Thirty-three
Edwin
Fortunately, the renovations on my house didn’t take too long. The three days they did take chafed at me because it meant being away from James all day, which I no longer liked doing. Also, reading through his notebook left me with a growing list of questions. I’d ask as many as I could when we met up for dinner, but he was exhausted by then and I felt bad trying to ask everything at once. Still, he continued to explain, and I continued to study everything he’d told me, hoping to avoid the next catastrophe.
Because of the Wrath’s destruction, we—the secretarial staff—had voluntarily chosen to work full weekends as well. There was just so much todo, most of it hand in hand with helping people find relief in this disastrous situation. It felt wrong to not work longer to make sure all those bills were paid, the invoices sent out, the workers directed.
That said, James was entirely too happy to see me back in the office. The man was practically beside himself. Sometimes he’dlook up and grin, as if seeing me there was an absolute delight. I’d strangle him for the time lost if it wasn’t so sweet.
How did one ignore a man who utterly adored you to this level? I certainly had no defenses against it. Nor wanted them. I’d somehow been handed this incredible, beautiful man who treated me like the moon and stars existed because of me.
Past me, what did youdo? It must have been quite something to get James to fall so incredibly in love with me.
Shaking the thought off, I stood from my desk and crossed the three feet to his, handing him a file.
“I need your signature here, Your Highness.”
What should have been a routine request instead made James freeze in place and give me this Look like I’d said something amazingly hurtful.
“What?” I asked uneasily.
“Are you mad at me?”
I stared at him and questioned my own memory for a second. “How does me asking you for a signature say I’m mad at you?”
“Because you’re still addressing me by title.”
Oh,thatwas the issue. No, wait, what the hell? “We’re at work.”
This man, who I knew could cleave a tree trunk in two with a single swing, who was a dynamic and charismatic leader, sat there and pouted at me. Full lip pout, arms crossed over his chest, actively sulking.
I could not believe my eyes.
“James,” he said. “I am only James to you.”
I leaned in closer to hiss, “What the hell are you saying? I donothave the right of familiarity. I’m not calling you by your name in public!”
“I gave you the right,” he argued back, not precisely in a whisper. “And if you keep calling me by my title, I refuse to do any work.”
I was hyperaware of every eye in this room on us. Oh, my colleagues were trying to pretend they weren’t watching the whole show, but the weight of their attention pressed in on me. I felt caught between a rock and a hard place—not a feeling I appreciated.
“I’ve pretended I don’t love you once,” James muttered, glaring at the desk as if it had done something to insult his ancestry. “I won’t do it again.”
Shit. All right, now I had a better understanding of where this was coming from. After everything he’d told me about our first life, I could sympathize with not wanting to fall into the same pitfalls. Still, must we create new pitfalls?
James pouted harder.
You know what? Fuck it. Fine. If he was so dead set on this, he could deal with whatever fallout came our way. So far none of my worst nightmares about dating a royal had come true, aside from hearing a few whispers. The whispers were something I deliberately ignored. My relationship with James was between the two of us and not anyone else’s business.
What really mattered was why he was acting childish. Underneath the pout was a great deal of hurt and remembered pain, and I wouldn’t leave it unaddressed.
I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and yanked him up to plant a swift kiss on his mouth. I pulled back just as quickly, heat in my cheeks because, again, I wasn’t comfortable with this sort of display in public. But I also didn’t regret my actions.
James stared at me with stunned eyes.
“Do your damn work,James.”
A brilliant smile took over his face as he caroled back, “Yes, dear heart.”
