Frowning, Milonia pulled her hand away. She rubbed her wrist absently, as if trying to erase the feel of his touch. “I’ll go distract him.”
Without another word, she exited her bedroom, the door shutting with a softsnick.
Dimitrios fell back and sighed. He’d tried talking to her about this last night, but it was as if she sensed the serious conversation coming anddistracted him with her naked body. Was he the only one who’d fallen? Was that why? Maybe she was just using him to fill a need, and he was overreacting because he was finally coming out of mourning.
The problem was, he’d felt this way before, knew it for what it was, and he’d already tried fighting it. Nothing had worked.
Once dressed, he slipped out of her room. The parlor was sunlit and still. Worn velvet on the chairs. A lavender scarf draped over a chaise. A cold teacup on the sill. Books were stacked like battlements beside the window.
Dimitrios paused at the study doorway and stared inside, surprised he hadn’t noticed before. Milonia’s desk was the same style as Leonidas’s, and she’d known about the hidden drawer… Was this why?
He strode toward it, guided by the same compulsion that had him searching every desk he came across. More often than not, the compartments were empty, but he enjoyed the game of finding the unlocking mechanism, which was different on every desk.
This one took him all of two minutes to figure out. The drawer popped out, and he pulled it toward him?—
“Caius is walking the pups,” Milonia said from the doorway.
She gripped the doorframe and stared at what was clearly an empty drawer, her expression grim.
Dimitrios motioned toward the desk. “You never said you had one in your rooms.”
“I said they were all over the palace, and they are.” She straightened and held her hands together in front, her stance formal. “Is there something I can help you find?”
“I wasn’t—” He shifted beneath her chilly stare. “Are you all right? I’m sorry if… I didn’t mean any harm.”
“It’s your right to go through whatever you wish, Your Majesty.”
Milonia turned her body in an invitation for him to exit. He paused in front of her, and she turned her cheek to his kiss.
“I’ll see you later, then,” he said.
Milonia hesitated—just for a moment—then turned toward the window. “You should go before Caius returns.”
That was when he felt it. The snap he could never have anticipated.
Rationally, he knew she was there, breathing, alive. All he had to do was pull her close, confess to his childish curiosity, and apologize.
But his body was stone, and his mind was in a place where he couldalready feel her answer. Her dead weight. He’d held too many bodies that didn’t answer back. He wasn’t prepared to watch her become one of them.
Without a word, he turned and left.
He tried to erase and rationalize the moment as he cleaned up and dressed for the day. She’d never acted like that before. Buthehad never invaded her privacy before, either.
Dimitrios knew better, however, than to hunt her down and force her to talk. That never went over well with the women in his life. So, he chose to send her a note instead. He’d write it as if he were away on a long journey, just as they’d done in the beginning. Surely, that would soften her to hear his apology later.
He was heading for his study when a knock sounded. A member of his protective guard entered and bowed. “Lady Rena Nicolea and Supreme Commander Pateras, My Lord. They claim to have urgent news.”
“Let them in.”
Rena entered first, her hair twisted into a low bun, though several strands had broken free in defiance. She wore a himation the color of soot over a wine-red chiton, belted high under the bust with a silver-threaded girdle. Every step she made was deliberate, and for the first time since meeting her, he saw Antonis in her overall demeanor.
Dimitrios kissed her cheeks in greeting. “Is everything all right?”
Rena glanced back at Pateras, who was outfitted in full military garb. A bronze cuirass over his pale chiton, and a navy blue chlamys fastened with a Perean brooch. His soft leather boots rose above the ankle, laced with silver.
“My father has written,” Rena said, then handed him a missive with the Nicolea seal. “He’s asked me to return home at once.”
Dimitrios startled. “Why?”
