Page 87 of The Unlikely Spare

“You shouldn’t leave the main reception area without notifying security, sir.” My voice remains professionally detached despite the way my heart hammers against my ribs.

Nicholas doesn’t turn around. “Is that your primary concern, Officer O’Connell? Protocol breaches?”

The bitterness in his tone catches me off guard.

I glance back toward the exit, confirming we’re alone, before approaching him.

“What are you doing, Nicholas?”

He turns then, his face half in shadow, half illuminated by the soft glow from inside. “I’ve got all those party prince rumors to live up to, right?”

“Is that what this is about? Living up to expectations?”

“Isn’t it always?” He laughs, the sound hollow. “The perfect prince. The charming spare. The royal insurance policy.”

There’s something raw in his voice that cuts through all my professional defenses.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself with the commissioner’s daughter.”

Fuck. It appears I’ve failed to keep the jealousy from my tone.

Nicholas’s eyes flash, something dangerous and alive coming into his expression. “Do I? I must be a better actor than I thought.”

“She certainly seemed interested.”

“She’s interested in my title, not me.” His mouth twists into a bitter smile. “Though that hardly matters for a one-night diversion, does it?”

The casual way he dismisses it makes something hot and primitive surge through me. The heat spirals low in my stomach, mixing fury with desire in a cocktail that makes my hands shake with the effort to keep them at my sides.

“Is that what you’re looking for? A diversion?”

His ability to turn even this into a game of strategy is something I should find infuriating. Instead, it’s like watching fire burn. Dangerous, mesmerizing, impossible to look away from even when you know you’ll get burned.

Every gesture of his is calculated, every glance a move on a chessboard I never agreed to play.

But I’m not conceding the game now.

He steps close enough that I can smell his cologne, see the way his pulse jumps at the base of his throat. “She’s beautiful, intelligent, eager. Perfect distraction from—” He cuts himself off, jaw clenching.

Then he swallows hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “What the hell is stopping me from taking her home and showing her a great time?” he finally continues.

Before I can think better of it, I close the distance between us until we’re nearly touching. “Because you’ll be thinking about me the whole time,” I growl in his ear. “And that’s not fair on anyone.”

Nicholas’s face drains of color. He stares at me, shocked into silence, his lips parting slightly.

For a heartbeat, we stand frozen, staring at each other.

Then he takes a careful step back.

“I should return to the reception,” he says, his voice strained. “Before anyone notices my absence.”

“Of course,” I reply.

He moves past me toward the door but pauses with his hand on the handle. “The car leaves in twenty minutes,” he says, not looking back. “I don’t believe you’re on duty tonight, but I have some questions about my security that require your presence in my suite.”

It’s not a question. The implication hangs in the air between us.

He’s right. I’m not scheduled on rotation tonight, but no one will question me entering his suite if he requests my presence to answer any questions he has—not after Darwin. Hell, Cavendish would probably commend my thoroughness.