Christmas with the Prince

by Michelle Celmer

  Even though he didn’t think of her any differently than a duchess or debutante, she was probably right in believing other people would.

  It wasn’t fair, but it was just the way the world worked. No point in making this any more complicated than necessary.

  “They won’t hear a word about it from me,” he told her.

  “Thank you.”

  “Now,” he said with a grin, “where were we?” He pulled her down for a kiss, but just as their lips met, his cell phone began to ring. “Ignore it.”

  “What if it’s something about your father?”

  She was right of course. He mumbled a curse and leaned over the edge of the bed to grab it from the floor. He looked at the display and saw that it was Chris. He answered with an irritated, “What?”

  “Sorry to wake you, but we need you in the security office.”

  He didn’t tell him that he hadn’t been sleeping. And that he had no intention of sleeping for quite some time. He and Liv weren’t even close to being finished. “It can’t wait until morning?”

  “Unfortunately, no. Besides, you wouldn’t want to pass up the opportunity to say I told you so.”

  Eleven

  T he Gingerbread Man, as he liked to call himself, was back in business.

  Posing as hospital housekeeping staff, he’d made it as far as the royal family’s private waiting room. Hours after he was gone, security found the chilling calling card he’d left behind. An envelope full of photographs of Aaron and his siblings that the Gingerbread Man had taken in various places. The girls shopping in Paris, and one of Chris taken through the office window of a building where he’d recently had a meeting with local merchants. Every shot of Aaron showed him with a different woman.

  It wasn’t a direct threat, but the implication was clear. He was watching them, and despite all of their security, they were vulnerable. And either he’d gotten bolder or he’d made a critical error, because he’d let himself be caught on the hospital surveillance. Aaron stood in the security office with Chris watching the grainy image from the surveillance tape.

  “How in the hell did he get so close to the king?” Aaron asked.

  “His ID checked out,” Randal Jenkins, their head of security, told him. “He must have either stolen a badge from another employee or fabricated one. He never actually looks up at the camera, so he may be difficult to identify.”

  “We need to tighten down security at the hospital,” Chris told him.

  “Already done, sir.”

  “The king knows?” Aaron asked.

  “He and the queen were informed immediately as a precaution,” Jenkins said. “The London police are involved, as well. They’re talking with the hospital staff to see if anyone remembers him, and they’re suggesting we take the news public, run the security tape on television in hope that someone will recognize him.”

  “What do you think?” Aaron asked his brother. “Personally, I’d like to see this lunatic behind bars, but it’s your call.”

  “Take it to the public,” Chris told Jenkins. “And until we catch him, no one will leave the castle without a full security detail, and we’ll limit any unnecessary travel or personal appearances.”

  “That will be difficult with the holidays approaching,” Aaron said. “Christmas is barely a month away.”

  “I’m confident that by then he’ll be in custody,” Chris said.

  Aaron wished he shared that confidence, but he had the feeling that it wouldn’t be that easy.

  Though Aaron assured her that the king was fine and it was nothing more than a security issue that needed his attention, Liv tossed and turned, sleeping fitfully. She roused at 5:00 a.m. so completely awake that she figured she might as well get to work.

  The castle was still dark and quiet, but the kitchen was bustling with activity.

  “Getting an early start, miss?” Geoffrey asked, sounding almost…friendly.

  “I couldn’t sleep,” she told him.

  “Shall I bring you coffee?”

  Was he actually being nice to her? “Yes, please. If it’s no trouble.”

  He nodded. “I’ll be down shortly.”

  Liv headed down the stairs, grinning like an idiot. Though it shouldn’t have mattered what Geoffrey thought of her, she couldn’t help but feel accepted somehow, as if she’d gained access to the secret club.

  As she rounded the corner to the lab door, she stopped abruptly and the smile slipped from her face. She distinctly remembered turning out the lights last night before going up for dinner. Now they were blazing. The assistant, a mousy young girl from the university, didn’t have a code for the door. As far as Liv knew, no one but herself, Aaron, Geoffrey and the security office had access, and she couldn’t imagine what business they might have down there.

  She approached the door cautiously, peering through the window. As far as she could see, there was no one there. So why did she have the eerie sensation she was being watched?

  “Problem, miss?”

  Liv screeched with surprise and spun around, her backpack flying off her shoulder and landing with a thud on the ground. Geoffrey stood behind her carrying a tray with her coffee.

  She slapped a hand over her frantically beating heart. “You scared me half to death!”

  “Something wrong with the door?” he inquired, looking mildly amused, the first real emotion she had ever seen him show.

  “Do you know if anyone was down here last night?” she asked.

  “Not that I’m aware of.” He stepped past her and punched in his code. The door clicked open and he stepped inside. Liv grabbed her backpack and cautiously followed him.

  “I know I turned out the lights when I left last night, but they were on when I came down.”

  “Maybe you forgot.” He set the coffee down on the table beside her desk.

  When she saw the surface of her desk, she gasped.

  He turned, regarding her curiously. “Something wrong, miss?”

  “My desk,” she said. The papers and files that had been strewn everywhere were now all stacked in neat piles. “Someone straightened it.”

  “They’re just trying to get your attention,” he said, pouring her a cup of coffee.

  “Who?” Had someone been snooping down there?

  “The spirits.”

  Spirits?

  She had to resist rolling her eyes. It surprised her that a man as seemingly logical as the butler would buy in to that otherwordly garbage. “I don’t believe in ghosts.”

  “All the more reason for them to ruffle your feathers. But you needn’t worry, they’re perfectly harmless.”

  It would explain how the door kept opening on its own, when security claimed the log had shown no record of the keypad being used, and maintenance had found nothing amiss with the controls. Yet she still believed it was far more likely that someone was messing with her head or trying to frighten her. Maybe even Geoffrey?

  But why?

  “Shall I call you for breakfast?” Geoffrey asked.

  “I think I’ll skip it,” she said.

  Geoffrey nodded politely, then let himself out of the lab.

  Liv wasn’t exactly looking forward to facing Aaron’s family again. What if someone else had figured out how she’d done so well at poker? Or even worse, what if they knew Aaron had been in her room last night?

  If it were possible, she would stay holed up in her lab until the day she was able to go home to the States.

  She took her computer out of her backpack and booted it up. As she did every morning, she checked her e-mail first and among the usual spam the filter always missed, she was surprised to find a message from William. There was no subject, and the body of the e-mail said simply, Just checking your progress. That was it. Nothing personal like, How are you? Or, Have you made a decision yet?

  She was going to have to tell him that she couldn’t marry him. Let him down easy. She would be honest and explain that she just wasn’t ready to marry anyone yet, and hope t
hat it wouldn’t affect their friendship or their working relationship.

  But she couldn’t do it through e-mail; that would be far too impersonal, and she hadn’t yet worked up the nerve to call him. Maybe it would be better if she waited until she flew home and did it face-to-face.

  But was it really fair to string him along? If he knew what she’d been up to last night…

  A pleasant little shiver tingled through her body when she recalled the way Aaron had touched her last night. The way he’d driven her mad with his hands and his mouth. Just thinking about it made her feel warm all over. Even though deep down something was telling her that she would end up regretting it, that she was way out of her league and headed for imminent disaster, she could hardly wait to be alone with him again.

  Maybe last night was a total fluke and the next time they had sex it would only be so-so, even though she doubted it. If she kept thinking about it, about him, she wouldn’t get a thing done today.

  She answered William’s mail with an equally impersonal rundown of her progress so far, and asked him to please go over the data she planned to send him later that afternoon—a fresh eye never hurt—then she got back to work analyzing the samples her assistant had taken yesterday.

  Although she usually became engrossed in her work, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched, and kept looking over to the door. The window wasn’t more than ten-by-ten inches square, but a few times she could swear she saw the shadow of a figure just outside. Was it possible that Aaron or one of his siblings had someone keeping an eye on her? What did they think she might be doing down there, other than saving their country from agricultural devastation?

  Or maybe it was just her mind playing tricks.

  Some time later she heard the sound of the door clicking open, and thought, Here we go again. She was relieved when she heard footsteps moving in her direction. Assuming it was probably Geoffrey fetching the empty coffee carafe, she paid no attention, until she felt a rush of cool air brush past her and the unmistakable weight of a hand on her shoulder. She realized it had to be Aaron, there to say good morning. She pried herself away from her computer and spun in her chair to smile up at him, but there was no one there. She looked over at the door and saw that it was still firmly closed.

  She shot to her feet and an eerie shiver coursed through her. It had to be her imagination. Could she have dozed off for a second? Maybe dreamed it?

  If she had been sleeping, she wouldn’t feel completely awake and alert. She glanced back up at the door and saw distinct movement outside the window, then it clicked and swung open. She sat there frozen, expecting some ghoulish apparition to float through, relieved when it was Aaron who stepped into the lab.

  Her apprehension must have shown because when he saw her standing there, he stopped in his tracks and frowned. “You look as though you’ve just seen a ghost.”

  “Do you have someone spying on me?”

  Taken aback by Liv’s question, Aaron said, “Good morning to you, too.”

  “I’m serious, Aaron. Please tell me the truth.”

  Not only did she look serious, but deeply disturbed by the possibility. How could she even ask him that? “Of course not.”

  “You mean it?”

  “Liv, if I felt you needed constant supervision, I never would have invited you here.”

  “Could your brother or one of your sisters have someone watching me?”

  “I can’t imagine why they would.”

  She shuddered and hugged herself. “This is too weird.”

  He walked over to her desk. “What’s wrong?”

  “I keep getting this feeling like someone is watching me, and when I look up at the window in the door, I see a shadow, like someone is standing just outside.”

  “Maybe someone on the laundry staff has a crush on you,” he joked, but she didn’t look amused. “I don’t know who it could be.”

  “You know that the door kept popping open yesterday, and the technician said there wasn’t anything wrong with it. Then this morning when I came down here, the lights were on and I know I turned them off last night.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe you thought you did, but didn’t hit the switch all the way or something.”

  “Then explain how the papers that were strewn all over my desk were stacked neatly this morning.”

  He frowned. “Okay, that is kind of weird.”

  “There’s something else.”

  “What?”

  She looked hesitant to tell him, but finally said, “This is going to sound completely crazy, but a few minutes before you came in I heard the door open and footsteps in the room, then someone touched my shoulder, but when I turned around no one was there and the door was closed.”

  He might have thought it was crazy, but he’d heard similar stories from the staff. “Lots of people have reported having strange experiences down here.”

  “I don’t believe in ghosts,” she said, but without a whole lot of conviction. “Scientific labs aren’t typically hot spots for paranormal activity.”

  “But how many labs have you been in that used to be dungeons?”

  “None,” she admitted.

  “If it eases your mind, no one has ever been physically harmed down here. Just frightened.”

  “I don’t feel as though I’m in physical danger. It’s just creepy to think that someone is watching me. And—” she shuddered again “—touching me.”

  “Do you want to leave?”

  “You mean, permanently?”

  He nodded. God knows he didn’t want her to; they needed her expertise and would be hard-pressed to find someone equally qualified, but he would understand if she had to.

  “Of course not,” she said, and he felt a little too relieved for comfort.

  He tried to tell himself that he was only concerned for his country’s welfare, but he knew that was nonsense. He wanted more time with Liv. At least a few weeks to get her out of his system.

  He grinned and told her, “I guess that means I’ll just have to protect you.”

  He wrapped a hand around her hip and tugged her to him. She resisted for about half a second, then gave in and melted into his arms, resting her head on his shoulder. She felt so warm and soft and she smelled delicious. If they weren’t in the lab, he would already be divesting her of her clothing.

  “I had fun last night,” he said and he could swear he felt her blush.

  She wrapped her arms around him and hugged herself to his chest. “Me, too. Did you resolve your security problem?”

  “In a manner of speaking.” Because it wasn’t a secret, and she would eventually be informed of the security lockdown, he figured he might as well tell her about the Gingerbread Man.

  “That’s really creepy,” she said, gazing up at him. “Why would someone want to hurt your family?”

  Aaron shrugged. “There are a lot of crazy people out there.”

  “I guess.”

  He kissed the tip of her nose. “I didn’t think I’d find you in the lab. I figured, because it’s the weekend, you might not be working today. I thought you might be up to a game of billiards.”

  “I work every day.”

  “Even Sunday?”

  She gazed up at him and nodded. “Even Sunday.”

  “That reminds me. Chris wanted to know how long you’ll need for the holidays.”

  She looked confused. “Need for what?”

  “To go home.”

  “Oh, I won’t be going home. I don’t celebrate Christmas.”

  “Why not?” he asked, thinking that maybe it was some sort of religious issue.

  She shrugged. “No one to celebrate with, I guess.”

  He frowned. “You must have friends.”

  “Yes, but they all have families and I would feel out of place. It really is not a big deal.”

  But it was. It was a very big deal. The thought of her spending the holidays alone disturbed him in a way he hadn’t expected. It made him…angry.
If her so-called friends really cared about her, they would insist she spend the holidays with them.

  “If you’re worried about me getting in the way, I’ll keep to myself,” she assured him. “You won’t even know I’m here.”

  What kind of person did she think him to be? “That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” he said, and she looked startled by his sharp tone. “I won’t let you spend Christmas alone. You’ll celebrate with us.”

  “Aaron, I don’t think—”

  “This is not negotiable. I’m telling you. You’re spending the holidays with my family.”

  She opened her mouth to argue, so he did the only thing he could to shut her up. He leaned forward, covered her lips with his and kissed her.

  Twelve

  A aron was making it really difficult for her to tell him no. Literally. Every time they came up for air, and she would open her mouth to speak, he would just start kissing her again. She was beginning to feel all soft and mushy-brained and turned on. Yet she couldn’t shake the feeling they were being watched.

  She opened one eye and peered at the door, nearly swallowing her own tongue when she saw a face staring back at her through the window. A woman she didn’t recognize, with long, curly blond hair wearing some sort of lacy bonnet. Liv’s first thought was that someone had discovered their secret, and they were both in big trouble. Then before her eyes the face went misty and translucent and seemed to dissipate and disappear into thin air.

  She let out a muffled shriek against Aaron’s lip, then ripped herself free so fast that she stumbled backward, tripped over her chair and landed on her rear end on the hard linoleum floor.

  “Bloody hell, what’s wrong?” Aaron asked, stunned by her sudden outburst.

  She pointed to the door, even though whoever, or whatever, she’d seen in the window was no longer there. “A f-face.”

  He spun around to look. “There’s no one there.”

  “It disappeared.”

  “Whoever it was probably saw you looking and ran off.”