hard on the mouth. “Who bloody cares about Victoria?”
I frowned up at him. “You’ll bloody care when you’ve gone and wasted the time I’m here and you’re left with the exact same unprepared assistant you had when you dragged me back here.” Part of me knew I was throwing out a challenge of sorts to see his reaction, but I couldn’t help myself.
“Dragged you? Come off it. You wanted to come.” He dropped another kiss on my frowning lips.
“Bribed me?”
He settled onto his elbows, hovering above me. “Face it, you missed me.”
It was useless to deny it. “Be that as it may, you’ve hired me for a job and I won’t leave it unfinished.” He knew me well enough to understand my convictions.
“Then I hereby release you from the job of training Victoria. Can we get back to me biting your nipples now?”
Said nipples hardened at the mere thought, but I resisted. “You have a teleconference in twenty minutes.”
“Plenty of time.” He dove down and bit my jaw instead.
“And Victoria will be in my office waiting in ten. I don’t want her there alone any longer than necessary.” I did my best to keep the firmness in my tone but it was so hard with his tongue trailing down my neck.
“Are you afraid she’ll read your diary?” he asked against my skin.
“Something like that.” I moaned as he went lower, reconsidering the importance of his teleconference with National Defense.
He sucked one turgid nipple into his mouth and I gasped, holding his head to me until he released it with a pop and spoke to my breasts. “I can just sack her now instead of waiting until after the coronation if you’d prefer.”
I grinned at the notion until the last part of his comment registered and my fingers froze in his hair. “What is that supposed to mean?”
He dropped a kiss between my breasts, completely unbothered until a few seconds later when he stilled.
“Malcolm, are you intending to sack Victoria?” I asked to the top of his head.
He raised his eyes to me and they looked half drunk. “You called me Malcolm instead of sir.”
I firmed my voice and exhaled hard. “Malcolm.” It wasn’t as if I loved the thought of Victoria spending every day with Malcolm in my place, but I’d obviously assumed she’d be staying on. Why else was I training her?
His nose wrinkled while his chin settled in the spot he’d just kissed. “Now I’m not so sure I like it if you’re going to say it like that.”
I squirmed out from under him, shoving him by the shoulders and sitting up, sheet pulled up to cover my body again.
Malcolm collapsed back onto his pillow, the remaining bit of sheet barely covering him. “Fine. Yes, I’m sacking Victoria.”
My head shook in confusion. “Then why ask me to train her?”
“I had to get you here on some pretense or other.” His hands flung up in frustration.
“And being honest about your little issue was unfathomable?”
He turned his head and looked up at me from his pillow. “I wasn’t ready.”
I could admit it might have been hard to show up on my doorstep and lay this personal issue at my feet. “So, what will you do about an assistant when you sack her? Has the queen arranged something else? Is Alec leaving your father to assist you?” Alec had been with the king for years. I couldn’t imagine him agreeing to a switch now, especially with the king’s condition so precarious.
Malcolm sighed, still looking me in the eye. Then he smiled and said, “I rather thought I’d convince you to stay on.”
“Me?” I couldn’t help my surprise.
“You must admit we get on famously.” He rolled to his side and reached out to caress my knee where it lay exposed by the sheet in my hands. But this touch didn’t feel at all like the others. It didn’t make my stomach swirl with butterflies or my skin buzz with attraction. Because I’d just understood what had been going on since my return.
I swallowed hard and promised myself I wouldn’t cry. “Was that what the breakfast and the riding and the lovely coriander were all about?”
Appearing to comprehend a shift in the air, Malcolm sat up. “Your happiness matters to me, Alice.”
My happiness mattered to him. What was that supposed to mean? Wait. If he’d been doing thoughtful things for me to ensure my contentment and coax me into staying on to work for him, had he…? The blood drained from my face