Page 12 of Some Like It Royal

It wasn’t that he was bad company. Far from it, actually. She just wasn’t used to someone being cheerful in the a.m. She could care for a little less morning time, perhaps postponing it until after twelve.

He handed her the cup with a bemused look. “Maybe you should go to bed earlier.”

Alyx was almost too tired to glare, but she tried, delivering it over the rim of the coffee cup. “I was only up late because you wanted me to memorize the family tree and then we had to watch those two documentaries about the Czar’s descendants.”

She would never admit to a certain amount of fascination, particularly on the pieces that referenced her grandfather. Nor would she engage him in another debate about whether the man her father called dad and the grand duchess’s grandson were one and the same.

Daniel remained convinced—she had her doubts.

Better to let that argument lie.

“Okay. Well, drink your coffee and then take a shower and drink more coffee. Victor will be here this afternoon to have lunch with us and do the initial assessment of our coupledom.”

Alyx sighed.There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Time to earn my paycheck.

She walked away from him, coffee cup in hand, to look out the window. The garden formed a geometric pattern of colors. Landscaped around a koi pond, roses flourished, daisies occupied a section and row upon row of morning glories and impatiens formed the colorful border. The whole of it was surrounded by a white stone wall that matched the white stone brick of the house and profusions of white jasmine spilling down its sides.

But the best part was also the most solitary. A white-roofed gazebo set off in the corner offered sanctuary with a splash of vivid color with its blue-painted wood. A table and chairs sat beneath on the pavestones that made up its floor, but it remained lonely with no flowers or growth attached to it.

Maybe that was why she liked it.

“Alyx?”

“Do you ever go out there?” She glanced over her shoulder. Daniel studied something on his digital tablet.

“Where?”

“Out there, in the garden.” She jerked a thumb toward the window. “Do you ever go out there?”

Daniel crossed the room and glanced outside, distraction evident in every gesture. “Not often. We held a launch party for some investors there last year. By the way, Victor wants us to make a list of what we’d find the most uncomfortable to do. I started one, I thought we could go over it at breakfast and put our thoughts together.”

“Not using an exquisite place like that makes me uncomfortable,” she murmured, looking back at the garden. Maybe she could get out there and walk around before their “instructor” arrived.

“What?”

She gave him a half smile. “Nothing. I’ll be down for breakfast in a few minutes.” He needed to leave before she could shower.

“Okay.” He picked up his coffee cup and paused in the open door. “Do you want to sleep in here or my room tonight?”

She choked on the hot brew and coughed violently as it burned her windpipe. Her eyes watered as she met his concerned expression. “Why the hell would I sleep in your room?”

“My staff will be here in the morning. Theresa arrives at 6 a.m. She’ll definitely notice if we’re not sleeping together.” The sanguine delivery did not ease the shock of his statement.

“We have a no-sex clause. Are you forgetting that?”

Amusement settled across his face and he leaned on the doorjamb. “Hence the use of the word ‘sleep.’ The beds are more than large enough for us to share and not touch. But she’ll notice and remember. You agreed to perform twenty-four, seven. Theresa only comes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I gave her a couple of days off to get you settled, but she’s here tomorrow. Those nights, we have to sleep together. The rest of the week you can sleep in here.”

He was serious.

“Why can’t we just get up and slip into the other room via the deck upstairs?” It seemed a little clandestine to plot “waking up” together, but that would be preferable to actually sharing a bed.

“She’s going to come in and clean your room. It’s part of her job. She’ll notice the bed’s been slept in. Don’t worry, Alyx.” The slow grin spreading across his lips had a decidedly unsettling effect on her equilibrium. “I won’t bite. See you downstairs in ten. We have a lot to do.”

“Thirty,” she called after him belatedly, but the door already shut. She stared at her rumpled bed. She could sleep in the car on those nights or…

Her shoulders relaxed. Okay, she could sleep on the floor in his room or the sofa. If his room was anything like hers, it would have plenty of space. Her heart knocked against her ribs and she drained the coffee. If he kept dropping these surprises on her, she would need to add some vodka to the coffee to keep up.

Shower first.

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