Page 49 of Crowning His Innocent Assistant

“What were you going to do with your life if you did not marry me? You were going to stay my assistant until I proposed?”

She looked up at him, exhaustion on her face.

“I’m tired,” she said. “I do not wish to be badgered. Leave me alone.” And then she curled up on the seat as if he had been dismissed, and buried her face in the butter-soft leather. Whether or not she was actually asleep he couldn’t tell, but she was certainly doing a great impression of a person who might be.

An hour later, they landed on the grounds of the palace in Monte Blanco. He had gotten dressed on the plane, and had arranged for all of Livia’s things to be sent back to the palace. He had also dealt with her lease on the apartment. It was now in his name.

She would be furious. He hadn’t wanted her to lose the place, if she wanted it as a little bolt-hole, or a vacation spot for them... He found it slightly underwhelming, but he was not going to take from her what she wanted.

When the plane landed, he woke her.

She gave him a mean-eyed stare, anger the first emotion on her face, even coming out of dreams.

“We are here.”

She sat. Unmoving.

“If you don’t think I will carry you into the palace, you are mistaken.”

“I think you should have to do it. I think that everyone should know.”

“Oh, Mouse, that you think I might balk at that shows that you do not know me half as well as you think. And here you made such bold claims about understanding me. No. You understood my civilized façade. Because it is the one you helped create. But you do not understand me. I have been cut open in the darkness. I have been asked to endure unimaginable amounts of pain. Do you know what sort of humiliation comes with that? It is endless. To be my father’s own personal canvas of destruction. But I never gave in to his desire to see me weep. I never gave him what he wanted. The screams that he demanded. I withstood all the interrogation meant to simulate foreign invaders. Like I said, I just think he was a sociopath. A psychopath perhaps. Because he seemed to enjoy it. But I withstood all these things, and you think you know what created me? You think you know what will make me flinch? You think that you can shame me by forcing me to carry you into the palace?” He laughed. And then he picked her up from her seat and held her in his arms like a child, as the door to the plane lowered and their feet touched Monte Blancan soil.

Then, the two of them entered the palace, though she not on her own feet. Every member of staff looked away discreetly. He carried her back to her own bedchamber. “I will be back to speak to you. You have time to change and get yourself together. There will be instructions that you are not to leave, though, so I suggest that you not try. You will not be leaving the country. You will not be leaving the palace.”

Then he turned and left her, heading straight toward his brother’s offices. He found Javier sitting at his desk, with Violet perched on a love seat, taking a picture of herself.

“I have returned,” he said.

“So you have,” Javier responded.

Violet looked up at him. “Did you leave?”

“I brought Livia back.”

“Did you?” Javier asked.

“Yes. We are to be married.”

“She said yes?” Violet asked.

“Not exactly.”

“What do you mean not exactly?” Javier asked.

“Oh, I’ve kidnapped her. She is shut in her rooms, and the entire staff will be given strict instructions not to allow her to leave. Also, she is on a no-fly list for the country.”

“Madre de Dios,”Javier said. “You know you can’t do that.”

“But I have.” He shrugged. “So it seems that I can.”

“That is not the way to start a marriage,” Violet said.

“Well,” Javier said. “Actually, that is how we began ours. With kidnap.”

“Kidnap should not be quite so common,” Violet said grumpily.

“It is how we solve our problems.”

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