“…and because I love you.”
“If each admiral has your undivided attention for a month, it undercuts their arguments about my influence.”
“So in this plan, you and I see each other for one month a year?” Eric pushed to his feet. “And the rest of the time you and cookie guy?—”
“Gus. We need to start calling him Gus.”
“Fuck Gus,” Eric snarled. “Because that’s what you’d be doing. You’d be fucking Gus while I was listening to Ricardo or Victoire bitch about some stupid fucking thing. He’d be your husband. He’d get to have breakfast with you. He’d eat takeaway while sitting on the floor. He’d?—”
Nikolett jumped to her feet, stepped into his path as he paced. He smacked into her and she would have fallen if he hadn’t grabbed her.
Nikolett laid her head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, but his hands were fisted against her back. It took a minute of standing there silently, her squeezing him as tight as she could, before his hands relaxed.
“One year,” she said once he’d calmed. “And we aren’t getting married until the end of that year, so no, I wouldn’t be having breakfast or sex with Gus. We’d say we’re looking for our third, or just say we’re making arrangements with no details.”
He was still tense but his hands cradled her back and hips, palms flat, fingers spread.
“Nine months of the year you’re with a territory, including mine. The other three…” She tipped her head up, chin on his sternum. He looked down at her, a faint frown still on his face. “I go on sabbatical.”
“Sabbatical?” The frown shifted from concern to confusion.
“The three months you’re not with a territory, you’re at Triskelion. I take a three-month sabbatical from being admiral of Hungary and I join you at Triskelion. While I’m with you, I’m not the admiral of Hungary, I’m just your fiancée.”
“Just my fiancée…Nikolett, I don’t want you reduced to that.”
“Oh, I will be helping you with Masters’ Admiralty society-wide issues. Any issues really. I’ll be the unofficial vice fleet admiral.”
“Fuck, why don’t we just make you the official vice fleet admiral?”
“There might be precedent for a new power structure. Colum can look into it.”
“Good. He needs to go through all the records at Triskelion anyway.”
“Why are the records there and not at the…actually, never mind.”
“I don’t like this plan but I don’t hate it.” Eric kissed her head. “What happens after a year?”
Now she inhaled, exhaled. “I step down.”
“No,” he said immediately. “I’ll step down. I’ll step down and you become fleet admiral. As long as we get married first, you’re qualified.”
“None of the other admirals are going to agree to swapping you for me. People don’t like me.”
“I like you. A lot.”
“Thank you, but even if there wasn’t an issue with my likability, the fact is no one wants the fleet admiral to be someone who is a current territory admiral. They have no neutrality. The rule is it has to be a former admiral, but in practice, hasn’t it always been a retired admiral who was out of office for at least a few years?”
“Colum could check the records.”
“I’ll be happy,” she assured him quietly. “I like solving problems and creating action plans more than I like the day-to-day running of the territory. You’re a more charismatic leader, and in a crisis, people will follow you.”
“Nikki…”
“We’re a good team. And we have one year to decide. Maybe one of the other admirals will retire tomorrow, and in a year, they can be fleet admiral and you can come to Hungary with me.”
“One year. And I only get to spend four months of that year with you.”
“It’s better than seeing one another for a day or two every few months during a crisis.”
