“Yes.”
“These are interesting women, Aramis. Beautiful women. Smart, and funny, and totally would fit the role of being your partner. Most of them are already in the limelight.”
“I’m not interested.”
I searched his eyes as he searched mine and I knew he was serious, I just didn’t understand why. He loved women. Loved to date, loved to charm the panties off of women, literally, so why not date these?
“I’m going to send you the list and you can let me know which ones you approve of,” I said.
“Why don’t we go through the list together?”
“That’s fine.”
“Maybe you should set up interviews and sit with me in the room while I ask questions.”
“Sure.” I frowned.
“Really? You don’t think any of this is bullshit?” He scoffed. “I’m supposed to find love in a list and perform interviews?”
“In all fairness, they didn’t say you needed to find love.”
“Right. Just a woman who could save my reputation and keep me out of trouble.”
“I know it sounds awful. Trust me, I get why you want to avoid all of it, but The Crown can’t afford any bad press right now and while Elias and Addie having a baby is taking a lot of the attention, it’s a double-edged sword for you. Your younger sister is getting married, your older brother is having a baby, and guess who the attention is going to fall on when those things happen?”
“I hate this.” He glanced away. “I never asked to be born a prince.”
“You’re right. You didn’t. You loved reaping all of the benefits of it up until this point though. You need to step up. You’ll be fine.” I offered him a small smile. “I think this is the first civil conversation we’ve ever had.”
“We have civil conversations all the time.”
“Do we? I feel like we’re always arguing.”
“You call that arguing?” He smiled. “I call it foreplay.”
My heart skipped. “I prefer my foreplay to be a little more physical.”
“I can arrange that.”
“No. You can’t.” I shot him a look as I stepped forward to open the door, reminding myself to keep breathing, that he didn’t mean any of this. Aramis was only always trying to get a rise out of me. “I’ll send you the list. We’ll go over it tomorrow.”
“Tonight.”
“Fine. Tonight.” I opened the door and stepped outside. He stepped out right behind me, so close I could feel his warmth on my back.
“In your cottage,” he said, low and in my ear.
“That’s fine.” I smiled at Adeline, who was wearing a coat that swallowed up her pregnant belly. “Come by, but you better bring me wine.”
“Joss.” Adeline walked toward me with open arms. I wrapped my arms around her as best I could without squeezing her belly. “You made it.”
“Of course I did.” I pulled away, setting my hands on her bump and smiling. “You’ve grown so much in just two weeks.”
“I know. My feet know it, too.” Addie sighed. “I was just telling Eli that I don’t think I can sleep upstairs. Just thinking about stairs makes me winded.”
“I already told Yarra to set up the cottage for us,” Elias said behind her. I instantly let go of Addie’s bump and dropped into a small curtsy to greet him. He rolled his eyes. “No one is around, Joslyn. You don’t have to do that right now.”
“We all have to do it, brother,” Aramis said, bowing before stepping in closer.
“Aramis is right. All of us need to do it whether or not people are around. It’s the only way we won’t forget to when they are. Besides, you’re the King and Queen. You need to learn to stop acting like commoners,” their mother said.
Adeline turned her back and rolled her eyes as she looked at me. I bit my lip to keep from laughing.
“The year is 2020, Mother,” Pilar said, walking over and giving me a hug, followed by her fiancé Benjamin Drake. “I’m freezing my butt off. Where are the carts?”
“They should be here soon,” Elias said.
“You were the one who forced us to come outside so that you could point out dead flowers,” Benjamin said, shaking his head. “As if you’re not responsible for killing all of our plants.”
“First of all, your ex-fiancée gave me two orchids in the middle of winter, so if anything, we need to blame her for this,” Pilar said. “It’s not my fault I don’t have a green thumb.”
“Can we just get back inside while we wait?” the Queen Mother said. “It really is unpleasantly cold today.”
“They say we may get a storm this weekend,” Ben added.
“A snowstorm?” Addie asked, gasping.
“Don’t worry. All of the cottages have generators,” Eli said. “And we have everything we need in them.”
It was true. Eli made it a point to build the cottages as small apartments, equipped with kitchens, bathrooms, guest areas, and bedrooms. Add to that the service people who were constantly around to clean and bring food, it was like staying at one of the best resorts. As we walked inside, Addie informed us that we’d be given an itinerary of events while we were here. It was nothing major, she said, but the list would serve as something we could use so that we don’t stay cooped up in our respective cottages and actually spend time together, which was what this holiday was supposed to be for. Because it was Christmas, we’d brought along wrapped presents that were being deposited beneath one of the trees in the palace.