd without being seen by anyone.
“Oh my God.” Alexia takes my arm. “You got stuck with Christine. She’s the worst of the PR robots. Do you want to make an escape?”
I giggle, the absurdity of all of this suddenly hitting me. “She’s awful,” I whisper.
“You have to medicate to get through it,” Alex says, leaning her head on my shoulder. “I totally like you, Isabel. Have I told you that? You’re not terrible. I expected you to be terrible, like one of those really smug bitches, the kind who think they’re God’s gift to the earth just because they go around saving people and stuff.”
“You’re obviously well-medicated,” I say, laughing.
“I took some X,” she says. “Wow. Has anyone ever told you that your hair is really brown? Like, not poop brown, either. It’s pretty brown. Do you want some X? I have some, right in my clutch.”
“I’ll pass,” I say. As if I need to take anything that would increase the sensitivity of my body in any way, shape, or form.
“Quick,” she says. “Two o’clock. Sir Richard Benton. He’s hot, right? We should talk to him.”
"What? Who?" I ask absently. I catch a glimpse of Kev across the room as the crowd parts. He's standing next to a blonde – tall, long-legged, thin, and gorgeous. She puts her hand on his forearm, the gesture at once possessive and familiar.
"Richard Benton," Alex says. "Come on. Please tell me you've heard of him, at least. He's been in movies in the States. He was knighted in England. I can't remember why. Probably for being hot as hell."
I can't think of Richard whoever-the-hell-he-is, not when I'm looking at Kev on the other side of the room, with some girl hanging all over him.
Alexia follows my gaze. "Ugh," she says. "That bitch."
"What bitch?" I ask. I find it unreasonably difficult to pry my gaze away from the two of them. The girl laughs – I can't hear it, but I just know she has one of those perfect little musical laughs, a tinkling sound – and touches his forearm again.
"Erin. She's the worst," Alex whispers, though not quietly enough. It's more like a stage whisper, which is wholly inappropriate for this setting. If it weren't for the fact that I'm completely distracted by Kev on the other side of the room, the entire thing would be laughable. I have a princess hanging on my arm, high as a kite and airing her opinions too loudly, and a vibrator inside me, my royal stepbrother at the controls.
And all of it, at my mother's engagement party, surrounded by the crème de la crème of Venicin society.
"Why is she the worst?" I ask absently. Kev pats the bitch on the arm, then looks up. I avert my eyes, but not quickly enough. He makes eye contact with me from across the room.
"She's terrible," Alex says. "Manipulative and shallow. They were together years ago. I don’t know what he ever saw in her.
She cheated on him a lot. Kev won't ever say it, but I think he was in love with her. And she broke his heart."
I swallow hard the lump that's beginning to form in my throat. What if he still has feelings for his ex? I definitely don’t want to do to someone what Derek did to me. Suddenly, everything about what I'm doing with Kev feels even more wrong. "Excuse me," I say to Alex. "I need to run to the restroom."
But before I can make my stealthy exit, Christine catches my arm. "I'll need you to take your seat, Miss Kensington and Princess Alexia," she says. Then, looking up, "Ah, Prince Kevin, you as well. You'll join the King and Queen at the head table."
"Wait, I –" I begin to protest, but I'm ushered along. Behind me, Kev steps too close for a split second, his breath warm on my neck. I tell myself to focus on something else, anything else, because walking this way through the ballroom, with my nipples erect underneath my dress, is the worst possible thing that could happen.
"You weren't about to sneak out of here, were you?" Kev whispers, and I feel the vibrator start up again, the rumble low and steady. But instead of being turned on, the way I was before, I just find myself irritated. I'd tell him to turn it off, but I know he'll just turn it up a million times more. So I just grit my teeth and promise myself there's no way he's making me come. I won't let it happen.
Willpower, I tell myself. Think of something else. Something un-sexy.
Like the image of Kev with that blonde's hand on his arm, giggling like an idiot because he said something that was most likely inappropriate.
"No," I say curtly. "I'm headed to the table to sit with my new siblings."
He turns up the vibration higher and I involuntarily yelp, a sound I quickly cover with a cough. “Behave,” he whispers.
“Apparently that’s something you need to learn,” I say, my words coming out breathier than I intended.
“Oh, you’re jealous,” he whispers. Then he shuts off the vibrator, leaving my muscles pulsing around it.
Of course he’s seated next to me at dinner. I’m seated between Alex on my right, and Kev on my left, probably a strategic move by the public relations team to make sure everyone is reminded how integral a part of the family I am. Mercifully, Kev leaves me alone during most of dinner.
My legs crossed, sitting in a chair, I almost manage to forget the vibrator is inside me. And, deliberately ignoring Kev, I’m almost able to forget about him and the ex-girlfriend.
