AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She managed a smile.
‘Do you want a drink, or some dinner?’
‘I’ve had some water.’
‘I can do better than the bathroom tap.’
‘I know,’ Beatrice said. ‘But I do think it’s better if I just go.’
‘If that’s what you want.’
‘It is. Can you check the exit?’
‘Sure.’
‘If anyone asks I’ll just say I was kept late making drafts.’
‘Then they’ll know you’re lying,’ Julius said. ‘Since when do you make excuses for working late?’
True...
Walking back down the emerald carpet, she felt so different. She’d been so sure, so confident that she could handle this, and yet she felt an overwhelming temptation to turn, to go back to his bed, to be with him all over again.
‘I’ll see you in a week,’ he said, trying to test this new normal between them.
‘Yes.’
She nodded and reached for the door, and it dawned on him then that Beatrice might take this week to conjure up a family emergency, or some such.
And that would be it.
‘Beatrice?’ he halted her. ‘I’ll see you in a week?’
Beatrice heard what was beneath his question this time. He was asking if she was lying about being able to handle this. If she really had just wanted to lose her virginity on a Friday after work.
Well, as far as he was concerned she had.
The rest he didn’t get to see.
Aside from that, it would be Jordan writing her reference. Not him!
‘Of course,’ she said. And then she had to execute the bravest part of the night as she turned and gave his taut mouth a kiss. ‘It was a lovely night.’
The office was exactly as they’d left it. She should pick up the folders, really, return order to the place. But instead Beatrice just headed for the exit and took the stairs down.
The night smelt like rain, except the sky was clear. Very deliberately, she didn’t look up or back, just gulped in air—and then stilled when she saw a figure by the lake.
The King.
Guilt made her jump, but palace staff knew how to be discreet and make themselves invisible, and so she took the long way round, through the rose garden, and tried to pretend she hadn’t seen what she had.
‘Signorina...’the shuttle bus driver said as he nodded in greeting.
No Cinderella’s carriage turning back into a pumpkin for her, she thought darkly—just the shuttle bus home.
As the bus took her along Prince’s Lane she sat with her head against the window, nodding when they stopped at the porter’s lodge and a few familiar faces climbed on.
The best part was when the guards got on at the main gates for a random bag check, in case she’d pinched a pepper pot or something.
