Theo wasn’t sure where the rest of his afternoon or evening went.

Once he’d had a shower and got himself warmed up again, he had tried to work. But he kept finding himself starting into space, coming back to his senses with a jolt and then trying once again to focus on his many, many jobs.

The flowers still needed to be finalised. There were two ice sculptors he was struggling to choose between. And he was in negotiations with one of the park operators in London to loan them a fleet of a dozen rowboats to ferry the guests to the front entrance, rather than making them walk the hundred feet from the gates. But every time Theo thought about rowboats, his devious brain went right back to James and their lunch together.

The trouble was Theo had too many thoughts on too many subjects, all competing for space in his head alongside work issues. Each time he zoned out, he found himself reliving the story he had told to James about his family. It pained him to think of that time and his shitty stepfamily. But James had reacted with such compassion.

Then Theo would think of the way James laughed when he relaxed. Or the way he’d let his Champagne saucer dangle so delicately between his strong fingers. Or how he’d carefully handed his phone back to him. Not to mention the fact they’d gone on an extremely romantic picnic.

Theo knew he’d almost kissed James. The moment had been so charged Theo’s heart sped up just thinking about it now. What terrified him was he was certain James had equally almost kissed him back. What would have happened if Theo hadn’t pulled away?

Thank goodness he had. It was a stupid, stupid, stupid idea to even consider kissing him. Even if James was gay or bi or whatever, it was blindingly obvious it wasn’t an option open to him. Even mere mortals like Theo still got shit for being unnatural. The world wasn’t ready for a queer prince.

Except Theo’s traitorous brain kept telling him that someone had to be the one do it first. Some country had to have a close member of their Royal Family come out. And England had possibly the most famous and illustrious royal family of them all. How incredible would it be for James to be the trailblazer?

It was a lot to ask. And even if he did, it wouldn’t be with Theo. Theo reminded himself of that every time he yanked himself back out of a reverie. He could daydream all he liked, but there had to be a logical explanation behind that almost-kiss. One where James did not fancy Theo. Because that was utter lunacy.

Theo lived on a council estate. Welfare housing. He’d seen plenty of headlines where the tabloids had lost their minds because Prince Alexander and Princess Olivia’s other halves were ‘commoners’. Theo could only dream about being as common as Laura Henstridge and Joseph Briggs. They were fucking minted. Private educations and massive family homes. Laura’s dad was an ambassador to some country in Asia.

Who was Theo?

There was no sense even drifting anywhere near these fantasies he was having about James, because there was no reality where someone like him got with a prince.

Maybe just for a night?

Theo shooed the thought away like a fly. James wasn’t like that. He wouldn’t be interested in casual sex like Theo, he could see it in his eyes. James was the kind of man who fell in love.

Theo was not.

He sighed and threw his pen down. The last few pages were just full of stupid doodles of boats and swans and crowns. He was losing his mind.

He was shocked to realise night had fallen around him. He’d closed all his windows because of the rain, then pulled the curtains and lit several lamps. But that meant he’d worked (or not worked) until almost midnight without noticing. His stomach rumbled. It had been a long time since lunch and half of that had been Champagne. He needed food.

He felt a bit self-conscious venturing out of his room in his Shrek slippers. But as his beloved Converse were now in the bin, it was slippers or dress shoes. Theo figured the dress shoes would actually look more ridiculous with jeans, so he stuck with Shrek. Hopefully no one else would be up at this time of night anyway.

That was another thing he mulled over as he quietly made his way through the sleeping castle. Not only had he offered in the first place, but James had looked so happy when Theo had agreed to allow James to buy him new trainers. Like he really got so much joy from doing something nice for Theo. It made him feel strange and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. Yes, James had a mind-boggling amount of money. Seventy quid on a pair of Converse was nothing to him. But it was like he knew how much it would mean to Theo and he got a kick from seeing him happy.

Could that honestly be right? Did Theo’s happiness really mean that much to James?

That was straying dangerously close again to fantasising about James and him having any kind of future. He needed to stop, but he couldn’t. Because the next helpful thought that popped into Theo’s mind was what if James wasn’t a prince?

Theo stopped in his tracks in the deserted hall as he considered several different scenarios at once.

What if James was just some bloke he’d met down Fix or the Rose and Crown? What if they’d had a Grindr date? Or been on an 18-30s holiday together? Would Theo be so adamant there was nothing that could possibly happen between them then?

Or would James already be charming him into bed?

Fuck. The things Theo could do with a man like that between the sheets. He could already tell it would be spectacular.

But James wasn’t James Evans or James Jones or James Williams. He wasn’t a regular guy off the street. He was Prince James of England, sixth in line to the throne.

Theo needed to shut down this line of thinking. He made a deal with himself that if he needed to when he went back to his room, he could try and wank the entire business out of his system. A good orgasm might just do the trick to shock him back to his senses.

But for now, all he was going to think about was food. That was all.

So it was a good thing when he walked into the castle kitchen, James was the only one in the whole place. It was like he was waiting for Theo or something.

Theo did his best not to swear under his breath. But it was difficult when James looked over his shoulder and broke into a beautiful smile at the sight of him.

“Hi,” he said quietly, his voice carrying over the three island counters where the kitchen staff usually worked. It was completely different to all the other times Theo had popped in to work with Peggy or get a sandwich from her. James looked down at Theo’s feet as he walked over and grinned. “Excellent slippers. What are you doing here?”

James was wearing what looked like pyjama bottoms and a plain white T-shirt that clung criminally to his sculpted body. His hair was freshly washed, or so Theo would guess from the angles it was standing up at. He was by the workspace adjacent to one of the hobs where a medium-sized frying pan was sitting waiting to be used. From where he was standing, Theo thought James was preparing ingredients on the counter.

Despite the turmoil in his mind, Theo wasn’t about to go back to being nervous. He felt like he and James knew each other much more after their lunch. So he rallied his courage, smiled and approached James on the other side of the kitchen. Flames were burning low in the fireplace as he passed, keeping the chill from the room.

“I forgot to eat,” he said sheepishly, hoping James wouldn’t ask why. “I thought I’d grab some toast. You?”

“I went for a run,” James said, nodding to himself as he cracked an egg into a jug that already looked to contain several. “Lost track of time, so by the time I showered, it was already late. I was just making an omelette, if you’d like to share?”

Butterflies fluttered quite unnecessarily in Theo’s stomach. James was just being practical. He looked to have enough ingredients already prepared to feed a whole battalion. “Um, sure,” Theo said. “Thank you very much.”

Something headbutted him.

Theo looked down to see the Yorkie with the blue collar. “Hey,” he said fondly, leaning down to rub his back. “Blenheim, right?”

James glanced at the dog, then beamed at Theo. “You remembered,” he said, clearly pleased.

Theo tried to act like that didn’t make him feel chuffed. Damn. How long was he going to pretend that he didn’t fancy the pants off this man? It had been easier when Theo had been back home and James was ignoring him. But now he was in front of his face, smiling and being kind, and Theo’s heart was apparently helpless to resist.

But he had to.

“Is he hungry?” he asked James instead, still petting the dog.

James snorted. “When is that dog not hungry? I keep telling Grandma he’s too fat, but she won’t listen.” Theo couldn’t help the snicker that escaped his mouth. “What?” James said, throwing a smile over his shoulder as he grated cheese.

“Nothing,” Theo said. Except…he wanted to share a laugh with James. “It just tickles me to hear you call the actual queen ‘Grandma’. Like, I know she is your grandma, it just seems so strange. But the idea of you telling her off about her fat dog is even funnier. It’s just so normal.”

James’s smile grew warmer. “We are just normal people, you know,” he said. “We have hopes and fears and silly little quirks, just anyone else.”

Theo scoffed and came to stand beside him at the counter. “I don’t know. I’ve met some boring bastards in my life. I bet you’re way more interesting than half the people I went to school with.”

James laughed loudly, then looked around guiltily, like he expected someone to jump out and scold him.

“So is this place like one of your homes?” Theo asked before he could stop himself. After their chat that afternoon he couldn’t help it, though, he wanted to know more about James.

The prince nodded. “This was my favourite growing up. Here and Balmoral. I always liked getting away from everyone and everything, into the countryside.”

“I can imagine,” Theo murmured.

Their eyes met. Theo felt that heat in the air again.

He shifted away, cleared his throat and smiled. “I never really got much choice to enjoy the peace and quiet,” he admitted. “Even before I was living there I was always hopping on the bus to visit Nan’s. The estate is very close-knit, there’s always kids to play with or people needing a hand with something or whatnot. Even in the back garden in summer you’d have people sticking their heads over the fences to gossip.”

“And when you lived with your stepfamily?” James asked. Then he looked up and shook his head. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that. It’s only…well, I very much hope you don’t mind me saying, but the idea of anyone being cruel to a child makes me extremely angry. Let alone you. You’re, uh, so kind…”

He seemed to think he’d said too much as his face went pink and he busied himself lighting the gas hob.

Theo was touched, though. Nan had said countless times how useless and good for nothing Jacob and his boys were. Sal had offered to point trick-or-treaters in the direction of their house armed with rotten pumpkins several years in a row. Theo wasn’t entirely convinced she’d never followed through.

But to hear that James was so angry about it when he’d only known Theo a week was undeniably touching. God damnit. He could at least try to make it harder for Theo to fancy him.

“You’re all right,” Theo said. “It’s nice, actually. Hearing someone get mad at them. I…I guess I try not to think about that time in my life.”

“I won’t ask about it again,” James said softly, his eyes on the pan as he added some oil. He almost immediately added half the whisked eggs.

“Hang on,” Theo said, jumping to attention. “What are you doing? The oil’s not hot enough yet.”

James chuckled. “Are you going to backseat drive our dinner?”

“That’s not dinner, that’s a catastrophe,” Theo spluttered as James haphazardly threw in some onions. “Oh my days, I can’t watch.”

James was really laughing now. Blenheim danced around their feet, snuffling around for any dropped ingredients.

“I’ll tell you what, Mr Smarty-pants,” James said with a raised eyebrow, dropping a handful of ham in the rough direction of his eggs. “Why don’t you make your omelette your way, and then we’ll try each other’s and see whose is best.”

“Oh, you’re on,” Theo said. “Where’s another pan? You’re going to lose so badly.”

In no time at all, Theo had a flame under his pan with the rest of the eggs becoming nicely golden. He ran a neat line of chopped red pepper down the middle, followed by ham, spinach and then a sprinkling all over of grated mature cheddar. He carefully folded one side of the omelette over, then the other.

James’s pan looked more like scrambled eggs. Like his ingredients had lost an argument with a blender. There were also several spice jars open by his side of the counter and the skin and stone of an avocado.

“Yours looks like a disaster movie,” Theo teased with a grin as he plated his offering up.

“Yours looks like it needs to unbunch its knickers,” James shot back playfully, holding out a knife and fork for Theo to take. “Come on, then. Time to put your money where your mouth is.”

“I’m so winning,” Theo said confidently as they sat at the nearest stainless-steel prep counter. Blenheim danced around their feet, his face upturned and hopeful. Theo dropped a bit of ham which he gobbled up in a second. “See, Blenheim thinks mine is good. What does the winner get anyway?”

James gave him a funny look. “Winner picks what we do for dinner tomorrow.”

Theo tried very hard not to get excited by that. Because no matter what his heart tried to tell him, his brain knew that wasn’t an invitation to a date.

Except it seemed neither his brain nor his heart were a match for his cock, which was apparently running this show now and decided, despite his previous convictions, that a bit of flirting was in order. Theo had cut the nearest edge of his omelette into several squares, determined to find the best cross section of ingredients for his taste test. Yet when he got the perfect forkful, he didn’t try it.

He offered it out to James with an arched eyebrow, daring him to eat it.

Logically, Theo expected him to take the fork. But James leaned down and wrapped his plump lips around the prongs, using his mouth and tongue to suck the food right from Theo’s grasp. His brain almost short-circuited. He really hadn’t thought that one through.

“Very good,” James said once he’d swallowed. “I like it. Okay, my turn.”

He dove in for a random forkful of the mess he’d made of his plate. Like Theo, he held it out for Theo to do with as he wished. Theo wasn’t going to be outdone, that was for sure. So he shifted in his seat and leaned in, fluttering his eyes closed as he touched his tongue to the first sample of eggs, then slid the rest of the mouthful from the fork.

And then he tasted the food and forgot all about being sexy.

“Fucking hell,” he cried, covering his mouth. He knew his eyes had gone wide as he stared at James, then the carnage on his plate, then back at him. “Oh my days, that’s delicious.” He quickly chewed and swallowed so he could pick up his own fork and dive into James’s omelette again. “Holy crap. Okay, you win. I forfeit. Blenheim, here boy, try some of this.”

“You haven’t even tried your own yet,” James protested as he laughed.

Theo shook his head. “Don’t need to. This is epic. Where’d you learn how to do this?”

“I’ll tell you over dinner tomorrow night.” Theo looked up to see James’s bashful expression.

Theo swallowed, the butterflies back in his belly. That really did sound like a date. But not if Theo didn’t say it out loud. That way, he could at least try and keep pretending there was nothing to worry about here. That James wasn’t a very dangerous prospect indeed.

“Sure,” Theo said. A deal was a deal, after all. “You let me know what you want to do.” He poked at the plate. “Come on. Otherwise, I’ll eat it all and you’ll have to fight Blenheim for my basic bitch eggs instead.”

James laughed again. Theo loved being the one to make him do it.

He guessed there was no going back now.