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Chapter Sixteen
At least Bors had not been within the kingdom, so there was that. But, on the other hand, he had dropped that little nugget about raising an army to go against us. Something he very likely had the ability to do. There were always rogue wolves about, anxious to make trouble and earn large sums of money for their trouble.
My thought that he’d had extra money hidden away was seeming even more likely at this point. Otherwise, how could he hope to raise an army? The citizens of our kingdom certainly wouldn’t be signing up to support his effort. And those rogues and mercenaries would cost a fortune.
The fear I’d experienced at the airport was fading as another emotion overtook it. I was panicked at spending the funds to make things better for my subject while, at the same time, the ex-asshole-regent—well he wasn’t an ex asshole—was spending even more to pay evil men to harm them.
His total lack of respect or care for any of our people made me sick. And violently angry. I didn’t even know what to do with the anger. I wanted to break things, punch things, find my uncle, and take it out on him.
Ordinarily I was a very peaceful person, but I’d noticed Bors had the ability to draw out a violence from a very dark place inside me. And telling myself that he deserved all the pain I could rain upon him.
“Janis?” Leif was standing in front of me, and I shook away the thoughts cluttering my mind. “Can we talk?”
Instantly I went on alert. Leif’s expression told me something serious was bothering him.
“Of course. What’s wrong?” The list of possibilities was endless.
“Maybe we can go sit and have coffee or something? In one of the small salons?” In other words, he wanted privacy for the conversation. I shoved my uncle’s ugly face in the back of my mind at my mate’s distress.
“Of course.”
We walked toward the morning room, one of my favorite places to go this time of day and where I knew coffee would be found without disturbing staff to bring a tray. It was on the second floor of the tower opposite the one I was making my bedroom in until the Royal Suite was finished being remodeled, a process that seemed to be taking a very long time.
“Oh look,” I said, trying to sound upbeat while worried about what Leif wanted to say to me. “Muffins.”
“Uh huh?” He wasn’t buying the distraction game. “Aren’t there always muffins in here in the morning? To go with the coffee?”
I didn’t even try not to roll my eyes. “Okay, you’re not going to let me make pleasant conversation before we delve into whatever you’ve brought to my attention. But I also want a muffin. They are blueberry, and the one I had at breakfast was amazing.”
Soon we were seated near the window overlooking the lawns stretching down to the tree line of the forest. A cup of coffee and a muffin on a small plate sat on the table at my elbow, and Leif sat next to me. “All right, mate. Spill it. I know it has to be something big for you to track me down right before I’m due to meet with Arne and Eleanor.” My mates had my schedule each day so they could find me, but this was the first time Leif had done so like this.
“Do you want to eat your muffin first?” He waved at my snack. He hadn’t even poured himself coffee. Another sign he was upset.
“Leif. Talk.” I was starting to think I should be even more worried. And no matter how delicious the muffin, it would be sand in my mouth until I learned what was wrong with my most easygoing mate.
My first advisor. The man who coordinated everything, made people work together. A detail man. He licked his lips and then, finally, facing me so I wouldn’t miss a word, began to speak. “I don’t have a job.”
“What?” Of course he had a job. He was… “You’re my advisor. That’s a full-time job.”
“No, it’s not. At the beginning, maybe, when you’d been kept out of the loop, but you’ve hit the ground running, and you don’t need me.”
Wow. “Leif, I rely on you to help me with so many things. You know that. We’re together most of the day.”
“But I don’t have a responsibility that’s specifically mine. Like Arne’s.”
I blinked at him. “You want a title? Like Arne’s? I didn’t think you’d care about something like that.”
He flushed a little. “You make me sound like I’m looking for glory or something, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. I joke around about it, but it’s simply that, a ruse. But sometimes I feel unfocused. As if I’m just bouncing from one thing to another with no focus.”
“Like I do. Leif, that’s one of the reasons I need you. You seem to understand what I need when I need it. And I never have to worry about if something will be done right. Did you want to do a different job?”
Because if he did, I’d have to let him do it.
“What would you like to do?”
Leif jumped up and paced over to the coffeepot on the sideboard. He poured a cup and stirred in a spoonful of sugar before turning back to face me, cup in hand. “I don’t want a different job, specifically. I’m very happy to help make your plans happen, and I know it’s silly to want a title, but yet I do.”
He was leaning a hip on the sideboard, and I rose and joined him there, pressing the front of my body to his then lifting on tiptoe to kiss his lips, willing away his intense seriousness. He was always a great kisser, and today was no exception. One hand skated down my back to cup my bottom and bring me even closer to him. And then he used the other to tip my face to the side a bit and deepen the kiss. His tongue, rough velvet, stroked mine, and I moaned into his mouth.
A crash from behind us had us leaping apart like guilty teenagers. I spun to see a maid staring, broken crockery on the floor in front of her. She was apologizing already, but I waved the words away. “No worries. We were just leaving. You may clean that up.”
We linked hands and moved slowly at first then more quickly when we were out of sight of the maid. By the time we got to the foot of the tower steps, we were moving a lot faster, and we raced up the stairs to fall on the bed, kissing again and undressing one another. Leif was the most enthusiastic lover any woman could ever want or dream of and when we were finally lying side by side panting, and sweaty, I said, “I have an idea for a title for you.”
“You do?” He stroked a damp strand of hair back from my forehead. “And what might that be?”
“Gentleman of the bedroom?”
When we stopped laughing, we agreed on Royal Coordinator, by virtue of the thousands of things he did to make life in the palace smoother. But I did like my first idea. I pressed my fingers to the spot above my collarbone where, sometime while he was making love to me, he’d also left a mark.
