Page 42 of Pregnant at the Palace Altar

“Even though I can feel them in there, rolling about, it still seems impossible to me too.”

She watched him and the emotions that moved over his face. She saw a kind of wonder that she felt so deeply herself it made her want to cry. She reached up and cupped his cheek with her hand. His gaze moved from her stomach to her eyes.

“They are real and they are ours,” she murmured, needing to get that through to him. They were not heirs. Not problems to be solved. They were theirbabies. Maybe she could accept that he would never love her, if she could get him to love his children...

His hand stayed on her stomach, following the movement of whichever baby was snuggled up to her right side. When he pulled his hand away, she couldn’t simply let him go. She reached out, pulled him close and pressed her mouth to his.

The kiss was soft, needy maybe. But not the sexual kind of need. It was the need a heart felt when it had been alone too long. When it had been unloved too long.

She knew. She had been both.

And so had he.

As if he read these thoughts, or felt that same connection, he broke away from her. He stepped away. “I cannot.” He shook his head, turning his back to her. “I cannot do this with you any longer.”

“Do what, Diamandis?”

He gripped the railing of the balcony, head bowed, as if the weight of it was too much to bear.

“We will return to the palace tomorrow,” he said, his voice ragged. But he straightened and collected himself, put that mask back into place. “We will go back to the way you said you wanted it. A business partnership. Nothing more.”

The pain was searing, but not just her own. That he would deny himself... That he could not allow himself any...moment of connection. She could drown in that pain, or she could see it for what it really was.

“You realize this only proves that you love me.”

“I do not care what it proves, Katerina. This is how it must be.”

“I will still love you, Diamandis.” She tried to sound calm, but she was afraid it all came out sounding rather desperate. “You cannot push me away far enough to change that. It is not for you to change. I will love you. No matter what.”

He did not look back at her, but she could see that his chin had come up as he released the railing. “We will both come to regret that,” he said, then strode away, leaving her on the balcony.

Alone.

It was a painfully familiar feeling in Katerina’s life.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THEFLIGHTBACKto Kalyva was quiet. Diamandis expected anger or some sort of reaction from Katerina, but she remained stoic.

Which was good. Stoicism was an excellent trait in a queen. She would need it in spades.

So why do you feel guilty? Again?

Diamandis scowled out of the window as the palace came into view through the clouds. He had done what he could stand. What was necessary.

He had felt the movement. A life growing inside of her.Twolives.

They will still be children before they are heirs.

He had been given that—a childhood. And he had not been prepared, not really, for all that had suddenly landed on his shoulders at fourteen. Though it was no fault of his parents, he could hardly allow the same thing to happen to his children.

The plane landed and Diamandis was sure this heavy, dark burden inside of him was simply relief at being back where he belonged. Where he could take care of his kingdom and get some distance from his wife.

Before they could even unbuckle their seat belts, Christos appeared.

“Your Majesty.” He bowed to Diamandis, but his gaze darted to Katerina before he nodded toward the exit. “There are some...concerns about our arrival that I wish to speak to you about in private. Perhaps you and I can disembark first.”

“And leave Katerina behind?”

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