Page 35 of The Autumn Prince

“Incendis, are you sure? I don’t have you down for anything all day.”

When he grinned at me, I knew exactly what he was doing.

“Oh, no, you don’t.” I pulled, trying to make him stop. “I don’t have time for another under-kilt inspection.”

“Of course you do.”

“I do not.”

He stopped, turned to face me, and grabbed both my arms. “Is your team capable of handling any issues that might come up? Do they know what they’re doing as far as the schedule goes? Can you trust them to take care of anything that arises?”

Oh, my god, this little shit was throwing my words back at me. He hadn’t micromanaged his people in ages because of my interventions. Plural. He’d needed three. But now…

“Are you saying I’m micromanaging everyone?” I asked, aghast.

He pulled me into his arms, and I almost dropped my clipboard. “Darling, three people have asked me if I might be able to find something for you to do for a few hours.”

I gasped. “Who? Who were these people?” I glared around the grounds, looking for them. “I bet one of them was Rolly. Can’t stay on task to save his life, but doesn’t want to be handled. Well, we’ll see how long the lines are while you pour one glass at a time, won’t⁠—”

Incendis pecked my lips. “Sweetheart,” he said, “you need to let your team work.”

I made an involuntary noise, absolutely affronted. They couldn’t possibly think I was that bad. But from the look on Incendis’s face… He agreed with them.

“Oh,” I drew out in dawning horror. I’d known I was often frustrated, and maybe I’d taken over and done a few things myself, but had I really been a bother? “Oh, no.”

“You need to let them do their jobs without any interference.”

From the prince of micromanagement, that stung.

But I was an adult and I could listen and learn. I’d feel petty about it all and maybe I wouldn’t talk to a few people for a while, but I could walk away and let them sink or swim on their own. Shove those baby birds right out of my nest and watch them fly. Or get eaten by cats.

“Fine.” I set my clipboard down on a random table and then didn’t know what to do with my hands without it. “What would you like to do now? Since I’ve been fired and have the day off and all that.”

Incendis wrapped his arms around me and smiled. “Well, if you’ll recall, there was something in our tent that I needed your help with.”

I snorted a laugh.

“It’s a very important project,” he continued.

That his first thought when someone asked him to distract me was to seduce me was kind of cute. Very on brand for him, really. My ex-virgin prince was making up for years of saying no to everyone now that he could say yes to me every day. Often more than once a day.

I went up on my toes and looped my arms around his neck. “Since this is so important, maybe you should fly us there very quickly.”

I’d barely gotten that last syllable out, and he was airborne, zooming us over everyone’s head. I didn’t squeeze my eyes closed when he flew me around anymore, but I still clung to him like a koala and swore we might be breaking speed records. His wings were no joke as he took us toward the outskirts of the event where the tents were. Ours was on a hill and there were golden threads in the autumn-themed fabric, but it was still kind of modest in comparison with the one Flurry had brought, which had turrets and flags everywhere.

Unexpectedly, Incendis flew right into the tent through the flaps, and I couldn’t stop the holler that left me even if he set us down a second later. And it was as I made my kilt lay flat against my ass that I realized I might’ve just flashed thousands of people. “My kilt was…” Embarrassment swamping me, I pointed outside. “I think I…”

Laughing, Incendis picked me up and held me over his head. I yelped and kicked my feet, holding onto his wrists as he braced me up by my hips. The front of my kilt fell open, revealing all of me. “Ah, yes,” he said, “I see the problem. Oh, but actually, you were like this,” he said before he spun me around so I was facing up. Now the back of my kilt was showing my whole ass. “You do have a very fine derriere.”

“Put me down!” I flailed involuntarily, not at all caring about who saw what while I was eight feet off the ground. “Incendis!”

He brought me down—gently, thank goodness—chuckling and dodging when I spun around to smack at him. Sometimes my stuffy, responsible prince was absolutely wicked. He caught me back into his arms and kissed from my cheek to my neck. “We were flying too fast for anyone to see you,” he whispered.

I tipped my head back to give him more room to kiss. “I certainly hope so.”

“They might’ve seen a flash of white.” He reached down and under my kilt to palm my ass. “Nothing more.”

“I’m not that pale.”