Acting Royal #Wattys2017

Chapter 9a

JENNY

Jenny put her hands on her hips defiantly, trying to portray a blasé, nonchalant attitude. She was sure she was failing. Because the mere suggestion of being inside that bath with him was caused something to sizzle and course through her veins.

"Okay, you're on." She sat down on the edge of the bed and steeled herself. She was confident he would fail. They came from such different worlds, that they might as well breathe different air. Yes, he was definitely going to fail. But a part of her wished he didn't.

Zayn smiled and eyed her with the intensity of a scientist gazing through a microscope at some barely visible particle. It made her feel uncomfortable and she wriggled under the intensity of his gaze. His gaze slid down her face to her arms and then her hands and seemed to travel down her legs and stop at her feet. She wiggled her toes in response.

"Okay. I know you came from a small town, so I bet you're close with your family. You had a happy childhood."

"Oh please! That's Psych 101". Jenny exclaimed.

"Wait, give me a chance. I'm just warming up." The prince returned his gaze to her. The fire in his eyes made her body react physically to him. It was a strange mix of prickling nerve endings and other sensations that she could barely name.

"You've never been in a serious relationship before? Or maybe you have, but it went badly. Since then, you haven't been in many relationships at all. Am I warm?"

"What?" How did he know that? Jenny felt a pang in her chest. He'd hit the nail dead center on the head. Her face flushed red and her heart started to pound.

"I don't quite know why yet – maybe you can tell me one day – but you're very insecure about the way you look...which, by the way, you shouldn't be. At all. "

He smiled and Jenny averted her eyes and fiddled with the hem of her dress anxiously. She could not believe he was so perceptive. How was this even happening? How could someone like him know anything about her? She could see he was eyeing her hem and she pulled it down, covering her knees with her dress.

"You also hide your sexuality behind this good girl façade of frumpy dresses and messy hair. It's like you've lost touch with that side of yourself somewhere along the way." He continued and the redness in her cheeks started to burn. "But there is so much more to you."

"And what makes you think that, Sherlock?" She said sarcastically, hoping to not let him know how accurate he was.

"It's in the way you dress, the way you carry yourself, the way you're fidgeting with your dress right now. And when I tell you how beautiful you are, you look painfully uncomfortable."

She cleared her throat and looked up briefly. He was looking at her through a curtain of thick black lashes, his hair was damp and slightly wavy, and the oil in the bath has caused his chest to glisten in the candlelight. God, he looked so good. But not just sexy, there was something else about him now. He had a smile on his face that was almost friendly and reassuring.

"I was hurt once. Very badly." She said. But as soon as the words were out of her mouth, Jenny regretted saying them. She'd never told anyone this before, and wasn't sure why she was considering telling him- this naked stranger in a bath.

ZAYN

Zayn felt his heart break a little when he noticed the intensity of the pain that flashed through those beautiful blue eyes of hers. He had no idea why, but he felt such a need to protect and defend her right now.

"What happened?" he asked.

She paused and for a moment it looked like she wasn't going to tell him, but then she did. "He was one of my best friends growing up. His name was Anton. We were inseparable and did everything together. But I'd been in love with him for years and when he told me he loved me too... it was like this childhood dream coming true. He was the hot, popular guy at school. I was the chubby redhead with freckles and big glasses, who wasn't good at sport and liked doing her homework. We dated for quite a while actually, and I'd never been happier. I thought I was the luckiest girl in the world that a guy like him would go out with a girl like me." She stopped talking and looked down. "How stupid, right?"

"Doesn't sound stupid to me." He said.

"But then one day, it felt like it came out of the blue, he told me he was in love with someone else and that he'd been seeing her behind my back for a long time. He claimed they'd never had sex, but I didn't believe him. And just like that, my entire world crumbled. The girl..." She paused. A long and painful pause followed by a sigh that was steeped in so much sadness. "The girl in question was my best friend, Emma. Behind my back, for months." He voice quivered as if she was desperately trying to control her emotions and reign them in.

"She was my best friend, since childhood. We probably wouldn't have become friends if we hadn't lived in such a small town. She was, is, beautiful. Perfect. And she was always better than me at everything. Even though we were friends, sometimes I was jealous of her. Things just seemed to come easier to her, I don't know how to explain it...I guess, a part of me always felt inferior to her." Her eyes glinted as tears welled up in them. She shook her head, as if she was trying to shake off the emotion. "They both just betrayed me. As if I meant nothing to any of them. " Her hands squeezed the hem of her dress again and Zayn could see she was struggling to tell him this. "I had to get away from them and everyone in the town. A small town has no secrets, you know. So I moved to Cape Town to become an actress. But that hasn't really worked out either." Jenny tried to smile, "So there you have it, my sad, pathetic story."

Zayn felt genuinely moved by her story, but he felt angry too. How could someone use her like that? He was aware of the hypocrisy of that statement, as this had been his modus operandi more times than he could remember, but not with Jenny. She was special, she deserved so much more.

"I'm so sorry." He said.

Jenny looked up at him briefly and gave him a faint, brave smile. He wanted to reach over and grab her. To pull her into the bath and hold her. It was all so illogical and unlike him to be thinking like this.

"You didn't deserve that."

"It was my fault, I was stupid to think a guy like that could ever.... ever...." she stopped talking and once again her pause was so saturated in emotion. She took a deep breath. "How could a guy like that ever love me?"

Zayn's heart broke. "He was the stupid one, Jenny."

Jenny's head flicked up and she looked at him again, this time with something that resembled suspicion, "What are you doing here? Why are you being so nice? You don't even know me!"

"Haven't I just proved that I know you better than you think?''

"Because you know so much about women?" Her words had a bite to them and there was something very accusatory in her tone.

An awkward silence descended on them both. Zayn knew there was nothing he could say in his defense, he did know a lot about women, because he'd known a lot of women- but this was the first time in his life he felt ashamed of it. Ashamed of all the nameless faces and bodies that had moved through his bed over the years and all the hearts he'd broken along the way- just like the guy who'd broken hers.

"Anyway, I shouldn't have told you all that. I don't know why I did. Just forget it, okay? It was stupid."

"Okay," he agreed, "so what should we talk about?"

Jenny shrugged.

"What do you do for fun, then?" he asked, happy to change the subject.

Jenny rolled her eyes at him, "What's that?" she asked sarcastically. "I am unaware of that thing you speak of, what did you call it.... Fun?" She smiled at him again. God, that smile! That smile could make him forget who he was and make him want to be a different man. "I don't have time for fun. All I do is try and book jobs, try and get enough money to pay the rent, pay the electricity bills and the phone bills, or get enough money to buy myself a pair of socks without holes in."

Zayn laughed, yes, she was definitely unique. Unlike any women he'd ever met.

"Maybe it's time to have a bit of fun then," he said.

Jenny nodded, "Probably.

"Then join me." He stood up in the bath and extended his hand to her