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She ignored the thought. She’d lived without love for most of her life, and she’d survived so far. It didn’t matter that he didn’t feel the same way.
Still, she wanted to know exactly where she stood with him, and howhesaw a marriage between them.
Winifred put down her fork. ‘So, about this marriage. How do you see it working between us then?’
Augustine picked up the coffee pot and poured some of the rich black liquid into his coffee cup. The smell was so good and he was feeling pleased with himself.
Despite not sleeping much the night before, he’d had the most excellent sex and now there was coffee, and Freddie was sitting opposite him, looking gorgeous in her pretty pink robe, the distress that had been in her eyes the day before completely gone. Her hair was loose in glossy dark waves over her shoulders and he could see a few darkening marks on her neck. Marks he’d made himself. Looking at them satisfied him on a fundamental level he couldn’t quite explain.
He leaned back in his chair and sipped his coffee, regarding her for a moment.
She’d asked him the question in her usual calm, professional voice, the soft vulnerability she’d shown as she’d sat down for breakfast, all worried about whether she was selfish or not for giving up her sisters, for running away, gone.
She wasn’t selfish, and he believed that, and he hoped she’d believed him when he’d told her that too. Because she wasn’t selfish. She’d been a child who hadn’t been protected by the one person who was supposed to protect her: a parent.
How could she blame herself for running away? For giving up her sisters when she hadn’t been able to look after them? She’d been scared and only sixteen, far too young for that kind of responsibility.
Anyway, regardless of whether she should have or not, she had, and that had brought her to him, and he couldn’t regret that, even with the lies she’d told him, not for one second.
In fact, it made him want more. He liked her professionalism, he always had, but that wasn’t what he wanted from her now. Because she wouldn’t be his employee any longer, but his wife and the mother of his child, and he liked her confiding in him. He liked her telling him her secrets.
‘For a start, you won’t be my employee,’ he said slowly. ‘Which means you don’t need to be all professional with me.’
‘But if I’m not your employee then who will be your PA?’
That was a good question and one he hadn’t considered, not given how tumultuous the past twenty-four hours had been.
‘I can get someone to deal with the day-to-day donkey work. But it would be better if you could still help me with the...more personal requirements.’ He hadn’t meant it to sound like a double entendre, but it came out sounding like one all the same.
Pink tinged her cheekbones, but that calm look didn’t budge. ‘I’m serious.’
‘So am I. You can still read my correspondence and delegate the rest. That way no one else need know anything.’
She frowned, but didn’t say anything for a moment, slowly eating the rest of her waffle. ‘And what about us? Do we live as husband and wife?’
‘Of course.’ He took another sip of his coffee. ‘You’ll share my bed, my apartments, and once you’re crowned, you’ll obviously be sharing in any royal duties.’
She put her fork down, a crease between her brows. ‘Augustine,’ she said softly, the sound of his name in her husky voice sending a pulse of desire through him. ‘Your queen... I can’t. I was brought up in a trailer park. My mother was a petty criminal and small-time drug dealer.’
‘So?’ He met her dark gaze and held it. ‘You’re not your mother, Freddie, I told you that.’
‘That doesn’t change the fact that I killed someone,’ she said starkly. ‘And I lied to you.’
‘You shot someone who was going to hurt a child. And then you were trying to rebuild your life.’
‘But—’
‘Have you indulged in any petty thievery while you’ve been here?’
She frowned at him. ‘No.’
‘Dealt any drugs?’
‘No, of course not.’
‘No,’ he agreed, ‘you haven’t. You’ve been a thorough professional for the last five years, even though you have more access than most to the royal coffers and expense accounts, not to mention the crown jewels.’ He put his cup down and leaned his elbows on the table. ‘Nothing’s gone missing since you’ve been here and no one else has turned up shot, have they?’
‘You don’t know that for certain.’
