Page 31 of Royally F*cked

All of the kids here are a little more rambunctious but equally grateful to their prince for putting the whole thing together.

Several of the older kids ask to take selfies with Jude and ask if they can share on social media, which he shockingly agrees to.

Jude and I both take turns dancing along with the kids until the upbeat pop tunes turn lead into a slow song and the children begin chanting for Jude to dance with me.

I can barely manage to dance when I’m just having fun. A slow dance is a whole new ball game for someone with two left feet. To make matters worse, I’m sure that Jude has had some sort of formal dance training and I’m about to step all over his toes.

He holds out his hand and smiles at me as if I’m the only girl in the room. “May I have this dance, M’lady?”

All of the girls swoon and aww while the boys in the room whoop and holler.

“I hope you’re prepared to have your toes broken,” I mumble just loud enough for Jude to hear me.

“Kick off your shoes,” he orders.

“What?”

“Kick off your shoes.”

My brain is still not registering what he’s asked of me, so Jude leans down in front of me and slips off the modest heels that Mignon paired with this dress for me.

“Now, Stand on top of my feet and I’ll lead,” he says as he pulls me in closer.

With one hand around his waist and the other holding on to his, I do as he says and let Jude gracefully guide me around the dance floor. Slowly but surely some of the other kids pair off and join us.

“I thought you said all of this was a secret?” I tease when a few of them snap photos of us dancing together.

He’s still smiling when he glances down at me. “It was until tonight. At this point, the story has already broken. Oscar handled all the behind-the-scenes details and told them they could share that I crashed their prom. If all of this earns them some cool points, I’d say they’ve earned it.”

“There are so many layers to you.”

“Not really,” Jude shrugs. “I’m just trying to see to it that these kids have every opportunity to have normal childhoods and stay out of trouble. If my life were different, I could have been one of them.”

And there I have it. A tiny glimpse inside of Jude’s heart and mind.

Our dance together ends all too soon and Jude lets me go. I instantly miss the feeling of being so close to him. It was all too easy to let myself get lost in his embrace and for the very first time since all of this began a few hours ago, everything felt real.

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