Tabloid Princess, page 20
His lips pressed against mine hard, his hands coming to my hair tangling in the strands. I breathed him in. No whisky tonight, but still that small tingle of mint. “I thought my time spent in the office was exceptionally well utilised,” he mumbled his words against my mouth.
I warmed and heated to excruciating levels. The monster who had sulked and growled at being caged all afternoon tore free with delight.
“It was horrible, and you know it.”
“Your time in my presence was horrible?” He grinned wickedly. “I’ve never been told that before.”
“As always, I’m pleased to deflate your princely ego.”
His lips crashed back down to mine and he uttered a low oath as he caught me in his hands, pinning me tight against him. My breasts strained for traction and I pushed myself back. One of his hands slipped down my spine and grazed over the curve of my butt, pulling me in tighter.
“I can’t stay for longer than a few minutes, Leia.” He broke the kiss and I couldn’t deny his admission broke me a little.
“Just a few minutes?” I breathed my words rather than said them. My heart bashed wildly in my chest—all from a kiss.
“I’m on a late Eurostar to Paris. But I couldn’t leave without seeing you.” His words made me slump. “What’s wrong?” he asked, his thumb skimming my cheek.
“I can’t say.” I flushed.
“Say.”
I found it almost impossible to say no. “This is wrong. I shouldn’t be feeling this way. I shouldn’t be disappointed because you have to go away. It’s illogical.”
“You feel like that?”
“Yes.” My admission returned instantly. I couldn’t resist anything he asked of me.
Utterly stupid. Utterly dangerous.
“Oliver, you can’t keep turning up here. Someone is going to see you and you and I both know the headlines won’t be good.”
“Leia.” He caught my face tighter, forcing me to look at him. “No headlines are ever good. I’ve been living with it for my whole life. Even as a child, at school. Every foot wrong that I could place, someone has been there waiting to capture it.”
“I don’t want to be a foot wrong for you.”
He brushed his lips over my mouth but then lifted them to my forehead, placing them there. The intensity of his hold became all encompassing. “You aren’t. I know it. I can feel it.”
“And when you get found out and there are people confirming the fact I already know? That I’m not the right woman for you?”
“Then I’ll fight for you. I’ll make them know you are.”
The sheer determination in his tone broke me one final time. “When are you back from Paris?”
“Thursday.”
“That long?”
“Is that a little pout I see there?” He kissed my bottom lip, sucking it into his mouth.
“No.” I smiled and took a deep breath. “Would you like to come over on Saturday and meet Daisy?”
His eyes flew wide open. “Really?”
“I thought that’s what you wanted?”
He chuckled, his lips pushing against my forehead again. “I had a whole arsenal of tricks to try to convince you.”
I met his gaze, my heart thrumming. “Well, I can’t have you keep turning up at the office, that was painful on every level. And anyway,” I lifted an eyebrow, “you’ll have a six-year-old to impress, so the fight isn’t over yet.”
A gentle knock came from the other side of the door and he groaned, his lips swiftly pressing into mine. “The Eurostar waits for no man, not even a prince.”
“As is right.” I wanted to wrap my arms around him and never let him leave.
He was gone too quick. In his place he left an aching wanting I didn’t know how to deal with.
Unknown territory had flourished into unknown everything.
Twenty
“Okay sit.”
Nana looked at me in confusion. Daisy was far better behaved. Her bottom instantly hit the kitchen chair.
Oh God. I needed to hurl.
The kitchen seemed too small.
The entire house couldn’t hold in my crazy.
And it was crazy—at the highest level.
“What is it, Leia? You look like you’re about to have a full-blown panic attack.”
I tried to calm myself down but sweat just seemed intent on gushing out of every pore on my skin.
“I’m trying.”
“Sweetie, what is the matter?” Nana actually looked like she might call an ambulance. Maybe they could take me to a hospital for people suffering with breaks from reality.
“Mummy?”
Daisy’s call seemed to calm me. I turned for her. The little bundle of blonde curls who constituted my entire existence.
“I’ve got a friend coming.”
Nana’s chin dropped so low it almost hit the table. “A friend?”
I turned so only she could see me and rolled my eyes.
“Okay. But that’s not what’s important here.” I needed to get to the important bit. I’d left it a little late. Maybe I should have started this conversation about half an hour ago. I’d thought short, sweet, and last minute would work in my favour—now I wasn’t so sure.
“And is this friend coming for coffee? Just stopping in for a chat?” Nana pushed.
“Mm.” I shrugged.
Daisy took control, bless her. “Mummy, is this a play date? Because you know the rules. It’s important to put away toys you don’t want to share.”
A wild burst of laughter thrust from my lips.
“So the thing is.” I pulled a face, more of a wince really. “I’d rather no one knew about the friend. It’s important to me that I don’t keep secrets from you both, but it’s also important no one else knows.”
Nana’s gaze sharpened. Daisy looked at me blankly.
The doorbell rang. I’d left it too late.
“Guys, please can you try to be cool?”
Nana looked affronted.
Leaving them in the kitchen, I walked to the front door. What I wanted to do was bang my head against the wall.
What had I been thinking?
Crazy. Stupid.
I opened the door to Bill who took one look at my face and then chuckled. “Miss Lawrence.”
“Honestly, do you never have a day off?”
“Not today. He didn’t want me to do this, but I do need to come in and sweep the place.”
I nodded and opened the door. My stomach dropped at the word he. “Sensible. The basement on this place is huge, I’d be able to keep him locked up for days.”
“That’s what he said.”
I harrumphed a nervous laugh.
Synchronised thoughts—dangerous. Crazy. Stupid.
I took him to the kitchen. Nana’s expression dropped, which told me all I needed to know. The old woman was a sharp as a brand-new carving knife.
Bill looked at the back door and the tiny garden it led to.
The air moved behind where I stood and I turned, my lungs exhaling an, “Oh.”
Because there he was. Bright and beautiful, filling the doorway to my small kitchen. Dressed in jeans and a faded blue T-shirt, with a casual jacket in his hand, he looked nothing like the man who’d served me smoked salmon in a private enclosure at the National Gallery, or had stood in my lounge days before, utterly gorgeous in his dark suit. How had he walked up the garden path without creating a mob effect? He’d told me that sometimes people didn’t believe he was places purely because they didn’t expect to see him. A trick of the light, a confused thought.
All I could hope was Mrs A was watching the telly and not staring out through the net curtains.
“You were supposed to wait until I gave the all clear,” Bill reprimanded; his tone dry.
“I prefer to keep you on your toes,” Oliver said as he stepped further into the room, turning his attention to Nana and Daisy. He gave them one of his widest smiles. “Hi. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Nana’s mouth hung open. “Uh.”
“Nana.” I hissed, glaring at her.
She fumbled for a moment and then got from her chair and bobbed a curtsey.
Oliver laughed, the delicious sound bouncing off my shabby kitchen cabinets. “Oh please. Don’t do that.” He reached forward and took her hand, giving it a warm shake. “You must be Nana.”
I’d never seen her lost for words.
My gaze dropped to Daisy who sat at the table frozen like a statue, those big blue eyes so wide they must have stung.
He stepped up and then dropped down onto his haunches so he was eye level with her. “And you are Princess Daisy?”
Nana stared at me, her expression one of complete shock. She may have had her wild theories, but clearly the truth of the situation had proved too much.
“You are Prince Oliver?” Daisy said to him.
He nodded, his smile genuine and with the capacity to smash my guarded heart to pieces. “I am. But I’d like to just be Oliver to you, if that’s okay?”
My breath caught as she nodded. “Not a prince?”
“It’s my day off from being a prince. Say, was that your Lego in the front room I saw?”
She nodded. “I’ve been trying to build a castle.”
“Ah, well I can help, if you want?”
She nodded and slipped from her chair. Straightening up, he flashed me a grin. “I’ve got to go and brush off my brick building skills. You don’t mind, do you?”
“Uh. No.”
The future king was in my house, to meet my daughter.
His eyes told me there was no other place he wanted to be.
Life as I knew it had officially ceased to exist.
Bill cleared his throat. “I’ll leave you to it.”
“Oh, Bill,” Oliver called him back and whispered something. Bill nodded, his gaze flickering to me before he turned for the door.
Oliver followed Daisy and I turned for Nana.
“I knew it.”
“Knew what?” I narrowed my gaze.
“Two dates in a week. It had to be someone truly special to make such an impact.”
“Nana, don’t get carried away.”
She shook her head but didn’t say anything else. “I’ll get out of your hair.”
“Don’t you want to stay?”
“Well yeah, hell I do. But this is a big thing for you and Daisy. I’ll see him next time he comes back.”
“What if there isn’t a next time?”
Nana laughed drily. “You are utterly ridiculous. You would never have let him in, prince or not, if you didn’t think there would be a second time.”
She wasn’t all wrong.
But then she wasn’t one hundred percent right. My control had begun to slip, and I didn’t know if I’d get it back.
“Leia.” She stepped closer, her fingers resting against my cheek. “I hope you are prepared for what this means.”
“For Daisy?” I hadn’t been able to sleep with the worry of it.
“No. For you. This won’t stay secret long.”
I nodded. I knew this. I could hope otherwise.
“I’ll say my goodbyes—to the prince.” She chortled to herself and shook her head, muttering something about, “Who’d believe it.”
I watched her go, then flicked the kettle on. Taking a deep breath, I turned for the door back into the lounge.
Oliver stretched out on the carpet laying on his tummy, a look of immense concentration on his face as he considered the wonky height of Daisy’s palace walls.
“I think this one needs to be moved,” he told her. “If we put a shorter wall in here it would be like an antechamber.”
“What’s an antechamber?” she asked him.
“Basically, it’s a room off a room. Palaces and castles have them, especially the older ones. It means that important conversations can take place away from where the rest of the people are gathered.”
“Oh. I didn’t know that.” Daisy’s attention flickered in my direction. “Mummy, we need an anteroom. Then you and Nana wouldn’t have to whisper in the kitchen.”
This kid.
Oliver’s eyes danced as he lifted them to me. “Come and sit, we need more master builders.”
Daisy gasped. “Like in the Lego Movie?”
“One of my favourites,” he told her.
My heart wouldn’t survive this. I knew that. I may as well give in and live in the moment. I folded myself to where they lay together. His fingers brushed mine, but he swiftly took them back into his own space. His gaze occasionally searching Daisy.
“Daisy, you know I’m rubbish at Lego.” I scowled at the pieces that never seemed to do anything useful when in my hands.
“Do you lack vision, Leia?” He might not have been touching me, but his voice reached me just like his touch would.
“Totally.”
I watched them work in silence for a while. Every so often he gave her a little hint, never pushing, never telling.
I had no precedent to compare this to.
How could I compare the way Oliver interacted with Daisy when I’d never let anyone else even close?
“Would you like a coffee? Tea?” I asked eventually when my blatant staring was becoming borderline stalkerish.
“Coffee would be good.”
I stared, narrowing my eyes at the bricks in his hand. Somehow he was using small bricks to make a round turret. How did you make a round shape with square bricks? I didn’t get it.
In the kitchen I searched for a mug that didn’t have a chip in it but then decided I doubted chipped china would have much of an impact on the situation. Eventually I chose one that Nana had got me at Christmas. In bright turquoise it said, ‘Bad Assy’.
“Everything okay?” The magnetic air between us flickered to life as soon as he came into the room.
“Yes, it’s great.”
Using a firm touch he turned me from the kitchen counter, so I faced him. “I’m trying to make this as natural as possible.”
“I know.” I smiled. “Really, I appreciate that. I know this is all very quick. I guess you didn’t expect to meet me and then a few weeks later be making Lego with my daughter.” I ducked an embarrassed glance at my feet.
“Leia.” The low whisper of my name churned my insides. “This was my idea. I know Daisy is your priority and I will do what it takes to make it right.” Leaning forward, he brushed his lips against my mouth. The monster woke instantly, clawing for more. “And anyway, I missed you, Paris had no beauty this week.”
My eyes fluttered closed. Daisy played in the next room. I shouldn’t be kissing in the kitchen. In the moment, I didn’t care. I wanted his taste on my tongue.
His hand ran along my jaw, tilting my mouth up to his. My breath caught waiting for the next press of his lips. When it didn’t arrive, I opened my eyes to find him watching me. “She looks like you; she has your eyes and smile.”
“Yeah, she does. She’s far more sensible than me though.”
“Ollie!” Daisy’s call came from the lounge and he dropped his hold on my face.
“You made her call you Ollie?”
“We are in the Builder’s Guild. It has to be first names only.”
I shook my head shaking away the crazy.
“I’m needed. My skills are sought after everywhere.”
“Go. I’d hate to stand in the way of your antechambers.”
His flash of a smile darted right between my legs.
I put the milk back in the fridge just as my phone rang. Molly. I almost dodged the call, but in the end I answered.
“Hey.”
“Just checking you were okay. You didn’t make it to the pub last night.”
Oh shit.
“Crap, Molly, I’m sorry. I had such a headache. I ended up going to bed early.” This was a lie. I’d gone to bed early, flustered and agitated, to make today happen all the sooner. That’s how desperate to see him I was.
“Leia. Are you okay? I know all that stuff with the press upset you, but I think in the grand scheme of things you got off quite lightly. It could have been worse.”
I peeped around the kitchen door and found Oliver and Daisy in a very serious conversation about where to put a flag.
“I know,” I whispered. “It could have been a lot worse.”
“Anyway, I guess you’ve seen the news about him having been witnessed being driven around London at random times of night. The gossipmongers are saying he’s sneaking off to see a new girlfriend.”
I nearly dropped the phone. “No. That doesn’t sound very princely behaviour. Did they say who?” I already knew they hadn’t mentioned my name. If they had there would have been far more screaming from Molly’s end of the line.
“Nope. Anyway, at least it means someone else will have the press hounding them now. Poor cow.”
“Yeah.” I didn’t have anything else to say.
“Do you want me to come over? We could take Daisy to the park.”
“Don’t you have some poor guy to get ready to devour later?”
“I do. But I’ve always got time for the swings.”
“It’s fine. I’ll see you Monday.”
“Leia?”
“Yep.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine. Go, enjoy your weekend.”
We disconnected the call and I picked up the mugs, turning to go to the lounge.
“Who was that?” Daisy asked as she pulled a brick out of Oliver’s hands and put it where she wanted it.
He watched me from under his dark lashes.
“It was Molly. She wanted to know if we’d like to go to the park.”
Daisy moved so fast she almost kicked over the castle. “I’d love to go to the park.”
“Ah, sweetie. We can’t do that today because Oliver is visiting us. Do you remember?”
She thought for a moment while Oliver watched us. “And no one can see us together?” she said.
“For now.” My answer was stiff. This was a pretty big secret to ask a six-year-old to keep.
“Well, if you want to go to the park, I might know one that we could visit,” Oliver added.
