Page 36 of Crowning His Innocent Assistant

“I might ask you the same question, as you have been acting the part of guttersnipe since...”

“Since you kidnapped Violet King and brought her to the palace? I don’t approve. Was that not clear?”

“You don’t approve. Yet all you do is move palely around the palace, looking for all to see like a serene handmaiden.”

“I am nobody’s handmaiden, as you well know. And you want me to yell at you in front of everyone else?”

“You seem on the verge of doing it here.”

“Because I’m appalled at you. Shocked and appalled.”

“So appalled,” he said, moving his arm from her elbow, to her lower back. And she went stiff.

Her body was supple. It really was quite lovely. Lust tightened low in his stomach and he castigated himself.

Even attempting to cause her grief—as he was at the moment—he did not want to feel these things for Livia.

He had always been aware of what he must not do with her. Of what he must not feel.

His age, his position, her dependence on him...

It was all impossible. And what sort of impossible situation would it become if he carried on an affair with Livia while married to Violet? Though, granted, many men might find it convenient to have his mistress and wife housed in the same place.

But it was a recipe for disaster. And Livia would never quietly be a mistress.

She would likely crusade about, joining forces with Violet. Unionizing. That was all he needed.

Anyway, Livia had never evinced the slightest bit of interest in him in that way. She was nothing but brisk and efficient, and a woman who wanted him would scarcely yell at him and all other things that Livia did to him on a daily basis.

She did not conduct herself as a woman who wanted sexual attention from him.

He did not have the words for what that made him feel.

He could not have her preoccupied with such things if he expected her to do her job. That much was true. But...

A spark smoldered in his blood when he looked at her for too long.

And he was not accustomed to being near a woman who did not react to him as a potential partner. He did not know if he wanted it from her, or not. And it was the not knowing that frustrated as much as it intrigued.

“I suggest you get your emotions in order,” he said. “For I am at the end of my patience. This is a very important event. We have inroads that we have to make at this summit tomorrow. And it begins tonight. You know how it is. I need you with me. I cannot do it without you.”

“Why don’t you think you can do it without me? You’ve been doing all of this just fine with me in the background for years.”

“I know everything there is to know about the economy of Monte Blanco, I know everything that I must to make this alliance work. But I do not know how to do...diplomacy.”

“You are much better at it than you used to be.”

“But I need you there. I need you to help. And I need you to not be opposing me at every turn.”

“You are difficult,” she said.

“And so are you. It is what I like about you, and I assume on a good day, it is what you like about me.”

“Who said I like you?” she said, looking up at him from beneath her lashes. “You sign my paychecks.”

A harsh statement, and he was surprised at the note of discomfort it left in his gut. For he did not care about things like that, like whether someone liked him. Least of all Livia. It had never occurred to him that she might not. For were they not, in many ways, two halves of one whole?

“You like me,” he said.

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