Read Command Performance for Free Online

Belligerence. “Loud and clear.”
    “Then I should apologize.” He took her hand and brought it to his lips. Eve wondered why she should hear thunder when the sky was so clear.
    “Don’t be charming.” She tried to tug her hand away and found it firmly caught.
    His smile was as unexpected as the kiss on her fingers, and just as weakening. Yes, she was nervous. He found the unforeseen vulnerability irresistible. “You prefer rudeness?”
    “I prefer the expected.”
    “So do I.” Something came and went in his eyes quickly. If it was a challenge, she promised herself it was one she would never answer. “It isn’t always there. And from time to time, the unexpected is more interesting.”
    “Interesting for some, uncomfortable for others.”
    His smile deepened. She saw for the first time a small dimple at the side of his mouth. For some reason her gaze seemed locked to it. “Do I make you uncomfortable, Eve?”
    “I didn’t say that.” She tore her gaze from his mouth, but found meeting his eyes wasn’t any less unnerving.
    “Your face is flushed,” he murmured, and stroked a thumb along her cheek.
    “It’s the heat,” she managed, then felt her knees tremble when his gaze locked on hers.
    “I believe you’re right.” He felt it, too, sizzling in the air, crackling, like an electric storm over the sea. “The wise thing for both of us is to cool off.”
    “Yes. I have to change. I told Bennett I’d go down to the stables with him before dinner.”
    Alexander withdrew immediately. Whatever she thought she had seen in his face, in his eyes, was gone. “I’ll let you go, then. The French ambassador and his wife will be joining us for dinner.”
    “I’ll try not to slurp my soup.”
    Temper, always close to the surface, came into his eyes. “Are you making fun of me, Eve, or yourself?”
    “Both.”
    “Don’t stay in the sun much longer.” He turned and didn’t look back.
    Eve watched him stride away in his strong, military gait. She shivered once, then shut her eyes and dove headlong into the pool.
    * * *
    Eve was relieved to find not only Bennett but Brie and Reeve joining them at dinner. Seated between the ambassador and Reeve, she found herself saved from having to make the obligatory dinner conversation with Alexander. As heir, he sat at the head of the table, flanked by his sister on one side and the ambassador’s wife on the other.
    The dinner was formal but not, as Eve had feared, unbearably boring. The ambassador had a wealth of anecdotes, any of which he would expound on given the least encouragement. Eve laughed with him, urged him on, then delighted him by carrying on a conversation in French. Her years in the Swiss school had stuck, whether she’d wanted them to or not.
    “Impressive,” Reeve toasted her when she turned to him with a grin. He’d changed little over the years, she thought. There was a touch of gray at the temples, but that was all. No, she corrected, that wasn’t all. He was more relaxed now. Happiness, it seemed, was its own fountain of youth.
    “How’s your French coming?”
    “It isn’t.” He toyed with the rich duck in its delicate sauce and thought how much he would have preferred a steak, rare, cooked over his own grill. Then he glanced over at his wife as she laughed with Bennett. Whatever sacrifices had been made were nothing compared to the rewards. “Gabriella says I’m determined not to learn.”
    “And?”
    “She’s right.”
    Eve laughed and picked up her wine. “I’m looking forward to seeing your farm tomorrow, Reeve. Chris told me the house was lovely, though she got lost when you started in on wheat or oats. And you have horses.”
    “All the children ride. Even Dorian sits on a pony.” He paused as the main course was cleared. “It’s amazing how fast they learn.”
    “How does it feel?” She turned a little more, not certain where the question had come from or why it seemed so important. “Living here, I mean, or living