Page 52 of Pregnant at the Palace Altar

Katerina did not move. It wasn’t a surprise exactly. She’d been trying to accept it so she could handle it if it turned out to be true, but it was just another of her mother’s cruel ploys. “I see.”

“It seems she has been planning this since the wedding. The traitor is not your father, Katerina. She cannot cause harm to you in this way.”

Katerina looked blankly at the wall behind him. She wished this were a relief. “She will keep trying.”

He moved, then surprised her by kneeling before her and taking her hand in his. “And we will keep proving her wrong,” he said, as seriously as any vow. “Lysias has put a man on her. We will watch her until her end days to ensure she has no power to harm us.”

She blew out a breath, surprised at how shaky it was. She kept thinking she knew how to deal with this, but... He was the epitome of a mixed signal. And she knew that this was because hewasa mixed signal. Inside, he was fighting a raging battle between what he truly was and what he thought he should be.

But no one had ever taken care of things for her before, and she did not know how to pretend that didn’t matter. So she leaned forward and pressed her mouth to his. Just gratitude.

And love. “Thank you.”

She expected him to withdraw. Comforting her was one thing, born of his innate need to solve a problem. But this moment was more than simple comfort.

She sat on the chair and he kneeled on the floor, which put them nearly at the same height. They were so close that their noses practically touched and he studied her as if she were a puzzling mystery when she knew she was not.

The true puzzle lay inside of him. And instead of putting it together, he kept pushing the pieces farther and farther away from each other.

He laid his lips on hers once more, gently. Not as if she were fragile, but...sacred. And he kissed her just like that, until she was shaking and blinking back tears.

“I thought you wanted to keep your distance,” she murmured against his mouth, because while she might not resist in this moment, she could hardly ignore the fact that he’d been so quick to run away before.

“I suppose neither of us is very good at sticking to our guns when it comes to each other.”

She wanted to smile, but it was different. He wanted her in his bed. She... “But I love you, Diamandis.”

He did not pull away. There was something...different about him. She wished she could believe he was changing, but she wanted him to so desperately that she was afraid it was only wishful thinking on her part.

“You do not know me, Katerina,” he said, so very seriously.

Which was absurd. “I worked as closely with you as anyone for years. I know who you are, Diamandis.” Just as he knew her, whether he’d ever admit that to himself or not.

“But not what I have done.”

He sounded so tortured, so burdened. She laid her palm against his cheek. “Then tell me. Don’t walk away. Don’t push it away. Tell me, Diamandis. It will change nothing.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

DIAMANDIS’SHEARTFELTas if it were trying to escape his chest. It beat hard and painfully, and it was difficult to breathe.

He wanted to tell her. He wanted to lay his sins at her feet. She was always absolving him, so why not for this too?

Please, for this too.

Lysias’s words about secrets having more power than the truth rattled around inside of him.Power.Had everything always been about power while he’d just been trying to survive?

If he told her, she would know the secret that Marias had told him no one could ever know. But maybe if she knew it, she would stop asking more of him. Maybeshewould keep her distance since he could not.

Maybe she would finally understand why he could not be the husband and father she clearly wanted him to be.

Maybe she will love you anyway.

This, he knew, was the most insidious thought of all, because he wanted it so desperately to be true. But he was kneeling in front of her like some kind of supplicant. Carefully, he rose. “I do not mind you doing some of Tomás’s work if it pleases you,” he said.

Had he really expected that to work? He didn’t know, but she was on her feet, gripping his hands so he couldn’t retreat farther without yanking away.

“Tell me what you have done,” she said earnestly. “Tell me what you think is so horrible that I could not love you. Prove to me that you are a man who does not deserve love and happiness, Diamandis, because I will never believe it if you do not disabuse me of the notion that you are agoodman.Ihave only ever seen the good.”

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