"Don't you?"
"I do, but isn't chemistry one-sided sometimes?"
"I would imagine it's possible, but I don't think we'll have that problem."
To prove it to her, Jake leaned in, giving her enough time to back away or tell him no. She didn't, but he noticed her eyes fluttering closed before he reached his objective.
And kissed her.
His arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer as the kiss extended, but remainedsoft and gentle.
And proof of the chemistry he'd mentioned existed in spades.
So he slowly pulled away.
When he had enough room, he whispered, "Something like that?"
Catherine didn't answer, but did nod her head, just a barely visible down then up.
She took a small step back, not enough to leave his embrace but enough to put some room between them. After taking a deep, shuddering breath, she gave a better nod. "Yeah." It sounded as though her voice caught in her throat. She swallowed. "Something like that."
Whatever else they might have said was interrupted by the buzz of the intercom on her desk.
"Um, I should get that." Catherine didn't move, her hands resting lightly on the sides of his waist.
Jake pressed a quick kiss to her forehead and took a step back. "I'll see you for dinner this evening. Have a good afternoon."
She nodded a thank you, but didn't move.
He turned and walked toward the side door then went back to the archives where he'd finish working for the day. Instead, he found Madeleine waiting for him in the offices.
"How was lunch?" Madeleine glanced up from the document she was reading.
"Lunch is always fantastic." It was the same answer he gave her every time she asked. "What are you working on?" It wasn't the same thing she'd been working on earlier in the day.
Madeleine shook her head. "Just rereading something." She set it aside. "So what do you want to work on this afternoon? We don't have anything pressing."
Jake shrugged. "It's your office. What needs to be done?"
"Nothing in particular." She leaned back in her chair. "Want to talk about how the press release has gone?"
With a chuckle, Jake took a seat in his desk chair. "It's going better than expected. Beyond that, I don't know that there's much to say."
"Are you ready for the photo call tomorrow?"The smirk on her face made him laugh again.
"Of course not, but it'll be all right. Someone will help me figure out what to wear and tell me where to stand. All I really need to do is figure out how to smile adoringly at Catherine, and that's easy to do."
"She's easy to adore," Madeleine agreed. "Have you talked about what story you're telling the press? The details, that is. You don't want to contradict each other. The basics of the story don't need any embellishing, but have you talked about how you met as children or where or what you did? It wouldn't do for you to say you met at an event, and she says you met here at the palace."
Jake leaned back. "We haven't really talked about it, but that's a good point. I'll be sure to bring it up at dinner tonight and decide how exactly we want to tell the story, since neither of us actually remembers meeting each other as children. We only have stories that we've been told about meeting once or twice while my father worked here." He stared at a spot on his desk. "I wish we did remember," he mused, almost to himself.
"I'm not saying make up some crazy story. You're not lying to the public. You’re slightly overstating the significance of your relationship as children." She wrinkled her nose. "I know it's a very fine line. But, if you can, keep the statements to a minimum and be vague about the interactions when you were younger."
"And possibly vague about how long it's been since we met again as adults." He didn't like the idea of purposely misleading the public, but he also didn't want to make the minutia of his relationship with Catherinepublic fodder.
They needed to figure out exactly what they wanted to tell the public. Not everything, but not nothing either.
Being married to a queen was far more complicated than he would have ever dreamed.
