My father was nobody’s fool and knew exactly what I was telling him, and judging by Prince Louis’s—Theo’s father’s—solemn expression, I had a feeling he could read between the lines too.
“But we thank you for the offer,” Theo said before looking over at his dad. “There’s just no need to put any kind of bodyguard on us. As you can see, I’m out of hiding now, and the danger has passed.”
“You’re certain of that?” Prince Louis said.
Theo brought his glass to his lips, took a sip, and let free a smile just this side of sinister. “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.”
Louis reached for his wife’s hand and gave it a quick squeeze of reassurance, and I wondered if, like my father, the prince knew what his son—whatI—was capable of when it came to protecting ourselves and our loved ones.
“Very well, then—we’ll trust you have this handled.”
I gave a curt nod and reached for Theo’s hand, and as he interlaced our fingers, a bright smile lit his mother’s beautiful face.
“Will you come to Monaco soon? The family is going to want to formally meet you, Shep, and we can’t wait to show you off.”
“He’s not a show pony, Mom.”
“Of course not. But he’s part of our family and we want to introduce him to the world.”
“I’m pretty sure they already know him.”
“AndI’mpretty sure you’re going to want to let me do this. Since you didn’t tell me before you told said world.”
It took everything I had not to snort at the sheepish expression that crossed Theo’s face, because I don’t think I’d ever seen someone put him so firmly in his place.
“Oui, Mother. We will make arrangements as soon as we’re able.”
“Now that’s what I like to hear.”
I turned to see my mother watching the two of us, her heart in her eyes, her joy evident in her soft smile as she leaned into my father’s side.
That was what I’d always wanted—a love like theirs, and as I brought Theo’s hand to mine and pressed a kiss to his knuckles, I knew I’d finally found it.
“You wouldn’t by chance have enough food for two extra tonight, would you, Mom?”
She hadn’t asked us, but the pleased expression that lit her face told me how much it meant to her that I wanted to stay, that I wanted them to get to know Theo and me as a couple, and that we wanted our families to become closer beyond planning for the next crisis.
“We sure do.”
I looked at Theo to see him nodding his approval. “Then why don’t we go and set another two seats?” I said.
Theo got to his feet and rubbed at his belly. “Sounds like a plan. I’m starving.”
26
THEO
“IS IT JUST me, or have we been summoned an awful lot lately?” I lifted my arm to scan my tracker on the panel that led us down from the main Libertine building to the underground where only the seven of us roamed. The lock clicked free, and when the door yawned open wide enough to let one of us through, I gestured for Shep to go first.
We’d only just gotten back from Delaware last night, only to have King request our presence at Libertine tonight. No doubt it had something to do with the amount of press we’d been receiving and how it would only burn the organization somehow, blah blah blah. I was prepared for whatever lashing we were about to get and would take it on the chin. There was no way in hell Shep and I were hiding each other, and if that was a problem, we’d deal with it. But the secretive shit was just not going to fly, something our families realized during our meeting yesterday.
“At least we’ll have a few days to ourselves after this,” Shep said, but when I groaned, he spun around. “No. What does that mean?”
I sighed. “Jean will be back from his honeymoon tomorrow.”
“So?”
“So my older brother has requested my presence in Monaco.”
