Page 9 of A Girl and HER Prince
Turner had said they might have a situation. They sure did!
Deedee had a knack for turning every restful holiday into a nightmare with her travel vlogs and pushing a camera phone in his face.
Her blue eyes gleamed with spite. She fed off this drama. Venice didn’t want to give it to her, but he was desperate to put a stop to this. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Venice!” she called out cheerily. She impishly held up the invitation he’d sent her when they were dating. “I’m here to collect on your promise for a good time.”
He groaned inwardly. His ex was going to do an exposé on him. Of all the worst possible times! How could he stop this? He glanced over at the willowy brunette Deedee had dragged along with her. The poor thing was trying to evade Achilles’s obnoxious back-and-forth to get at her phone.
“You into this scene?” the duke asked. His hand went to the videographer like a bear entranced with the novelty of a camera phone. “It’s a good thing you came—you even out our numbers. I was starting to feel left out without a lady to call my own.”
Deedee’s friend made a face. “Are you kidding me? Is that the best line you’ve got?”
Achilles snatched the phone from her with a grin. “No, I’ve got more slimy lines. Just wait.” He pointed the phone at her while she let out a gasp and twisted to get out of the way. The woman was more camera shy than… well, Venice. “What do you think?” Achilles asked. “Should we give Deedeelicious a video thatreallygoes viral?”
“Do your worst,” her friend retorted. “I’m sure she’d love that.”
In a few more seconds, that little vixen would be eating out of his hand. If Venice could trust Achilles to do anything, it was to charm females into doing backflips for him—the only problem was that Achilles was having too much fun to stop recording now. The two would be starring in their own little TalkieTalk show together in about two seconds.
Venice turned to Deedee. She straightened with a bright smile—the one she reserved for the cameras. Venice used to find that so cute until he realized how fake it was. All she cared about were her fans. It was a hard pill to swallow when he’d fallen so hard for her act.
“You know I wasn’t going to miss this for the world,” Deedee said in her booming stage voice. That was so the camera phone could catch her every word. He glanced back at Achilles filming the brunette.
Her arms were crossed across her stomach like a shield, not looking charmedin the least. Either Achilles was losing his touch or this newcomer was stronger willed than the girls from his usual fan club. Their conversation drifted to him. “You can probably turn it off now,” she said.
“And disappoint Deedee’s fans?” Achilles asked, grumbling out a laugh that Venice found all too familiar. “I’m sure they are dying to hear all about theOdysseyvoyage we’re taking.”
“You’re really doing that?” she asked. Venice was surprised at how hard it was for her to conceal the actual interest in her voice… and it wasn’t for Achilles.
Yeah, the duke was losing his touch with the ladies, but even stranger, the trespasser actually sounded excited about possibly reliving the literary adventure.
“Indeed, we are.” The duke’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “But let me take a guess? Deedee’s followers are more into having slumber parties and painting each other’s nails. You can’t actually think theOdysseyis going to hold their attention?”
The girl blushed. Could those cornflower eyes get any bigger? She belonged with a choir of angels, not on the deck of this ship. Venice watched with interest as she tried to duck away from the camera phone, caught like a butterfly in a net. None of the flashy women on this boat would throw away a chance to go viral.
“Why wouldn’t they be interested?” she asked. “They actually have brains, so… are you supposed to be Odysseus or is that Venice’s role?”
“Ha! I had no idea who that guy was until two days ago.” Achilles’s words barreled to a stop at the slip up in front of Deedee’s massive audience.
“Hmm, I guess you’re the one who’s more into slumber parties and painting nails,” the new girl retorted.
Venice was hopelessly ensnared by their conversation. Even while Deedee droned on about how she had plenty of friends onboard already and could entertain herself, Venice had to stop himself from laughing at how sassy her friend was—it was especially disarming with that innocent face of hers.
“You got me,” Achilles told her with a laugh. “Invite me to any slumber party you have. I’m in.”
“Sorry, you don’t know who Odysseus is,” she said. “You’re out.”
Venice couldn’t keep back his enjoyment anymore. He let out a snorting chortle that felt wholesome and healing after his father’s heavy news from earlier.
Deedee stopped talking with an annoyed “urp.”
Achilles glanced over at Venice. A huge, mischievous smile took over his face. “Hey, I think I found your soulmate, man. She’s a bigger geek than you are.”
Venice shook his head, very well aware that Achilles was trying to get Deedee back for her unwelcome invasion and was insulting their new guest to do it. He tried to smooth over the bad behavior. “She’s definitelynota geek…” His retort was momentarily cut off as his eyes locked with Deedee’s friend. She was cute in an innocent kind of way, with her long brown hair and that pink summer dress that did its best to hide her willowy frame.
That’s when he got annoyed with Deedee all over again.
What was she thinking smuggling aboard an angel to a party like this? She was a maiden sacrifice who’d been tricked to walk up to the volcano so that her friend could dropkick her in.
