A Princess for Christmas - Jenny Holiday Page 0,80
giant shoelace, which suddenly brought to mind her other white lace-up dress, the one she’d been wearing the day they met. An expanse of bare back. Creamy skin damp with sweat and painted with goose bumps.
A coil of desire twisted inside him, sudden and sharp.
Okay, this wasn’t going to be so hard, after all.
She led him toward a seating area near a roaring fire. “We need to do some paperwork, I’m afraid.”
Huh?
She sat on the sofa and picked up a sheaf of papers that had been lying on the coffee table. “I need you to sign an NDA.”
Oh, hell, no. “What?” Also: there went the coil of desire.
“A nondisclosure agreement.”
“I know what it is,” he said peevishly.
“It’s merely a formality. We have to do them in all sorts of situations.”
“No.” Fuck that.
“I beg your pardon?”
“We do them in all sorts of situations? Who is ‘we’?”
That seemed to trip her up. She opened her mouth and closed it again.
“Well, I’m not signing it.” Something was spiraling inside him again, but it wasn’t lust this time.
Marie looked at him for a long moment. The fire had turned the light in the room a warm orange. She was glowing. She was gorgeous.
And he was pissed. Did she know him at all?
“There’s no reason to take it personally.”
“A nondisclosure agreement starts from the principle that I’m going to sell you out in some way. How do I not take that personally?” He didn’t have a lot in this world, but he did have his pride. And he wasn’t giving it up so easily. Even for a princess. Especially for a princess.
She followed. “You’re too honorable, Leo.”
Maybe so. If “too honorable” was even a thing. Regardless, a man had to hang on to what he had, and Leo didn’t have a hell of a lot. “You want me to fuck you like you’re a normal woman. Let me give you a little tip, Princess. I don’t normally sign NDAs before I hook up.”
She blinked. For a moment he felt bad, because she looked hurt.
But he was hurt, too.
He made an effort to gentle his tone, said, “Good night, Marie,” and left.
Leo set out while it was still dark the next morning, thankful that Gabby was occupied for the day.
He had spent a largely sleepless night contemplating his life. Because that, apparently, was what he did now.
He continued to ruminate as he hiked down the hill. Had he been wrong to refuse to sign that damn NDA? What harm would it have done? He wasn’t planning on selling Marie out in any way, shape, or form. He would never do that. So why wouldn’t he sign a piece of paper saying he would never do that?
He just . . . couldn’t. After all his mental wrangling, that had been his big conclusion. He couldn’t even articulate why.
Which only served to ratify his second conclusion: he didn’t belong here. He didn’t know how to waltz. He didn’t know anything about refugee policy. He still had trouble figuring out which fork to use. Those things—and NDAs—were part of a rarified world he was only visiting. He needed to not lose sight of that.
He was a guy who could build a log cabin, though.
So, apparently, was Kai. As Leo emerged into the clearing, Kai looked over from where he was standing, hands on hips, contemplating the cabin.
More importantly, next to Kai was a pile of perfectly straight, debarked logs.
“How did you get these here?” Leo had pondered the problem. The pathway that led to the clearing wasn’t big enough for a truck. And he’d been sure he would beat Kai here this morning—it was only six a.m. Yet here was Kai and a bunch of giant logs.
“Christmas magic,” Kai muttered grumpily.
“Well, thanks, man. I appreciate it.”
Kai didn’t say anything except, “Coffee?” He nodded at a large thermos.
“God, yes.” Leo’s early-morning departure from the palace—like Cinderella fleeing the ball, except instead of a ball it was a royal booty call gone bad—had not involved coffee.
Kai, who was drinking out of an enamel mug, poured some coffee into the lid of the thermos and handed it to Leo. “I have an appointment at two this afternoon, so I have to be done by one. I thought I’d get an early start.”
“You think we can finish the structure today?” There wasn’t much time before Leo and Gabby went home. And, before everything had gone to shit last night with Marie, he’d imagined the unveiling of the cabin as a sort of Christmas