Page 4 of Royal Academy

Eyes the color of whiskey with flecks of gold were glaring at him. He fought back a smile. She looked like an avenging fairy with her hands on her hips and her mouth moving a mile a minute.

Shit, what was she saying?

“And furthermore, I will have you know that you haven’t won this round, not by a long shot!”

“Why are you so afraid of me?” Nick truly wanted to know. He hadn’t touched the poor girl and certainly didn’t intend to.

She was a sister, and sisters tended to need things like stability and marriage. Two things that Nick was also allergic to.

Puffing up Lia shoved a finger into his chest, “I am not afraid of you! I am not afraid of anything.”

He quirked a brow, not moving back and enjoying the way her cheeks had begun to fill with heat. She obviously was now noticing just how close she had gotten to him.

She cleared her throat and took a step back, “You just stay out of my way!”

Nick smirked, “Gladly, and I expect the same.”

Lia looked thunderous, “I have no desire to have anything to do with you!”

He leaned forward the smallest degree and suddenly the room seemed much smaller.

“But you see, this is my room and you came knocking on my door. So methinks the lady doth protest too much.”

Lia sputtered, “You pompous jackass!”

Nick pushed her further, “Whatever little crush you may have developed on me Princess you are going to have to get over. I’m not looking for happily ever after.”

“Crush? You? Are you insane?” her color had become alarmingly red.

She itched to throw something at him. Nothing would make her happier than seeing him brought low.

Nick walked over to his door, “I assume you are done?”

She blinked. No one dismissed her, she was a princess. And yet here was this nobody treating her like she was nothing to him.

It wasn’t that Lia wanted to be something to him. But all the same, she had come over here to give him a set-down and instead she found that she was being asked to leave with her tail between her legs.

Glancing around his room she saw some of the pictures.

“And for your information,” she marched over to the door he held open and looked up into his handsome face. “I hate cats, they are know-it-alls just like you.”

She marched out the door and to her own slamming it behind her. His cat pictures rattled a little and Nick couldn’t help the small laugh that escaped his lips.

Well, at least they had the dislike of felines in common if nothing else. It would seem that the princess was in possession of a rather fierce temper.

For the briefest of moments, Nick mused that the fiery ones made the best bed partners. But he quickly shoved that aside. There was no way in hell he was going to get mixed up with Benedict's baby sister.

Nick had to find a way to extricate himself from this situation and get the hell away from the Royal Academy and their new Manners and Deportment teacher.

With a small smile on his lips, he began to unpack his things, hoping that he would soon be repacking and on his way out of the door.

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