eyes. “You don’t need me. There are any number of palace drivers, and I don’t need the job. Seems pretty clear-cut to me.”
“I could ask Wrightson,” he said with obvious reluctance.
The younger man her father saw as his chief rival. “Or Dad,” she suggested.
He shook his head. “I try not to use your father for the nighttime work.”
She knew he did that in deference to her father’s age and seniority. But her father wouldn’t necessarily see it as a favor. He didn’t like to think he was getting older.
“Besides, it’s not just driving that I need.” Adam studied her for several seconds longer and she could see him fighting some kind of internal battle. Finally he spoke again. “I called Clara this morning to ask her out again.”
“You don’t think that was too soon?”
“Maybe that’s what it was. But I don’t have time, or the inclination, for games.”
“Oh.” Danni’s stomach sank in sympathy. This wasn’t going to be good. She just knew it.
Adam rested his elbow on the mantel and stared into the fire. “She said she valued my friendship.”
“Ouch.”
“But that there had been no romance.” A frown creased his brow. “No spark.”
“Ahh.” Danni didn’t dare say anything more.
“That I hadn’t even looked into her eyes when I was speaking to her. Not properly. That I was too uptight.” He looked into Danni’s eyes now, as though probing for answers.
“Mmm.” She tried desperately to shield her thoughts—that he just had to look at someone with a portion of the intensity he was directing at her, and if that intensity was transformed into something like, oh say, desire, the woman at the receiving end would have only two choices, melt into a puddle or jump his bones. Danni glanced away.
“So—” he took a deep breath and blew it out “—you were right. Everything you said.”
“Anyone could have seen it,” she said gently.
“Sadly, you’re probably right about that, too. The thing is, not anyone would have pointed it out to me. I don’t know who else I can trust to be that honest with me and I can’t think who else I’d trust enough to let as close as I’m going to have to let you. I can admit my weaknesses to you and you alone because you already seem to know them.”
She knew being who he was had to be lonely and undoubtedly more so since Rafe, his closest confidante, had married. The fact that Rafe had married the woman intended as Adam’s bride might not have helped either. But he brought much of his isolation on himself. He didn’t let people close. And she shouldn’t let his problems be hers. But somewhere in there, in the fact that he had a level of trust for her, was a compliment. Or maybe not. Maybe she was the next best thing to another brother.
She didn’t know what to say. Her head warned her to just say no.
He was staring at the fire again. “It’s imperative that I marry a woman who’ll make a good princess, someone who can lead the country with me. And I know what I’m looking for in that regard. I know my requirements.”
“Your requirements?” Wasn’t that just like him. “Please don’t tell me you have a prioritized list somewhere on your laptop.”
He looked sharply at her, but spoke slowly. “All right, I won’t tell you that.”
Danni slapped her head. “You do, don’t you?”
“I said I wouldn’t tell you.”
“For pity’s sake, Adam.”
A wry smile touched his lips.
“You do need help.”
“Not with my list or what’s on it. That’s nonnegotiable. I just need help with being a better me and a much better date.”
She shook her head. “You don’t need help being a better you. You just have to let people see the real you, not the you that you think you have to be.”
He hesitated. “So you’ll help me?”
Had she just put her foot into a trap that was starting to close? “I haven’t said that. I’d like to, Adam, really I would. But I don’t have time. I’m only staying with Dad for a couple more weeks while I’m on leave and my apartment’s being redecorated.”
He raised his eyebrows. “It’s that big a job? Making me into a better date? It’s going to require more than a couple weeks?”
“No. I’m sure it’s not.”
“Then it won’t take up much of your time, will it?”
She chewed her lip as she shook her head. When she was ten, Adam, who’d had a broken leg at the time, had taught her to play chess. Over the next few years when he came back on summer vacation he always made time to play her at least once or twice. But no matter how much she’d studied and practiced he’d always been able to maneuver her unawares into a corner and into checkmate.
“For so long I haven’t really had to try with women and … after Michelle I didn’t really want to. I’ve almost forgotten how.”
Michelle, whom he’d dated several years ago, well before the advent of Rafe’s wife Lexie, was the last woman he’d been linked seriously with. They’d looked like the perfect couple, well matched in so many respects. An engagement had been widely expected. Then suddenly they’d broken up, and Michelle was now engaged to another member of Adam’s polo team.
“What about your mystery woman?”
He frowned. Not annoyed, but perplexed. “What mystery woman?”
“Palace gossip has it that …”
“Go on.” The frown deepened.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Danni? What palace gossip?”
She took a deep breath. “Rumor has it that whenever you get free time, you disappear for an hour or two. When you come back you’re generally in a good mood and you’ve often showered.”
The frown cleared from his face and he threw back his head and laughed like she hadn’t heard him laugh in years. The sound pleased and warmed her inordinately. “Does this mean there’s no mystery woman?” she asked when he stopped laughing.
He was still doing his best to quell his amusement. “There’s no woman, mysterious or otherwise.”
“Then where—”
“Let’s get back on track. Because there does need to be a woman, the right one, and I think you can help. This is important, Danni. All I really want is your insight and a few pointers. It won’t take a lot of your time.”
Danni hesitated.
“Is there something or … someone you need that time for?”
She didn’t want to admit there wasn’t. There had been no someone since the rally driver she’d been dating dropped her as soon as he started winning and realized that with success came women—beautiful, glamorous women.
“You’ll be compensated.”
He correctly interpreted her silence as admission that there wasn’t anyone. But the offer of remuneration was insulting. “I wouldn’t want that. You wouldn’t have to pay me.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“But you think finding the right woman is about lists and boxes you can check off, and it’s not.”
“That’s why I need you. Lists and tickable boxes are part of it and you’ll have to accept that, but I know there’s