Page 37 of Pregnant at the Palace Altar

“I would tell them I am the King of Kalyva and anyquestionscould be considered treason punishable by jail time.” The waves lapped around him, but he was steady, as if nothing, not even the ocean, could knock him over.

Katerina sighed heavily, even as she bobbed with the waves, the only thing keeping her in place his strong arms around her waist. “That would not be the right course of action.”

“Then what would?”

“Perhaps digging to the depths of your acting abilities and pretending you might actually like me.”

He scowled. “I do like you, Katerina. You would not have been my assistant for all those years if I did not.”

“Because I am efficient.”

“Because you are brilliant.”

She had not expected that.

“I did not appreciate it back then because I did not know how badly the job could be done. You knew everything, handled everyone, and made my life easier with it.”

She couldn’t call itimpassionedexactly, because he was clearly exasperated with her. Or exasperated with something. “I’m not sure any of that means more than efficient,” she argued, simply because she liked the way his expression darkened even farther.

“Your favorite color is purple. You like those ridiculous tiny dogs like the ones Mrs. Markis has. You do not like olives.”

She thought back to that odd first night back at the palace when he’d said he knew what she liked, and her dinner, a meal that that was traditionally served with olives, had not been. Thebougatsasserved at every breakfast since her return.

He had to have arranged in advance to get her a swimsuit for it to be here this morning. And the suit was purple—her favorite color.

Suddenly, this wasn’t so enjoyable. It was weighty. It was meaningful.

“Does this answer your ridiculous question?”

It did. In more ways than he no doubt wanted it to. Because...these were all small things. Inconsequential things, really.

But they made up who she was and had no bearing on what she’d been to him as an assistant. If he’d absorbed this information...

Katerina did not really know what love was. She had never been loved. She didn’t know who her father was and her mother was incapable of it. She had made friends, but it had never felt permanent. More like swimming through an ocean of people—she might stop and play, but she was never meant to remain in the water forever.

Diamandis had been loved as a child, by all accounts, but for so many years he’d spent his life with the weight of an entire kingdom on his shoulders, and no one to love him. So she did not think he knew either. She did not think he was cognizant of all these little pieces of her that he must have collected over years of her being his assistant—someone who should have mostly been beneath his notice.

“Come. You should not be in the sun much longer. You will get too warm.”

“I like being warm.” Or maybe she just wanted to stay in this moment where she thought, really thought, she might mean more to him than a capable assistant or accidental mother of his heirs.

“I read it isn’t good for the babies.”

“You read?”

“I do know how, Katerina,” he said, so dryly she couldn’t help but laugh.

But a heavy weight settled in with all that mirth as he led her back to the shore. Not a bad one, just an emotional one. He’d been reading about pregnancy, and it made his earlier comments about keeping his family safe that much more poignant.

Duty was at the center of all he was, this she knew, but it was not his duty to see to this all byhimself. That was why he had a staff. The fact that he was here, the fact that he knew all those things about her was because...

He wanted to. Or couldn’t help himself. Because he felt something deeper than duty.

They returned to the castle, and Katerina entered the shower feeling off-kilter.

You do not like olives.He’d said it forcefully, and she was quite certain she’d never mentioned it aloud before. It meant he had noticed that she always left olives on her plate when they were served to her.

He had to have noticed himself.

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