Chapter 358

Nicholas stood still for a long moment. Long enough for me to cough politely and then step backwards, out of Julian’s arms. Julian, noticing my distraction, followed the length of my gaze to Nicholas.

Julian stepped away from me and moved out to the center of the deck. Nicholas walked further away from the door, coming to stand a few feet in front of Julian.

They were squared off like this, both standing at their full heights, their arms hanging at their sides.

The tension in the air was palpable. I could have cut it with a knife, I was certain.

I waited for the growling to start, or for them to start shifting into a fighting posture. I tensed my entire body up like a coiled spring, ready to jump forward at any moment and separate them. I didn’t care that they were two Alphas. I knew neither one of them would hurt me.

Yet the growling never began. They postured, but not enough that seemed physically threatening, like one of them might through a punch.

Instead, Julian just sighed. His shoulders slouched. He’d given up the fight before it ever began.

Nicholas watched him with confusion.

I wasn’t confused though. Julian knew I loved Nicholas, and this was his way of respecting that choice. His Alpha instincts and his heart might have made him want to fight for me. But his head and his friendship to me told him that would no way to keep me in his life.

Julian nonchalantly walked toward Nicholas, then angled to move around him. He patted Nicholas on the shoulder as he walked by.

Not a single word was spoken as Julian disappeared into the house.

With Julian gone, Nicholas looked to me. He wanted answers, no doubt, and correctly suspected I had the answers to them. And as much as I wanted to trust Nicholas with all the secrets I knew, this one, I felt, wasn’t mine to share.

Julian was my friend, and we had agreed to ignore his feelings for me. Bringing Nicholas into it would only incite a pointless fight or worse. Since Julian’s crush on me wasn’t going to change any of our relationships to each other, it was not worth it to create needless drama.

But Nicholas was waiting for some kind of explanation. I couldn’t really play dumb here. Obviously I had sought Julian out and we had been talking. I also didn’t want to lie to Nicholas.

So I said, “Julian and Bridget had an argument this morning.”

The confusion cleared from Nicholas’s face. “Ah,” he said.

He walked closer to me. He didn’t touch me, but I could still feel the heat radiating from his body. I leaned into it, into him. If our arms brushed a few times, we could always pretend it was accidental. No one would know.

Nicholas didn’t ask for more details. Instead he said, “I was just speaking with Nathan. Because of what’s going on, we’ve decided to cut the trip short.”

“How short?” I asked.

“We will all leave tomorrow at midday, and return to the palace.”

I wasn’t surprised with this decision. With everything that’s happened, I was more surprised this decision hadn’t been made sooner. I supposed the television producer had hoped for more steamy and thrilling footage. Well, they sure got the thrilling part of it – at my expense.

Yet, I couldn’t deny that I was a bit sad to leave the island as well, despite all the hardships here. For all the bad things that happened, many good things occurred as well.

Elva seeing the water for the first time and even making sandcastles, seeing the merfolk palace and breathing underwater, making love to Nicholas for the first time.

They were memories that I would hold near and dear to my heart. Though, ultimately, yes, I was ready to go home. I yearned for the relative safety of the palace. I also missed Susie and Mark, as well as many of the other staff. I hoped Charlotte was okay as well.

Hopefully Lilliana and Olivia hadn’t caused too much trouble in our absence. Although, most likely, they were just bored without Nicholas there to try to pursue. They likely had been spending their time attempting to win over the King and Queen instead.

They had to know that was a fruitless endeavor though. The King and Queen had picked Bridget as their winner.

Yet, maybe with her recent actions, that might be starting to change.

Unlikely, I supposed. But one could hope.

“We should do something… private… before we leave,” Nicholas said. He kept his voice low. Deep and sexy, just how I liked it. The promise of it sent a pleasant shiver up my spine.

“What did you have in mind?” I asked.

The edge of his mouth curled upright just a little. “Before we fully turn in tonight, we should meet in my room first. Just you and me.”

Oh, I liked the sound of this. I lowered my head slightly, so that I could look up at him through my eyelashes. “And what would happen there?”

Nicholas’s smile grew wider. He lifted his hand and slowly, gently traced his fingertips down my arm from my shoulder all the way to my wrist.

I closed my eyes and sighed. I had no idea how such a slight touch could elicit such desire in me.

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” he said.

I hummed delightedly. Oh, those words were definitely going to keep my mind occupied for the rest of the day, and I was oh so looking forward to that distraction.

It would be difficult to worry about anything when every time I closed my eyes, I envisioned Nicholas surrounding me with his body, filling me with his love.

Those thoughts stayed with me, even as others began to come out onto the deck, and Nicholas and I were forced to step farther apart, lest our secret activities be discovered.

Later, the candidates, princes, Elva, and I were lounging about on the deck. Elva was using crayons on some coloring book pages that Selma had found lying around. Jessica was still reading. Veronica was reading too, her own book from the merfolk.

I wondered if the merfolk oracle would make an appearance. She’d said she would when my heart was clear of fear. Would she still seek me out even if she had to come ashore?

I sighed and forced the thoughts from my mind. The oracle wasn’t Elva’s only hope. Veronica was working hard to see to that.

Julian and Nicholas seemed to have wordlessly resolved their earlier posturing. Now they played a game of chess against each other at one of the tables. From what I could tell, they seemed to be evenly matched.

Even Nathan was attempting to relax for a change. He sat on the top step, looking out at the waves.

Only Bridget seemed to be annoyed. She was two chardonnays in, and stomping around from person to person, asking, “Aren’t you bored?”

Finally she approached Nathan. “We should do something,” she said. “Surely we need a few closing shots of the island and of us. How about a boat ride? That would be a perfect opportunity!”

Nathan looked up at her a moment. I thought he might finally disagree. He had seemed rather comfortable where he was. Instead, he obediently stood. “I’ll gather the film crew and alert the boat captain.” He made his way inside.

Bridget raised her glass to his retreating back. “Thank you, Nathan! Everyone! Get ready! We’re going out into the water!”

As she said it, she turned to look at me.

Out into the water.

Not, out on a boat. Or, taking a boat ride.

Out into the water.

I had a really bad feeling about this.