“Yes. It is. None of you should be here.” If I could spank her for it just to see her lovely ass turn red beneath my palm, I would. Something about her tells me she’d enjoy her punishment as much as I would. I push thoughts of that away. She’s the nanny. Nothing more.
“Don’t be so hard on the girl.” Samil smacks my back like we’re chums, and I growl at him. “In a palace this size, I can’timagine it’s difficult to lose them,” he tells her when he has no right or business speaking to my nanny. Or touching me. “I don’t think we’ve met before.” He walks over to her and takes her hand, helping her to stand now that I’m holding Zayer. “I’m Samil Batorini, the prime minister. You likely voted for me.” He gives her his patented asshole wink.
“Oh. Um.” She stares down at her hand that he’s still holding before she slides it from his grip. “I didn’t, actually.”
I choke on a laugh.
“Impossible,” he exclaims in a teasing lilt, though I know him well enough to know he’s not joking at all. He doesn’t like that she just made him look a fool and that I laughed at it.
“No. I’m not Messalinian. I’m American.”
“American?” His gaze cuts to mine and I get a look. A look I don’t like any part of. My nanny is young and strikingly beautiful, and he wants me to know he’s all over it while loving that I can’t be. He returns his full focus to her. “And now you work in the palace as a nanny. What’s your name,mia bella?”
Sabrina giggles. “That’s her name.”
Samil peers at Sabrina curiously then back at Bellamy, who is blushing furiously.
“My name is Bellamy Wright.”
“Ah. SoBellais correct. More of the Italian than French side of Messalina, I should think.”
Another look my way, and if I weren’t holding my son and my daughter weren’t standing beside me, I’d flip him off. Or strangle him for the way he’s staring at Bellamy. Meanwhile, the other men and women of parliament linger by the ballroom door, watching inquisitively. I had sent Althea to run some copies of things that require actual signatures, otherwise she’d be here, taking care of all of this for me.
“Such a beautiful woman with a beautiful name, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Still,mia bella, we have to do something about your citizenship so you can vote in the next election.” Samiltakes her hand back, tucking it into the crook of his elbow. “Will you join us for lunch?”
“No,” we say in unison. “I have to tend to the children,” she finishes, plastering on a forced smile for him. One that doesn’t touch her eyes. Nothing like the one she gave me this morning. That was genuine, and for reasons beyond my comprehension, it makes me prohibitively protective of her.
“Surely you get to eat lunch. Despite how unpleasant and intolerant your employer is, I know he has to feed you. Besides, I insist. A beautiful woman such as yourself, a foreigner in my country, I have to know everything about you. You can’t say no to me. I’m the prime minister.”
She looks panicked, unsure of what to do as he starts to move her along, and I see red.
My jaw tics, but I keep my voice even. “Let her go, Samil. Now.”
He gives me a malicious smirk. “Not this time, old friend. It is not your call to make.”
That slimy motherfucker.
Her arm gives a jerk as she tries to extricate herself from him for a second time. He’s not having it. Sliding in closer to her, he firms up his hold, and the way he’s making her undeniably uncomfortable and not caring has me biting out, “It is my call. She’s my employee. Let her go.”
“I don’t see the problem here, Sebastian. Employee or not, there is no earthly reason I can’t escort her down and have her join me for lunch if I so choose.”
“This is my first day and my schedule dictates that I need to take the children back down to the breakfast room for lunch,” she cuts in, her tone firm yet polite.
“Ah, but their father is with them now, is he not?” Another step away from us. “I’m sure given his long hours, he’d love nothing more than to spend his lunch break with his children.”
“But so would I,” she counters. “I need to get to know thechildren. Thank you for the gracious invitation but perhaps another time.”
He jumps all over that. “Another time?” His dark eyes sparkle. “Perfect.Si.How about dinner with me this week since I’m staying here at the palace?” He takes the hand he’s gripping and kisses her knuckles, his eyes raking up and down, drinking her in before he tosses me a quick wink. “We could also leave the palace. Go out for dinner. Just the two of us. Since living here I’m sure you’ll rarely have the opportunity to leave since the king never does.”
“That’s not going to happen, Samil,” I announce, roughly grabbing Bellamy’s elbow and tugging her away from him while placing her behind me. “She’s not here to be with you. Go find a date outside of my palace.”
I know what he’s doing. What game he’s attempting to play with me, and he can go fuck himself sideways with it. He thinks I hired the nanny to be my fuck toy because that’s what he would do. Little does he know I can’t stand her and would just as quickly be rid of her.
Still. I can’t let him have her, either. He’s the last man I want to touch her. The thought sends a burning rage through my blood, clenching my fists and jaw.
“Hmm,” he muses, studying me closer than I’d like. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’re trying to keep your new nanny from me.”
“Think whatever you like. I don’t care in the slightest.”
