He wondered how much he could pay her to defect to him. Maylee was loyal as could be, and he wasn't sure if Hunter would be willing to give her up, since Gretchen seemed fond of her. Of course, hiring Maylee would cause all kinds of new problems. Kip was rather possessive of his job, and the last thing that Griffin needed was two assistants. He'd have to figure out the details somehow.
"Boy, they sure like dessert here, don't they?" Maylee asked, her drawl catching his attention. She'd paused in the street, staring at a sweets shop.
"Bellissime is very proud of its chocolate," he agreed. "Do you want to try some?"
"Thought you'd never ask," she said, grinning.
A few minutes later, they emerged from the shop, two gelato cones in hand. Griffin had gotten a traditional chocolate spumoni and Maylee had gotten a chocolate crème de menthe, which she joked was a fancy pants way of saying chocolate and peppermint.
As they left the shop, Maylee gave her cone a lick. "Mine is amazing. I think I love Bellissime."
He laughed. "We take chocolate very seriously here."
She eyed his cone. "Is yours better than mine?"
"You want to give it a taste?" They moved to a nearby park bench and sat down. A fountain burbled nearby, and people strolled past, taking pictures. It was all very touristy and pretty. "I'll share if you want."
"If I say yes, are you going to laugh at me for eating yours and mine?"
"Not at all. I'd love to watch you lick my cone." And he wagged his eyebrows at her.
She snorted. "Perv." But she reached for his hand and dragged his cone toward her mouth, and then gave it a tentative lick. Then, she moaned. "Oh, my God. That's incredible. Why is everything so good here?"
He couldn't take his eyes off her mouth, the small pink tongue darting out to lick at his cone again, and then retreating back between those pretty, perfect lips.
And now he had a rather uncomfortable erection forming. He closed his eyes and started counting back from a hundred, even as she made little pleased noises in her throat as she ate her gelato.
"You want to taste mine, Griff?"
God, she was really going to drive him to distraction today, wasn't she? Forget the counting. He opened his eyes and looked over at her, just as she was giving the top of her cone an open-mouthed kiss, her tongue flicking out against it. Chocolate coated her pink lips.
He leaned forward and took her lower lip in his mouth, sucking on it. "Delicious," he murmured, and then nibbled on her upper lip while she made soft mewing sounds that drove him wild. "I think I like yours better."
She stared at him, dazed, as he pulled away. Her lips were slightly parted, her mouth wet from his kisses. "You . . . you want to taste it again?" Her voice was breathless.
"More than anything," he admitted. "But if I do, they'll cite me for public indecency."
Her gaze flicked to his lap, where his arm was carefully maneuvered over his cock. And she laughed. "I'm sorry. I'll behave."
"Let's discuss something that will rid me of my problem, shall we? And save the tastings for later."
"All right," she said cheerfully, and took a big crunching bite of her cone. After a moment, she said, "Tell me about your childhood."
That'd do it. Talk of his family always made any sexual thoughts disappear. "Must I?"
"Well, no, I guess you don't have to."
Griffin regarded the fountain nearby. "I'm afraid it's one of those revolting 'poor little rich boy' stories. Except when I was growing up, my branch of the family wasn't all that wealthy. We had several estates but other than the crown's money, we were essentially bankrupt. My mother, Her Royal Highness Sybilla-Louise, married my father because his branch of the family had an acceptable title and enough wealth to keep the family estates afloat. It was not a love match. Not even close. You'll notice that with the exception of my cousin Alexandra, not many in the royal family marry for love."
"It sounds kind of backward," Maylee observed, giving her cone a furtive lick.
"It is. We like to pretend that the royal family is as enlightened as the current times, but they're still stuck in old protocol more than any other group I have ever imagined. My family was not a warm one. I rarely saw my parents except for state functions, and my brother and I were shuffled off to live with various nannies at my parents' country estates. When we were old enough, we went to boarding schools." He shrugged. "I went to Eton in Great Britain."
"That sounds awful."
"Eton? It wasn't so bad."
"No, your family. Didn't you love and care for one another?"