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Thank goodness she could now gather herself in private.
But suddenly he was back!
‘Beatrice? Actually, those pictures seem to be turning into an issue. I’m going to have to meet with my father’s aides later.’
‘I can do that,’ Beatrice said. After all, she did it most days. ‘You’ve got enough to be doing.’
‘No, I’ll meet you up there when they call for me.’
She nodded.
He was turning to go and then he glanced to the last remaining piece of cake and then to her. For the first time ever both his gaze and a slow smile combined and homed in on her.
It was like being invited to witness a private viewing of the sun.
No wonder her services were required.
No wonder he had caused so much trouble.
‘Just take it,’ Beatrice snapped.
Julius didn’t wait to be asked twice. He walked over and picked up the piece of cake and took a bite.
Her insides felt as if they were melting faster than the cream he licked from those decadent lips before walking out with his prize.
Oh, why did it have to be like this?
CHAPTER THREE
‘THEPALACEAREinsistingon a response,’ Jordan told him.
‘Well, they can keep on insisting.’ Julius shrugged.
They were upstairs in the office with the door closed. Second only to Tobias, he trusted Jordan, for though it was never spoken out loud she knew the real pressure he was under.
‘I’m just relaying what I’ve heard, sir.’
He nodded. ‘Beatrice is on it.’
‘Hungover to the back teeth,’ Jordan retorted. ‘I’m sorry about this morning, sir.’
‘Drop it,’ Julius said, rather than point out to her that she’d been crying.
He’d easily seen that his usually very together liaison aide was unusually reactive today. Her lips were chewed, her nose red, and she’d been nattering on about cups and such when usually she barely said an unnecessary word.
A family drama, perhaps?
Or a relationship break-up, maybe?
He didn’t get involved with the personal dramas of his staff. If he did he’d never get a single thing done. Well, he tried not to get involved. God knows, he tried.
The same way he’d tried not to notice her red eyes.
And tried not to be irked that he was something confined to her work bag and taken out on her arrival at the palace on a Monday, like a schoolteacher with his homework.
He’d tried to make inane small talk with her as agreed, while Jordan gathered the rest of the team and brought in the cake, but he had started to slip away from small talk.
That would never do.
