A Dove's Tale

Chapter 86

"That sounds awful."

"He's really strict, but Ivetta will be fine. She's better at focusing than I am, and she's a lot smarter, too."

"She's not better at focusing right now. Hello, Ivetta!"

"Sorry," I said, shaking myself out of my reverie. Belle and Theresa were both sitting on my bed, eating honey cake and chatting about whatever came to mind. My mind was wandering.

"Not daydreaming about Chevalier already, are you?" Belle teased. "He only left an hour ago."

"King Chevalier," I corrected her, not bothering to deny her accusation, because that was exactly what I'd been doing. "I can't get used to that."

"You don't have to," Theresa said. "You're a royal now. No more titles."

"Really?"

They erupted in peals of laughter. Both of them were slightly tipsy from indulging with the princes, though they only drank enough to ensure lots of giggling and a permanent pink flush to Belle's cheeks.

"Yes, really," Belle said. "You probably could have stopped using titles a long time ago, as close as you are with all of them."

"Well, Leon made me stop using his title right away, but it just felt wrong. It still feels wrong," I admitted.

"So, do I have to call you Princess Ivetta?" Theresa asked, her green eyes glittering with mischief.

"Don't you dare," I warned her. "Or I'll tell Belle all about how you were ogling Prince Jin earlier."

"Uh, uh, uh. Just Jin," Belle said, waving a finger in my face. "And it can't have been worse than how she ogled him when he was working on that trunk."

"My storage trunk?" I asked, surprised.

Belle nodded. "He likes to work with his hands."

"Ugh, I wish he'd work on me," Theresa groaned.

"Theresa!" I exclaimed. It was hard to tell if she was even less discrete than usual, because she always toed the line, but she was definitely more open about how she felt about Jin than when she was sober.

Belle smirked. "I know you would, hence this story. But what I'm talking about is Jin doing things like carpentry. So, Ivetta, when Chevalier brought your stuff here, Jin jumped at the opportunity to fix that trunk up."

"He did that?" I gasped, looking over at the trunk and its rich, polished wood.

"And in case you didn't know, because I didn't, the first part of refinishing a piece of wood is sanding it down. It's hot, sweaty work. Right, Theresa?" Belle asked suggestively.

"You're not telling this right," Theresa said, shifting in her seat to lean forward conspiratorially. "He was just starting on it before I got shipped across the country to you - which only proves how much I love you, Ivetta, because when I saw him outside sanding that thing down - hoo."

She fanned herself with her hand, her green eyes glazing over. Belle and I exchanged glances and giggled.

"He'd taken his shirt off, and ugh, he's gorgeous. The way the sweat glistened on those rippling muscles-"

"You're drooling," I said.

Her eyes snapped back to me in a sharp glare.

"If you had seen him then, you'd forget all about Chevalier. Not that you've ever seen him shirtless. He's always buttoned up to the top, isn't he?"

"Not always," I replied. As soon as I saw Theresa's eyes widen, I wished I'd kept my mouth shut.

"What does that mean?" Theresa demanded. "Ivetta, have you been holding out on me?"