Secret Heir (Dynasty #1)(48)
“You mean apart from the part where she almost burned down that tree and started a forest fire?” Raph quips, and I give him a withering look in response.
I head upstairs and expect Raph to join Lance in the living area. Lance is powering up the console, and it looks like he’s settling in for another night of gaming. The three guys seem to do that often, and it’s so human-like and just so plain normal, that it’s easy to forget that these guys aren’t actually normal people at all—they’re freaking gods. Gods teaching me how to influence the elements.
I shake my head at the thought, though I can’t help the smile on my face.
“You going to bed?” Raph’s voice behind me startles me. I hadn’t realized that he was following me up the stairs.
“I wish. I have to study for my Eden introductory exam,” I say, stifling a yawn. Up until now, the only difference between the subjects at Regency and those that I studied back on Earth, has been elements class. Even the history and geography topics are centered around Earth. Because the two worlds are so aligned, or so I’m told.
But when Magnus called me a few days ago, I found out that it’s because everyone else learns Eden history, geography and politics much earlier on, with the Earth-based topics studied during high school. I’ll have to catch up by private study, taking exams along the way. None of which, I’m looking forward to. Despite my ongoing uncertainty about my place in Eden and my willingness to stay, some part of me is curious to learn more about this world.
“I can help you with that,” he offers, as I reach the door to my suite and I stare at him surprise.
He shrugs and looks almost shy for a moment. It’s strangely adorable.
“I mean, if you want.”
“I don’t know …” I begin to say. It’s one thing to take him up on his offer of elements training. But studying together? Spending time alone in my bedroom with him? That feels like something entirely different. I realize then that I’d drawn a line somewhere between us and hanging out in my room with Raph would definitely be crossing it.
He flashes that impossibly beautiful smile.
“I’d like to think that I know a fair amount about my own world. Heir to the throne and all. And I’m not just a pretty face, you know.”
I laugh then, despite myself.
“Who said your face was pretty?” I reply, raising an eyebrow.
“You did,” he says, that cocky smile growing wider.
“I don’t think I’ve ever said anything of the sort,” I retort.
“You don’t have to, it’s written all over your face—I mean, why else aren’t you be able to keep your eyes off me?” He flashes me a wink, as I gape at him in outrage.
“You have got to have the biggest ego in the world—no, both worlds. Earth and Eden.”
What comes out of his mouth, makes my own mouth drop open and I wonder again how the hell I could’ve mistaken this devil for an angel.
“That’s not the only part of me that’s big—I’m told that I also have the biggest dick in the word—both worlds, to be exact.”
I hide the tell-tale flush on my cheeks by turning my back to him as I open the doors to my suite.
“Ew. Just ew.”
I turn back to him and realize that he’s still waiting for my answer. Am I going to let him in?
I try to picture that line that’s been drawn, but all I can see is that smile, those vivid blue eyes and I find myself nodding, when I should be saying no.
17
Four hours later, I’m lying on my front, on the plush faux fur rug, which is in front of the large fireplace at the center of my room.
My Eden textbooks are scattered in the space between where I’m sprawled out and where Raph is sitting, his back leaning on the plush velvet couch at the edge of the rug.
“I hate to say this, but you are pretty smart,” I say, as I close my history textbook, feeling all studied out for the night. I hate to admit it, but I’m certain that Raph’s help tonight has cut down what could have been days of studying, to a few hours.
The introduction to Eden history section was pretty much everything that Magnus had told me on my first day in Eden, but in far greater detail. Eden geography is entirely new to me, though. Eden, it turns out, is indeed a mirror of Earth, even down to the countries and cities. The only differences being the names and of course, the fact that the Dynasties rule everything. The entire goddamn planet. Raph mentioned though, that there are other parts of Eden which do not mirror any place on Earth. The royal city of Arcadia being one of them.
“Why do you sound so surprised?” Raph asks, raising a golden eyebrow.
“Because you’re an ass,” I retort, unable the resist the opening.
He laughs in response, and I have to shift my focus to the open pages of my Eden politics book, in an attempt to distract myself from the way that laugh lights up his whole face, making him look innocent almost. Something he definitely isn’t.
The book is open on the modern politics section and my gaze falls on a diagram of the current Dynasty heads. Magnus’s face looks back at me and the other faces on the page are familiar, too. I’d seen those faces watching me at that first ceremony, the disapproval in their eyes veiled, but there all the same.