Page 83 of A Princess for Christmas

“Therefore, I prefer not to be interrupted,” he went on. “Perhaps we can agree that you may borrow whichever volumes you like, but you’ll need to find another place to read them.”

Marie was amazed. She hadn’t seen her father give way to anyone in years. She wasn’t sure if the fact that this someone was an eleven-year-old and not, say, a member of parliament who held an opposing view, made it more or less remarkable.

Either way, dinner was less fraught than last night’s.

And the best part of it was when it was over. They parted ways with good-night greetings, but when she said hers to Leo, he licked his lips and said, “Yes, I think itisgoing to be a very good night.”

The text arrived an hour after Gabby had gone to bed.Would you like to come to my suite and see Buffy?

Leo:Buffy? Is that a euphemism?

Never in a million years would Leo have pegged Princess Marie as the type to name her vagina.

Marie:What would that be a euphemism for?

Leo:Do you really need it explained to you?

She sent him a photo of a DVD set ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer. It made him laugh out loud as he typedYes, I would like to come to your suite and see Buffy.And hopefully a few other things of the noneuphemistic variety as well.

Marie:Buffy was one of my mother’s favorites. We watched it together when I was a teenager. I’ve been rewatching it recently.

When Leo arrived, Marie ushered him past the sitting room he’d been in before—the room in which they’d conducted their dancing lessons. On its far side was a small hallway.

“It’s a whole apartment in here,” he remarked, registering that she was still dressed in the jeans and blazer she’d worn at dinner. He’d been hoping to see the white nightgown again. Or maybe the black panties.

Or maybe both?

She was confusing.

“Yes and no,” she said. “My suite is not like the large-scale apartments in the famous British palaces, which are effectively self-contained residences. It’s merely a semiformal sitting room, where I receive personal guests, and a few other rooms.” She gestured at an open doorway as they passed it. “This is my office.” He peeked in. It was a small room dominated by a large desk and a wall of built-in shelving. That must be Kai’s handiwork. Leo would have called the room fancy—the walls were papered in an elaborate floral pattern and the desk was as ornate as they came—but itwas strewn with papers and books. He would even go so far as to call it messy. Which surprised him.

“This is the small parlor.” She gestured into the next room as they continued down the hall. “I think perhaps you would call it a den.”

A glance inside confirmed her interpretation. There was a sofa on one wall and an entertainment system ensconced on the opposite one nestled in a perfectly sized built-in shelf—probably more of Kai’s work. “We can watch in here, or...”

He raised his eyebrows.

“Another option is to watch in my bedroom. I have a small television in there.”

Was she propositioning him? It was hard to tell. She might just be genuinely—and innocently—inviting him into her inner sanctum.

Heh. Herinner sanctum. Was it just him or did everything tonight sound like innuendo?

“I also thought it would be the more efficient option in the sense that if we want to have sex, we’re already in the bedroom,” she said almost brusquely.

He burst out laughing. Well, that solved that.

“I’ve said something wrong.” There was a hint of dismay in her tone.

“No. Not at all.” He made a shooing motion down the corridor. “I vote for the bedroom.”

“Would you like me to have something sent up to eat? My suite doesn’t have a kitchen. Are you hungry?”

He winked and said, “I am hungry, but not for food.”

It was one hundredpercent cheesy but one hundredpercent true.

Thankfully, one hundred percent cheesy plus one hundred percent true worked on princesses of bonkers Hallmark-style Alpine countries.

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