Page 11 of Prince She Shouldn't Crave
Maybe he was an introvert and didn’t really want to be around too many people. If that was the case, there were more ways to communicate with the world than by speaking. And afterthe seeming thaw between them, Lena thought it was as good a time as any to raise it. To push a little.
‘Whilst I have you here…’
Gabriel cocked an eyebrow. ‘Am I suitably caffeinated for this conversation?’
‘I’ll leave that for you to decide. I’ve been thinking, and I have some ideas about engaging with younger people.’
His face was devoid of expression apart from that perfectly cocked eyebrow. It remained.
‘Please, enlighten me.’
Lena flicked through her phone. Pulled up a vision board she’d created. ‘You’re always in dark suits.’
‘There’s a problem with that?’
From her personal perspective, there was no problem at all. He looked impossibly handsome. Frankly, he could wear suits every day as far as she was concerned, and she could die a happy woman. Though why she was thinking like that she couldn’t really tell. But she wouldn’t be doing her job if she didn’t suggest alternatives.
‘In the right circumstances, no.’
‘There’s rarely a wrong circumstance in my role.’
It was as if this man didn’t do anything that was fun any more. At. All.
‘What about if you were…? I don’t know. Judging a pet show at a local fair? With children bringing their favourite pet. And you had to pick the best one. Would a suit be right then?’
His eyes narrowed. He gave the slightest shake of his head. ‘There isnevera time I’d be doing that.’
‘Well, maybe you should start. Everyone loves kittens and puppies, together with children. Totally relatable.’
‘And what if a child’s pet is something other than a kitten or a puppy? A snake, for example. Or a tarantula. I don’t want toappear in any way relatable around those animals. I’d then wish to appear repellent.’
The sun had risen a bit higher in the sky, their little table now bathed in soft early sunlight. Lena’s cheeks heated. She wasn’t sure whether it was from the warmth of the sun or Prince’s Gabriel’s resistance to what seemed perfectly reasonable to her.
‘See, Your Highness, now I think you’re engaging in hyperbole.’
‘There’s a rule,never work with children or animals, for a good reason.’
‘You’re going to be King. If you rule out children and animals you’re kind of forsaking some of the best bits of your “role”, as you put it.’
‘I’m not forsaking them at all, they simply haven’t been in my repertoire. On the other hand, my sisters—’
‘Are no longer available.’
He took a slow, and what sounded like a long-suffering, breath. ‘You have a point to this conversation, I assume?’
‘You’re the one who took us offside with the talk of snakes and spiders.’
‘And now I’m guiding us right back onside. Please get on with it. I have another meeting in fifteen minutes.’
‘That’s what I’m trying to do. I think you should try for a look that injects a little more colour. Something more casual. To mix things up a bit. Take a look.’
She handed over her phone to show him some of the pictures she’d found whilst trawling popular menswear blogs and social media for the latest looks. Before she’d started, she’d had no idea how much there was to learn about suits, and don’t get her started on collar gaps. She had trouble looking at her employer now without analysing and admiring his impeccable tailoring. The way he moved, and the way his clothes moved with him…
‘This—this—’ He waved his hand over the phone as if it in some way offended him, which didn’t bode well. ‘No.’
Okay, so maybe some of the examples were a little out there, but she did get them from a viral men’s fashion and workwear blogger who seemed to have real street cred.
‘I’m just trying to show you that even if you’re wearing a suit you can mix it up a bit.’
