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15
Sam
Iwas getting a lot faster at dressing up as the duchess. A duplication of her outfit of the day had been laid out for me in advance, so it was simply a matter of doing up my hair in gentle curls and putting on a bit of lipstick. I didn’t think it was my color, but the way Charlie kept grinning at me from across the kitchen island made me think otherwise.
“Something on my face?” I teased him.
“Yeah, this,” Adam said, swooping in to kiss me on the cheek. He quickly escaped to help himself to some scrambled eggs that the hotel sent up for us.
I was seated next to Liam on matching bar stools. While my feet dangled above the floor, he made his seat look miniscule. He ate quietly, already dressed in his pressed black suit, earpiece dangling just over his right shoulder.
“How did you sleep, Liam?”
“Hm.”
I smirked. I was really starting to get a handle on understanding him. When it came to Liam, it was all in the eyes. By default, they were the most expressive part about him. While the rest of his body and his expression were like stone, it was the way he looked at the world that gave me some insight into what was going on inside his head.
There was a deep warmth behind them this morning, calm like the surface of a still lake.
“That good, huh?” I said, only partially teasing. I leaned my leg out a little so that my knee was pressed against his thigh. It earned me the smallest crinkle at the corner of his eye. It was something.
Charlie closed his iPad. He always seemed to be glued to that thing. “Traffic’s light,” he reported. “It should be smooth sailing to the casino.”
I arched a brow. “The duchess is having a business meeting at a casino?”
“Macau’s famous for them,” Adam informed, swiping a piece of toast from Liam’s plate. “It’s like the Las Vegas of East Asia.”
“But acasino?” I continued, placing one of my own slices of toast back onto Liam’s plate. I liked the twinkle in his eyes. It was quick and very easy to miss, but I could tell how pleased he was. “I guess I can’t picture a duchess holding an investment meeting at one.”
Adam shrugged. “They apparently have very impressive meeting rooms and event halls. Slot machines and card games aren’t the only way they drive business.”
“I guess…”
Kris cleared his throat as he rounded the corner, adjusting the lapel of his suit jacket as he slipped it on over his dress shirt and shoulder holster. “Good morning,” he said as he passed behind me, his hand brushing tenderly across my upper back. His touch, while fleeting, sent a lovely shiver down my spine.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept so well. Getting to share a bed with someone was one thing. Getting to share a bed with a man almost double my size and, as he’d promised, as hot as a furnace made me want to stay in bed all day long drinking in the scent of his lovely cologne.
“We’re moving out in ten minutes,” Kris said. “The duchess shouldn’t take more than an hour, hour and a half, tops. Adam, you’re with me today guarding the principal. Charlie and Liam, you’re with Sam.”
“Got it,” Liam said.
Adam sighed dramatically as he followed Kris up the spiraling stairs to retrieve Arianna. “Miss you already,” he said to me with a cheeky wink.
“Behave,” I reminded him. “Boyfriend-mode off when we’re working.”
Kris grinned his approval before climbing the steps. His smile made the butterflies in my stomach lose control.
I was just about to hop off my seat when Liam suddenly leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Do you have concealer?”
I turned to face him, an excited little thrill shooting through me to see him so close. “I do. Why?”
My breath hitched when he brushed my hair away from my neck and tenderly kissed my pulse point. “You’ll want to cover those,” he said, a low murmur. “Adam’s a damn animal.”
Were it any other person, I would have been embarrassed to have them point out my love bites. Instead, Liam made me feel brazen. “Maybe you can leave a few of your own on me later.”
Across the table, Charlie downed his glass of orange juice in one gulp. “We should go,” he said, voice hoarser than I’d ever heard it. The tent in the front of his pants gave me a vague idea why.
I grinned mischievously. “Give me two minutes to cover these up and we can hit the road.”
