Chapter 161

_Author’s POV_

It started, as most uncomfortable things in Pierre’s life did, with Ezekiel opening his mouth.

They were in Ezekiel’s hotel room, which was somehow already a disaster despite the fact that they had only been here a few days. Clothes were scattered on the chair, the room service trays stacked near the door with three different cologne bottles lined up on the dresser like they were on display.

Pierre sat on the small sofa near the window and watched Ezekiel move around the room restlessly.

“So,” Ezekiel said, dropping onto the bed and folding his arms behind his head. “Are we going to talk about it or are we going to keep pretending it doesn’t exist?”

Pierre looked up from his phone. “Talk about what.”

Ezekiel stared at the ceiling with a small smile. “Pierre.”

“Ezekiel.”

“You’ve been weird since the bar.”

“I haven’t been weird,” Pierre said. “I’ve had a lot on my mind. My step brother turned out to be involved in kidnapping my closest friend. That tends to occupy a person.”

“Yes,” Ezekiel said pleasantly. “And also the other thing.”

Pierre looked back at his phone. “There is no other thing.”

Ezekiel rolled onto his side and propped his head on his hand, looking at Pierre. “You went quiet when Rowena said it,” he said. “In her room, when she said my heart wanted you.” He paused for effect. “You went very, very quiet, Pierre.”

“I always go quiet.”

“Not like that.”

“Ezekiel….”

“Your ears went red.”

Pierre said nothing.

“Both of them,” Ezekiel added helpfully. “Quite red actually. I was going to say something but Kasper was already giving me that look he does and I thought…..”

“Can we not,” Pierre said.

“We really can though,” Ezekiel replied. “We absolutely can and I think we should.” He sat up fully now, cross legged on the bed, which meant he was settling in properly. Pierre recognized the posture, it meant there was no quick exit from this conversation. “Look, I’m not going to make this strange. I’m just going to say the thing that everyone in that room was already thinking.”

“Please don’t.”

“You like me,” Ezekiel said simply.

The room went quiet.

Pierre put his phone down slowly. He looked at the window.

“You’re younger,” Pierre pointed ouy.

“I am,” Ezekiel agreed. “Brilliantly.”

“And I’m older.”

“Yes, I know. You carry it very well, by the way. Very distinguished and very……”

“Ezekiel.”

“I’m just saying age is genuinely not the point here….”

“It’s not about age,” Pierre said, and then stopped, because he hadn’t planned to say that, and now that he had, the rest of it was sitting right behind it waiting to come out whether he wanted it to or not. He pressed his mouth closed.

Ezekiel watched him without saying anything for once, which was somehow worse than when he was talking.

“It’s not about age,” Pierre said again. “It’s about the fact that you’re a prince, and your father is already sending marriage proposals to other women, and I am not the kind of person who—” He stopped again and exhaled. “I don’t do things halfway. That’s the problem. I don’t know how to be casual about things that aren’t casual to me. And you…..” He gestured vaguely at Ezekiel, at the whole of him. “You’re very casual about everything.”

Ezekiel was quiet for a moment.

Then, surprisingly, he didn’t make a joke.

“I sent the proposal to Rowena’s grandmother myself,” he said. “My father didn’t do it. I asked him to.” He tilted his head slightly. “I did it because I was scared and she was missing and it was easier to redirect the feeling toward someone safe.” He paused. “Rowena is safe because she would never actually say yes.”

Pierre looked at him.

“You’re not safe,” Ezekiel said simply. “That’s the difference.”

Something about that landed in a way Pierre wasn’t prepared for. He looked away, back to the window, and there was a long stretch of silence between them that was entirely different from the silence at the beginning of the conversation.

“Your father would never approve,” Pierre said to the window.

“My father approves of whatever makes me functional,” Ezekiel said. “He’s more practical than he looks.”

“You haven’t thought this through.”

“I’ve thought about nothing else for a week now,” Ezekiel said, and his voice was steady and unhurried.

Pierre finally turned to look at him properly.

“A week?” Pierre asked.

“Give or take,” Ezekiel shrugged. “Since that night bar kiss which you thought was wrong but wasn’t……”

“I didn’t think it was wrong…..”

“You were absolutely wrong and I have the evidence to prove it, but that’s beside the point.” The smile was back now, softer than usual. “The point is I went back to my room that night and realized I’d had more fun doing that with you than I’d had doing anything else in recent memory and that seemed like important information.”

Pierre stared at him, he opened his mouth to say something but ended up closing it and looking out the window again.

“Pierre,” Ezekiel called softly.

“I need a minute,” Pierre said.

“Take two,” Ezekiel offered generously.

Pierre stood up and walked to the window and looked out at the view below, which was doing nothing useful. It was just existing, entirely unhelpful. His ears went warm again and he was aware of that, but there was nothing to be done about it.

He heard Ezekiel’s phone buzz on the bed behind him.

Ezekiel picked it up and sighed. “Here comes the drama king.”