Maxence leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers over his flat stomach. “There are drawbacks to every system. Or we could open the election to all the citizens. If we’re going to have a dictator for life, they might as well be anelecteddictator for life.”
Dree’s black shoe had slipped off her heel and dangled on her toes, exposing yet more inches of skin that Maxence wanted to caress.
Sitting like that, with her legs carelessly crossed at her knees and her shoe about to drop off her foot, was wanton. The other palace admins would have sat on the edge of the chair, their knees and ankles pressed tightly together and so unobtrusive that they faded into the beige paint on the walls.
Dree’s leg twitched, and that shoe swung seductively on her toes, an office striptease he couldn’t look away from.
Nico went on, “Valentina turned fifty just a few years ago. She’s in the prime of her life for attaining such a position. I can’t imagine an opportunity like this would come around again for her. She’s also well-liked and quite feared among the other nobles.”
Maxence pointed at Dree. “You have Valentina Martini on your list?”
She looked up and nodded, her blue eyes bright, and held the stylus at attention on the tablet, diligently taking notes.
He bet she wouldn’t look so perky if his thumb was on her clit. She’d melt in the chair, gasping and begging him to take her.
Maxence asked Nico, “Who else do you think? Would you consider stepping forward?”
Nico went back to resting his head on the back of the chair and staring at the ceiling. “I’m too far down the line of succession for anyone to consider seriously.”
“Why is that a concern?” Maxence mused.
“Tradition.”
“But should it be? Why shouldn’t we elect the best candidate instead of the most genetically similar one?”
Nico wrinkled his nose. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life paraded around like a prize-winning goose, and I don’t think I am the best candidate.”
“You’re not a bad candidate.”
“We should pick somebody with a law degree or an MBA.”
Maxence scoffed, “Corporate drones are inherently sociopathic and destroy anything they get their hands on. They think they know how to run a company, but their vice presidents and admins really do the work the whole time. Because they focus on boosting short-term profits to keep the stock price high, they don’t know how to invest in and manage a country and citizenry to prepare for the next century. They play too much golf and screw it up. And then they burn down the economy because they were too lazy to do the job right, and they’re mad about it.”
Dree chuckled, a deep, throaty sound that trickled from his shoulders to his groin like warm olive oil as he anticipated the touch of a masseuse.
At least he didn’t have to worry about overpowering Nico’s spirit with his own. The hunger in his body for her distracted him too much.
Nico drummed his fingers on his stomach. “Aren’t there university degrees in, like, government management? Or a lawyer would be good. Lawyers know what they’re doing as far as writing the laws and what the consequences of them are.”
Max could have sworn Nico went to university in London. “I thought you had a law degree.”
He shook his head. “My baccalaureate is in art history. All I could do is tell you which of the paintings in the national museum are real and which are fakes. I’d be useless as a sovereign.”
Wait.“Some of the paintings in theNouveau Musée National de Monacoarefakes?”
Nico raised his head. “Of course.”
That seemed like something to be taken care of at some point, but the election and coronation were first on Maxence’s list of priorities. “You really wouldn’t consider it?”
“There are better candidates.”
“I don’t think there are.”
“Let me tell you some.”
Obviously, Nico had considered and rejected his own bid at the election, so Maxence didn’t press him further. “Who else should we be looking at?”
“Maybe our great-uncle, Louis Grimaldi? He’s the right age, not too old but not going to get us in trouble with scandals. He was the spare heir if anything had happened to Grandfather. He’s led a quiet life. They have three adult kids who are in their thirties and safely married. There are no scandals that I know of in that whole branch of the family.”
