Royal Holiday - Jasmine Guillory Page 0,62
even care,” she said. “There’s so much in this room; I can’t wait to look at it all. What a wonderful surprise. Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome,” he said.
She loved how wide the smile on Malcolm’s face was.
Malcolm bent down and kissed Vivian before they walked on to see more of the jewels in the exhibit. He’d been worried, ever since she’d told that story about her ex-husband, that she’d feel compelled to fake excitement tonight. And he’d been even more worried that he wouldn’t be able to tell if she was excited for real or not. But he’d seen the way her eyes changed when they walked into the museum; he’d been able to tell she was confused and disappointed, even though the smile stayed on her lips. And when they’d walked into this room, he’d seen the wonder and delight and pure joy in them when she realized what surrounded them.
Vivian turned in a circle, her hands still clasped behind her back.
“You always do that with your hands—here, and at Sandringham House, and you did it at Buckingham Palace, too.”
She dropped her hands and laughed.
“Oh, that’s because I always desperately want to touch things in museums! I have to hold my hands together behind my back so I won’t be tempted.”
Malcolm laughed and took hold of her hand.
“Here we go. I’ll keep you from temptation.”
They spent the next hour and a half—George always had been a softy—walking around the exhibit, reading about everything there, and making quiet fun of some of the ugliest of the jewels.
“Some people really do have more money than sense,” Vivian said. “Why would you do that to those poor jewels?”
Malcolm laughed.
“Can you imagine actually wearing that thing? It would frighten children on the street!”
Vivian chuckled again. He loved that throaty laugh of hers—it seemed to bubble up out of nowhere and was so full of joy that it always made him laugh, too.
“On the other hand, that tiara is just majestic. It looks really heavy, but it’s gorgeous.”
She leaned her head against his shoulder, and he put his arm around her. They stood there like that for a while, until she turned toward him.
“Thank you for doing this for me,” she whispered, her hand on his cheek.
“Thank you for letting me do this for you,” he whispered back. And then he kissed her. He didn’t care that George would be back any second, or that video cameras were definitely on them, or that the security guard in the corner was watching them; all he cared about was her lips on his, her body against his, her breath melding with his.
Finally, they broke apart. He almost felt ridiculous about how much he was smiling, but he was too happy to do anything else. He reached for her hand.
“We ought to go soon; George has given us far more time than I asked for, and now I feel guilty about keeping him at work this late the week after Christmas.”
“No need to feel guilty!” George bounced over to them. “I’m going on holiday for three weeks in January; I needed to stay late anyway to get all of my work in order. Lost track of time tonight, but I’m sure you two made good use of it.”
Vivian looked around the room as they left it, almost like she was bidding the jewels farewell.
“We did. This exhibit is wonderful, and I can’t thank you enough for giving us this time with it. I enjoyed it so much.” She glanced from side to side as they walked out into the hallway. “I’m only upset we didn’t get a chance to see anything else in the museum. If this exhibit is here, I can only imagine what other surprises this place has in store.”
How did Vivian always know the exact right thing to say to everyone? George almost embraced her. He loved this museum so much, bless him.
“Would you like to see some of them? We have time for . . .” George looked at his watch, and his face fell. “Oh no, I’m supposed to meet my wife at nine, and it’s twenty to. Well, we have time to just walk through one of my favorite exhibits here.”
He took off at a trot. Malcolm hid his grin as they hurried to catch up with George. Good thing he’d made their dinner reservation for half past nine, even though their appointment with George was at seven. He knew George far too well to think he wouldn’t get distracted by