Christmas with the Prince: Christmas with the Prince. Michelle Celmer

servant of the royal family as long as Aaron could remember, Geoffrey prided himself on keeping them on a strict and efficient schedule. Tardiness was not appreciated or tolerated.

      “I’ll go get her,” Aaron said. He headed through the kitchen, savoring the tantalizing scent of spicy grilled chicken and peppers, and down the stairs to the lab. Through the door window he could see Liv, sitting in front of a laptop computer, typing furiously, papers scattered around her.

      He punched in his code and the door swung open, but as he stepped into the room, Liv didn’t so much as glance his way.

      Her sweater was draped over the back of her chair and she wore a simple, white, long-sleeved T-shirt with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows. Her pony-tail had drooped over the course of the day and hung slightly askew down her back.

      “It’s past seven,” he said softly, so as not to startle her, but got no response. “Liv?” he said, a little louder his time, and still she didn’t acknowledge that he was there.

      “Olivia,” he said, louder this time, and she jolted in her chair, head whipping around. For a second she looked completely lost, as though she had no clue where she was, or who he was.

      She blinked several times, then awareness slid slowly across her face. “Sorry, did you say something?”

      “It’s past seven.”

      She stared at him blankly.

      “Dinner,” he reminded her.

      “Oh…right.” She looked down at her watch, then up to her computer screen. “I guess I lost track of time.”

      “Are you ready?”

      She glanced up at him distractedly. “Ready?”

      “For dinner.”

      “Oh, right. Sorry.”

      He gestured to the door. “After you.”

      “Oh…I think I’ll pass.”

      “Pass?”

      “Yeah. I’m right in the middle of something.”

      “Aren’t you hungry?”

      She shrugged. “I’ll pop into the kitchen later and grab something.”

      “I can have a plate sent down for you,” he said, even though he knew Geoffrey wouldn’t be happy about it.

      “That would be great, thanks,” she said. “By the way, were you down here earlier?”

      He shook his head. “I’ve been in the field all day.”

      “Does anyone else know the code for the door?”

      “No, why?”

      “A while ago I looked over and the door was ajar.”

      “Maybe you didn’t close it all the way.”

      “I’m pretty sure I did.”

      “I’ll have maintenance take a look at it.”

      “Thanks,” she said, her eyes already straying back to the computer screen, fingers poised over the keys.

      Geoffrey wouldn’t consider it proper etiquette for a guest of the royal family to refuse a dinner invitation and then dine alone at a desk, but even he couldn’t argue that Liv was not the typical royal guest.

      She could eat in the bathtub for all Aaron cared, as long as she found a cure for the diseased crops.

      “I’ll have Geoffrey bring something right down.”

      She nodded vaguely, her attention back on her computer. He opened his mouth to say something else, but realized it would be a waste of breath. Liv was a million miles away, completely engrossed in whatever she was doing.

      Doing her job, he reminded himself. They hadn’t flown her in and paid good money so that she could spend her time amusing him.

      He wondered if this was a foreshadow of what her time here would amount to. And if it was, it was going to be a challenge to seduce a woman who was never around.

      Chapter Five

      Liv studied the data that had been compiled so far regarding the diseased crops and compared the characteristics with other documented cases from all over the world. There were similarities, but no definitive matches yet. She wouldn’t know for sure until she compared live samples from other parts of the world, which she would have to order and have shipped with expedited delivery.

      She yawned and stretched, thinking maybe it was time for a short break, and heard the door click open.

      She dropped her arms and turned to see Prince Aaron walking toward her. At least this time there was actually someone there. Despite a thorough check from a maintenance man, she’d found the door open several times, and once she could swear she’d seen someone peering at her through the window.

      “Dinner not to your liking?” he asked.

      Dinner? She vaguely remembered Geoffery coming by a while ago.

      She followed the direction of his gaze to the table beside her desk and realized a plate had been left for her. Come to think of it, she was a little hungry. “Oh, I’m sure it’s delicious. I was just wrapped up in what I was working on.”

      “I guess you were. You haven’t slept, have you?”

      “Slept?” She looked at her watch. “It’s only ten.”

      “Ten a.m.” he said. “You’ve been down here all night.”

      “Have I?” It wouldn’t be the first time she’d been so engrossed in her work that she forgot to sleep. Being in a lab with no windows probably didn’t help. Unless she looked at her computer clock, which she rarely did, it was difficult to keep track of the time, to know if it was day or night. She’d been known to work for days on end, taking catnaps on her desk, and emerge from the lab with no idea what day it was, or the last time she’d eaten.

      And now that she’d stopped working long enough to think about it, she realized that her neck ached and her eyes burned with exhaustion. A good sign that it was time for a break.

      “When we hired you, we didn’t expect you to work 24/7,” he said, but the playful smile said he was just teasing her.

      “It’s just the way I work.” She reached back to knead the ache that was now spreading from her neck into the slope of her shoulders.

      “Neck ache?” he asked, and she nodded. “I’m not surprised. Although gripping the muscles like that is only going to make it hurt more.”

      “It’s stiff,” she said.

      He expelled an exasperated sigh and shook his head. “Why don’t you let me do that.”

      Him?

      She didn’t think he was serious…until he stepped behind her chair. He was actually going to do it. He was going to rub her neck. He pushed her hands out of the way, then draped her ponytail over her left shoulder.

      “Really,” she said. “You don’t have to—”

      The words died in her throat as his hands settled on her shoulders.

      The warmth of his skin began to seep through the cotton of her shirt and her cheeks exploded with heat. And as if that wasn’t mortifyingly embarrassing and awkward enough, he slipped his fingers underneath the collar of her shirt. She sucked in a surprised breath as his hands touched her bare skin.

      “The trick to relax the muscle,” he told her, “is not to pinch the tension out, but to instead apply even pressure.”

      Yeah, right. Like there was any way she was going to be able to relax now, with his hands touching her. His skin against her skin.

      He