Charlene Sands - Christmas with the Prince

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.

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 pressed his thumbs into the muscle at the base of her neck and, against her will, a sigh of pleasure slipped from her lips. He slid his thumbs slowly upward, applying steady pressure. When he reached the base of her skull, he repeated the motion, until she felt the muscles going limp and soft.

“Feel good?” he asked.

“Mmm.” Good didn’t even begin to describe the way he was making her feel. Her head lolled forward and her eyes drifted shut.

“It would be better with oil,” he said. “Unfortunately I don’t have any handy.”

The sudden image of Prince Aaron rubbing massage oil onto her naked body flashed through her brain.

Oh, no. Don’t even go there, Liv. This was not a sexual come-on. He was just being polite. Although at that moment she would give anything to know what it would feel like. His oily hands sliding across her bare skin…

As if that would ever happen.

He sank his thumbs into the crevice beside her shoulder blades and a gust of breath hissed through her teeth.

“You have a knot here,” he said, gently working it loose with his thumbs.

“You’re really good at this,” she said. “Did you take a class or something?”

“Human anatomy.”

“Why would a prince in an agriculturally based field need a human anatomy class?”

“It might surprise you to learn that there was a time when I was seriously considering medical school.”

Actually that didn’t surprise her at all. She had the feeling there was a lot more to Prince Aaron than he let people see. “What changed your mind?” she asked.

“My family changed it for me. They needed me in the family business, so I majored in agriculture instead. End of story.”

Somehow she doubted it was that simple. There was a tense quality to his voice that belied his true feelings.

“I guess that’s the benefit of not having parents,” she said. “No one to tell you what to do.”

“I guess” was all he said, and she had the distinct impression she’d broached a subject he preferred not to explore. He gave her shoulders one last squeeze, then backed away and asked, “Feel better?”