Page 37 of The Princess, the Prick & the Priest (Confessions 4)

“Stop talking. And don’t worry,” Penny said. “Your man here saved me from the awkwardness.”

Robbie looked at Julien, and his eyes softened a little. “Did he?”

“He did.”

Julien chuckled. “Non. I think I actually saved Jack from a swift death, but—”

Penny shoved Julien in the arm, and Robbie’s mouth split into a wide grin at the familiar move. It was clear their budding relationship pleased him.

“So, okay,” Penny said. “You know who we’re hiding from. Why did you think I was hiding from Valerie?”

“Because she’s drunk,” Robbie said.

Felicity snorted. “So drunk. And you know how she gets. She wants everyone around her to be just as merry, and Robbie made me promise to only allow this slight buzz he has right now.”

Julien grinned at his bright-eyed princesse. Oh, oui. He was definitely buzzed, but not quite as inebriated as the last time Felicity had been tasked to look after him.

Robbie winked at Julien. “I’m trying to behave myself around the parents.”

“Uh huh,” Julien said, and got to his feet, and Robbie followed him before they both turned to Penny and held their hands out.

She accepted their help, and once she was standing, Robbie said, “By the way, where’s Priest? I haven’t seen him in forever.”

The four of them fell silent, and it didn’t take them long to come to the same conclusion. They all turned in the direction the throbbing music was coming from, and Julien heard, “I’m going to kill her,” right before Robbie headed off in the direction of the dancing partygoers in search of the her he planned to murder.

Chapter Eleven

A flirty drunk.

I didn’t see that coming ~ Robbie

ALL NIGHT I behaved myself, Robbie thought, as he walked toward the laughter and loud music. I behaved myself at my birthday, while Valerie is off doing God knows—

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Robbie came to a standstill on the outskirts of the makeshift dance area and tried to process what exactly he was looking at.

He’d been out there on the dance floor a few times himself tonight, dragged into a dance-off here and there with cousins he hadn’t seen in years who actually thought they could beat him—please—but as he stood there now, his eyes latched on to Valerie, and he was about two seconds away from saying, To hell with behaving.

“Well,” Felicity drawled, as she came up beside him. “You did say you wanted to find her.”

Robbie scoffed and turned his head to her. “She’s not exactly hard to miss.” And the reason for that had nothing to do with Valerie.

No. Valerie was several inches shorter than most of the people moving around on the dance floor, but the person she had draped herself all over—he was not.

“Princesse? Did you find— Oh.” As Julien came to a stop, a chuckle escaped him, and Robbie just shook his head.

He should’ve known better. He should’ve kept a better eye on Val. But no, he’d left her alone with the one thing he knew she couldn’t resist—the redhead.

“I can’t believe this,” Robbie said, as Julien laughed a little harder, then he dragged his eyes away from what they—and they was every single person in the near vicinity—were looking at, and said, “Non?”

“No,” Robbie said. “This isn’t funny. This is… I can’t even think of a word because I don’t even know what this is.”

Robbie looked back out to the scene he was trying to comprehend, and Felicity chimed in, helpful as ever. “I can think of a few words: hot as fuck. Who knew Priest could dance?”

Me, Robbie thought. But not like that, that’s for damn sure.

Yes, it was Priest. And yes, he was dancing. But not the smooth, charming foxtrot around the kitchen. No. Priest was out there looking drop-dead gorgeous under the twinkling lights getting down to some sexed-up song Robbie couldn’t even place right now. He had his arms around Valerie’s waist as she hung off his neck, and every now and then they both stumbled into one another and started to laugh uproariously.

As Robbie stood there with his mouth hanging open, someone walked by them with a tray of bright pink birthday cake shots, and Valerie grabbed two, handed one to Priest, and, without letting go of each other, they clinked their glasses, like co-conspirators, and downed the alcohol.

Priest then pivoted and turned Valerie so he was now looking across the dance floor, and when he spotted Robbie and Julien, his mouth kicked up in an inebriated smile so unlike Priest that it was difficult to comprehend.

Valerie had officially stolen one of Robbie’s men tonight and was letting her ginger freak flag fly. Unfortunately for Robbie, it just happened to be up his ginger pole.

Right. That’s it.

But just as Robbie was about to shove his way onto the dance floor and pull Valerie’s gorgeous blonde hair out of her head, Julien took hold of his arm and said in his ear, “Where are you going?”

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