How much lower can I fall?
Tell me whether I should burn it all down.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Cutter
Dree
After that enlightening but unsettling lunch, Dree texted Chiara to postpone their shopping and returned to Maxence’s office in the palace. The rest of the day was booked back-to-back-to-backwith receiving new ambassadors, taking phone calls and visits congratulating him for being elected sovereign, and working on logistics like security for the enthronement.
The receptionist wasn’t letting the office door swing closed before she shoved the next appointment through.
Dree didn’t find a spare second to ask Maxence what had gone on with Mairearad, so Dree locked up all her concern in one part of her skull, took notes, and did her job for a couple of hours.
A nurse can’t take personal stuff to work with them. Like all the other nurses at Good Sam, Dree was excellent at shoving any conflict or emotion in her head downhardbecause those people in the emergency room were having the worst day of their lives, either with their own health or with someone they loved. Her issues stayed outside the doors.
So she did it that day in Max’s office, too.
After office hours, Maxence had a reception to attend.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go?” He asked her as he finished pulling on the tuxedo jacket that his valet had laid out for him while they were at the office. “You can start attending these anytime you want, or you can decline to attend them as long as you want. Just because you’re marrying me, that doesn’t mean that this needs to be an absolute full-time job for you. There are only a few events per year that I would ask as a personal favor for you to make an appearance. The Winter Ball before Christmas is a big one.”
“I’ll start slow, but I will start soon.” Dree was sitting on the bed, watching Max turn from a hot office-boss man into a smoking-hot debonair billionaire man. “Chiara dropped off some more sample books. Are napkins that important?”
Maxence lifted his hands. “Well, there was that one from the Buddha Bar in Paris.”
Dree cracked up. “I still have it. Oh my God, that whole list of things I was supposed to do in my life, right? I’ve crossed off a lot of them. I was thinking about taking it with me to the wedding as good luck. Oh, also at the wedding, I was thinking—”
“I’m sorry. The car is waiting. We’ll talk later. If it doesn’t need my attention, just do it. You have my full confidence.” He kissed her on her temple and trotted out of the apartment.
Dree tried to concentrate on the sample book, really making an effort to compare the different kinds of napkins—linen versus raw silk versus sustainable bamboo—but they all just seem like perfectly adequate pieces of cloth to wipe sauce off her face. She would have to get Chiara to explain the differences to her tomorrow.
Maxence’s schedule said that he was obligated to stay at the gala until ten-thirty. Ten minutes before that, Dree went to her closet and found a pale pink baby doll negligee that had appeared in there, along with fifty other outfits that she had no idea who’d bought for her.
Some ball gowns were hanging in the back. She could start going to a gala here and there if it helped Maxence. She’d been enjoying the Sea Change Gala right up until the mass shooting.
She had just curled up in their bed wearing the fluffy pink nightgown that barely skimmed the tops of her thighs when Maxence opened the front door of their apartment.
“Chérie?”Maxence called. “Are you here?”
“I’m waiting for you in bed,” Dree yelled back.
Maxence strolled in the open double door to their bedroom, yanking the black bow tie of his tuxedo from under his collar, and it unraveled in his grip. A smile grew on his face. “And what isthatyou’re wearing?”
Dree shrugged and grinned at him.
Maxence dropped his arm to the side. The fabric of the bow tie dangled from his fingers, and his voice lowered as he said, “Oh,pet.I would have hurried home sooner had I known.”
She winked at him.
“Stand up on your knees and show me.”
Dree did, struggling to turn around while kneeling on the springy bed. The chiffon swished around her body, and the feathery hem brushed her ass and legs.
When she turned back around, Maxence was standing by the side of the bed, still holding his untied bow tie in his fingers. “Come here.”
Dree crawled over the mattress that bent under her hands and knees until she was right in front of him.
