At His Majesty's Convenience / Her Little Secret, His Hidden Heir: At His Majesty's Convenience. Jennifer Lewis

never been there together?” An odd knot of tension was forming in her stomach. She propped herself up in bed on one elbow.

      “No, our relationship has always been pretty under wraps. The whole professional thing.”

      “So you haven’t met my family.” Again, unease niggled somewhere deep inside her.

      “No. You have parents and a sister somewhere, though. You get together with them for holidays.”

      “In Pennsylvania?”

      “I think so. You usually took the train.”

      “Oh.” How odd that she couldn’t remember anything about them. Or Pennsylvania. And it was a little disturbing that Jake seemed to know so little about her. Did they never talk about her past? “What’s my sister’s name?”

      Jake pursed his lips for a moment. “I don’t know.”

      “I guess I didn’t talk about her that much.” Maybe she and her sister weren’t close. What a shame. Maybe she’d try to improve their relationship once she got her memory back. “What about my parents? Do you know their names or where they live? We could get in touch with them and see if they could jog my memory back into existence.”

      Jake’s brow had furrowed. “I suppose we should be able to find that information somewhere.”

      “It’s probably on my computer if I could just figure out the password.”

      “We’ll worry about that in the morning.” Jake pulled her closer to him. “Right now let’s just enjoy each other.”

      Andi let out a sigh and sank back into his arms. “You’re right. Why get stressed out over something I can’t control?”

      But even in his soothing embrace, there wasn’t a single second when she didn’t ache to recover her memory—and her history. How could you really go forward, or even live in the moment, if you don’t know who you are?

      After breakfast, Jake left Andi in her office to look over her files. She seemed anxious that she wasn’t able to do her job since she didn’t remember the details of palace life, let alone any specific events. He mused that he should have been concerned, too, since a key purpose of this whole engagement was to keep her at his side running the show, but somehow the palace was managing to tick along. And he was enjoying her company far more than he’d imagined.

      How could he have worked with her for six years and not even know where her family lived? As far as he knew she was born behind the desk in his Manhattan office. And he cringed at not knowing her sister’s name. For all he could remember she just referred to her as “my sister.”

      He strode to his current office, intent on mining it for the information he should know simply on the basis of their long acquaintance. They spent all day together—did they usually talk about nothing but work?

      Andi was always excellent about keeping them focused so no time was wasted. She managed their affairs with such efficiency that there was little downtime for chin-wagging, especially since they’d moved to Ruthenia and tackled challenges higher than the legendary Althaus mountains that loomed over the palace. He’d always appreciated her professional approach to her job and to life in general.

      But now he was beginning to realize he’d missed out on enjoying her company all this time. She was much more complex than he’d realized, more vulnerable and intriguing—and not just because of her missing memory. He’d never seen her as a person with emotions, with needs, before, because she’d done such an excellent job hiding that aspect of herself.

      And he’d never realized she was so tempting. She’d hidden that, too.

      He closed his office door and walked through to the cabinets in the file room, where the personnel files from New York were stored. Thanks to Andi’s relentless organization he quickly laid his hands on her file, and the résumé she’d submitted when she applied for the job as his admin back when he was simply a venture capitalist.

      A quick scan revealed that she’d graduated from Drexel University in Pennsylvania—right state, at least—with a degree in business administration and a ridiculously long list of clubs and activities to her name. Apart from some temping in Manhattan, her first job was with him. She’d graduated from North Hills Senior High School in Pittsburgh—ha, right again, maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. He had to congratulate himself on being able to pick such a promising employee despite her lack of relevant work experience.

      But that didn’t solve his current problem of finding out about her past and helping her recover her memory.

      Wait. Did he even want her to recover her memory? If she did, she’d surely remember that their relationship had been strictly professional and the whole engagement his invention.

      Discomfort rose in his chest, threatening to overwhelm the sense of satisfaction—of happiness, dammit—that had suffused his body and mind since their overnight encounter.

      Andi was sensational between the sheets. He’d never have dreamed that his quiet, prim assistant hid so much passion and energy beneath her suited exterior. She even looked different, like she’d forgotten to put on the mask of no-nonsense propriety she usually painted on with makeup and pinned into place with a spritz of hair spray. The real Andi—the one without the mask—was soft and sexy and downright irresistible.

      Desire stirred inside him again, tightening his muscles. Blood rushed to his groin as he thought about her in his arms that morning, scented with passion as well as her usual floral fragrance. He put the résumé back in its file.

      Maybe her memory wouldn’t come back and they could start over from the night he’d found her dancing outside, freed of the inhibitions and anxieties built by a lifetime of experience. He couldn’t help believing that the woman who’d shared his bed was the real Andi, and that she’d been hiding inside all this time, waiting for a chance to be free.

      Andi let out a cry of sheer joy. She’d finally cracked the password on her computer. A cryptic penciled list in the drawer seemed like a meaningless string of words—until she started typing them in one by one.

      Queen had proved to be the key that unlocked her hard drive, and possibly her whole life. Funny! She must have picked it because she knew she soon would be queen.

      That thought stopped her cold for a second. Queen Andi. Didn’t quite sound right. Still, she’d get used to it. And maybe Andi was short for a more majestic name, like Andromeda or something.

      Her heart raced as the computer opened her account and laid a screen full of icons out before her. Yikes. So many different files, some with the names of countries, some of companies. She didn’t know where to start. A sound issued from the machine, and she noticed that the email icon announced the presence of fifty-three messages. She clicked on it with a growing sense of anticipation, and scrolled back to the last one she had opened. Eticket confirmation.

      Frowning, she opened the email, which revealed an itinerary for Andi Louise Blake—apparently she wasn’t really named Andromeda—to travel from Munich to New York. The date listed was … yesterday.

      Her blood slowed in her veins and her breathing grew shallow.

      Obviously she hadn’t gone on the trip, and if it was a business-related one, surely Jake would have mentioned it. Munich—the nearest international airport, perhaps?—to New York, where she used to live …

      She had been planning to leave.

      Head spinning, she sat back in her chair. Why would she leave, if she was in love and about to get engaged?

      She should just ask Jake about this. Why get all worked up when it could be a business trip that just got canceled at the last moment, maybe due to her loss of memory, or their engagement?

      Andi glanced down at her ring with a growing sense of unease. She never had figured out why her clothes were creased as if they’d been packed. She must have changed her mind and unpacked at some point, but when? And why did Jake not know