The Man's Outrageous Demands Page 0,56

changed. There were five of us that weekend. So all five of us spent the next four weekends in the library cranking out reports on various subjects.”

“Poor baby,” she laughed, not really feeling sorry for him. “And what happened to the girls?”

Sam looked down at her smiling face and shook his head. “I didn’t mention any girls.”

Marabeth laughed. “You didn’t have to. It is pretty much assumed with you. And I’m guessing birds of a feather and all so your friends all had girlfriends as well, didn’t they?”

Sam nodded. “Their parents were notified and they were punished but we weren’t told what happened since their parents forbade us to contact them again.”

“And did you?” she asked, wondering if he would fly in the face of direct orders or not.

“No.”

Marabeth gasped in mock horror. “You just let the girls flounder? What if they were really hurt by their punishments?”

Sam shook his head. “Since they were the ones that bragged that they were coming with us, therefore the headmaster of their school notified everyone else, at the time, I didn’t care if they were punished.”

“And now?”

“And now, if they did it again, I’d probably punish them myself,” he said.

“You’re awful,” she said.

“We’d better get back.”

“You’re right,” she said and pulled on the coat he offered to her. They drove back in silence, Marabeth thinking about the subject she really needed to talk to him about but wary of disrupting the companionable silence that had grown between them.

Back at the palace, he kissed her goodbye. “I wish I could spend the night in your bed,” he said. But it was already well past midnight and he knew that servants gossiped. “But I’ll leave you until tomorrow.”

Marabeth nodded. She was exhausted and smothered a yawn. “Good night,” she said and turned towards her room. Then she remembered what she wanted to talk to him about and turned back. “Sam?” she called out to his back. He stopped and turned back to her.

“Whats’ up princess?:”

Marabeth frowned, understanding that he called her princess when she was being more formal but only Marabeth when they were intimate. Or if he was encouraging her to let go and be more free with their intimacy. That thought bothered her. Didn’t he understand that she was both people? It was an entire package. “Will you meet me for lunch tomorrow? I need to talk to you,” she said.

Sam looked at her serious expression. Then nodded. “Anything you say.”

She turned back and headed into her rooms. Suddenly, she was wide awake, working out how she would tell him about her concerns over lunch. She stayed up late that night, working through the conversation, trying to come up with what he might argue with. It was almost dawn when she finally fell asleep.

Rushing into her office the following morning, Marabeth was out of breath. It was almost ten o’clock and she was embarrassed to be just walking in at this time of the morning.

“Good morning, Your Highness,” Stacy said, her bright smile dimming slightly when she saw the dark circles under Marabeth’s eyes. “Uh oh. Late night with our venerable Minister?” she asked.

“Not really,” Marabeth replied. It wasn’t the late night with Sam that had her in this condition. It was her sleepless night.

“Need some coffee?” Stacy asked.

“That would be wonderful,” Marabeth said, grateful for her secretary who was amazingly efficient as well as sensitive. “I’ll be in my office. Can you bring in the latest correspondence?” she asked.

“Sure thing,” Stacy Marabeth’s coffee.

said, heading towards the small little kitchen to get

A few minutes later, Stacy set the coffee down on Marabeth’s desk and the new letters in the middle. “Your Highness?” Stacy questioned when Marabeth just continued to look out the window.

“Oh!” Marabeth jumped. She glanced down at her desk, noticing the coffee and letters. “Thank you Stacy.”

When Marabeth didn’t immediately dive into work, Stacy sat down on the chair in front of her desk and waited. When a few more minutes passed and Marabeth still didn’t give out her usual morning instructions, Stacy cleared her throat.

Marabeth glanced at her secretary and flushed. “Sorry, Stacy,” she said and looked down again. She listelessly sifted through the envelopes but nothing really appealed to her. Finally, she glanced up and just shook her head. “I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing,” she explained.

Stacy relaxed her pencil hand and looked encouragingly at her boss. “Are you talking about right now? Or are you talking in general?”

“In general,” Marabeth confirmed. “Why do you think Sam wants