Chapter 43
Lucianne, Xandar and Christian skipped lunch in the dining hall for lunch at Christian’s home. Annie had
wanted to meet Lucianne ever since Xandar first told Christian about finding his mate at the annual
meet-and-greet.
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The cousins and Lucianne herself really wanted to start digging into the audits, the real ones, so it
sounded like lunch at the residence of the Duke and Duchess was the perfect n. Lucianne was also
concerned with how Ellia, Ben and the other two families were holding up,
so when Xandar asked if she wanted to go, she didn’t hesitate to say yes.
Christian’s vi was about the same size as Xandar’s but the interior had more portraits: Xandar
exined that Christian had been fascinated with art for as long as he could remember. His wife, Annie,
loved flowers, which exined the colourful flower beds around the house, and the many, many tall
vases and small pots at every corner of the rooms in their home.
Lucianne was quite nervous about meeting Annie. Xandar told her that Annie was nice but Lucianne
wasn’t sure if they would click as friends. Things would get rather awkward if they had nomon
interest to hold a simple conversation. That was the reason why Lucianne could never get close to
females who only talked about make-up,test fashion trends or celebrity news. She never kept up with
those things. She mentally nned to just get Anniet o talk about flowers as ast resort to avoid any
awkwardness.
Christian strode quicker than usual after he entered through the front doors of his home, making his way
to the guest lounge where Annie was waiting. It was the first time Lucianne
saw Christian walking ahead of Xandar. The Duke didn’t look back as he made speedy steps t o his wife
of seventeen years. 2
Xandar and Lucianne made it to the lounge just in time to see Annie in Christian’s embrace a s the Duke
pecked a sweet kiss on the Duchess’s cheek before muttering an affectionate ‘Hey’ to his wife, looking
deeply into her eyes. Her eyes matched his affection as she pecked a kiss on his jaw.
Lucianne took in the lounge with light-colored walls against the marble-tiled floor. A chandelier hung from
the ceiling in the middle of the room, and its lights brought out the colors of the posh velvet sofas and
bocote wood furniture. Exquisite was the only way to describe the lounge.
Xandar was only looking at Lucianne the entire time her eyes studied their surroundings, and he couldn’t
help but peck a kiss on her temple because of how cute she looked when she was being a curious cat.
Lucianne was so caught up with the sophisticated lounge that she merely offered her mate a shy smile
as her hand reached out to touch his arm in tenderness. Her small hand on his hulking muscles was
enough to make Xandar’s animal howl internally with pride and ecstasy.
Christian interrupted his animal’s happy moment when he brought Annie to his cousin and the new-found
Queen. Annie was only a little shorter than Christian. Her lc eyes shone beautifully against her tanned
skin. Her shoulder-length hair was straight and brown. She wore a in pink shirt and white shorts. Even
so, she was anything but in-looking because her facial features made everything she wore stand out
in her own way. With a warm smile, she reached out to give Xandar a brief hug before she turned to look
at Lucianne who had a friendly smile on.
Annie smiled graciously as she offered a bow and said, “My Queen, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
Lucianne bowed back and Annie stood with Lucianne. The Duchess had clearly been briefed b y
Christian about the new bowing formality. When their eyes met again, the first thing Lucianne said to the
Duchess was, “Can we not do that the next time we meet, Annie?”
Annie chuckled lightly, and to Lucianne’s surprise, pulled Lucianne into a brief hug like she did with
Xandar. After letting her go, Annie said, “Christian did say you weren’t veryfortable with formalities.”
“I’m still not actually.” Lucianne admitted sheepishly. “And I prefer if you could just call me Lucy.”
“What?! That’s not fair!” Xandar eximed. “Babe, you only let me call you ‘Lucy’ days after we met! You
met Annie less than a minute ago.”
Lucianne narrowed her eyes at her sometimes-childish mate, “Xandar, I let you call me your sweetheart
in less than 24 hours after we first met. Don’t you think that beats calling my shortened name?”
Xandar thought hard about it for a moment before he said, “It’s debatable.” Christian chuckled from the
side at his cousin’s seriousness.
“Lucy it is then.” Annie dly obliged.
“Thank you. Do you think you could convince Christian to do the same?” Lucianne asked, despite
knowing that the Duke was right there in front of her.
Annie groaned yfully and said, “Oh, that’s a stubborn one. I have to tell you. Do you know h e called
me ‘My Duchess’ for the entire first year and a half after our marriage, and even before we were
engaged? I mean, seriously, what is it with this man and his love for addressing people by their titles?”
sed
It was Xandar’s turn to chuckle at his cousin. Christian’s smile was broadening by the second, and he
walked to his mate before holding her close to the side of his body and pecking a kiss on her cheek as
he muttered, “My Duchess” into her ear. Annie’s mock look of annoyance was quickly reced with a
beautiful shy demeanor. Her pink blushes made her look more beautiful than she already was. No one
could guess that this couple had been married for seventeen years. They behave like newlyweds!
“Aww, you guys are so sweet. This is a whole new side of Christian that I’ve never seen before and it
looks really good on him.” Lucianne said like an excited little girl. By her side, Xandar’s thumb started
stroking her waist, and he kissed her on her temple again because she looked absolutely adorable
saying what she just did.
Lucianne then looked at Xandar, whose eyes were soft with affection until she asked, “Should we start
analyzing the audits? There’s probably a lot to go through. We don’t want to be here for too long if we
want to keep suspicions at bay.”
Xandar groaned as everyone felt the romantic atmosphere around them break with Lucianne’s words.
The King then mocked annoyance andined, “Lucy, first you let a person you met for less than a
minute call you how I wanted to call you since the first night w e met. Now, you can’t even give me a
moment to revel in your being without you talking about Queen duties! Do I even matter to you?!”
Lucianne’s cheeky mood was turned on, “Oh, I’m sorry for upsetting you, your Highness. But if I
remember correctly, you said you merely needed me as your Queen to help you with your very taxing job
as King. So I naturally obliged and asked about the issue I came to help with.”
Xandar suppressed a grin as his hands started caressing her shoulders. After a brief kiss on her hairline,
he said in a husky voice, “Careful now, my love. We both know how that conversation endedst time.”
Annie then asked Christian out loud, “This was the one with Xandar’s arousal spiraling out of control
among the wolves in the dining hall, right?” Christian tried to suppress augh and nodded in response
to his mate’s question.
Despite the strong wave of sparks Lucianne felt from Xandar’s hands on her shoulder, she looked at the
Duchess in as much irritation as she could muster as she said, “Annie, you heard me. Did any part of
what I just said sound horny to you?”.
Christian couldn’t help it this time, and was chuckling uncontrobly by Annie’s side. Xandar himself was
still trying his best to suppress a grin, and he continued to caress his mate’s shoulders in adoration as he
pecked a sweet kiss on her temple again while waiting for his cousin-inw’s answer.
Annie narrowed her eyes at Xandar and began, “My King, you should be ashamed of yourself. Your
thoughts are as inappropriate as they are unprofessional. It’s no wonder the Queen showed you no
mercy inbat this morning.”
Lucianne burst intoughter, and Christianughed even louder. The sound of his chuckles
She was already holding Xandar’s shoulder for support, and it did not help that Xandar was squeezing
the flesh on her waist yfully to make herugh even more. When herughter subsided, Xandar
pecked butterfly kisses on her cheek, sending a visible blush to her features as he took a whiff of her
hair.