Page 8 of Learning to Love

She snorts out a laugh. "I'm going nowhere at his command. He can go suck on an egg if he thinks he can tell me what to do," Elodie replies.

That’s not a phrase I've heard before. I'll have to ask her what it means later, but I need to negotiate right now. If Elodie is going to refuse to move, then I need to take the fight to her.

I go over to where Hinchbootie is still remonstrating with her, trying to persuade her I'm being more than reasonable, and warning her that if she doesn't do as I request, it will lead to her arrest.

"It's all right." I pat him on the shoulder, and he stands back.

I resume my sitting position directly in front of Elodie and stare straight at her.

"Ask the class to take a ten-minute break. I won't stop my guards from allowing them back into the room. You have my word on that."

"Your word means nothing to me," Elodie replies and shuffles sideways across the floor so I'm not obstructing her view of her class. I move my position to block her again.

"Hinchbootie, ask the guards to stand down. Instruct them to allow the people in this room to come and go as they please while I speak with Miss Nash."

The personal secretary's eyes go wide before he wanders off, mumbling something about my dick ruling again. I turn back to look at Elodie.

"Give me a reason to trust you." She glares at me.

"The fact that the people in your class have varying levels of disability, and I noticed. I want you to tell me why this studio means so much to you."

Her eyes go wide at the fact I’ve noticed this is not an able-bodied class. I suspect she thought I would be too self-absorbed to realize. She lets out a long exhale, and I feel her minty-fresh, warm breath wash over my face.

"All right." She gets to her feet and addresses the class. "Can you all give us ten minutes, please? I think His Royal Highness might be starting to see things our way. I'll make a few final negotiations with him, and then we can get on with our lesson."

The members of her class file out of the room, and I dismiss all of my staff, including a reluctant Hinchbootie. Elodie sits back down in front of me.

"Talk. I'm all ears," I inform her with a smirk on my face.

Five

Elodie

Iwant to wipe the smug smirk off the prince's face. It had really irritated me, the way he’d sat in front of me during the class meditation with his expensive, spicy cologne, and rumbling deep breaths. He's so frustrating. It did surprise me when he noticed my clients’ disabilities, though. I thought he hadn’t looked at them at all. Maybe he does have something resembling a heart and a brain, buried deep inside him. It still doesn't make me like him even one tiny little bit.

"What do you want to know?" I reply, bringing my feet up into Padmasana, the lotus position, with my right foot sitting on top of my left thigh with the sole facing upward. The prince looks at what I'm doing. He's sitting cross-legged and doesn't try to stretch his body any further, which is good as I doubt he's ever tried to do yoga in his life.

"Why is having this studio so important to you? I can pay for you to have any other studio you want. What is it about this one, apart from the fact I said you can't have it?" The prince rests his hands on his thighs, mirroring the open-palmed position I’m in.

"I would admit you saying no to me is probably the biggest reason. I don't like being bossed around by someone who thinks just because he happens to be a prince of a country no one has ever heard of that he can come into my world and tell me what to do."

"I think you'll find that comes with being a prince. The people around me, my personal secretary and the security services, are trying to ensure I'm safe and not likely to be assassinated by crazy yoga people."

I hadn't thought about that. It wasn’t necessarily him being obstinate. It was about his safety.

"I accept that," I concede. "But your people could have gone about informing us better. There are good people at this resort—they are normally happy and carefree. Then you arrive, and within minutes, they undergo a complete personality change as though life is not worth living anymore. The fact the members of your staff are trying to ensure your safety doesn’t excuse how everyone here has been made to feel. It seems to all of us that your people are trying to keep us away because you’re a stuck-up asshole.”

The prince throws his head back and laughs out loud.

I grunt my disapproval at him.

"I've never thought about it that way. I do have exacting standards, and I am truly sorry if I've upset people you care about, but I can assure you my security team is tough because they have to be." The prince pauses, and I reluctantly accept his words with a nod of my head. "Now, you've still not told me why this studio means so much to you."

I can sit in a lotus position for hours, but I suddenly feel uncomfortable on the floor directly in front of my nemesis. I get to my feet and walk barefoot across the wooden floor to the windows. Looking outside, I see several of my clients milling around. One of them, in particular, catches my eye. I know the last few days will have been difficult for him—he likes routine in all aspects of his life, and this will be throwing his set order into chaos.

The prince appears at my side. "I'm not a complete monster. I just want to hear why you need this studio in particular."

"All right." I concede and point to the client I was just looking at. "That’s Jake. He's twenty-eight and lives at home with his parents. He was diagnosed with autism when he was young. He's very routine-based, and any change to what he expects can lead him on a downward path. You see how he keeps swiping at his head—he's stressed because he came here to do yoga but now he isn't. His brain can't understand and process what is happening."

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