Chapter 6
6
S am slowly exhaled as she closed the den door. She must be insane to contemplate going through with her plan if she couldn’t last the morning in Dylan’s company.
Could he see how she practically swooned when he smiled at her? As for his asking if she was free tonight, she had to restrain herself from leaping over the desk and straight onto his lap.
Men had never affected her this way. She always managed to keep her relationships strictly platonic, preferring male friends to groping Neanderthals some of her dates turned into at the slightest encouragement.
Even some of the ‘pillars of society’ her brothers set her up with turned out to be marauding sex maniacs, and she’d managed to avoid their embarrassing advances with aplomb.
Maybe that made her na?ve when it came to men, but did it explain her over-the-top reaction to Dylan?
What made him so special, that every self-preservation mechanism she’d ever used seemed to malfunction whenever he looked at her? Whatever it was, she needed to get a handle on it quick-smart. That’s all she needed, her new boss to think she had a crush on him.
Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door to Liz Harmon’s sitting room.
“Come in, Sam.”
Sam opened the door, wondering what the older woman could want. After the initial interview they hadn’t crossed paths, though she’d taken an instant liking to the elegant Liz.
“You wanted to see me, Mrs. Harmon?”
Liz waved toward a chair. “Take a seat, Sam. And please, call me Liz.”
Keeping her surprise from showing, Sam perched on the overstuffed chair and folded her hands in her lap.
Liz reached for a leather-bound book on a nearby table and opened it. “I know all about you, dear.”
She fixed Sam with a piercing stare, leaving her in little doubt as to what she meant.
Sam clenched her hands so tight the knuckles whitened, trying to buy valuable time to compose an answer that wouldn’t incriminate yet sounded honest at the same time.
However, Liz continued before she had the chance to speak. “There was something about you that looked familiar at the interview, so I followed a hunch. I’m a great fan of history, you know.”
In that instant, any hope Sam harboured that the older lady was simply fishing for information vanished.
Schooling her features into a polite mask, she said, “I can explain—“
“Please.” Liz held up her hand. “Indulge an old lady for a moment.” She flicked a few pages, before stopping at what looked like a family tree and tracing a line with her finger. “You must be Princess Samantha Popov. Am I correct?” She looked up expectantly, no trace of anger on her face.
Sam didn’t know where to look, an embarrassed heat flooding her cheeks. She’d been caught out in her lie on the first day. Mortifying.
Sam nodded, not quite understanding the other woman’s excitement. “You’re right. I’m sorry for lying to you, but I really need this job.”
She stood quickly, wishing the Persian rug beneath her feet would disappear and the ground underneath would open up and swallow her. “I’ll pack my things and be out of your way as soon as possible.”
Liz slammed the book shut, sending a cloud of dust into the air. “Don’t be hasty, child. We have so much to talk about.”
Sam shook her head in bewilderment. If Liz appeared excited a moment ago, she now looked downright ecstatic.
“I don’t understand. You want me to stay?”
Liz waved her back to the chair she’d just vacated. “Of course. I’m sure you had a very good reason for lying to obtain this job and I want to hear it. I also want to hear every last detail of your story, without a single omission.”
“I’m not fired?” Sam held her breath, praying for a miracle yet knowing they rarely happened, at least to her.
“Fired? My dear, you’ve made my day.”
“How so?”
Liz grinned, the expression on her face rivalling that of a child on Christmas morning. “If my son thought finding an attractive woman as his butler was a surprise, wait until he finds out I hired a princess.”
Sam’s heart plummeted. If Dylan found out her background, she’d be out of the Harmon mansion so fast her head would spin.
She needed to stay, for at least three months. Anything less and her family wouldn’t be convinced she could make it on her own and she’d be back to square one, enduring their rigid conditions and stipulations regarding her life.
Right now, she needed to convince Liz Harmon that keeping her identity a secret was the best thing for all concerned, even if it meant hiding it from her precious son.
Taking a steadying breath, Sam eyeballed the older lady. By the twinkle in Liz’s eye, she hoped Liz would agree to keep her secret, otherwise she’d be back in Brisbane and pledged to some ancient groom before she could blink.
Tied to some fossil in matrimony because it suited her royal parents and their antiquated ideas? No freaking way.
Liz leaned forward and rubbed her hands together. “Start at the beginning, dear, and tell me everything.”
Resisting the urge to grimace, Sam started talking.