Page 49 of Finding Lord Landry

“Uh, yes. Definitely. Always,” I said, meaning it.

Kenji inhaled sharply. “You see, the wedding was an impromptu affair, and I haven’t had a chance to tell my… my grandmother. But now, the cat’s out of the bag. I’ll call her after our meeting.”

Jim’s smile faded. “When exactly did you?—”

My brain finally kicked into gear. Ididwant to protect Kenji, even if I had no idea what he was trying to accomplish at the moment.

“None of that is important right now,” I told Jim firmly. “What’s important is planning out our appearances for Winthrop & Meyers so Kenji and I can get back to the States as soon as possible.”

Jim frowned. “I thought you hoped to take your father’s place in Parliament. Teddy seemed impressed by your resourcefulness regarding the hostage situation when I spoke to him this morning. He said something about bringing that energy to the Lords.”

The sparkles returned to the edges of my vision, only this time, they were accompanied by an anvil in my stomach. “That remains to be seen?—”

My father’s voice rang out behind me. “Jim Winthrop? What are you doing here?”

Kenji’s hand tightened around mine as I nearly lost my shit completely. I stood up, releasing Kenji’s hand before it could cause my father further confusion. “Dad. I wanted to thank Jim for his help getting Kenji back from San Cordova.”

“Oh. Kind of you, Winthrop.” Dad walked further into the room and held his hand out to shake Jim’s. I held my breath and hoped he wouldn’t say anything to reveal his fragile grasp on the present.

In the end, of course, Kenji saved the day. He stepped forward with a warm smile as my father finished greeting Jim and Jamie. “Ed, I’m sorry to be rude to the Winthrops, but would you mind showing me that portrait of Lady Davencourt you told me about this morning? I’m desperate to see it so I can tell my grandmother about it when I call her.”

He gracefully distracted my father from any confusion he may have had about being ushered out of the room. Once they were gone, Jim looked back at me, his head tilted in confusion. “Why did Kenji rush your father out of the room?”

I froze for a minute before remembering that I had, in fact, had many, many sessions of media and PR training, not only in my job as a model but as the son of a British peer.

I lifted an eyebrow at him and grinned. “I believe he’s trying to protect me from the earl’s wrath if my father learns I’ve made a deal with the devil.”

The three of us sat back down. Jim chuckled. “Fair enough, I guess. Although he’ll see the media coverage of the two of you with Jamie at these events.”

I nodded. “At that point, I can explain we’ve mended bridges after San Cordova, maybe even as a result of today’s meeting. Now. What events did you have in mind?”

Once they were finally gone, I made my way to Nan’s office to discover her conference table full of people working on laptops and tablets. My mood was at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and I anticipated it going even lower once Kenji got a hold of me.

“Oh good,” Cora said, spotting me from across the room. “The happy husband is here.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “About that?—”

“Yes,” she said with obscenely wide eyes. “We were just discussing with the PR team how to announce your nuptials with theleast amount of personal details possible.”

Her eyes frantically flicked to one side, trying to send me a message I was struggling to interpret. I followed her twitch to see a familiar messy bun in one of the seats. Kenji had removed his sweater and rolled up his sleeves. His hair was mostly off his face with only a few wispy strands escaping the hairband, and a laptop lay open in front of him. Discarded Apple Store packaging lay to one side.

“You found the computer,” I said, meeting his eyes.

“Yes. Thank you. Uh, darling.” He winced as the word clanged awkwardly around the room. “I explained to the team that we needed to wait for you before continuing to strategize because I wasn’t sure what you wanted me to tell everyone about the question of you… uh… running for…” He glanced at Cora. “Or, er… being selected for…” He closed his eyes and seemed to take a moment to come up with the word “Parliament.”

“I’m not ready to address that,” I said quickly. “That’s not on the table.”

His eyes met mine. “Are you running or not? A PR campaign works better when all the cards are on the table.”

I walked up to him and reached out a finger to brush an errant strand of hair behind his ear. His eyelashes fluttered.

I suddenly had a ridiculous idea. If everyone in this room thought we were actual newlyweds, we needed to act like it.

He smelled like the fancy toiletries in our guest bathrooms as I leaned in and ran my nose across his cheek. “Are we puttingallthe cards on the table,” I murmured into his ear. “Husband?”

And then I kissed him on the mouth. Soft and sweet at first but then firmly enough to assert a microscopic amount of control back into the situation.

A puff of air came out of his nose as he surrendered to the kiss. As soon as he did, I pulled away quickly.

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