Page 51 of Loyally, Luke
Maeve:Um... what?
Ellie:I’m not sure what happened. One minute I was telling him about my childhood, and then he looked at me so tenderly with those big brown eyes of his and we were kissing.
Ellie:Excellent kissing. I need to stop thinking about it.
Maeve:As I’ve said on numerous occasions, I never mind a good kiss. A great one is even better.
Ellie:But I’m not supposed to be kissing a man with whom I cannot continue a long-term relationship, Maeve. I’m supposed to be showing my maturity and growth. My readiness for life as a royal.
Maeve:Royals don’t kiss? I’m sure your parents would beg to differ. Stellan and Ariana shared an impressive one on their wedding day too. I think they probably breached ten royal protocols with that kiss.
Ellie:It was just a kiss, right? A harmless kiss. Simple.
Maeve:Was it?
Ellie:No. It wasn’t. My mind went completely blank for a solid ten seconds and all I wanted to do was linger there. He . ..I don’t know, he made me feel safe and treasured and completely overwhelmed.
Maeve:Yep, that’s not a normal kiss. You’d better run from this guy since you’re determined not to have a happily ever after.
Ellie:Maeve! He’s not on the list.
Maeve:Then it’s a stupid list.
Maeve:What are you going to do?
Ellie:Apologize.
Maeve:For the kiss?
Ellie:It doesn’t feel right apologizing for such a kiss... or a few kisses, truth be told, but I am going to apologize for allowing the kiss to happen and carefully explain that I can’t pursue a future relationship.
Maeve:Sounds horrible. Not the kiss-ES but your reasoning.
Ellie:It sounds responsible.
Maeve:Responsible for who?
Maeve:Aha, you’ve stopped responding. Another point for me.
Ellie:I’ll admit to it being an amazing kiss and one I may remember for the rest of my life. But it can NEVER happen again.
Chapter9
The Daily Edge: Social Tattle from One Edge of Skymar to the Other
Our tattlers have been busy drumming up your royal news for this week. Never one to stay out of the limelight too long, Prince Arran made his appearance at the debut premiere ofVerona Risingwith his newest conquest on his arm, actress Maria Lansing. We can depend on Arran to keep all our tattlers on their feet with news from his latest exploits, to his cars, to his many adventures and ladies. As the third royal son, he’s truly taken his freedom and popularity liberally. However, his sister, Princess Elliana, returned to the cyberstage with her first post from her previously defunct social media page, sharing a photo of the North Country mountains. Word has it that she’s been held away in Perth Hall these past three years while working behind the scenes to improve various parts of Mara and the North Country. Could this be a sign that she’s also ready to return to the stage of the online world?
Luke was already plotting how he could get another kiss from Ellie St.Clare. First of all, it was one of the best moments of recent memory, and second, they’d had no time to talk about the “after kiss” situation.
A guy didn’t recover too quickly from something like that with a woman like her. And as little as he liked emotional talk, some situations required a healthy dose of it. Preferably with a kiss at the end.
Maybe in the middle too.
Well, shucks, they should probably just start off with one for good measure.
He thought about her all Saturday morning while working on the cabin, with Pete sharing the news of an upcoming date. He thought about Ellie through lunch, wondering if she’d be interested in a date. (Since they’d already engaged in a very datelike kiss, an actual date seemed a natural progression.)
In fact, the date and kissing idea took up so much space in his head, he visited Cambric Hall Saturday afternoon. When he discovered Ellie wasn’t there, Luke spent some time with a few of the kids who were outside playing some kind of game that looked like a weird combination of baseball and bowling. If he recalled, it was named after a bug.
