Page 29 of Royally Wed
No, I have a princess problem.He eyed Willow, who’d begun sniffing his cello case.Also, a corgi problem.
Not to mention the myriad of otherproblems he’d had to face in England, like his newfound stage fright.
And his ex.
And his maestro.
And the odd interaction he’d witnessed between Duke Holden and a woman who was definitely not Amelia.
He had a good number of problems at the moment, but his hearing wasn’t one of them.
“I’m not deaf, just a little baffled.” A lot. He wasa lotbaffled. But he was also intrigued and admittedly,a little aroused.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her as she paced around the room. She was barefoot, dressed in a plain white T-shirt and faded skinny jeans with a hole in the knee. Yet everything about her still screamed royalty, from her perfect posture tothe balletic grace of her movements. There was an elegance about her that fascinated him, so much so that he found himself staring at thetiny patch of exposed flesh through the rip in her jeans.
This is a bad idea.
He couldn’t go sneaking around Buckingham Palace after hours with the very engaged Princess Amelia when he was getting turned on by the mere sight of her kneecap. She’d have to find someone else to take her on an adventure.
Why was she coming to him, anyway? He wasn’t even sure she liked him. Sure, she’d liked kissinghim. There was no mistaking her reaction. She’d enjoyed it quite a bit.
But she still had a way of looking at him like she was a princess and he was a commoner. Probably because that was indeed the truth of the matter.
“There’s a leopard in the palace, and I want to see it before it gets carted off somewhere. How is that confusing?” She stopped pacing and planted herself right in front of him.She looked him straight in the eye, and after a beat her gaze dropped to his tie. As per usual.
It seemed she was always either staring at the knot in his tie or at his bare chest. Up close, Asher got the sense that her whimsical bravado was an act. Maybe it was the way she crossed her arms, like she was trying to hold herself together. Or maybe it was the bubblegum-pink polish on her toes—suchan unexpected glimpse of innocence. Vulnerability. She seemed almost lost, and Asher wondered if the reason she’d chosen him for her nonsensical leopard hunt was because she didn’t have anyone else to ask.
“When you put it that way, I suppose it makes sense.” It didn’t.
“So you’ll come, then?” Her eyes locked with his again, and her grin was so dazzling that it hit Asher right in the centerof his chest.
He cleared his throat. “I will.”
Warning bells were sounding in every corner of his mind, but it was too late. Amelia was already gliding toward the door of his room, moving in that way of hers. The way that reminded Asher what it felt like to play the third movement of Rachmaninov’s Symphony no. 2. It was a piece that vibrated with restrained elegance until the moment it let itselfgo. Inevitably, it absolutely shattered him in its beautiful intensity. Every time.
Willow trailed at the princess’s feet. Asher loosened his tie—just enough so he could breathe through the sudden tightness in his chest—and fell in step behind them both. He briefly considered suggesting they leave Willow behind. Introducing a dog and a leopard didn’t seem like the safest idea. But as he knewall too well, Willow could hold her own. Besides, he knew better than to tell the corgi where she could and couldn’t go. He’d finally read the packet.
He’d skimmed it, anyway.
The hallway walls of the palace were covered in emerald-green silk. After nine in the evening, unless the palace was hosting an event, the wall sconces were turned down low. Asher had learned that in the packet as well.What he hadn’t anticipated was how still the darkened corridors would feel, as if the building itself were asleep. No wonder he’d beenassigned an escort. After the first two turns of direction, Asher was already lost. He had no clue where Amelia was taking him, but she seemed to have a particular destination in mind.
She paused for a beat in front of a set of massive double doors trimmed ingold, glimmering in the shadows.
The leopard’s bedroom?
She pushed the doors open and flipped a switch just inside, flooding the room with light. Asher blinked against the sudden brightness, and some small part of his brain registered a distinct absence of jungle animals.
Still, the scene before him was staggering. The room was enormous, carpeted in rich crimson from one end to the other. Eventhe walls were red, draped with colossal swags of ruby-toned velvet. Portraits of queens and kings hung in lavish gold frames as far as the eye could see. The massive table that stretched down the center of the space told him he was standing in Buckingham Palace’s legendary banquet room.
“That’s the longest table I’ve ever seen,” he said.
Beside him, the princess shrugged. “One hundred seventy-fivefeet, give or take.”
Nearly half the size of a football field.
Asher stared at gleaming silver trays, gold flatware, and more teapots than he’d ever seen in one room before. Every square inch of the table was covered with random paraphernalia. Not just dishes, but all sorts of things—paintings, statues, swords, and, oddly enough, a totem pole.
If Asher hadn’t known better, he would’ve thoughtsomeone was busy preparing for the world’s most opulent yard sale.
