His hand cups the back of my head and holds me close, whispering right into my ear, “I’m so sorry, baby. If I had oneform of magic, I’d use all my powers to make him better for you.”
My heart swells and I wrap my arms around his neck. “How did I find you? How did I grow so lucky?”
I feel his smile against my neck. “You have no clue, do you? All that you’ve brought to my life. To our lives. I never believed in love. I never imagined it was possible for me, for a man in my station. And yet, here I am. So totally, completely, and absolutely in love with you. You allow me to be me, and you love me for who I am, not what I am, and you love my children as your own. Bellamy, my queen, you are everything I don’t deserve but will selfishly never relinquish.”
Oh, may it be so.
With his help, I put the studs in my ears, never losing sight of his smile as I do. And then we walk down to dinner together. Hand in hand, even as he instructs Emily to call a vet to come examine our new nameless ferret.
“A ferret. Fuck me.”
I laugh. “But your daughters are so happy.”
“They better be,” he grumbles. “Otherwise, the rat will be turned outside at the first chance, winter or not.”
“Liar,” I tease because he’ll never turn out a poor animal, ferret or not.
“Did you tell her?” Rowan asks, coming over and dropping his arm over my shoulder.
“Tell me what?”
Sebastian makes a face at Rowan and turns to me as we wait for everyone else to join us. “We’re going to the cottage to have a look around.”
“Oh?” I raise an annoyed eyebrow at Sebastian. “So much for telling me everything. When are you going and how long are you going for?”
“I was going to talk with you about it tonight after we putthe children down. We’re thinking of going tomorrow and it should just be for a day or two.”
“And this is what you want to do? Go looking through the cottage where your sister was taken?” I can’t imagine that would be easy for anyone.
“I want to go,” he tells me, his eyes holding mine, watching for my response. He doesn’t have to wait long as I frown and look away for a beat. Selfishly, I don’t want him to leave. We haven’t been separated since I moved into the palace and certainly not since we’ve been together.
“So do I,” Rowan says. “Honestly, I think we need to.”
I clear my throat and turn back to Sebastian. “You should go. I’ll miss you and I’ll pout, but you should go. This is too important not to.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive,” I promise. “I’ll be home with the children and my dad. I’ll have Emily and Althea with me. You need to go. But, again, if you ever hold back things like this from me again…”
“I won’t.”
“Good, because I’ll withhold sex and turn to my vibrator.”
He laughs and Rowan sputters, but I’m not kidding and I’m not laughing.
I pause here, my fingers automatically coming up to my neck. To the slightly indented scar that slashes across my otherwise unmarred skin.
“How do you know this isn’t a trap?”
He leans in and presses a sweet kiss to my scar as he gently removes my fingers from it. “We have no reason to believe it is,” Rowan states flatly.
“But you don’t know for sure,” I counter, my voice climbing. “You worked side by side with Samil for years without knowing he had been plotting your death and was the one who took down Nora’s helicopter.”
His hand takes mine, giving me a reassuring squeeze. “Iknew Samil hated me for years, Bellamy. Despite not expecting his actions the night of the Christmas ball, I wasn’t surprised either. This is an abandoned cottage. A cottage where the person or people who took Desta originally went with her. The press already reported about it and we will have Javier with us as well as our national crime agency, Messalina intelligence, and the local police.”
I snort. “You could have led with that.”
He grins against my lips. “True. I could have. But you’re very beautiful when you worry about me.”
