[color=#b97703]“You don’t have to change your wardrobe on my account,”[/color] Caspian told Iris as nonchalantly as he could. She was right that he was used to seeing ladies in red all the time whenever he showed up to events in the capital, but there was a reason for it. As often as he rolled his eyes at the ridiculous articles the media posted, there was some truth to them on the rare occasion. In the case of what caught his eye at parties, they hadn’t been wrong in their assessment that he was more prone to turn his head if he saw a woman in a burgundy dress. He knew the high borns were usually just trying to win his attention by using every possible resource at their disposal—he recalled that when an article was published stating that he had a thing for blondes, it seemed like every other girl was suddenly bleaching her hair—but he would have been lying if he’d said he was totally immune to everything they did to stand out. He [i]was[/i] attracted to the way red fabric looked against a woman’s curves, so he wouldn’t be disappointed if she ever chose to wear it.

When Iris brought up his father after he was done telling her the story, he grimaced. [color=#b97703]“Yeah, my dad was pissed,”[/color] he confirmed. [color=#b97703]“He forbade me from ever hanging out with Doug and the other two guys again, and I can’t even remember how many lectures I got about keeping up my reputation.”[/color] He shuddered exaggeratedly as he thought about it. His father had always put the crown’s reputation before anything else. It had always been a point of contention between them, he recalled, especially that particular year. That was the same year they had lost his mother. He’d always been vexed with Atlas for not showing him any sympathy when he’d been grieving.

So, when Iris called him a troublemaker, he shook his head amusedly. [color=#b97703]“I can’t deny that I’ve always had trouble with following the rules, but I wasn’t [i]that[/i] bad,”[/color] he defended himself. [color=#b97703]“I don’t know if you put the timeline together on your own or not, but that happened just two months after my mom passed. I think I was just acting out because I didn’t know how to deal with it. Drinking and skinny dipping may have been stupid ideas, but I was still just a stupid kid at the time. It definitely made things worse for me in the short run too.”[/color] After that, he’d shaped up quickly. He had never stopped going out to drink and attending parties, since both distracted him from the other things that caused him stress in his life, but he’d been more careful about it whenever he left the mansion.

When Iris admitted that she actually did remember a story she could tell him, he narrowed his eyes at her with mock accusation, [color=#b97703]“I knew it.”[/color] At her following set of conditions, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her playfully to his side. [color=#b97703]“That’s not fair. You were literally just making fun of me for the embarrassing story I told you. I promise I won’t tell anyone yours, but I reserve the right to tease you about it as much as I want. Now, go ahead and spill it.”[/color]