by Lara Hunter
His lip twitched, but I couldn’t tell whether it was amusement or him clenching his jaw.
My heart sank. Clearly, he was angry at me. I wished he would just yell. It would make it so much easier than waiting for him to say something, knowing that it wasn’t going to be the words I wished he would.
“I think you and I are long overdue a chat,” Kasper said. His voice was even, and ran over me like a cool stream.
I gulped. “Are we?”
He nodded. In other words, he wanted to yell at me but didn’t want to do it in public. Of course not. How could he know if I’d brought reporters with me or not? That was what backstabbers did, wasn’t it?
“I was just on my way out,” I told him, pointing to my car.
“I know,” he replied. “Hence me chasing after you.”
I looked down at my feet to hide the small smile that bloomed in response to his dry retort. But I wasn’t going to back down. Prince Kasper didn’t want me, and it was time for me to go.
“I think the letter I left with Christopher will cover my side of the conversation for me.”
“Laurie.” His tone changed. It was darker, deeper—more commanding. “Please, join me inside. It’s cold out here, and there’s a fire in my study.”
My heart jumped. Snow. A roaring fire. Kasper.
I looked mournfully over to my car. I could still leave; it was probably a better idea, especially if he was just going to yell at me. That would ruin me. But I was curious, and I suspected that if I left now, I’d always wonder what he had wanted to talk about.
“Okay,” I said finally. “Let’s go have that chat.”
Kasper turned on his heel without another word. I followed him back inside the mansion, stripping off my warm layers before heading up the stairs.
The climb up to Kasper’s study felt like one of the longest ones of my life. He held the door open for me, and I stepped around him, trying not to get too close. I worried that if I did, I’d try to have one last sniff of his cologne.
Christopher was inside the office, still. He looked up from his seat at the desk in the corner. “Prince van Dijk,” he said warmly. “I thought you were taking the morning off.”
Kasper smiled. “I was. If you’ll please excuse us.”
Christopher glared daggers at me, but cleared the room expediently.
“Let’s sit by the fire,” Kasper said, gesturing over to the two armchairs in front of it.
I sat down demurely, looking into the flames to avoiding looking at Kasper. That task turned out to be nearly impossible. His long-legged form looked so regal in the armchair that I found it impossible not to look. He crossed one leg over the other and rested his chin on his fist, studying me.
He’s about to lay into me. Any second now.
But Kasper didn’t raise his voice when he spoke next. And the words he said surprised me, too.
“I must apologize for my recent absence. There was an emergency at home and I had to get back as quickly as possible.”
I clenched my jaw to avoid my mouth dropping open.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
Why isn’t he yelling at me? Why isn’t he angry? And why the hell is he apologizing?
“Better now,” he said calmly. “But my father had to go in for emergency surgery.” He leaned forward, letting his hands drop between his knees. “I wanted to tell you, Laurie, but my parents felt it would be best to keep the reason for my visit inside the family until things were a little more stable.”
“Of course. I understand,” I said.
I felt horrible. Kasper hadn’t left me in the lurch—he’d actually had a good reason for leaving.
“That’s not all.” A faint smile graced Kasper’s lips.
Here it comes. He’s going to tear me up about the tabloids.
“Laurie.” He leaned forward, taking my hand in his, and I froze.
“Yes?”
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you while I was gone,” he admitted. “All I wanted to do was come back here and see your smiling face. You’re such a breath of fresh air amongst all the rabble that I’m normally forced to contend with.”
Stunned, I tried to wrap around my head around what was happening. Not only did Kasper have a good reason to disappear unannounced, but he was sorry about it, and he’d thought about me while he was gone. That pretty much hit the nail on the head of something being too good to be true, right?
“Are you going to say anything?” he asked, his white teeth flashing through his smile. “You’re not normally so quiet.”
“I—I…” I cringed. “I messed up.”
Kasper cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean?” he asked, frowning slightly.
I pulled my hand back. He didn’t know. He would be furious when I told him—but I had to tell him.
“After the ball, all these people started coming around my apartment and asking me questions,” I said. “Reporters. They were reporters. But one of them pretended to be someone who worked for your family and he got a picture of me and they plastered it on the front of some sleazy tabloid and said that I was your girlfriend, and—”
Kasper reached out and pressed his finger to my lips, silencing me. He grinned. “I didn’t expect the words to come out quite so quick. I’ll have to be more careful what I wish for next time.” He winked.
If I hadn’t been sitting down, I might have fallen over.
“You’re not angry?” I asked, stunned.
Kasper gently removed my hand from my lap, pulling me toward him. “I’m not angry,” he repeated. His voice was cool and gentle, lulling me down from the edge.
“I don’t understand why you’re not upset,” I said. “Everybody thinks I sold our story. I didn’t. But I still feel awful about the way I acted in front of the press. I should have known better.”
Kasper watched me with kind eyes, stroking the back of my hand with his thumb. “You worry about too many things,” he said.
“You have no idea.”
Kasper chuckled. “That’s one of the things I like about you, you know.” He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it. His mouth was hot against my skin. It was everything I could do not to sigh happily.
“You like that I worry?”
He smiled. “I hate that you worry. If there’s a way to put you completely at ease, I’m going to find it. What I like about you, is that you’re so conscious of your actions.”
“I don’t understand.”
Kasper pushed up from the armchair, leading me over to the window. Outside, snowflakes drifted lazily down. The study window looked out over the back garden, which stretched so far into the distance I wondered if it ever ended.
In the winter, it didn’t look like much more than a collection of snow-frosted hedges and open green space. But in the summer? Every day the house was filled with the smells of lavender, honeysuckle, and pine. Sometimes on my break I’d go for a stroll in my bare feet, letting the grass tickle my toes as I explored the curling labyrinth of plantings. I would miss it.
“I bought this house for the garden. Did you know that?” Kasper asked.
I shook my head.
He placed his hands on my waist, then, stepping behind me. I wondered if he could feel the thudding of my heart through my back as he pressed up against me. His arms wound around my middle, his chin resting gently on the top of my head. I leaned back into him, surrounded by his warmth.
“My family own a few estates over here, and when I decided I wanted to live part-time in the US, my parents offered me one.”
His breath tickled the hair around my face and I smiled. Kasper held me tighter.
“But then, I heard of an old mansion going up for sale in upstate New York,” he said. “Nobody wanted to touch the place. The man who owned it had just died, and he’d been a bit of a shut-in. The house needed extensive repairs. Parts of it were falling to pieces. And the garden… Well. It was a mess.”
“How long did it take you to fix everyt
hing up?” I asked.
Kasper chuckled. “Longer than I’d care to admit. My mother had a fit when I told her I was buying what she called, a ‘dilapidated old murder house.’”
I gasped. “The owner was murdered?”
“Oh God, no,” Kasper replied, laughing. He moved his head to place a cheek against mine. “But my mother’s a superstitious southern belle if I’ve ever met one, and more dramatic than most actors I know.”
I laughed, leaning into Kasper. I didn’t know where this conversation was going, but so far, I didn’t truly care.
“Are you calling me a dilapidated old murder house?” I asked. “I’m not sure I’m on board with the metaphor.”
I felt Kasper smile behind me. “You’re not a dilapidated old murder house,” he assured me. “Do you know how many times I’ve caught you staring out the windows at the garden, though?”
“So I’m the reincarnated spirit of a dead billionaire?” I questioned. “Kasper, I’m sorry but I’m really not following.”
Kasper’s deep and throaty laugh rumbled through my back. He turned me to face him, keeping his arms wrapped around my waist.
I gazed up through my lashes at him, wondering if there was a way I could keep this moment as it was forever.
“Even after the house was redone, you stared out at the gardens. No one else does that. Christopher has told me more than once that I should subdivide and sell off parts of it. He says it’s useless.” He sighed. “What I’m trying to say, Laurie, is that you look at things differently. You look at me differently. You don’t care about what profit you can make from a person, or from a garden, but about how you can enrich them.”
He leaned in closer, and I smelled peppermint and soap. I leaned in a little closer, too.
“And that’s why I always lingered a little longer if I heard you approaching. I looked forward to coming back to the States after a visit home. And I lingered for hours when taking off my outer clothes, trying to pluck up the nerve to ask you to stay for dinner.”
My breath left me like somebody had punched me in the stomach.
“Kasper…” was all I managed to say. “That’s… Wow.” I bit my lip, not sure if I wanted to laugh or cry. “So, you’re not mad at me about the tabloid thing?”
He leaned into me, brushing his lips over the skin below my ear. “No, Laurie. I’m not upset with you.” His laugh tickled me, setting all my hairs on end. “The paparazzi have been hounding me my whole life. I’ve learned not to pay attention to anything they write.”
My heart felt like somebody had pumped it full of helium. It rose in my chest, threating to fly off into the universe. Kasper liked me. Kasper liked me a lot. I didn’t know what to do with this information.
“Now, there was another reason you came here, wasn’t there?”
Kasper released me and strolled over to his desk. The cold rushed in to fill the empty space, wrapping around me like chilly fingers.
“I came to quit,” I said.
“No,” he corrected, holding up the letter I’d handed Christopher. “You came to hand in your letter of resignation.”
I frowned. “But obviously I don’t need to do that now,” I said, stepping toward him. “We can just toss the letter in the fire and pretend it never happened.”
Kasper’s lips curled in a mischievous grin. “Why? Is there something in here you don’t want me to read?”
I bolted forward, attempting to snatch the letter from his grip, but he raised the letter far above my head just before I reached it.
“Kasper,” I groaned. “It’s a totally soppy letter I wrote when I was being a big sad face about you not being here… You really don’t want to read it.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Kasper said. “Now I’m especially interested.”
“Sadist,” I grumbled.
“You knew that already.”
I made a leap for the letter, but he pulled it just out of my reach at the last second. I jumped again, using a hand on his chest to help vault me up, and was surprised and impressed by his amazingly toned muscles.
In my momentary distraction, Kasper spun away from me and immediately began opening the letter. I stumbled around to the front of him, but he merely turned away again. I knew when it was time to give up.
“Fine,” I declared. “Read the letter. You and Christopher can have a good laugh about it later, I’m sure.”
I went over to the window to sulk while Kasper read the letter, but I was more nervous than upset. I could barely remember what I’d written in it, but I knew it wasn’t a standard resignation letter.
A couple minutes later, Kasper stepped back to the window and pulled my back to his chest again. His arms held me by my crossed arms.
“I hurt you,” he said. “And I’m sorry.”
“You already apologized,” I replied. “You don’t need to apologize again.”
“I do.” He sighed. “Sometimes I forget that the way I experience life is not the same for everyone. I should have realized the degree to which taking you to the ball might upset the balance of your life. I didn’t for a second think about what a person with no experience with the media might go through, being thrust into the limelight like that.”
God, it felt good to hear him say that. I hadn’t even realized how upset I was about the part he’d played in all of that.
“Thank you,” I said. “That means a lot.”
He kissed the top of my head. “You mean a lot.” He kissed my head again. “I accept, by the way.”
“Accept?” I craned my neck to look up at him. The light of the fire bathed half of his face in an orange glow. He looked like an angel.
“Your resignation,” he said. “I’ll be sad to lose you, of course, but I accept your resignation.”
I chuckled, tears forming at the corners of my eyes. “Why? Did you like having secret make out sessions with your maid?”
Kasper placed a warm, strong hand on the side of my face. “Perhaps I did,” he said. “But I’d actually like to offer you an alternative position.”
“And what’s that?”
He turned me to face him, leaning over until we were face to face. “I propose we have not-so-secret make out sessions,” he said. “The position I’d like to offer you, is as my girlfriend.”
That helium-balloon heart of mine just about popped from happiness. I couldn’t control the grin that spread over my face, threatening to eat up the rest of my features.
“I don’t know,” I said, biting my lip. “I’ve had problems with you as a boss before. How do I know you won’t take advantage of me?”
Kasper’s eyes lit up. “Oh,” he purred. “I promise, you have nothing to worry about, little worrywart.”
He pressed his lips to mine, then, and I was lost. Lost in his arms. Lost in my happiness. And though I didn’t accept his proposal until afterward, that kiss was our first as a couple. No worrying. No wondering. Just Kasper and me—and the swirling snowflakes outside.
NINETEEN
Three Months Later
“We’re going to be late!” I moaned, not for the first time that day.
Kasper, as usual, was unruffled. “You have to relax, darling. They’ll understand; it wasn’t our fault the flight was delayed.”
He threaded his fingers through mine, pulling me toward him until I was nestled beneath his arm. I let it hang heavy across my shoulders, as if it could hide me from what was about to come.
“You worry too much,” Kasper said, not for the first time that day.
“We’re going to be late and then they won’t like me!” I crowed. I looked out the window at the strange, flat landscape rolling past. “Can’t we just cut across a few of these fields?” I asked.
Kasper and Lucas, the driver of the town car, laughed. I glowered at both of them.
“Those fields are crisscrossed with dykes,” Kasper informed me. “So unless you feel like going swimming…”
I groaned and put my face in my hands. “No wo
nder California’s in a drought,” I said. “You people are hogging all the water. I swear, the Netherlands is literally half water.”
“Actually, our landmass is 18.4% water,” Lucas piped in from the front, his Dutch accent heavy.
I leaned back into Kasper’s arms, trying not to hyperventilate. “They’re going to blame me,” he said. “They’re going to blame the stupid American for making you late. And every Dutch person in the world is going to hate me from here on out.”