“They call her Princess Anastasia the Nefarious.”
Rox curled her upper lip at him, doing her best to snarl. “That is totally not how the fairy tale goes. The princess is as beautiful as she isgood.”
“When Princess Anastasia comes to power, she’ll probably overthrow the Dutch elected government and invade France.”
Rox shrugged. “Everyone invades France first. It’s like the center square in tic-tac-toe.”
“The one that everyone thinks they should take but is actually a losing strategy?”
“You know it.”
“And then she’ll conquer the world,” Cash said, his voice turning low and ominous and his green eyes laughing.
“It would be kind of cool to be ruled by a queen who conquered the world,” Rox mused.
Still in the ominous voice, Cash intoned, “As long as you understand that she has a raging temper, and she will summarily execute anyone who annoys her.”
“Nobody’s perfect.”
“Seriously?”Cash’s dark green eyes widened.
“And still, a beautiful, young, evil princess—”
“She’s thirty-three now.”
“—looking for love while she conquers the world—”
“She’s been married for nearly ten years and has four children.”
“Dude, y’all are harshing my mellow!”
“You’re so funny when you speak surfer with that Southern accent.” Cash’s voice and eyebrows rose, and he made fun of her accent. “Y’all are hahshing mah melluh.”
“Oh my God. The British accent trying to do the Southern drawl doing a surfer dude is going to make my head explode. Get back to work, slacker. We’ve got a thousand of Valerie’s contracts to look over.”
He stretched, his leather shoes pointing up from where he had rested them on the coffee table. “Let’s continue this at home.”
Let’s continue this at home.
Rox felt his voice resonate all through her bones like a bell that was tolling for her. Maybe accepting his invitation had been a mistake, even if the alternative was sleeping in her car.
“We can pick up some Italian or Thai on the way and eat on my far more comfortable couches while we work for a bit.” Cash smiled that brilliant smile, leaned forward, and held out his hand to her. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
Rox made a hard decision and rolled her eyes. “I’ll bet you say that to all the girls.”
