I let Lord Cameron escort me out of the ballroom and waited until we were far enough away from prying ears to turn on him.

“We need to talk,” I said.

I led him to a parlour room off the main foyer and closed the door behind me. He looked put out; his eyes narrow and his mouth turned down. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at me.

“What is the meaning of this?” he said. With all the airs and graces he put on, I felt like I was watching some character from an old television show. “Why were you dancing with that man?”

“I don’t think I’m going to be answering any of your questions,” I said, crossing my own arms and staring him down. “It’s about time I got some answers of my own. Why do you want me to marry you?”

His eyes widened in surprise. “What sort of question is that?”

“The sort I should have asked a month ago. You turn up here out of the blue telling me you want me to be your wife when we don’t even know each other and I want to know why.”

His eyes darted around the room and his stance shifted, his arms falling to his side.

“I’ve known of you for a while. I discussed terms with your mother—”

“Well, here’s the thing you see, that’s completely unacceptable to me,” I spat, incensed. “This is not the nineteenth century and you don’t ‘discuss terms’ with anyone but me. You may have known of me, but you didn’t know me. In fact, you didn’t even take the time to get to know me.” My fists were clenched at my sides and it was only by the grace of my good breeding that I didn’t throw a punch. My breaths were coming in short pants and I had to take a moment to calm myself. The last thing I wanted was to be branded ‘hysterical.’ “So tell me the truth, why me? Out of all the unmarried women in my country and yours, why did you choose me?”

“As I said, I’d heard about you and I thought that we would make a fine match. You are sensible and well-spoken of. You are educated and know how to run a household. That’s everything I could ask for of the woman who is to be my viscountess.”

“So my trust fund and dowry had nothing to do with it?” I felt like I was fraying around the edges. All of my tightly controlled emotions were battering at the seams, doing their darnedest to break free.

“Of course not! I’m offended that you would even think me so crass.”

“Oh cut the act Lord Cameron. I know that you are broke. I know that if your debts aren’t satisfied soon, you will lose your estate. I know that you made a deal with my mother to give me your title in exchange for my money. And yes, the money is mine, not hers—”

“No—”

“This whole thing has been a deception from the very start and how dare you try to deny it.” My hand itched to slap his face. I could even imagine how satisfying it would be to feel my palm connect with his wretched face.

His mouth clicked shut and his face paled.

“Fine,” he said, “It’s true. I don’t understand what you are getting so upset about, it’s not like you will miss out on anything. Once we are married and you become my viscountess, you will have everything you could ever want.”

“I have that now.”

“What? This?” He spread his arms to indicate the palace and laughed condescendingly. “This isn’t yours. This is just where you work. You don’t have a title or an estate of your own and you will conceivably have to work for the queen for the rest of your life.”

“You’re forgetting,” I said, my voice eerily controlled, “I have money, a lot of it. If I didn’t, then you wouldn’t be here sniffing around. I won’t have to work forever, just until I don’t want to anymore. I love my job, so why would I want to give it up? As for an estate, I have more than enough money to buy one if I wanted to, but who says I want to?”

“Do you think you’re going to marry that man out there? The one you were dancing with? The commoner?” Seriously? Who even spoke like that anymore?

“Why do I even need to get married if I don’t want to?” I was warming up to my subject and I felt empowered. “The world is open to me. I am a woman of privilege and I don’t need you or any other man trying to tie me down. I have kowtowed to everyone else’s whims my entire life and you know what? I’m done. I’m done being the good girl, being the yes man, being the dutiful daughter. No one has ever taken a moment to consider my feelings, so I think it is about time that I do. You can forget this sham of a betrothal. I reject you and your proposal.”

I turned on my heel and walked out of the door, catching a couple of footmen scurrying away from where they had been eavesdropping. I didn’t care if they heard. I was done caring about what other people thought of me. All my life I had been too afraid of someone’s bad opinion of me to do the things I wanted to do. I had always been aware of my reputation and concerned for what people might say about me. I had become so bland that I was like un-doctored porridge. People put up with me, but didn’t particularly like me. And it was all to please a woman who was unappeasable. Why did I even bother?

I strode through the halls and headed for my suite. I couldn’t go back to the ball, not with the mood I was in. Instead I changed out of my ballgown, my fingers fumbling as they shook uncontrollably, and pulled on an old pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. Taking the back stairs, I escaped the palace and headed around to the front to find a car to take me to my storage shed. I needed to ride. I needed the power of the Ducati underneath me and the wind rushing over me. The anxiety of once again speaking my mind was hitting me hard. Would I ever get past this sick feeling that followed letting my mouth run unchecked? Other people seemed to do it without any ill-effects, so why couldn’t I? I was the wronged party, I should feel justified in my anger and the words I’d spoken. It wasn’t that simple, though. Too many years of minding my manners and keeping my mouth shut had conditioned this response in me. Anger was bad. Speaking my mind was bad. And by extension, I was bad if I got angry and spoke my mind. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to unlearn those two lessons. Maybe I was doomed to forever be a doormat.

As I walked around the corner, I saw Drew descending the stairs and heading for a waiting car.

“Drew!” I called to him.

He turned around and his eyebrows popped up in surprise.

“Come for a ride with me,” I said.

“You want to ride now?”

“Yes, desperately.”

“Okay, fine. Hop in.”

I climbed into his car and the driver headed for Drew’s place.

“I’ll just get my bike and we can go to your shed to get yours.”

“Or I could just be your pillion passenger,” I said.

“That works too,” he replied with a grin.

Jeanette waited in my sitting room while I bounded up the stairs to get changed. I didn’t know what had gone on between her and Lord Cameron, but I hoped this meant that she had kicked him to the kerb. I would take whatever I could get from her, my need to be near her was just that strong. I changed out of my tux and pulled on my jeans and a t-shirt before jogging back down the stairs to where she waited.

“Ready?” I asked.

“As I’ll ever be,” she replied with a grin.

I led her through the house to the back door and down the back stairs. The bike was in the shed and she waited while I rolled it out. I handed her the spare helmet and put my own on before mounting the bike and kickstarting it. Jeanette climbed on behind me and held on to me around the waist. I took a deep breath, relishing the closeness of our bodies and then I let the clutch out and gave the bike some throttle.

It was a beautiful night for a ride. The sky was clear and the stars glowed brightly. I headed out of the city and up into the mountains. There was a turnout at the top of one of the hills that gave a spectacular view of the city below and the lake beyond. I had only seen it during the day, but I imagined that it would be spectacular at night.

We didn’t try to talk. I could tell by the way Jeanette moulded herself to me that her body was relaxing. The earlier stress and tension that had held her shoulders so tight was being left behind as we sped along the dark road. There was not much traffic about at this time of night and it was easy to think that there was no one else around except the two of us. I don’t know why it always felt like that whenever I was with her. Her presence was able to block out the noise of the world. Her essence surrounded me and I breathed it in greedily, feeling my own tension abate.

Why was life never simple? Why couldn’t a man meet a woman and fall in love with her without having to go through all the stress and obstacles that seemed to crop up? Why did love never run smooth? The old song burned in my brain. My mother had played that Gene Pitney album to death when I was growing up and now that song became an ear worm. According to Gene, true love was worth all the pain. So, was I in love with Jeanette?

From where I sat with her wrapped around me as we cruised the winding roads in the middle of the night, I was tempted to say yes. Yes, I was in love with her. But was I just getting wrapped up in the romance of it all? It was a beautiful night and I had a beautiful girl on the back of my bike. You couldn’t get much closer to heaven as far as I was concerned, but did that mean I was in love?

I wasn’t afraid of love. My parents’ marriage hadn’t been perfect, but their love for one another had smoothed over any rough patches. As a unit, they were as good a role model as any and I had been lucky to have them. I wasn’t afraid of commitment or marriage or falling in love, I just didn’t want to make the wrong choice. It was an old-fashioned idea, but when I married, I wanted it to be for life. When I married, it would be because I loved the woman and didn’t want to go through life without her. So, was this what I was feeling for the woman who had her arms around my waist and her front pressed into my back, her thighs cradling mine?

Surely it was too soon to know for sure. We had only known each other for a short time. Admittedly, she had been invading my dreams for longer than we’d actually known one another. There was definitely attraction. Maybe this was the beginning of love. I had never been in love before, so I couldn’t rightly say. It felt like it might turn into love given the right environment to flourish. I took a minute to consider that and decided that I actually liked the idea.

I saw the turnout ahead and pulled over. I waited for Jeanette to dismount before doing so myself and together we walked to the railing. The lights spread out below us like someone had scattered diamonds across the hills and valleys. It was beautiful, and having Jeanette beside me was the icing on the cake. I turned to her and threaded my fingers through her hair, cupping the back of her neck. I lowered my lips to hers and took my time kissing her. Whatever happened after tonight would happen, but right now, she was here with me and I intended to make a memory.

“What was that for?” she whispered when I lifted my head.

One side of my mouth quirked up in a lopsided grin. “Just because I wanted to.”

Her eyelids fluttered and I wondered if she was blushing. I couldn’t tell in the dark, but I liked the thought that she might be.

“Drew—”

“Shh.” I put a finger to her lips, cutting her off. I didn’t want either of us to second guess what was happening between us. I used my finger to trace the outline of her lips and then kissed her again. She snaked her arms around my waist and I pulled her close, losing myself in her. This night couldn’t get any more perfect.

I practically whistled my way to work on Monday. Jeanette and I had spent Sunday together and she had played tourist guide. We rode our bikes and I had surprised her with in-helmet communication so we could talk while we rode. She showed me some of the lesser known secrets of Calanais, like the monastery ruins and the centuries old cemetery. We ate lunch in a little bistro and walked hand in hand along the boardwalk that skirted Lac Merveilleux.

We didn’t talk about Lord Cameron and all that mess or what it meant now for her. I didn’t want to push my luck. Jeanette had spent her life being told what to do and I refused to pile on. Instead I was determined to be her friend until she was ready for more. I may have held her hand and kissed her a few times throughout the day, but I couldn’t help it. She didn’t seem to mind, so no harm done. In fact, all my attention seemed to make her bloom and it was a beautiful sight. Of course, I couldn’t take credit for all of it; I knew after the events of the night before she was going through some sort of self-awakening, but I would take credit for the smile on her face and the rosy glow in her cheeks.

The day had ended all too soon and I’d kissed her goodnight at the foot of the stairs that led into the palace. She had clung to me, just a bit, before we parted and I waved good bye. My dreams had been filled with her and I’d woken feeling alive and refreshed. My mood was high and even MacClaren’s acrimonious stare couldn’t dampen my joy. Why did that man dislike me so much?

We hadn’t made plans to see each other this week, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have any. Freddie and Alex’s wedding was fast approaching and this week marked the start of all the pre-wedding activities. There was a dinner mid-week and I planned to ask Jeanette to accompany me. Hopefully by then Lord Cameron would have been given his marching papers.

My morning flew by. After a week in the job, I had well and truly settled in. We were currently negotiating a deal with a company in Dubai to build one of their crazy shopping centres. The plans were insane and the money being talked about ridiculous, but that’s why I loved my job. Seeing what was possible when money was no object was a whole lot of fun.

Mandy knocked on the doorjamb of my office. I liked to keep my door open so I could feel the pulse of the general office. I looked up and smiled at her.

“Freddie would like to see you in his office,” she said.

“Okay, great.” I stood and stretched. I’d been hunched over my desk for hours, a bad habit I had. My posture was terrible. I’d been sending a never-ending stream of cat videos to Jeanette in an attempt to make her laugh. I loved the sound of her laughter and it was my intention to fill her inbox until she called me and I could hear it for myself. She was yet to respond but it hadn’t stopped me sending them.

I slipped on my suit coat and strode down the hall to Freddie’s office. Dayne, Freddie’s personal assistant, sat at the desk right outside the door and waved me through. I opened the door and stopped in my tracks. Four pairs of eyes turned to look at me and there was only one pair that I didn’t recognise, but that’s not what made me hitch a breath. It was the pair of blue eyes that didn’t belong in this scenario. Blue eyes and blonde hair with a smile a mile wide.

“Surprise,” Elise said.

“Elise?”

I shot a look at Freddie who raised his eyebrows in a question.

“What are you doing here?”

“Drew,” Freddie’s voice cut through my spiralling thoughts, “I’d like you to meet Michael Danforth and Elise Thatcher. They’re here for their final interviews for the media liaison.”

“Right,” I said, taking a deep breath and forcing my thoughts back on track.

“Elise and Michael, this is Drew, our CFO.”

I shook hands with both of them, Elise giving me a smirk.

“You and Elise know each other?” Jeanette asked. Her eyes were wide and her face had paled.

“Elise and I grew up together,” I said, “Our mothers are best friends.”

“She didn’t tell you she was coming?”

“I had no idea,” I replied, silently pleading with her to believe me.

“Let’s head out for lunch and we can discuss what is going to happen over the next few days,” Freddie said, walking around his desk. “It’s just down the street, you don’t mind walking?”

Jeanette looked between me and Elise and spoke, “I should probably get back—”

“Nonsense,” Freddie told Jeanette, “I’d like you to stay with us.”

Jeanette nodded and followed Freddie and Michael out, leaving Elise and I alone in the office. I was so angry I could barely speak. It would not do to yell at her here and now, but there would be yelling. I could guarantee it.

“What in the blazes…” I ran a hand through my hair. “Why are you here Elise?”

“I’m here for a job,” she said, not afraid of my anger. That was the thing with growing up with someone, they knew far too much about you. She had known I would be angry, but she’d come anyway. There was an ulterior motive; no way would she come all this way on nothing but a chance at a job.

“Did my mother send you?” I asked through gritted teeth as we followed the others at a distance.

“Of course not,” she said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “I’m here because of the job… and you.”

There it was. The real reason she had come to Merveille.

“We are going to discuss this later,” I said before stepping into the elevator with the others. “In private.”

She smiled beatifically up at me and it only made me grind my molars harder. I had hoped by moving away that she would lose that stupid obsession she had. It seems our mothers had been filling her head with all the possibilities and I wouldn’t put it past either of them to have planted this ridiculous plan in her head. Not that she was an airhead or easily led. Elise was smart and intelligent, but she had grown up with her mother and mine telling her that we would get married, that it was a done deal. I had never felt that way about her and now that I had Jeanette in my life, I never would.