Page 82 of Royal Icing

She nodded. A wire transfer with the other half of the money and a sizable tip was pending.

“So dance with me.”

He turned and made eye contact with the conductor. The string quartet started playing “Fade Into Me,” and goosebumps raced up and down her arms.

“I can’t. Your mom?—”

“She wouldn’t dare say no to the shelter. She’d have to have a lump of coal for a heart. Dance with me. Please.”

There were a million reasons why she shouldn’t. She didn’t want to jeopardize his plans or piss off the queen. And yet another part of her—the much bigger part—wanted nothing more than to be enveloped in his arms just one more time.

“Outside,” she said with a glance over her shoulder. The queen was chatting with Beatrice at a cocktail table.

He pulled her through the door behind them. Their footsteps echoed in a hallway she’d never been in. It was dark, and his hand was warm around hers. Together they passed through a doorway and the foyer.

The orchestra was still audible from the courtyard. She shivered, and Leo pulled her close. Her cheek pressed against his chest, and she breathed in the sharp mountain air. They swayed to the music, a sea of unspoken feelings swelling between them.The night was almost perfectly still, like the world was holding its breath.

It was so profoundly unfair that this wasn’t the first chapter in their happily ever after. Tomorrow she would be on a plane to New York, and the distance would break whatever hope she had left for a future with him. Conversations would slow to a crawl, and Leo would forget about her. Someday he’d fall in love with someone else, and she’d have to read tabloid headlines about it.

She lifted her head to look at him. His expression was cloudy too. Was he feeling the same?

“Leopold.” A sudden steely voice cut across the courtyard like the crack of a whip.

Emma and Leo sprang apart.

Oh, shit.

CHAPTER THIRTY

LEO

“You lied to me.”His mother approached with one shaking finger pointed in his direction. “You said there was nothing going on, yet here you are. Ready to throw away your future. It’s bad enough that you showed up late to the most important ball of your entire life. But then you had to dance with the help in dirty street clothes.”

His temper flared.

“Emma is so much more than the ‘help.’ Need I remind you that this country was built by ‘the help.’”

The audacity of his mother to even speak about the group of tireless workers who took care of everything in this stupid household on a daily basis. Every house manager worked ten times harder than anyone in the royal family, every single day.

The queen’s backbone was ramrod-straight, and she seemed taller than she actually was. “She’s a commoner, Leo. Not even European, and from a low-class family. I thought you were smarter than this.”

Emma shrank behind him. His mother spoke like Emma wasn’t even there, like she wasn’t even aperson.

His project proposal was in desperate danger. Pissing off his mom was a surefire way to get the whole thing canned. Heshould shut his mouth and apologize for the subterfuge for the sake of the kingdom, but something about the criticism of Emma had sparked a powder keg.

“Why does it matter who her family is?” His voice shook.

“Leo, you are a member of the royal family. You can’t date just anyone. You know this. You’ve always known this.”

He reached around and grabbed Emma’s hand. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m not the heir. It doesn’t matter if I marry a Swedish princess or a bounty hunter from Alabama. I’m almost thirty-three years old. You don’t get to tell me who I can and can’t date. Why don’t you focus on something more important? You’re in a position to do so much good for our country. And yet, you put your entire focus on throwing these elaborate balls while our people are starving only a kilometer away.” He pointed at the village.

She inhaled sharply. “How dare you.”

There was a ringing silence, like he had just lobbed a grenade across the courtyard.

He had gone too far. He was going to pay for those words.

“We’re here to serve the community, Mother,” he said firmly.