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That was all he had left of her stay in his home. If he survived it with his sanity intact he’d deserve more than a gold star.
He’d deserve her.
Biting back an oath at the ridiculousness of that thought, he decided to ignore his hollow stomach and head for bed. God knew he didn’t want to tempt fate and run into the woman in his kitchen again. Which was when he noticed a light glowing from beneath his library door.
Hoping Alexa had left the light on by mistake and wouldn’t be inside, he was pulled up short when he opened the door to find her slumped over the antique desk in the corner.
With his heart in his mouth, he strode towards her, hoping with every breath in his body that there was nothing wrong with her.
‘Alexa?’
He reached out and gently shook her shoulder, relieved beyond reason when she made a small snuffling sound and buried her face against her arm.
Thank God. She wasn’t unconscious, or worse, and his heart rate steadied once more.
She looked angelic in sleep, her glorious hair piled on top of her head in a messy topknot. Rejecting his body’s immediate reaction to the sight of her, he frowned as he took in the mountain of paperwork scattered over the desk.
Work, he realised as he studied the papers, remembering how her assistant had told her she wasn’t to do any. She must have printed the documents from the laptop that was on sleep mode beside her.
‘Alexa?’ He tried again to rouse her but she gave another grumpy little whimper and tried to flick him away. Presumably, since she was a morning person, she wouldn’t be chirpy at being woken in the middle of the night.
He found he quite liked seeing her all rumpled and sleepy, and then cut the thought off at the knees.
‘Alexa, you need to wake up.’
Coming to with a start, she blinked up at him, and it was all Rafe could do not to reach down and kiss the sleepy pout from her lips. To distract himself he jerked his glance in the direction of the papers spread around her. ‘Have you been at this all day?’
‘Oh, hello.’ She yawned and stretched her arms above her head. ‘Mostly. It took longer than I thought. I did go for a walk in Hyde Park, but I had to put the sightseeing I planned on hold—Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to bore you.’ She glanced away from him and when she spoke next her tone was decidedly frosty, as if she’d recalled their last interaction and hated him. ‘What time is it? No, don’t answer that. I’ll find out for myself.’
‘It’s after midnight. And you don’t have to treat me like a villain.’
‘I’m not,’ she said coolly, stacking her papers together.
Rafe scowled. ‘Have you been at this all night? You’ll wear yourself out if this is the pace you keep in Berenia.’
‘That’s not your concern.’
‘Okay.’ He held his hands up in front of him. ‘Will it help if I apologise for being a first-rate jerk the other morning?’
She glanced up at him from beneath long sooty lashes, and Rafe’s jaw clenched against the punch of instant attraction.
‘Perhaps.’
‘Then I’m sorry. I wasn’t in a great mood, but I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable around me.’
‘I don’t. I’ve had work to do.’
Which brought him back to how tired she looked. ‘Work you’re not supposed to be doing.’
She shrugged. ‘Someone has to do it or it won’t get done.’
‘Delegate.’
‘It’s not that simple. We need to hire new staff, and—’
‘Duty called.’
‘Yes. Something I would have thought you would understand even if you don’t like it.’
