Page 67 of The Thing About My Prince

Just as I set down the phone on the large mahogany desk in the study—well, my dad calls it the study, my mum calls it the library—and recline in the button-back tan leather chair behind it, Lexi walks through the door.

She’s still wearing the black pantsuit she had on for the hospice event. Having worn only casual clothing when I’ve seen her before today, this more formal outfit is a whole new side of her. It’s equally as cute, but in an entirely different way.

Of course, I knew from the moment I met her, when she was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, that she’d take no shit ifanyone she’s interviewing gave her a bollocks answer. But this makes her look like she’d take no shit at a cocktail party either.

“Finished with picking out a shirt for me?” I ask.

My sister said I was too useless to choose my own and that Lexi should do it.

“For now. We’ve narrowed it down to three for the stylist to bring up for you.” Her eyes rove the room, touching on the wingback chairs, the leather Chesterfield sofa, the side tables with the lamps that all look like they could have come from a garage sale but are in fact valuable heirlooms. But mostly she looks at the bookshelves that line the walls.

“How high are these ceilings?” she asks.

“Not sure.” I get up from the desk, move toward the wall, and stand with my back to one of the bookshelves. “I’m six foot. How many of me could you stack in here?”

She tips her head back to look up, revealing a stretch of the luminous skin of her neck that looks like it would be soft to the touch and delicious on the lips.

“I’d say this room is about two-and-a-half Olivers high,” she says.

“Excellent,” I reply. “A whole new unfathomable measurement to add to the imperial system.”

She rests her hand on the wooden ladder next to me that’s attached to a track that runs around the room at the top of the bookshelves. Little wheels at the bottom enable it to trundle along the floor.

“You’ll think I’m silly, but…would it be okay if I…” She tips her head at the ladder as she pushes it back and forth.

I step away from the shelves to clear her path. “Be my guest.”

“Childhood fantasy.” She puts one foot on the first rung of the ladder and pushes off the wood floor with the other.

Her face lights up with innocent joy as the ladder rolls along the wall.

“Wow, it’s all smooth and…rolly…”

I can’t help but chuckle. “I believe the wheels were especially selected for their high rolly quotient.”

When she reaches the far end of the room, she turns around and scoots back, stopping just in front of me. “I need to go higher.”

This time she pushes off harder and climbs farther up the ladder, giggling blissfully as she goes.

I honestly can’t remember the last time this house saw so much happiness. It’s almost like it doesn’t even belong in this room, like the walls don’t know what to do with it.

When the ladder comes to a stop at the far end, Lexi repeats the process heading back toward me. This time she manages to scurry even higher and hold her arms out Titanic-style with awheee.

She’s pushed off so hard that I have to step out of the way to let her glide by.

But what I hadn’t realized until I turn around, is that someone’s moved a rug into the path of the wheels.

“Shit.” I lunge toward the ladder to grab her before it reaches the rug and sends her flying like a kid hurtling over the handlebars of a bike that’s hit a pothole.

Completely unaware, she’s still in fullwheeemode when, before I reach her, the wheels hit the rug and the whole thing comes to a sudden halt.

Thewheeeturns to awhoaand Lexi’s outstretched arms circle in the air as she tries to grab back onto the ladder and stop the momentum from flinging her forward, but she misses, and a hard landing seems inevitable.

Her flailing buys me just enough time to race around in front of her, and she falls like a writhing bundle into my arms, knocking me off balance and stumbling back into the Chesterfield behind me.

My arse hits the arm, and the momentum throws me backward onto the cushions, taking Lexi with me.

When the whole world stops moving, I look up to see her face right above mine, framed by her tousled dark hair.