Time Travel Romances Boxed Set by Claire Delacroix Read Free Book Online

his friend, his
patience with dissenting opinions completely gone. “Our designer’s
very good at what she does, whether you like her or not.”
    Julian grimaced. “I wouldn’t know how good
she is - what I do know is that she’s very - how should I put it? -
ambitious.”
    Baird stifled a growl, wishing for the
umpteenth time that Julian and Marissa could put their differences
aside. There were days when he felt more like a mediator than an
employer.
    And that was the last thing he needed
today.
    “ Just leave it, Julian.”
Baird turned back to the stairs, his gaze unwillingly drawn one
last time to those enticing feet. It was too easy to picture one
cradled in his hand, cleaning the dirt away, sliding his palm over
that graceful ankle…
    He was losing it!
    “ Take care of her,” Baird
commanded, then swung around and started up the stairs. “After the
meeting, I’ll start looking for Hekod.”
    “ King Bard?”
    What now? Baird reluctantly glanced back to
find the woman standing ramrod straight, her chin high, his sweater
hanging nearly to her knees. Her blue eyes shone with a clarity
that made Baird wonder whether she was really as dumb as she seemed
to want him to believe.
    He refused to look below the hem of his
sweater.
    “ I am the Princess Aurelia,
a Pictish priestess and daughter of the King,” she said with the
same pride that she had declared her father’s title. “If I am to be
your guest, I can only ask that you address me
properly.”
    Princess? Baird blinked but her gaze did not
waver.
    “ No one calls me ‘her’ in
my own presence,” she clarified, obviously mistaking the reason for
his silence. “I do not take offense, for a barbarian such as
yourself cannot be expected to know better, but in future, you
could try to be decently mannered.”
    Baird gritted his teeth and bit back a
defense of America with an effort. Aurelia certainly wasn’t the
first he had met in Britain who thought everyone from beyond their
own borders was an illiterate colonial redneck.
    Especially Americans.
    But considering herself royalty was another
thing entirely.
    “ Princess Aurelia?” he
echoed skeptically.
    Aurelia’s smile was dazzlingly bright. “Of
course, I’m a princess!” She giggled like a teenager that he would
question something she found self-evident. “King Hekod the Fifth is
my sire, as you well know.”
    Baird didn’t know any such thing.
    What he did know now was that Aurelia was
crazy. There was no doubt about it. She thought she was a princess,
that her father was a king and that this was her home.
    Such as it was.
    Aurelia’s smile slowly faded when Baird said
nothing. A wariness dawned in her expression again, as though the
silliness was a mask that had slipped away.
    Baird found himself intrigued by the hint
that there was more to her than met the eye. Which was the real
Aurelia?
    Baird told himself that he shouldn’t
care.
    He certainly shouldn’t be replaying
Aurelia’s luscious kiss over and over again in his mind.
    “ Well, I’m late, princess.”
Baird bowed ever so slightly in her direction, and caught a wayward
glimpse of her pale toes. The sight did hard and thick things to
him that had no place in this situation. “Julian will find you a
room.”
    “ Don’t worry, I’ll take
care of everything.” Julian waved him off and Baird didn’t need any
more encouragement to take the stairs two at a time.

    *

    Baird’s heart was still pounding when he
reached the graciously wide entry to the hotel. Though he told
himself that it was because of the run across the lot, Baird wasn’t
as sure of that as he would have liked to be.
    It certainly wasn’t because he was anxious
to pore over marble samples with Marissa Witlowe.
    In fact, he couldn’t remember exactly why he
had agreed to let Marissa come early to Dunhelm. Keeping her and
Julian from each other’s throats was not going to be a treat.
    Marissa pivoted at the sound of Baird’s
arrival, her slender curves