It was a subtle dig. Alexandre wasn’t sure Vinyes even picked up on it, but Alex did. It made him want to laugh. He might have, but Ines wasn’t leaving.
He should dismiss her. Heknewhe should. That was the right thing to do. The thing that would appease Vinyes, at least a little bit. Send the woman away so the men could continue their meeting.
“I think that will be all, General,” Alex said instead. Because he’d damn well rather be around his confusing, confounding wife than spend another minute having the same pointless argument with Vinyes.
General Vinyes looked at him, temper straining in his eyes. “I wasn’t finished discussing this training.”
“I was,” Alexandre replied.
The general looked from Alexandre to Ines, then said nothing—gave no bow or anything else that would be considered protocoloracceptable behavior—and stalked out, clearly angry.
Alexandre should do something about it. Smooth it over. Fix it.
He didn’t.
Ines closed the door behind Vinyes. Then flipped the lock casually. But the sound of it echoed through the room. Perhaps throughhim.
“I hope I didn’t interrupt something important,” she said, crossing to where he sat.
But he could only think of the locked door, even as she came around the back of his chair and began to rub his shoulders. She dug her fingers into his tense muscles.
“Youarestressed, aren’t you?” she said, a slight censure in her tone. “What was he on about now?”
“Just another attempt at strengthening the army, which I refused.”
“I understand there’s no good way to dismiss him, but I so wish you could.”
“As do I. It never occurred to me he’d last this long without some kind of outburst or attempt at revolution.” His eyes closed, head bowing forward as her fingers did wonders to loosen the tension in his shoulders. But it wasn’t just her hands on him. It was her understanding of the situation.
Evelyne and Gabriel were a little more bloodthirsty. They did not quite understand the full range of diplomacy needed to right the ship of Alis, and they had a more personal hatred of Vinyes since he’d wanted to marry Evelyne and had threatened Gabriel.
In an ideal world, Alexandre could simply sweep out anyone who had supported his father, anyone who had made threats to his friend or wanted his sister as some kind of possession. But life and kingship weren’t that simple.
Ines understood this. Her role. His. The caution required in such situations. And her hands were doing magic at the tension in his neck. He even sighed.
“I truly did not mean to interrupt. I assumed the front desk being empty meant you were alone, and I wanted to let you know the doctor’s appointment went well. All is as it should be with baby and myself. They want to do an anatomy scan next, but since it will tell us the gender, I want you to be there, so we’ll need to arrange a time. We’ll also need to work out how to announce it to the kingdom. My clothes are getting tighter at an alarming rate. I won’t be able to hide it much longer.”
Alex didn’t stiffen, if only because her hands were doing wonders on his tense muscles. But the wordgenderprompted visions of achild. He had seen Gabri grow from tiny littlelumpto a slightly bigger lump with a burgeoning personality.
And in mere months, there would be another baby in the palace, existing, growing, living. Becoming aperson.
His child. A child he would not allow to face any of the challenges laid on Alex himself at a young age. Neither Gabri nor his own child would suffer under the weight of his duties. He would need to find some plan for this, some way to ensure…everything.
“But I’m glad to have cut that meeting short,” Ines was saying. “You would have tied yourself into even tighter knots if it had gone on any longer.” She made a tsking sound.
Her scent enveloped him, and he leaned into the vanilla notes of that instead of the baseline fear of thinking aboutchildren. He let himself sink into the way it felt for someone else to take care of the state of his tension. Rubbing, kneading, easing it away. Her thumbs pressed up the back of his neck, and somenoiseescaped him. Not quite a groan. Just simple pleasure.
She slid her arms over his shoulders, letting them dangle there over his chest. He could feel her breasts pressed to his back and her breath against his skin as she leaned her head close to brush a kiss across his cheek. “I locked the door,” she whispered in his ear.
“I know.” He reached back, pulled her in front of him. She smiled down at him, taking a seat on his desk, facing him. She wore a typical outfit for an afternoon of meetings—a blouse under a trim jacket that matched the color of her skirt—except instead of the usual style that hugged her hips, this one was looser. With enough give that he could push it up her thighs.
Which he did. Taking his time. Falling into this lull of relaxation she’d created for them. He pushed the fabric of the skirt up to her waist, then hooked his fingers in the waistband of her stockings, and she toed off her heels so they fell with a thump on the floor between them. She lifted so that he could pull the garment off.
It wasn’texactlylike that morning all those months ago. He was too relaxed to feel anger and frustration. Desire pumped through him, but it was warm and sluggish instead of sharp claws of destroyed control.
That had been a break.
This was a yield.
