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My face lifts into a smile. “And have you worked me out?”
“Not yet. I think I might need to whisk you away more often for non-middle-aged excursions.”
Alex shifts his thigh so it's touching lightly against mine, and my heart begins to thud like a drum.
“I’d like that,” I murmur, my gaze automatically dropping to his lips. I find myself thinking about pulling him to me to taste them.
It would be so easy. So easy and so very, very nice.
His eyes are fire, the contact between our thighs hinting at the electricity between us.
He swallows, his Adam’s apple dropping before it rises. “Maddie, I—” He begins but then stops himself.
“Yes?” I ask, breathless.
Does he feel it too? This incredible pull between us? A pull that, for me at least, goes beyond simple attraction to so much more. It’s a pull I haven’t felt before, not with Eric, or even my boyfriend back in college.
I wasn’t looking for this. I certainly didn’t want it. And yet sitting here with Alex, the beautiful city of Tleurbonne at our feet, I feel it with such an intensity it sucks the air from my lungs.
“Your Royal Highnesses,” a booming voice says, bursting our bubble.
With great reluctance, I pull my gaze from Alex.
“What is it, Vlad?” I ask, and I can’t keep the tremble from my voice. “Everything okay?”
“The palace is concerned. They would like you to return as soon as possible.”
And just like that, whatever was going to happen between us is stopped in its tracks. As Alex whisks me back to the palace, with my arms wrapped firmly around his waist, the wind in my hair, I cannot help the feeling that he and I are on the very precipice of something. Something big.
Only, now that I know the true Alex, I’m not scared anymore.
Chapter 19
Maddie
Alice is putting the finishing touches on my hair to attend today’s polo match between Ledonia and Malveaux when there's a knock at the door to my rooms.
“One moment, Maddie,” Alice says.
I bounce to my feet. “I’ll get it. You’ve been working all morning. Why don’t you take a load off.”
“A load off?” she questions.
“Chill out for a bit. Relax. I’ll get the door.”
“If you say so,” she replies uncertainly.
Alice is a hard worker and we’re becoming close, but she’s still not used to my relaxed, non-elitist vibe. A work in progress for yours truly.
“I do say so,” I reply as I pad across the plush carpet of the living room and out into the entryway. Pulling the door open, I’m met with a smiling Alex, and my pulse rate jumps up at the sight of him, right on cue.
Because oh, what a sight he is. He’s wearing a red polo shirt complete with the royal Ledonian monogram, tucked into belted white pants and a pair of over-the-knee leather riding boots. His bare arms are tan, the muscles sinewy and strong, and his eyes alight as they land on me, his lips lifting into a smile.
He’s so unbelievably sexy and handsome, I’m surprised my knees don’t give way.
“Morning, beautiful,” he says with his heart-stopping smile.
“Alex. What are you doing here?”
