Page 109 of Rivals

Nina choked out a laugh, amused in spite of herself by his outrageous vanity. “How courageous of you.”

“I’m the very soul of valor,” he agreed cheerfully. “You should see my collection of medals and awards. Now, shall we dance?”

When Nina still hesitated, he lowered his hand slowly. “My mistake. You have a boyfriend.”

She felt color rising to her cheeks. “It’s not—”

“Nina?”

Jefferson crossed the terrace toward them, his expression darkening as he took in her companion. “Jamie,” he added stiffly.

Jamie?He must be James, the Canadian prince who was always in the headlines for some misadventure or another.

Jamie glanced from Nina to Jeff and back again, a knowing glint in his blue eyes. “Ah. I see,” he murmured, so softly that only Nina could hear.

“It’s not like that!” she hissed, flustered. The last thing she needed was for some foreign prince to rekindle the gossip about her and Jeff.

“Not like what?” Jeff came to stand next to her. “What are you two talking about?”

“Nothing,” Nina said helplessly, but neither young man was listening. They stared at each other: Jeff’s face impassive, Jamie’s alight with impish glee. A strange tension crackled in the air between them.

Then Jamie took a step back, his smile fading. “Nina, it was a delight to meet you. Jeff…” He hesitated, clearly uncertain what to say, then shrugged and left without saying anything.

When he’d gone, Jeff turned to Nina with an unreadable expression. “What were you doing with Prince Jamie?”

“He just came over and asked me to dance! I have no idea why,” Nina insisted, unsure why she was explaining herself.

“He asked you to dance because he’s Jamie, and because you look beautiful,” Jeff said gruffly.

Standing here with Jeff in the moonlight, Ninafeltbeautiful. Her dress was perfect for this occasion, classic and sophisticated with its stitched rosettes and scoop neckline. The embroidery had an ethereal shimmer, distracting from the fact that Nina, unlike most people here, wasn’t wearing a tiara, or really any jewelry to speak of. A simple pair of pearl studs gleamed in her ears—they belonged to her mamá, who’d bought them for work meetings because she insisted that they matched everything.

Their gazes met, and the look in Jeff’s eyes filled Nina with a sudden liquid heat.

It was so hard, in this moment, to maintain the fiction that they were just friends.

You didn’t daydream about running your hands over your friend’s chest, tangling your hands in the back of his hair, and tipping his face down to yours. You didn’t get so nervous about talking to a friend that your chest fluttered.

Nina took an abrupt step back, scanning the crowds for Daphne, or Sam and Marshall. She would even welcome an interruption fromGabriellaright now, if it kept things safely platonic between her and Jeff.

“Should we walk in the gardens?” Jeff asked, jarring Nina from her thoughts.

She longed to say yes. But then she thought of Daphne—bulldozing her way through the racks of the vintage store,standing before Nina like a human shield when Gabriella confronted them, looking vulnerable and lonely over a plate of tacos. Daphne, who was prickly and proud, who wouldn’t hesitate to go to war for the things she cared about.

Nina couldn’t walk off into the dark with Daphne’s boyfriend. Not after what had happened the last time they were alone.

Some part of her registered how completely the world had upended, that she was turning away from Jeff to protectDaphne’sfeelings, but what had her mamá said? The world was funny like that.

“I should really get back to the party.”

“Nina…” Jeff sounded hoarse; he swallowed. “Please, just for a minute. Just to talk.”

Just to talk.It was as close to an acknowledgment of that night on the couch as either of them could afford to make. Anything more would be a confession of guilt.

Nina couldn’t bring herself to walk away from Jeff, not when he looked at her like that.

“Just for a minute,” she conceded.

Jeff led her down the steps and onto one of the side paths—the ones wreathed in shadows, which Nina had just been thinking were probably full of couples taking advantage of the darkness.