my paleness and the way I was gripping the edge of my seat.
I turned to him, wide-eyed. “Gotta paper bag handy for some healthy hyperventilation?”
He laughed. “You made the bed, Cranberry. Time for us both to sleep in it.”
Gulp. And that was another thing. We were probably going to have to share a bed again while we were here. And, well… last time had almost led to spontaneous consummation of our nuptials.
He’d made it perfectly clear, though, that there would be none of that.
And it didn’t matter how great his butt looked in those jeans or the way that t-shirt hugged his well-developed biceps. Or the way those dark lash-fringed sleepy brown eyes watched me like he wanted to eat me up.
It wasn’t happening.
But a girl could fantasize, right?
We were greeted at the walkway to the house by a driver to park the car—God only knew where on this massive estate—and a butler. Yeah, that’s right a butler. Not just the main butler, but our own personal butler, apparently.
I elbowed Lucas on our way into the house as we followed our butler, Mr. Deleon, inside. “Why do we have a butler?”
“Because we’re in the guesthouse and that comes with a butler.” As if that’s just how it was, as if that was enough to get me to understand. And I did understand, more than I had at any other moment before this, that Lucas and I were from two completely different worlds.
I blinked. “Oh.”
Inside, we were formally received—for that is the only way I could put it in such a place as this—by Lucas’s mother and his sister, Julia. His father was out golfing, apparently.
A camera clicked incessantly as we approached the reception line. My mother-in-law leaned in and air-kissed me on both cheeks, her ring-bedecked hands resting lightly on my shoulders as if the material from my t-shirt might soil them. Her perfume wasn’t overwhelming but much stronger than I normally encountered. And she wore some type of designer pantsuit, full makeup and heels as if having stepped out of a board meeting instead of being on vacation.
“Ah, here they are at last!” The camera clicked some more and then one of the group near the photographer approached. She asked if Lucas’s mother would kiss me again so they could catch the angle from the other side.
I glanced at Lucas and he was staring at the group like they were Martians just landed in their flying saucer. So clearly this wasn’t a typical occurrence.
I mean, were they that over the moon that Lucas was here that they had to professionally document the occasion for all posterity?
“The prodigal son has arrived.” Julia enfolded her brother into a hug, grinning. “Time to kill the fatted calf.”
Elaine van den Hoehnsboek van Lynden turned a baleful glare and an arched eyebrow on her daughter. “Julia, please.” Her mother darted a pointed glance at the photographer and the other two who stood nearby, one of them scribbling notes onto her tablet with a stylus. Elaine turned to the woman taking notes and plastered on a wide smile. “She’s our little joker.” Then to Lucas and me she muttered under her breath. “Pay no attention to her.”
Elaine tilted her cheek up for an expectant kiss from her son, which he dutifully delivered.
Huh. My gaze bounced from Julia’s quiet amusement to Lucas’s stiffness to their mother’s cool formality. The Awkward was strong in this family.
Elaine raised her voice so she could be easily overheard. “I am so excited to put you both up in the Lover’s Villa. I hope you love it, Katharina.” Oh, yeah, Lucas had warned me about the full names thing. His mother did not believe in nicknames. She waved the group of three over. “This is Georgina Weldon and…” Elaine hesitated.
The new woman, Georgina, stepped in. She was short and stocky, mid-forties with a mop of short, curly brown and gray hair drooping onto her forehead, but shaved at the sides. “My photographer, Gary Spencer. And assistant, Sarah.” She pointed to the other two, a hipster-looking guy complete with beard and man-bun in his early twenties. Beside him stood a thin, college age girl with straight dark hair wearing a denim jacket over her mini-dress. “We’re so excited to work on the feature from New American Monthly periodical on your family reunion. It will be a long form article on nobility in America. And you’re the newlyweds! I’d love to get some time to do a short interview with you both.”