Christmas with the Prince. Charlene Sands

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      So much for that delusion of grandeur.

      “Once I get set up in the lab and have a few days to study the rest of the data, I may be able to give you some sort of time frame,” she said.

      “We have a student from the university on standby, should you need an assistant.”

      “I’ll need someone to take samples, but in the lab I prefer to work alone. You have all the equipment I need?”

      “Everything on your list.” He rose to his feet. “I can show you to your room and give you time to settle in.”

      She stood, as well, smoothing the front of her slacks with her palms. He couldn’t help wondering what she was hiding behind that bulky sweater. Were those breasts he saw? And hips? Maybe she wasn’t as sharp and angular as he’d first thought.

      “If you don’t mind,” she said, “I’d rather get right to work.”

      He gestured to the door. “Of course. I’ll take you right to the lab.”

      She certainly didn’t waste any time, did she? And he was relieved to know that she seemed determined to help.

      The sooner they cured this blight, the sooner they could all breathe easy again.

      Chapter Two

      Liv followed her host through the castle, heart thumping like mad, praying she didn’t do something stupid like trip over her own feet and fall flat on her face.

      Prince Aaron was, by far, the most beautiful man she had ever laid eyes on. His hair so dark and soft-looking, his eyes a striking, mesmerizing shade of green, his full lips always turned up in a sexy smile.

      He had the deep and smoky voice of a radio DJ and a body to die for. A muscular backside under dark tailored slacks. Wide shoulders and bulging pecs encased in midnight-blue cashmere. As she followed him through the castle she felt hypnotized by the fluid grace with which he moved.

      He was…perfect. An eleven on a scale of one to ten. And the antithesis of the scientists and geeks she was used to keeping company with. Like William, her fiancé—or at least he would be her fiancé if she decided to accept the proposal of marriage he had stunned her with just last night in the lab.

      Fifteen years her senior and her mentor since college, Will wasn’t especially handsome, and he was more studious than sexy, but he was kind and sweet and generous. The truth was, his proposal had come so far out of left field that it had nearly given her whiplash. They had never so much as kissed, other than a friendly peck on the cheek on holidays or special occasions. But she respected him immensely and loved him as a friend. So she had promised to give his proposal serious thought while she was away. Even though, when he’d kissed her goodbye at the airport—a real kiss with lips and tongue—she hadn’t exactly seen fireworks. But sexual attraction was overrated and fleeting at best. They had respect and a deep sense of friendship.

      Although she couldn’t help wondering if she would be settling.

      Yeah, right. Like she had a mob of other men pounding down her door. She couldn’t even recall the last time she’d been on a date. And sex, well, it had been so long she wasn’t sure she even remembered how. Not that it had been smoking hot anyhow. The one man she’d slept with in college had been a budding nuclear physicist, and more concerned with mathematical equations than figuring out sexual complexities. She bet Prince Aaron knew his way around a woman’s body.

       Right, Liv, and I suppose the prince is going to show you.

      The thought was so ridiculous she nearly laughed out loud. What would a gorgeous, sexy prince see in a nerdy, totally unsexy woman like her?

      “So, what do you think of our island?” Aaron asked as they descended the stairs together.

      “What I’ve seen of it is beautiful. And the castle isn’t at all what I expected.”

      “What did you expect?”

      “Honestly, I thought it would be kind of dark and dank.” In reality, it was light and airy and beautifully decorated. And so enormous! A person could get hopelessly lost wandering the long, carpeted halls. She could hardly believe she would be spending weeks, maybe even months, there. “I expected stone walls and suits of armor in the halls.”

      The prince chuckled, a deep, throaty sound. “We’re a bit more modern than that. You’ll find the guest rooms have all the amenities and distinction you would expect from a five-star hotel.”

      Not that she would know the difference, seeing as how she’d never been in anything more luxurious than a Days Inn.

      “Although…” He paused and looked over at her. “The only feasible place for the lab, short of building a new facility on the grounds, was the basement.”

      She shrugged. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d worked in a basement lab. “That’s fine with me.”

      “It used to be a dungeon.”

      Her interest piqued. “Seriously?”

      He nodded. “Very dark and dank at one time, complete with chains on the wall and torture devices.”

      She gazed at him skeptically. “You’re joking, right?”

      “Completely serious. It’s been updated since then of course. We use it for food and dry storage, and the wine cellar. The laundry facilities are down there, as well. I think you’ll be impressed with the lab. Not dark or dank at all.”

      Because the majority of her time would be spent staring in a microscope or at a computer screen, what the lab looked like didn’t matter all that much to her. As long as it was functional.

      He led her through an enormous kitchen bustling with activity and rich with the scents of fresh baked bread and scintillating spices. Her stomach rumbled and she tried to recall the last time she’d eaten. She’d been way too nervous to eat the meal offered on the plane.

      There would be time for food later.

      Aaron stopped in front of a large wood door that she assumed led to the basement. “There’s a separate employee entrance that the laundry staff use. It leads outside, to the back of the castle. But as a guest, you’ll use the family entrance.”

      “Okay.”

      He reached for the handle but didn’t open the door. “There is one thing I should probably warn you about.”

      Warn her? That didn’t sound good. “Yes?”

      “As I said, the basement has been updated.”

      “But…?”

      “It did used to be a dungeon.”

      She wasn’t getting his point. “Okay.”

      “A lot of people died down there.”

      Was she going to trip over bodies on her way to the lab or something? “Recently?”

      He СКАЧАТЬ