“I’m not going to be here long enough.” Although the idea of being totally unrecognizable—reinventing herself—gave her a thrill. All those things Marcel said they couldn’t do…she could do them here.

With Brodie.

Shut up. That’s never going to happen.

“This place is crazy,” Gustav said. “We drove past a bunch of people staring at a swamp.” He tipped his head toward Harrison. “I made him stop so I could get out of the car. I asked what everyone was looking at, and someone pointed out a moose. Can you believe it? I looked at it through binoculars.” He pulled paper towels out of a sack and set them on the counter. “At least go into town. I’ve never seen anything like it. They’ve got a store that sells stuffed, dead animals. And it smells amazing.”

“The dead animals?” she asked.

“The barbecue,” Harrison said.

As she set the petals in the pan, she could feel Harrison watching her. He’d been with her since childhood, so she knew him well. “I know what you’re thinking, but I’m telling you, the wheel would never have been invented if everyone had said, ‘Don’t bother, your parents will never approve.’”

Harrison released one of his deep-throated chuckles. “You got me there.”

She lifted a petal to her nose and breathed it in. “I can’t believe it. This is even better than our flower.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Harrison stuffed all the sacks into one bag and set them on the counter.

“Of all the people in the world to work with me, I have someone with no sense of smell.”

“I don’t work with you, Princess,” Harrison said. “I work for you.”

She gazed up at him with an affectionate smile. “Says the man who shared an entire box of macarons with me at the top of the Arc de Triomphe as we watched the sunset.” Pouring enough palm oil to cover the petals, she handed off one pan to Harrison and pulled the other one forward. “This won’t be perfect, but at least we’ll get a sense—”

Someone banged on the door. The three of them exchanged confused glances, until Gustav went to answer it.

“Lookin’ for Rosie.”

Gustav’s big body blocked her view, but she didn’t need to see him to recognize that deep, gravelly voice. It roused an awareness deep inside her.

And Rosie? Why did she love the sound of that? Especially in a voice she’d only expect to hear first thing in the morning when she was snugged against his body, his erection hard against her bottom.

What?

Where did that come from?

She turned back to her pan. “It’s Brodie. You can let him in.”

“Sir,” her bodyguard said. “What can I do for you?”

“Your boss around?” Brodie said.