Page 10 of Pregnant at the Palace Altar

But so many doors had closed on her—some by her choosing but most by someone else’s. She knew how to do this. She knew how to start over. She knew how to fight, and she would always,alwaysfight for her children.

So she slid inside the car, not yet resigned to being a queen but determined to make the best choices for her children.

CHAPTER FOUR

ITWASQUITElate by the time they returned to Kalyva and the palace. Katerina had slept most of the way, groggily moving from car to boat before falling asleep once more.

Diamandis should have been making arrangements or working, but instead he’d found himself watching her, monitoring the slow rise and fall of her breathing, cataloging every change in her now that she was pregnant.

And realizing how much he’d observed her before without fully realizing that was what he’d been doing all the years she’d worked for him. He certainly did not know or care what Tomás’s eyelashes looked like against his cheek, or how exhaustion might look on any of his assistants’ faces.

Except Katerina’s. As it had after long weeks around special events and committee meetings. As it did now.

When the boat docked at his private royal pier, he briefly considered staying right here until she woke up on her own. She needed a bed, though. Comfort. And likely a meal. There was no way she’d been taking appropriate care of herself if she’d been working and walking up and down those apartment stairs every day.

He fought off the anger, icing it away into its compartment. There were things he could control and things he couldn’t. The past was one of the few things that fell into thecouldn’tcategory.

The future, and how she was taken care of, was well within his control, and that was all that could matter. He eyed the swell of her stomach. Children.Hischildren. For a moment, he had the foreign impulse to reach out and smooth his hand over where his children grew inside her.

He ignored it.

“Katerina.”

Her eyes fluttered open, and for a split second she smiled, but she must have quickly remembered everything, because it died as she straightened and her expression went fully blank. “Ah. We’re here,” she said flatly.

“Yes, you are home.”

Her lips firmed, but she did not argue with him. She allowed him to help her to her feet. They were ushered to the royal car and then driven up the hill to the palace.

Home.With its white walls and spires, tall on the hill that looked down over his island nation. The stars were out tonight, the moon bouncing against the softly crashing surf and the white of the palace, making it glow in the darkness.

Sometimes, late at night like this, he could almost understand why people believed in fairy tales.

Then he remembered his mother’s screams.

Katerina said nothing as they drove, which was not unusual exactly. Part of why she’d been such an excellent assistant had been her ability to sit comfortably in silence and stillness without needing to make small talk.

So why it bothered him now, he could not begin to guess. And since he couldn’t, he chose to ignore it.

It was the dead of night, and he helped her out of the car at his personal entrance to the castle. He had instructed his staff to take the night off as it was still best to keep everything as under the radar as possible. Only Christos, his driver and head bodyguard, knew about Katerina’s return so far.

He wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible. He helped Katerina out of the car and inside. The hallways were lit dimly, as they often were when no one was about, so he took her hand.

“I am sure you are quite hungry. Why don’t we go to my private dining room? I will have a meal brought up.”

She removed her hand from his and stopped abruptly, turning to face him with raised chin and stubborn brows.

“I think I am too tired. I’m sure you can have a tray sent up to my room, and since I know all the rooms in the palace, you needn’t show me where, only tell me.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but something about the sharp look in her eyes told him she washopinghe would argue. That arguing would fall right into whatever plans she was no doubt already formulating.

Katerina was extraordinarily intelligent and savvy. It was why he’d hired her, and why he’d come to rely on her so.

Still, he would not be so easily maneuvered. He did not argue. He smiled pleasantly. “Why, the queen’s bedchamber, of course.”

Her mouth dropped open, and this was quite gratifying, if nothing else today had been.

He took her hand once more, and no doubt her shock at his statement kept her from jerking away. He held her gaze as he lifted her hand and brushed his lips across her knuckles.

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