grandchild, and she has had a very stressful few days between graduating university, telling the father of her baby about their coming joy and flying off to marry him on a Caribbean beach, and then being summarily summoned to a palace she didn’t even know was in her future this morning. You will save the rest of your questions, harangue and attitude for later.”
Oh, man, her mom could do icy disdain with the best of them.
Even her dad knew to back down when Mom got this angry. Apparently the King of Isole dei Re wasn’t a complete idiot either, because he kept his mouth shut.
Mich showed he knew when to take an order too, lifting Kiki into his arms and carrying her from the room.
His mother and Amber Menendez followed them, giving advice, expressing concern and watching over them all the way down the long corridors, up marble steps and down another plush hallway until Mich stopped outside a set of double doors.
The queen gracefully moved around him to open both doors into what turned out to be a luxurious suite done in masculine tones. Mich carried Kiki inside, crossing the outer room without pausing and going directly into the bedroom, where he laid her down after her mother pulled back the bedding.
Mich tucked Kiki in and then poured her a glass of water from the carafe by the bed. “Drink this, invece.”
Still feeling ridiculously light-headed, she didn’t argue and took several sips before resting against the pillows. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“Stress. It can be debilitating in early pregnancy,” the queen said softly.
“Mama, you have to talk to him. I don’t care if he wants to yell at me, but he’ll treat Kiki with tender care, or I’ll take her away.”
Queen Therese nodded. “I will speak with him, but I’m confident Signora Menendez’s announcement will have already gone a long way toward bringing your father back from his anger and his confusion. He is only hurt, you understand? That you did not introduce us to the woman you love. He thinks you are ashamed of us.”
Mich snorted in disbelief. “Father is too arrogant to believe that.”
“You forget his love for his family is greater than even his arrogance.”
“He changed when he became king.”
“It was inevitable, but underneath he is the same man who taught you to swim, who took time from a schedule most would not to be a dad to his children as well as their royal father.”
Mich sighed and Kiki reached out to take his hand. “Be nice, he loves you.”
He stared down at her. “How can you say that?”
“Because he’s so much like my dad.”
“Your dad is a billionaire, not a king.”
“Same thing.” She winked up at Mich.
He shook his head. “You’re going to be trouble, Kiki Scorsolini.”
“You are just figuring this out?”
* * *
The following days were filled with frantic activity. A diplomatic reception that had been in the works for over six months was suddenly the venue by which the marriage would be announced. There was no more talk of Kiki’s suitability or ending her marriage before it had really begun.
It had been decided that the pregnancy would not be announced until Kiki had reached her second trimester. It was not an uncommon practice, so would hopefully minimize speculation on the reason for Kiki and Mich’s elopement.
King Claudio hadn’t warmed up exactly, but he’d stopped glaring at her like Public Enemy Number One. So, she took that as a win.
Kiki wasn’t worried. The man would come around. He just had to do it in his own time. Her own dad wasn’t exactly all sunshine and approval with Mich, though he was showing a bit more tolerance each day for the man who had dared to marry his daughter.
A lot more worrying was Giannetta Bellini, the daughter of one of Isole dei Re’s top diplomats. And apparently a very good friend of the family.
Also the woman who had expected to marry Principe Vittoro Micheli Scorsolini, if Kiki didn’t miss her guess.
The woman had already been helping Therese plan the reception and had managed to insert herself in the middle of its transformation to formal wedding announcement and reception. She’d dropped several oblique comments that implied she thought the wedding announcement premature, going so far as to suggest they keep the elopement under wraps completely until a traditional wedding could be planned.
Yeah, that was going to work. Events like that in their world? Took a minimum of a year to pull together; Kiki’s mom would have preferred two, she was sure. She dreaded her five-year anniversary. She just knew Amber Menendez was going to use it as an excuse to do a formal wedding with a renewal of vows.
Queen Therese had finally told Giannetta about Kiki’s pregnancy, no doubt to shut down the suggestions, and because the woman was such a trusted friend of the family.
Therese hadn’t seen the fury on the younger woman’s face when she heard the news. Kiki had, though. She’d told Mich about it, and he’d just laughed, telling her that she, Kiki, was the woman he’d married. If his own father didn’t get a vote, friends definitely didn’t.
* * *
Kiki wore a strapless vintage Alexander McQueen gown her mother had convinced the design house to pull out of their vault to the reception. Her finery didn’t stop there by any means, though. She wore a choker and ornate earrings set in platinum with stones to match her wedding rings, a bridal gift from her parents. The complementary ruby-and-diamond tiara, placed carefully amid her gold and brown curls swept up in an elegant pile, had been a gift from the king and queen.
“You look like a princess, even if you never expected to be one,” Mich said, his gaze hot with admiration.
She smiled up at him as they waited in the formal reception line for the first guests to be allowed into the cavernous ballroom. “Thank you. I like the prince togs, too. Who knew epaulets could be so sexy?”
He laughed, looking amazing in the formal suit of Isole dei Re royalty, identical to his father’s but for the subtle difference that proclaimed him prince and heir rather than king.
They had been greeting guests as they arrived for two hours when a tall man, who could give her husband a run for his money in the whole “too gorgeous for words” category, arrived.
Only this guy’s eyes? Were cold like January in upstate New York.
“Prince Vittoro, may I extend our most sincere congratulations on behalf of Volyarus and my family?” Hottie McHotterson said.
Mich introduced her, revealing the man was the Prince of Volyarus. Goose bumps chased up her arm when the imposing man bent over her hand.
The Volyarussian prince moved on and Kiki fanned herself. “Wow. Who was that guy?”
“I introduced you,” Mich said with some asperity.
“Yes,
