Page 31 of A Royal Obligation

“Yes, I’ve seen it.”

“Perfect. My greatest fictional crush of all time is Flynn Rider, also known as Eugene Fitzherbert.”

“Seriously? He’s an animated character in a children’s movie!” Barrett teased.

She gasped and held a hand to her heart playfully. “Don’t insult my man like that. He’s perfection.” She smiled. “Anyway, one thing you will learn today is how to smolder like Flynn Rider. You already have a very expressive face. Not to mention your jumping eyebrows. We need to use those to your advantage.”

“What did I sign myself up for?” he mumbled loud enough for her to hear.

“Trust me. You will have all the women in the kingdom swooning if we can get you to nail the smolder.”

“I’ll give my best go at it.” He sighed, setting his hands on his hips. “How do I do this smoldering?”

“While some may think it’s all in the eyes, I am a believer that it is all in the mouth.” Her eyes fell to his lips, and she looked away as color flooded her cheeks. “You will want to purse your lips slightly, but not too much to where you are puckering. The goal is to look mysterious and intriguing, not like you just took a bite out of a lemon.”

“Is this good?” He tried to purse his lips like she had instructed.

“You need to purse your lips a little bit more.” She reached out and pressed her fingers to his face, scrunching his mouth. “Ooh, that’s good. You can throw in a slight smirk with it if you’re wanting to get really fancy.”

“Let’s stick with the basics for now, please,” he pleaded.

“Next is the eyebrows and eyes. You have great flexibility with your eyebrows, so you want to pull them slightly up, like you know a secret.”

“Like I know a secret?” He spat out in laughter. “Did you complete a study on that movie? Or minor in smoldering in school? Where do you even come up with this stuff?”

“You won’t be making fun of it when it draws any woman that you want.”

“I’m sorry. I’m not trying to make fun of it. I’m simply surprised.” He cleared his throat and rubbed his cheeks in preparation. “Okay, so purse my mouth, but not too much. Throw in a smirk if I want. Raise my eyebrows like I have a secret. What’s next?”

“You’ll want your eyes to be slightly squinted and look directly into the eyes of the person you are trying to flirt with. And finally, your posture. You’ll want to use your muscular arms to your advantage. Fold your arms together in front of you and flex if you can.”

“Oh, is that all?”

“Yes, that’s all. Now let’s see you try it.” She clapped her hands together and smiled at him.

“Don’t make fun of me if it’s awful.”

He started by crossing his arms, and Jules pushed down the attraction she felt as she saw the ripples of his muscles through his shirt. He pursed his lips well and his raised eyebrows gave off a hint of mystery. When he squinted, laughter escaped her lips.

“You promised you wouldn’t make fun of me!”

“I did no such thing,” she said. “You were doing really well. But you need to squint less. Way less. No offense, but you looked constipated.”

“Lovely, that’s a great way to flirt with Charlotte.”

“Try it again. Less squinting this time. You want to still be able to look her in the eyes.”

He did as she said and this time, he pulled it off perfectly. Jules couldn’t help but stare back into his beautiful, piercing eyes.

“So, how was it?” he asked, the question breaking her trance.

“Oh, right. Um. It was great. A+ work there. The perfect Flynn Rider smolder,” she rambled while wringing her hands.

“Do you think I need to practice it again?”

“No!” She responded too quickly. “No,” she said more quietly. “I think you have it down now. Just think of MEEP every time and you’ll be fine. Mouth. Eyebrows. Eyes. Posture.” She grabbed her bottle of water. “Let’s discuss some other flirting techniques now.”

While Barrett took some notes, Jules took the opportunity to take a long sip of water to cool herself off.It’s not the room that’s making me warm.It had seemed like a smart idea to go over flirting techniques. But now that he was using them on her, alarm bells were ringing inside.

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