by Cate Remy
His laptop produced a low dulcet tone. Someone was calling to video chat with him. He hit the pause button on the television remote and opened his laptop on the couch beside him. He was getting an incoming call from a secure line from Severn. He clicked on the button to accept the call.
The screen opened to show a grainy image of his father. The image gradually came into focus until Donovan could see the king’s familiar stern face. “My son. I didn’t think you’d be up at this hour.”
Donovan checked the time. It was after midnight in Atlanta and just past six in the morning in Severn. “I’ve been having a little trouble adjusting to the time here.”
“Well, I received your weekly report.”
He sat up on the couch and put the laptop on the coffee table. “Are you satisfied with the timetable I have for the contractors?”
“I was actually surprised you were able to start work on the hotel this week.”
“You shouldn’t be, father. I meant what I said about getting things done.”
His father neither nodded or smiled. “Your mother and I watched your press conference. She thinks you handled yourself well.”
What did his father think? He wanted to know, but knew he shouldn’t bother asking. “Is mother doing well?”
“She’s getting a chance to work in her garden. She’s still asleep. I’ll let her know you asked about her.”
“I’ll send another report next week.”
“See that you do. And Donovan, you’ll need to assess our other Kleghorn Hotel in Harper, Georgia.”
Donovan meant to visit the other hotel. Work was so extensive for the bigger one in Atlanta that he wasn’t able to get around to it yet. “It’s on my agenda.”
“Excellent. I want to hear about it next week. Goodnight.”
He closed the laptop. Looks like he was going to be out of town next week, whether he planned to originally or not. He’d wait to tell Shae in the morning. He picked up the remote and unpaused the television.
The previously recorded coverage showed Shae walking out of the room, her low ponytail swinging behind her. He remembered how soft her hair felt when he touched it to move it off her shoulder.
Donovan turned off the television. He didn’t need to think about Shae’s hair. Or her laugh. Or her sweet smile. They had a job to complete. Whatever he did, he couldn’t get sidetracked.
That was the old Donovan. He was a new man.
Chapter Eleven
“We’re going to Harper when? Next Monday?”
Shae stood in her office across from Donovan. She barely walked in the hotel and put her large coffee mug on the desk when he came in and announced the news.
“I need to look at their revenue and see what work needs to be done in that hotel,” he explained.
“How long would we be gone?”
“One week. Have you been there before?”
“Once on a girls trip in college. It’s about an hour’s drive.”
“You can drive home every night if you want, but feel free to reserve yourself a room at the hotel. It’ll save you a commute.”
She wasn’t sure she could juggle more with the current hotel project. Just this morning Donovan emailed her a list of guests he wanted to invite to the gala. She told herself to remain positive. Maybe there wasn’t a lot that had to be done for the Harper location. “I’ll call the hotel after I meet with a graphic designer to make the invitation.”
“This will be a good trip. You’ll be paid for the extra travel hours and expenses.”
Shae plowed through the Saturday morning meeting with the graphic designer. They settled on a fun Art Deco design for the gala invitations. Then she got to work on her next task, calling the Kleghorn in Harper to make reservations. Donovan sat in the office with her while she talked on speaker. “You need to plan for tight security,” she explained to the Harper Kleghorn manager over the phone. “Prince Donovan from Severn is coming.”
“Are you kidding? This is great. He’d be our most famous guest in years.” The manager gushed for a whole minute.
Donovan spoke up. “Harper has a sister city in Severn, dating back from when Americans gave our country aid in World War II. I look forward to my visit.”
Shae let the manager of the other hotel ask Donovan questions about his preferences for food and things he wanted in the room upon arrival.
“Please don’t go out of your way for me. This is for work purposes.”
Shae intervened. “There are some standard requirements. I’ll let you speak with the prince’s security detail so you can coordinate.” She provided him with the number to reach Giles and Murphy and transferred the line to them. She hung up the phone. “Reservations, check. What next?”
“See if we can schedule a couple meetings with Harper’s local contractors on Monday. I want to hit the ground running as soon I get there.” Donovan typed something in his laptop and carried it over to her desk. “Here’s a list I started of people I think can do the job.”
He leaned over her as he spoke. His arm brushed against hers. Shae experienced that little tingle again. This time it moved through her shoulder and down her spine. She lifted her ponytail off her neck. “Ouch.” She felt a little tug on her scalp. Her hair got caught in one of the buttons near her jacket collar.
“Here, allow me.” Donovan leaned across.
“It’s okay. I got it.” She tried to move her head to see where she needed to work the hair loose. It got further entangled.
“Your hair’s caught at a weird angle. It’s easier for me to see.”
She allowed him to help. His fingers touched the side of her face while he untangled the few strands that wrapped themselves around the button. Once again, she got a physical, almost electric response when his skin came into contact with hers.
“There you are.” He freed her ponytail from the captive button. His eyes lingered on her face.
Shae looked back at him for several moments. Then she blinked, looked down and saw his fingers caressing the ends of her hair. “You’re still holding my ponytail,” she remarked, quietly.
He appeared to not realize until she said something. “Right. Sorry.” He released her hair, but not before brushing it behind her back. “I’ll send the list to you in the cloud. Let me know what you think of it.” He walked out of the office.
Donovan was gone from the room, but Shae continued to feel his energy. Also his touch. She opened her laptop to bring up the saved list, expecting to distract herself from thinking of the brief encounter in the office. She didn’t want to make a big deal about it.
The prince was by all standards a very hot guy. However, she started to think her reaction to him started to go a little more past admiration of his good looks. Had Chelsea been right about her after all? Was she attracted to Donovan?
On Sunday, Shae packed for her week-long trip. Her roommate came home from seeing a matinee to find her folding clothes in a suitcase. “Off on your honeymoon, already?”
Shae fiddled with a button on one of her uniform blouses. “I have to go on a business trip. I’ll be gone all week so you have the apartment to yourself.”
Chelsea reached in the fridge for iced tea. “Where are you going, Cancun? The Maldives?”
“Chels, stop teasing. It’s just a work trip, alright? I’m going down the road to Harper.”
She popped the lid off the glass bottle. “Small towns can be romantic, especially with Prince Charming.”
“I wish you’d stop, and don’t talk like that to anyone else about Donovan.”
“Whoa, yes, ma’am. What’s gotten into you?”
Shae closed the flap of her suitcase with a huff. “I shouldn’t have snapped. I’ve been stressed from work and school.” She applied pressure to the suitcase so she could zip it up. “I’ve got a lot on my plate.”
“I’ll say. Darling Donovan can help you shoulder the burden.” Her roommate plopped down on the couch. “Darling Donovan, hmm. There’s a new hashtag.”
“Chelsea, I have to be discreet for my job. It looks bad if my roommate goes off and adds to the social media feeds.”
“I haven’t told a soul about your new business partner, but thanks for the vote of confidence.” She got up from the couch and went to her room.
Shae sighed and left her suitcase in the living room to go apologize to her roommate. Pop music came on before she could knock on Chelsea’s door. Chelsea was not up to talking at the moment.
Shae returned to the living room. She’d speak to her roommate later. When she came back in a week, Chelsea would’ve cooled off.
And maybe she would’ve cooled off, too, and stop thinking about Donovan’s hands in her hair or on her arm. He was going to his country in a little over a month. The best thing for her to do in the meantime was keep her head low and finish the job.
Keeping her hair from getting stuck in buttons wasn’t a bad idea, either.
The next week went by in a flash. Shae got in Donovan’s car and they made the drive down to Harper. Giles and Murphy followed on the highway.
The staff at the Kleghorn hotel in Harper fell over themselves when it came to Donovan. Shae observed how they took instructions from him. The hotel was smaller than the one in Atlanta, so walking through the building to find where improvements could be made was faster and much easier.
She sat down in meetings where Donovan discussed changes he wanted done. They scheduled a timeframe for contractors to go in and update the hotel room fixtures and Wifi access. She came up with a spreadsheet for them to keep track of projects and their progress. Donovan promised to come back before it was time for him to leave the country to see if the updates were made.
Next on the agenda, she visited some town tourist attractions with him, including Harper’s retro-inspired diner and the historic park. On Friday, their last day in Harper, the mayor of the town came out to the hotel to meet Donovan and awarded him a ceremonial key to the city.
“In honor of the bond between our countries and the sister cities of Harper, Georgia and Trepal, Severn, we wish to bestow this as our token of esteem and friendship.”
Shae stood off to the side while Donovan posed for pictures with the mayor. The local media had a field day taking snapshots and recording his speech in the ballroom. Shae proceeded to hang in the background while he chatted and joked with them.
“You can’t give me all the credit. My associate Shae Lawson has been handling all the important details.”
The spotlight came on her. She smiled for the crowd and tried to take the attention off herself by further retreating. Donovan parted from the mayor and came to stand beside her for more pictures. He put his hand on her back while the cameras clicked and snapped away.
“Don’t be shy,” he said, keeping his lips relatively still to maintain a pleasant expression for the camera. He had far more practice at it than she did. “They’re celebrating your work, too.”
She remained there with him until the photographers got all the pictures they wanted. Then it was time to leave for Atlanta.
Shae checked her phone while Donovan drove on the I-75. Her roommate sent her text after text of screenshots showing her and the prince with the mayor of Harper. She sent the last picture with a caption: You’re going viral! OMG!
“Who’s blowing up your phone?”
“My roommate saw our pictures online.”
“There’ll be more at the gala in October.”
“Don’t encourage her.”
Donovan passed a sign that indicated Atlanta was thirty miles away. “Tell you what, everyone at home would admire those photos we took today in Harper.”
“That’s good.” If the pictures showed his family how hard they were working to revamp the hotels, then she could be alright with them going viral online.
“Absolutely,” he went on praising the pictures. “Classy and understated. The guy with the silly grin and mop of red hair isn’t too bad, either.”
She gave him a sideways glance. Was he being friendly or flirty? Shae pondered if she was reading too much into it.
They arrived in Atlanta at seven, just after most of the evening rush hour traffic ended. Donovan took her to her apartment. “We’re planning the gala from here on out.”
She grabbed her purse off the floorboard. “I’ll get the entertainment lineup together next week.”
Giles jumped out of the other car to grab her luggage out of the trunk of Donovan’s car. She saw apartment residents on the grounds, tossing a volleyball and having a cookout. She guessed Donavan’s security didn’t want attention drawn to him. “Anything else you want me to do?” she asked as she got out of the car.
“Yes. Get some rest this weekend. Things are going to get busier between now and October.”
She shut the door. Busier before Donovan had to leave. She felt a little tug of disappointment as she walked to her apartment. Why was she thinking about him leaving and getting bummed out about it? This wasn’t professional. She had to get her head together and get rid of this unexpected, ridiculous case of royal fever before it got worse.
Chapter Twelve
Six weeks later
Shae ran from out of the hotel kitchen into the ballroom, holding the skirt of her rented purple evening dress. “Do we need more shrimp cocktail?”
She counted the tables in the room, draped in white cloth. So far the kitchen made enough for all but five of those tables. “Never mind,” she told hotel staff helping her set up the ballroom. “I see we need five more.”
She padded back into the kitchen in her black lace-up shoes. No way was she switching to heels until it was absolutely time for the gala to begin. All day, she went back and forth between the ballroom and the kitchen. She and the hotel staff worked since five in the morning to get everything ready for the guests. It was a miracle she found ten whole minutes to change into her dress before the gala started.
She reached the kitchen door and jumped out of the way just in the nick of time before two servers came out bearing a punchbowl big enough to for a small child to splash in. She ducked inside the kitchen and found Giraldo at the front. “Giraldo, we have five more tables that need shrimp cocktail.”
“We’ll get right on it.” The chef checked out her dress and gave her a thumbs up. “Fancy. Shae, you better get out of here before you trip on a puddle of grease.”
“I’m just here to check on the final details.”
“We have it covered. Go. And change out of those shoes. My mother would have a heart attack if she saw you wearing them with an evening gown.”
“Alright, alight, I’m leaving.” Shae chuckled. Giraldo’s mother worked as a sales associate at Trina’s, a trendy Atlanta boutique. Thanks to her, she was able to get one of the store’s beautiful designs to rent at a discount. “Tell your mom I owe her a peach mimosa next time she visits the hotel lounge.”
She checked the time on her phone. Ten minutes until guests would start to arrive. She dashed inside her office to get her dress shoes. She spent eight minutes touching up her makeup and taking her hair down from its bun to comb out. She finished with hairspray to make it settle in place.
“Shae, are you in there?” Donovan spoke from outside her door.
She dropped the can of hairspray on the desk. “Yes, you can come in. Give me one second.” She hurried to pick up the can.
He gave her a literal second before pushing the door open the rest of the way. He entered, wearing a slim fit tuxedo and bowtie. “I was looking for you in…” He started coughing when he came up to her desk.
Shae opened a drawer and stashed the can in a desk drawer. “I didn’t mean for you to walk in while I was setting my hair.”
Donovan fanned the air around him until the white micro droplets dissipated. “It’s fine. I’ve always wondered what the backstage of an eighties movie was like.”
She tried to contain a laugh, but it came out on her face as a smirk. “It’s not hairspray. It’s setting spray. There’s a difference. One is tou
chable.”
“Is that right?” His eyes followed her hand as she fluffed out the ends of her hair.
Shae got to her feet. “I’m ready to go out there.”
Donovan took his time gazing at her dress. “Wow. You look amazing.”
When he gave her the compliment, her hair started to tickle her neck. This was why she didn’t want to wear it down all the time. “Thank you. James Bond has nothing on you tonight.”
“Oh, I don’t know. A fancy car, cool gadgets, and an element of danger are pretty hard to top.”
“You know what they say. Two out of three ain’t bad.” Shae sealed her lips. What in the world did she just utter? “Excuse me. That made no sense.”
He held her in his gaze. “I think it did. I’m going to enjoy guessing which two you’re talking about.”
“I should leave the humor to you.” She went from around the desk. “Before I go and say something else off the wall.”
She stopped in front of him. She felt the familiar electric intensity in the air whenever he was near. Hovering, stretched tight as a rubber band just before it was ready to snap. Donovan took a step towards her. She moved forward. She was close enough to see the faint trace of freckles across his nose. Then, without warning, she felt an inclination from within. She leaned more into the space between them. Donovan sealed the space when he closed his mouth on hers in a heated kiss.
Shae felt a current run through her body as his lips pressed against hers. His beard scraped gently against her chin as he switched angles. He put his hand on her waist and supported her frame while she splayed her hands against his lapels.
Murmuring from outside reached her ears. He must have heard it, too. She felt him straighten and withdraw.
“Shae, I-”
“No, I-” She paused. They were both talking at once. She let him go first.