Gabriel looked down at his father.Skate throughfelt a bit like an accusation.
Before he could decide what to say, Evelyne approached them.
“I hope you are enjoying yourself, Mr. Marti. Pardon me, Manuel.”
“It is so good to be home, Your Highness, and not worry for my or my family’s safety. Your brother will be a good king and make Alis the country I remember as a boy, I have no doubts.” He turned to Gabriel and grinned. “And my son shall be quite the earl.”
She beamed at him. “I have the utmost faith in the both of them.”
“As do I. If you’ll excuse me, I must find my wife. Make sure some young man hasn’t tried to abscond with her.” He gave Evelyne a little bow and then moved off.
Gabriel watched Evelyne watch his father go. She had a bright smile on her face. No signs of exhaustion when no doubt she had to be. She had been running herself hard these past few days. It was clear she was determined to take some pressure off Alexandre’s shoulders.
She finally looked up at him, her smile bright and her eyes full of happiness. “I love them,” she said emphatically.
Gabriel made a noncommittal noise, realized it sounded like the one his father had made. Would his son take on this tradition?
Would Gabriel know how to handle the weight of that? Ever?
Evelyne took his hand in hers and gave him a bit of a tug forward. “I am afraid you are required by princess law to dance for at least one song with me.”
“Are you not tired yet?”
“Not yet. Wired. I’m sure I’ll crash when it’s all over, but for now I would like to dance with my husband.”
Husband.It was a farce, but the more Evelyne acted like it was real, the more itfeltreal. And he had to do a better job of keeping that wall up between them. Some kind offormality.
But she led him to the dance floor, and he did not know how to deny her when she looked so happy. He had promised Alexandre that he wouldensureher happiness.
And hewantedto. “You look beautiful. I have not been able to take my eyes off you.”
“I know.” She moved in easy rhythm, that content and somewhat smug smile never leaving her face as he pulled her close for the dance. “I like having your eyes on me.”
That ever-present heat crackled between them. He thought if this did not exist, perhaps it would not all feel so perilous. If he simplylikedher. But he did not know how to save her from this combination of every feeling—like and lust and need and frustration and this strange, bubbling lightness that reminded him far too much of hope. So much like when he’d been a young man, but worse somehow. Deeper and more complex.
What was there to hope for here? That he somehow controlled himself for the rest of his life and never did anything violent and dangerous in an obsessive rage? Never reminded her of her evil father?
What impossible amount of control would appear out of nowhere considering an impossible lack of one had led him here?
“I think I felt the baby move earlier,” she said as they easily moved on the dance floor to the music. “You’re going to call me silly, but I swear I felt this flutter of him when Alexandre announced you earl.”
“Yes, I will call you silly. If you felt anything, I’m sure it was coincidence.”
“Well, I will choose to consider it a son’s approval of his father.”
“Ridiculous.”
She laughed and lay her head against his shoulder on a content sigh. “I knew you would say that.”
They danced for the rest of the song and into the next. For the first time today, amid the chaos and attention and stress, he found himself relaxing. He held her close and enjoyed the bump of their child between them.
He did not allow himself to think of the way she spoke to the baby growing inside her, the way she thought afetuswould hear the worldsearland do some little internal jump for joy. He was afraid if he thought too much about any of it, fell beneath that surface he was trying so desperately to hold on to, all he would create was ruin.
He needed space, and with the celebration winding down, and in her condition, he knew he could find it.
“Come, let me take you to bed.” He cleared his throat. “Tosleep.”
She tilted her head up to study him. Smiled. “Perhaps I should not like to sleep.”
