Tall, Dark & Royal. Leanne Banks

breath and wished she could fly away through that huge plate-glass window. She looked away from him. “You’re more intelligent than I expected, sir,” she admitted in a low voice, then added an explanation. “Football scholarship.”

      “Northwestern is a highly competitive university. The academic requirements are high for everyone, including the football team.”

      “Oh,” she said.

      “What else?”

      “You have a sense of honor that surprises me, sir. Your interest in the Altarian people is…unexpected. You are kinder and less self-absorbed than I would have imagined,” she continued and took a shallow breath. Her chest felt tight with anxiety. “You look at me when I talk to you. You pay attention to what I say.”

      “That surprises you?” he asked.

      She met his gaze and nodded silently.

      “Why would I not pay attention to what you say?” he asked.

      She shrugged and thought of how many times she’d felt that her father looked past her instead of at her. “I don’t know sir. I guess I’m just not accustomed to it.”

      He frowned thoughtfully for a moment, then met her eyes again. “What else?”

      Erin had the frightful urge yet again to fidget. She clenched her hands together in her lap. “You are taller, sir,” she said. And better looking, she thought, but she refused to utter those words.

      “What’s the height of the average Altarian man?” he asked.

      “I don’t know, sir. Shorter than you.”

      He chuckled. “How have I not surprised you?”

      Erin’s stomach tightened with dread. “Is that an order, sir?”

      He nodded and cracked a grin. “Yeah.”

      “You are very American, very casual, and you couldn’t be less interested in learning royal protocol. Sir,” she added, and relaxed. She was finished. No more honest and potentially embarrassing disclosures.

      “You’re right about that,” he said. “To keep it fair, I’ll tell you how you’re different from what I expected.”

      Erin’s stomach immediately twisted into a square knot.

      “Even though I knew you were the foreign minister’s daughter, I imagined you would be a lot older.”

      “Older, sir?” she managed.

      “Around fifty with orthopedic shoes, and annoyingly prissy and proper.”

      His words stung. Annoyingly prissy and proper hit a bit close to home.

      “Instead, you’re this blue-eyed blonde with killer legs who is annoyingly prissy and proper,” he said, softening his assessment with a sexy grin. “But maybe it’s your job to be prissy and proper. I can’t help imagining what you’re like when you’re not on the clock or on guard,” he said, putting his hand over hers and gently prying her fingers from their locked position. “In time, maybe I’ll find out.”

      Erin’s heart stuttered. Not if she could help it.

      An hour and a half later, after Erin had returned to her hotel room and scoured the Northwestern University Web site, she paced the floor of her small suite. Her phone rang and she knew immediately who it was. Her father.

      “Have you met with the American?” he asked without preamble.

      “Yes, I met with His Majesty tonight.”

      “Are you making progress with him?”

      Not much, she thought, pushing her hair from her face. “I find I wasn’t given adequate information about our new king,” she said, unable to keep her irritation from her voice.

      “What information?” her father asked.

      “I was led to believe he wasn’t particularly bright.”

      “He isn’t,” her father insisted. “He’s a football player.”

      “Father, this man graduated with honors from a prestigious university.” She still felt like a fool because of her wrong assumptions about Daniel.

      “That doesn’t qualify him to rule Altaria,” her father said.

      “No. The only thing that qualifies him to be King of Altaria is the fact that he is the eldest male Rosemere. He could easily be an eighteen-year-old inheriting the throne. Instead he’s an intelligent, experienced thirty-four-year-old man.”

      “An eighteen-year-old would likely be easier to manage,” her father grumbled. “Do you think you’ll be able to discourage him from taking the throne?”

      Erin’s chest tightened with conflicting feelings. She understood some of her father’s reservations about Daniel. He was an American, after all, with very little knowledge or appreciation of Altaria’s history. Her father feared Daniel would move in like a bull in a china shop, disrupting the peace and tranquillity of the kingdom. Erin remembered the determined expression on Daniel’s face when he talked about taking the throne. “I don’t know, Father. I sense His Majesty views his role as king as an act of duty and honor.”

      Her father’s disapproving silence stretched on, and Erin closed her eyes.

      “You’re not switching loyalties, are you?” he asked quietly.

      “No,” she said, but she wondered how she would settle the conflict tugging at her. Her father wasn’t here, dealing with Daniel Connelly in the flesh.

      “You are my father and Altaria is my country.”

      “Remember, Erin, just because he is a good man doesn’t mean he would be good for Altaria. Get some sleep, child. I will call again,” he said and hung up.

      Erin returned the phone to the cradle and stared out the window at the lights of the Chicago skyline. She hugged her arms around herself. Her father had called her child. She hadn’t felt like a child for years. Her mother had died when Erin was so young that she only had vague memories of softness, gentle laughter, sweet touches and perfume.

      Spending her childhood in boarding school had made her grow up quickly, forced to depend only on herself. She’d spent a lot of years hiding her loneliness. Now she finally had a chance to forge a bond with her father, and she wasn’t at all sure she would be able to accomplish it.

      She absently rubbed the soft fleece sweatshirt and glanced down at the too-large sweatpants she still wore. It was odd, but wearing Daniel’s sweat suit made her feel as if she were wrapped in a big, warm hug. She wondered what it would be like to be wrapped in Daniel’s arms. She wondered how his lips would feel on her mouth, on her skin. The thought nearly gave her hiccups.

      Ridiculous, she thought, rolling her eyes at herself. She went to the bathroom to brush her teeth and tried to dismiss her unsettling thoughts about His Majesty. She chanted the title to drill it into her mind. “His Majesty, His Majesty, His Majesty,” she murmured as she pulled out a nightgown and changed her clothes.

      Erin immediately noticed that the big, warm hug was gone. She dashed under the covers and pulled them up over her head just as she’d done a thousand times as a child. She tried not to think about Daniel, but she couldn’t forget how gently he’d touched her thigh and how he’d insisted she wear his clothes. She couldn’t forget that when she talked to him, he looked at her, not past her. She couldn’t forget him.

      “I know it’s short notice,” Daniel said the following morning. “But if you’re not doing anything tonight, would you attend the Big Brothers’ charity ball tonight with me?”

      Since Erin had arrived in Chicago, she hadn’t been less busy in her life. She struggled to mesh her job description with Daniel’s last-minute invitation. “A Big Brothers’ charity ball, sir?” she echoed.

      “It’s