The young woman’s eyes sparkled with curiosity. Excitement. And yes, magic. As if she had finally found something she’d been looking for her entire life. “I’m staying.”
“What about college?” I asked gently. “Weren’t you on spring break?”
With a sheepish laugh, she shrugged. “I don’t care. I was only going to college because Daddy insisted. It was college or join the family business, and I don’t want to learn about investments or oil refineries either.”
“What do I tell your father?” Alex asked.
“I’m twenty-one. I can make my own decisions. I’ll tell him myself.”
“If they let you keep your phone,” he muttered with a glare in my direction.
Itztli let a low rumbling growl roll from his chest.
“Of course you may keep your phone.” Ignoring the man, I turned back to my breakfast. The scrambled eggs were cold, but I hadn’t finished my fruit yet. “You may leave whenever you wish, Regina. If you decide to stay on permanently, you’ll go through contract negotiations just like anywhere else. Are you hungry? I’m sure Winston has more eggs and toast.”
As if I’d conjured him out of thin air, Winston stepped over to the table with a fresh serving dish of steaming eggs. “Of course, Your Majesty. Should I set another place?”
Hesitating for only a moment, Regina lifted her chin and walked over to the empty chair opposite me. “Yes, please. Thank you so much, ma’am. I’m starving, actually. I’m never up this early.”
I laughed softly. “Me either, to be honest.”
Gina returned to her seat. Winston set the bowl of eggs down beside my plate but before I could help myself, Rik took over and scooped some fresh eggs for me. Then he passed the bowl to Gina. In a flash, Winston returned with a place setting for Regina, and Sekh helped bring more toast and a carafe of coffee to the table. Among the clinking of silverware and quiet bustle, I heard Itztli’s claws ticking on the floor as he escorted Alex outside.
“So, Regina, what kind of job would you like?” Gina asked.
“Anything, to be honest. I don’t know what I’m good at, but I’m eager to learn. I’ve never…” Staring down at her plate, she sighed softly and then raised her gaze back to mine. “I’ve had all the privileges and advantages of a wealthy family, so I’ve never really worked for anything. But I promise I will work hard for you, Ms. Isador.”
“You’ve always been in the right place at the right time,” Leonie said, nodding, her head tilted as if she was still listening to Regina’s great-grandmother. “That’s why you were on the beach exactly where you’d be able to see and hear our queen. So you could find her.”
Regina swallowed hard, her hand trembling enough that most of her eggs fell back onto the plate. “I’m sorry, uh, Your Majesty. I don’t know the protocols, but I swear?—”
“It’s alright,” I broke in with a smile. “We’re not sticklers for propriety around here.”
Though Winston winked at me, dressed in a gorgeous pinstriped suit and tie as usual.
“How are you with numbers?” Gina asked. “We’re looking to hire several assistants to help us sort through property and contracts we recently inherited.”
Leonie gave me a gentle mental nudge in the bond, as if to say,“Watch this.”“What’s the square root of 57,121?”
“239,” Regina replied around a mouthful of eggs.
Gina grinned. “Fabulous. I can’t wait to introduce you to Kevin.”
31
SHARA
After breakfast, I left Regina in good hands with Gina, who promised to help her gather the rest of her things from the hotel and even her apartment in College Station, Texas. I didn’t want a stranger in the main house, especially a human we didn’t know much about yet, so Gina recommended we give our new guest the gardener’s cottage.
I didn’t even know we had a gardener’s cottage, but Gina assured me it’d been renovated around the same time as her house at the gate.
Leonie, Vivian, and Itztli departed through the tree to see what information had survived the Dauphine’s hostile takeover of House Delafosse.
And I retreated to bed. I could barely keep my eyes open. I felt a little achy too, a telltale sign of my impending menstrual cycle. Rik tucked up against my back, and Xin joined us.
Yawning, I tipped my head to the side, offering him my throat. “You can feed again if you want.”
He pressed a lingering kiss to my throat but didn’t bite me. “I’m perfectly fine, my queen. You need your rest.”
