A Princess Next Door (Rothman Royals Book 1) by Noelle Adams

deal.’”
    “Oh.” I smiled at his warm expression. I loved when he
looked at me like that, even when he was correcting my American colloquialisms.
“It would be an extremely big deal.”
    “So why is that a problem? You say I don’t understand, so
let me see for myself.”
    As ridiculous as the idea was, I was actually tempted. Not
just because I didn’t like the idea of being away from Jack for a week, when we
had so little time left as it was. But also because I wanted to share my life
with him, and I could never really do that with just words. After a moment of
silence, I murmured, “If you come home with me, everyone will think we are…we
are…serious.”
    “Yeah. I can just imagine.”
    “We are supposed to be just casual.”
    He reached out to take my hand in his. “Does this feel just
casual to you?”
    Of course it didn’t. It never really had. “Jack…”
    “I know it’s early for us. I’m not asking for anything
deeper right now. But I’d like to explore whatever is between us, and I don’t
think we can ever do that if you’re planning to move to another continent in a
few weeks. So take me with you next week, and we can just see what happens.”
    I gazed at him, my heart so full I couldn’t even speak. I
couldn’t believe this amazing man was saying such a thing to me. I couldn’t
believe he seemed to mean it.
    And I just wished I could hope that, at the end of the week,
there would be a future for us, but I knew it was impossible.
    Jack would see then. And he’d never want to get tangled up
with a girl who came with that kind of baggage.
    “Okay,” I said, my voice cracking slightly. “You can come
with me.”
    He smiled as if he’d won some kind of victory. “Good. I
can’t wait.”
    I knew for sure he wouldn’t be that hopeful for long.
    ***
    The following Monday, Jack and I
were on my family’s private jet, somewhere over the Atlantic.
    We did have a private jet, but it wasn’t a very large one,
and we used it as infrequently as possible, since the fuel was ridiculously
expensive. But my father was a king, and he could hardly fly commercially, and
my mother was so insistent on getting me home that she’d sent the jet to fly me
back to Villemont for the week.
    Jack and I were sitting in comfortable leather seats facing
each other. I was reading one of the books assigned for my seminar that started
next week, and Jack was talking on the phone. He’d had to change a number of
meetings he’d had scheduled this week to phone calls instead.
    He was talking about financials. I understood most of the
words, but it was very difficult for me to follow the conversation. He
obviously knew what he was talking about, and he was deeply focused on the
topic. I glanced up every few minutes to watch him.
    It was a side of him I’d never seen before. I knew him as
casual, relaxed, and amusing—and sometimes intensely sexy. I’d never seen him
working like this before. It was like he stepped out of the role as soon as he
left the office every day. No matter how casual he acted on his downtime, he
ran a growing business so he couldn’t be any sort of slacker. It wasn’t a huge
company. Certainly not a national or international corporation. But eleven
stores in three states was nothing to sneer at, and he was obviously very good
at his job. I’d never seen him so focused on anything except me before.
    I liked it. I liked the authority with which he spoke on the
phone, and the understated competence and intelligence of his conversations.
    I wanted to be like that one day too. I wanted to know art
just as well as he knew his business. But the only way I could do that was to go
to graduate school, and I just didn’t know how I could manage it.
    The thought made me feel a little glum, but I smiled at Jack
as he hung up the phone.
    “Sorry,” he said with a rueful look. “I’m trying to get as
much done as I can on the flight.”
    “Of course. I don’t mind at all. Are you sure you