Chapter 9 #3
“Oh, hello, hello,” he said, gesturing toward her. “Come in. Norman said you’d be stopping by to update me on tomorrow’s itinerary.”
But despite his words, his face was worried as he picked up a rocks glass. “Would you like a drink?”
“Um, no, I’m working right now, but thank you,” Lauren said.
“Oh, of course, sorry.” He set the glass back down and gestured toward the couch as he continued to scroll through his phone.
“Have you seen—well, of course you have—these headlines? I feel like the entire British press might propose marriage to me
tomorrow.” He laughed a bit, but it was tight in his throat. “Sit, please. You must have been on your feet all day.”
She had been, it was true, and her shoes were both very cute and completely unforgiving—per usual. “The headlines are wonderful,”
Lauren said. “Truly. Everyone is absolutely enamored with you. You handled it really well.”
The duke rolled his eyes a bit as he sat down at the other end of the sofa. “Well, for today,” he said. “Next week could be
a completely different story. I know you’re not drinking, but would you like a water? Or something else? There’s practically
an entire grocery store over by the wet bar.”
Lauren glanced over his shoulder and saw a glorious display of fruit neatly arranged in a basket. “Is all that just for you?” She laughed.
“I believe it is,” he said, following her gaze. “There’s even a rare orange dragon fruit in there.”
“Usually it’s just berries and some anemic-looking melon chunks,” Lauren said. “But this looks like a work of art.”
Jasper laughed. “So you’re happy about the coverage, then? Does this make your job easier?”
“It does,” she said. “But it doesn’t make it easier that you don’t seem very happy about it.”
He ran a hand through his hair, mussing up the careful style. It looked better that way, she thought. “I just . . . there’s
a reason that my parents didn’t want me to take on a working role, and why I grew up to agree with them. It was to keep me
away from all of this, from all the eyes, the opinions, the inevitable negativity. They wanted me to have a quote-unquote
‘normal life’ because neither of them had one after their marriage until they walked away from it all themselves. And it worked,
for the most part.”
“What was the part that didn’t work?”
“When it turned out that having a normal life was as complicated as having an abnormal one.” Jasper glanced at her. “Does
that sound like the most privileged statement ever?”
“No, not at all,” Lauren said.
“Despite going away to build my own life elsewhere, I seem to have ended back up where we all started, only this time it’s
just me, and it’s like nothing and everything has changed. And I know I’m the fresh meat for the press, the curiosity, but
I also know how fast that bloom can come off the rose, so to speak, and I have no idea why I’m telling you any of this, sorry.”
“No, no!” Lauren said, holding up her hand. “It’s good to talk about these things.”
Jasper gave her a dubious look. “Very American of you.”
“Guilty,” she said with a shrug. “We like to feel our feelings, what can I say?”
They sat quietly together for a minute, Lauren focused on her hands and Jasper focused on his drink. “I had a plan and now
I have a new plan,” he said quietly. “And I’m not quite sure how any of that has happened.”
“I know what you mean,” Lauren said before she could stop herself, and he looked up at her. “I mean, with the plans, especially
when those plans are changed by other people and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Jasper watched her for a few seconds, which felt like an hour. “Sounds like something familiar to you?”
She shrugged. “I was on a path at the White House, I thought I was going to one day be press secretary, get married, get the
guy and the house and the dog and the babies. It was all exactly what I wanted, or what I thought I wanted. And then I found
out that the guy got my best friend instead, and now she’s the one with the house and the dog. And maybe the babies one day,
too.” Lauren blinked hard for a minute, the emotion and jet lag catching up to her in a rush. “It all went away and now I’m
here and I’m trying to figure out if that’s even what I wanted in the first place, or if I’m just telling myself that so that
losing it doesn’t hurt so much.”
Jasper’s eyes were soft. “I’m sorry that happened to you—nobody deserves to be treated that way,” he said, and Lauren felt
something inside her shift and start to melt. No one had ever really said that to her before, not about Brian and Brooke and
dashed dreams and uncertain futures.
“Thank you,” she said. She wasn’t quite sure when they had moved closer to each other on the couch, but if she moved her leg a fraction of an inch, their knees would be touching. “It’s been hard. I feel—”
“Lost,” they both said at the same time, then smiled in recognition.
“Very lost,” Lauren said. “But today was the first day in a really long time that I felt like I was good at my job. I felt
proud, so thank you for that.” She knew that Jasper wasn’t her friend, or her therapist, or even just a stranger sitting on a barstool
next to her. He shouldn’t know any of this.
“Well, I’ll keep that in mind going forward,” Jasper said. “Make Lauren proud.”
The weight of his words hit them both at the same time, and now their knees were touching, and now something was happening that wasn’t on the itinerary or schedule or calendar, and Lauren felt almost outside
of her body, Jasper so close that she could feel the warmth radiating from under his shirt, her head buzzing like she was
drunk even though she was completely sober, and she wasn’t thinking about work or Oscar or Brian or anything else other than
the presence of Jasper and how she was pulled to him like a moth to a flame, willing to burn for a mere second of heat, and
then his hand was on her leg, gripping her like she was his, and Lauren found herself leaning in toward Jasper just as he
leaned toward her, and they kissed.
If kissing Oscar at Annabel’s had made her pulse race, kissing Jasper in Singapore settled every loose, rattling thing inside
of her. He was as warm and steady as his hands on her back and arm, gentle and strong at the same time, and Lauren wrapped
her arms around his neck and hung on for however long she would get to enjoy this.
They pulled apart after a minute. “We can’t do this,” she whispered, trying to catch her breath.
“I know,” he replied, then dipped his head toward her again, kissing her again, not nearly as gentle this time.
“Have you read the articles?!” A cheerful voice rang out as the hotel room door clicked open.
The two of them sprang apart like they had been electrocuted, Lauren leaping off the couch and straightening her dress as
Jasper quickly ran a hand through his hair, doing nothing to tame it. They only had a second to glance at each other before
Norman came dashing back into the room, waving an iPad as if in victory.
“The papers adore you, Your Highness!” He beamed, and Lauren took advantage of his distraction to tuck her hair behind her
ears and grab her phone, pretending to read a text that wasn’t on her screen. “Even The Sentinel is calling you a republican destroyer, that’s how much people are loving you! And this was all Her Majesty’s idea, of course.
My goodness, she’s just magnificent, isn’t she.”
Lauren caught Jasper’s eye from behind Norman’s back—it was obvious that the last thing he wanted to think about in their
moment together was his aunt, and well, fair enough. Lauren wouldn’t want to think about hers either. “It’s fantastic. Enjoy
celebrating,” she said. “I’m off to bed. Long day and all.”
“Of course, of course,” Norman said. “Smashing work today, Lauren, truly.”
“Yes, Lauren,” Jasper added, then cleared his throat. “It was perfect. Thank you for everything.”
She nodded, then turned and left the room before either of them could see the fierce blush spreading up her cheeks.