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CHAPTER 8

LIZZY

A PROPOSAL. BUT NOT AN INDECENT ONE.

I knew I was fucking this up.

But my ego was struggling with allowing me to play the role I needed to play to accomplish my mission. The thing was, I was pretty sure I could simply subdue the prince and get him on the plane. Tonight. In the next ten minutes, probably.

However, my instructions were crystal clear.

I wasn’t to use force, and I was not to let the prince know who I was or why I was really here. He had to come back to the crown of his own accord, or the potential for a reversed secession would not be valid and Lambert would retain his place in line. Something no one—I was guessing especially Lambert—wanted to see happen. But with the king’s failing health and Lambert’s situation, there was one clear choice for the next ruler of Murdan. Only, that person believed he’d given up any claims he had on the crown more than a decade ago and never looked back.

I needed to get myself in check. Quickly.

“Yeah, that was just pretty scary,” I tried, aware that my face and body language were not saying “scared.”

“It was,” Declan agreed.

“And I mean… I’m just pretty new to the area, and to the job.”

“How did you end up in the job?” he asked. “If you’re not super experienced? Is that rude to ask?”

“No,” I said, my mind scrabbling for a lie. “Fair question. My agency was going to send someone else, but he got called away on a last-minute opportunity to film rhinos in Africa.”

“Rhinos won out over hockey?”

I laughed. “Believe it or not, yeah. So you get me.”

“Well, I hope you won’t take this the wrong way,” he said. “But whatever it is you’re doing better be amazing. And maybe no dancing.”

“Dancing?”

“Like the Bananas, I mean.”

I had no idea what the man was on about. Had the pink wine gone to his head so fast? I was going to ask another question, but he started talking again.

“It’d be great to be seen as the team to beat,” he said. “And I wouldn’t mind if it helped secure my place on the team too.”

“You think your place isn’t secure?” I asked.

“I’m not the player getting endorsement deals yet, no.”

“That’s important to you?”

“Let’s just say I have reasons to want to be indispensable here.”

I nodded, wishing he was slightly less dedicated to the team. It would make my job easier.

“Lizzy,” Declan said, leaning in slightly and wrinkling his forehead. “I have a proposal for you.”

A proposal? Unless it involved him suggesting that his whole life in the States had been a huge mistake and wondering if I might like to take a trip to tropical island destination right this minute and meet his family, I didn’t think it was a proposal I was going to like.

“Umm.”

“Don’t say no.”

“I can’t say anything until I know what your proposal involves. Typically the word proposal comes with certain expectations.”

He let out a laugh and then sat back in the booth. “Lizzy. We just met.”

Not strictly true, but as far as he knew it was.

“Are you saying you’d like to marry me? Am I that devastatingly attractive?” He grinned, and I fought off the urge to tell him that he was.

Because the fact was, he definitely was.

He was made from stacks of hard, bulging muscle, skated like a demon or some Norse horseman bent on revenge, and had sapphire blue eyes I still saw in my dreams. He’d been ridiculously handsome when we were nine years old, and he’d only grown hotter with time.

Our history—which he clearly didn’t recall—and my attraction to him were two of the main reasons I’d tried like hell to turn down this job.

“I do not want to marry you,” I assured him, ignoring the little girl inside me who had wanted exactly that.

“Then let’s talk about my idea,” he said, finishing his wine. “But first, I think I might like to get a glass of what you’ve got. Another?”

I shook my head and waited while he went back to the bar, returning with a glass of single malt.

Shit. The only thing working against him—a taste for low quality wine—had just evaporated.

I watched his throat work as he sipped the Scotch and forced myself not to react. Damn, this was going to be harder than I thought.