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“It is locked. And our guards are in place.”

“I’m used to having Missy to do those things for us. I guess I’ll adjust to not having that convenience.”

“You will. Here, let me help you undress,” he said. He stepped closer to her and gently kissed her forehead as his strong, steady fingers began unbuttoning her blouse. She yawned again twice more before he finally got it off her. Taking note of the level of emotion and exhaustion that had quickly overtaken Vivi, he wondered exactly how much more time would pass before she gave birth. “Can I get you anything, Ehlealah?”

“I just want to sleep.”

“Then that is what we’ll do.” He tossed her blouse toward the foot of their bed, then removed her bra and her skirt, tossingthem on top of the blouse. Once she was standing there in only her panties looking small and unbelievably fragile, the fear he’d lived with since learning their attempts to get pregnant had been successful, overcame him once more. “All will be well, Vivi. You know that I will make everything right, don’t you?”

“I do,” she murmured as he pulled back the covers and lifted her into his arms to tuck her into bed.

“I will return with creams for your belly.”

Vivian nodded. The skin on her stomach was stretched so tight that it had become their routine for him to massage soft, moisturizing creams and lotions into her skin at night.

“I’ll be right back.”

She nodded again but had already closed her eyes and started to drift off.

Looking down at his mate, he wondered if there was anything else he could do to help make her more comfortable that he hadn’t already done. She was valiantly forging ahead, trying to ignore all her discomforts, but he knew how she suffered, her tiny body pushed to its limits. He pressed a kiss to her temple, then turned and left the bedroom, turning off the bedroom light as he went.

Flipping on the light in the cleansing room as he entered, it took him only moments to figure out the creams he wanted weren’t there. He left the light in the cleansing room on so Vivi would be able to see if she awoke and headed down the stairs to search for her creams.

The moment he set foot on the floor of their downstairs quarters, he scowled, realizing he’d need to speak to the palace staff about what they were and were not allowed to do. They’d obviously been inside the suite in the brief time they’d been upstairs and tidied it quickly and before leaving, turning off all the lights as they went.

That couldn’t happen. Vivi still couldn’t sleep in complete darkness, and likely never would. And it wouldn’t do to have anyone wandering around in their private quarters, regardless of their reasons for it. He’d thought he’d made it clear to his parents that no one would be allowed in their quarters, not evenservants without the express permission of Vivian or himself, each time they wanted to enter. There would be no one darting in for any reason at all without prior permission.

Walking through the darkness he paused beside a lamp on top of a decorative side table against the wall and switched it on. Every room needed at least a faint illumination to make sure she could see if she needed to go into it. She’d bravely made the choice to move to the palace and stand beside him so that he could assume his father’s position of Sovereign, but he knew that any kind of change from that which had represented safety to her since her initial rescue, caused her a great deal of strife. He knew it figured heavily into her being emotionally off balance, easily upset, and jumpy. Only a portion of her outburst was a result of pregnancy hormones, the rest was trying to acclimate to a new reality. It was a reaction to a situation that most wouldn’t understand, or have survived for that matter. But she had survived. And she’d trusted him implicitly. And he’d never give her a reason to be uncomfortable because of him, especially if all he needed to do to give her a bit of security was to leave a light on.

After turning on a lamp in each room of the their downstairs quarters, he finally searched through the stand alone cleansing chamber, but still didn’t find the creams he wanted. Standing just outside that cleansing chamber, he looked back and forth from one room to another, trying to decide if they’d even been put away yet where they’d been put. His eyes landed on the door into their downstairs bedroom and he smiled, believing he’d figured it out. Quin entered the bedroom and stopped in his tracks, shaking his head at the sight of the large, dangerous feline sleeping upside down, all four legs splayed out in the air in different directions. “Kitty!” he said sharply.

Kitty opened one eye and looked at him from his upside down position.

“Why are you not with Vivi?” he asked.

Kitty continued to lay upside down, regarding him with one large open eye.

“Fine, stay down here. It will be good not to have to make room for you.”

Quin went to the left side of the bed, which was customarily the side his mother slept on, so figured it would be expected by the servants now assigned to their quarters that Vivi would do the same, and opened the shallow drawer. He grinned triumphantly. At least half a dozen jars of Vivi’s creams and lotions sat waiting for her to use. Picking out two of her favorites, he closed the drawer and headed back out of the room. He paused at the doorway and looked back at the shraler still lying upside down, but no doubt watching every move Quin made.

Quin huffed a laugh. “Are you coming?”

Kitty didn’t move.

“If you aren’t there and Vivi wakes, she’ll worry.”

Kitty rolled over and stretched, yawning as he opened his mouth wide, all of his deadly teeth clearly on display. He smacked his jowls a time or two, as his mouth opened and closed lazily.

“Do you want her to worry?”

Quin walked away, leaving the shraler to follow when he was ready.

He was halfway up the stairs when Kitty finally darted past him. By the time Quin reached the landing and made his way through the upstairs living room toward the bedrooms, Kitty’d already peeked into each room, quickly determined which one Vivian was in and was curling up on her clothes on the foot of the bed just as Quin entered the bedroom.

“You know there’s a cushion for you on the floor,” Quin said.

Kitty completely ignored Quin and continued making a nest for himself with Vivian’s discarded clothing at their feet.

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