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"It’s so beautiful," she told hi of the church’s history, dating all the way back to Charlene She listened to every ide-eyed pleasure Normally when he went on about his antiquities interests, people got bored or tuned out Maylee just looked impressed and fascinated He e for her to travel with him on a future trip Perhaps to Peru Wouldn’t she be i sight, and he wouldn’t h her eyes

Then he frowned at himself Maylee wasn’t his assistant, but Hunter’s She was simply on loan

He wondered how much he could pay her to defect to him Maylee was loyal as could be, and he wasn’t sure if Hunter would be willing to give her up, since Gretchen see Maylee would cause all kinds of new proble that Griffin needed o assistants He’d have to figure out the details somehow

"Boy, they sure like dessert here, don’t they?" Maylee asked, her drawl catching his attention She’d paused in the street, staring at a sweets shop

"Bellissireed "Do you want to try so

A few elato cones in hand Griffin had gotten a traditional chocolate spurave; chocolate and pepperave her cone a lick "Mine is a I think I love Bellissime"

He laughed "We take chocolate very seriously here"

She eyed his cone "Is yours better than ive it a taste?" They moved to a nearby park bench and sat down A fountain burbled nearby, and people strolled past, taking pictures It was all very touristy and pretty "I’ll share if you want"

"If I say yes, are you going to laugh atyours and mine?"

"Not at all I’d love to watch you lick ed his eyebrows at her

She snorted "Perv" But she reached for his hand and dragged his cone toward her ave it a tentative lick Then, she ood here?"

He couldn’t take his eyes off herout to lick at his cone again, and then retreating back between those pretty, perfect lips

And now he had a rather unco He closed his eyes and started counting back from a hundred, even as she elato

"You want to tasteto drive hi He opened his eyes and looked over at her, just as she was giving the top of her cone an open-ainst it Chocolate coated her pink lips

He leaned forward and took her lower lip in hison it "Delicious," he murmured, and then nibbled on her upper lip while shesounds that drove him wild "I think I like yours better"

She stared at hihtly parted, her ain?" Her voice was breathless

"More than anything," he admitted "But if I do, they’ll cite aze flicked to his lap, where his arhed "I’ that will rid s for later"

"All right," she said cheerfully, and took a big crunching bite of her cone After a moment, she said, "Tell me about your childhood"

That’d do it Talk of his fahts disappear "Must I?"

"Well, no, I guess you don’t have to"

Griffin regarded the fountain nearby "I’ ‘poor little rich boy’ stories Except when I was growing up, my branch of the family wasn’t all that wealthy We had several estates but other than the crown’s hness Sybilla-Louise, married my father because his branch of the fah wealth to keep the family estates afloat It was not a love match Not even close You’ll notice that with the exception of my cousin Alexandra, not many in the royal family marry for love"

"It sounds kind of backward," Maylee observed, giving her cone a furtive lick

"It is We like to pretend that the royal fahtened as the current times, but they’re still stuck in old protocol ined My family was not a warm one I rarely saw my parents except for state functions, and my brother and I were shuffled off to live with various nannies at h, ent to boarding schools" He shrugged "I went to Eton in Great Britain"

"That sounds awful"

"Eton? It wasn’t so bad"

"No, your faave her a wintry smile "I care more for my cousin Alexandra than I do for anyone else in my family"