“Mydaughtertoldmeto dance with you,” I say to Lorelei.
She turns, and I swear, my breath catches like I’m an impossible teenager.
I’m not.
Seventy is approaching at an equally impossible rate, but looking at Lorelei makes me feel years younger. Decades.
Like a teenager.
I’m used to seeing Lorelei in her austere suits, all in shades of grey, blue and basic black. Blouses buttoned to her chin, skirts a regulated two inches below her knees, always with horrible nylons, like she’s wearing a military uniform.
She’s a beautiful woman when she’s dressed for work at the castle. But when she’s not?
Stunning.
Thick dark brown hair peppered with grey, cascading past her shoulders instead of caught up in a no-nonsense bun. Pale blue eyes outlined and mascaraed. Lips slick with a shiny gloss instead of the pale pink she favoured in the castle.
Beautiful. And all mine.
Maybe.
“The daughter who is currently enjoying a very public display of affection?” Lorelei asks with a twist of her lips. Those lips…
I should not be feeling this way about this womannow.
But I have been. For a long time.
I’m distracted by a quick glance behind me, where Sophie is currently in the midst of a kiss with Ashton Carrington. Not only are they kissing in the middle of the dancefloor during the Sea Queen Ball, but he’s holding her. Cradled in his arms like some kind of baby, or pet cat.
Sophie is neither, and—
It is cute, though, considering the broken toes.
That Ashton caused.
Not really, if Sophie’s theory is correct and he never even hit her in the first place.
“Thank you for calling it a PDA,” I tell Lorelei, offering her my hand. “Saying they’re making out in front of everyone makes me a little queasy.”
Lorelei smiles. “Such a father. Does this mean they’re taking their relationship public?”
The queasiness is sticking around. “I wasn’t aware they had a relationship.”
“They spend all day together, every day. What do you call it, Duncan?”
“A nuisance?”
Lorelei laughs, and the sound of it makes the sight of Sophie and Ashton doing… whatever it is they’re doing… almost worth it.
I’ve known Lorelei Theissen since she first came to work at the castle, too long ago to count the years. I was intrigued from thestart, but it took six long months for me to even win a smile from her.
Lorelei was grieving the double loss of her husband from cancer and leaving her son and daughter behind in boarding school in England. Magnus had insisted she bring them with her to Laandia, but she hadn’t wanted to disrupt their lives any more than they already had been.
I had been grieving myself—not my marriage, but being estranged from my daughters. Ex-wife Signe had done her best to fill Stella and Sophie with poisonous thoughts, to an extent I hadn’t been aware of until years later. Plus, Spencer was also in boarding school abroad, so I thought I could commiserate with Lorelei about missing our children.
I thought wrong.
She wanted nothing to do with me, other than a polite, we-both-work-for-the-king-of-Laandia association.
