Twice Upon a Time by Kate Forster Read Free Book Online Page B

her, and she hated him for that. But then, the moment before they fell into the water, with his hand on her waist, she had seen something else flicker in the eyes of the future king. But she couldn’t for the life of her say what it was.

7

    ‘Why are you being so rude to my friends?’ demanded Ludo when he went inside a few minutes later to find his brother.
    It had been a short dip, since Cinda was clearly distracted and upset by the fall with Gus.
    Gus, having changed clothes yet again, sat in the sitting room, looking at his phone. ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ he said, not looking up.
    ‘You can be such a snobbish prick sometimes,’ said Ludo.
    Gus finally looked at his brother. ‘And you can be a dimwitted idiot. Do you think those people actually like you for being you? They’re here to suck money and good times from you, like most of your other “friends”.’
    ‘Fuck you,’ said Ludo, striding out of the room. He was shitty with his brother, and if he was honest with himself it was because a small part of him wondered if what Gus had said was true. Why else would he consistently not tell new friends who he was?
    He paused outside Cinda’s rooms and then knocked. She opened the door wearing a long dress and huge hoop earrings, her hair in two plaits. She looked like a beautiful peasant girl. He was incredibly turned on and wondered if he should kiss her, but she turned before he could reach her.
    ‘I was just coming to check that you’re okay,’ he said. ‘Gus can be unpleasant sometimes.’
    ‘Sometimes?’ she said, raising her eyebrows at him.
    ‘He didn’t used to be like that, not when we were younger,’ he said with a shrug. ‘Power changes people.’
    ‘Hmm,’ said Cinda noncommittally.
    He watched her as she sat down on the floor and looked up at him. He knew she was different; this time he was sure. If only Gus could see what she was really like.
    On the floor surrounding her was a series of charcoal sketches, most of them of nudes. He walked over and looked down at them. ‘These are wonderful,’ he said honestly, picking up a sketch of a male nude and looking at it more closely.
    ‘They’re okay,’ she said, screwing up her face as she stared down at them. ‘I’m not great at bodies yet but I‘m trying. I always get nervous when I work in front of others, so painting subjects ends up being a problem.’
    ‘Who do you use as a model?’ asked Ludo.
    ‘I use myself mostly. Or sometimes Jonas, if I can get him to stay still longer than ten minutes. I have to bribe him with old episodes of Gossip Girl while he poses.’
    Ludo laughed and looked closer at the ones of Cinda. The curve of her waist, the slightly pendulous breasts, the long arch of her neck and the way her legs crossed over her most private part.
    He turned to face her. They were inches away from one another. God he wanted her, but he knew he had to take it slowly. Cinda wasn’t a one off. She was intoxicating – funny, sexy, clever. He wanted to be with her as long as he could.
    ‘Let’s have dinner tonight, just the two of us,’ he said, his fingers playing with one of her plaits.
    He could feel something between them. The tension of unfulfilled desire, perhaps.
    ‘And leave Jonas to be eaten alive by Gus? That hardly seems fair,’ she said with a flirtatious smile.
    He leant over and kissed her.
    Their lips met tentatively at first, and then he felt her mouth open and he slipped his arms around her. She leant into him and he responded in kind by pulling her to him. He was almost on top of her, and the feel of her beneath her thin dress was almost too much. He looked down at her face, flushed, filled with desire and possibilities, and he wondered for a moment if she was the one.
    Just as he was thinking that she pulled away. ‘Hang on. We can’t,’ she said, straining to sit up.
    ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, confused. Was he misreading things? He’d been sure she was totally into