The time she took to respond had him holding his breath.
‘I had a conversation with Sylvia when you sent her to ask me here this evening. The woman who showed me to my room?’
‘Yes, I know.’
‘Just making sure,’ she said easily. Her expression gave nothing away. Unless, of course, it did, and he just couldn’t read it because he didn’t know her. ‘She was telling me how...challenging it’s been for the kingdom to accept their new King.’
He clenched his teeth. So much for not telling her about that. ‘You must have misheard.’
‘No, I don’t think I did.’ Her eyes darkened. ‘Clearly your advisors are trying to help you regain the trust of your people after the coup. And how better than a wedding? To remind them of the traditions of the royal family. Make them believe in fairy tales. Weddings are the start of something beautiful, hopeful, and seeing the King who ended the reign of their well-loved ruler—his father—at a new beginning might just make them more open to his new beginning. As King.’
‘You’re right. But I needed to check with them to make sure that what you were suggesting would work.’
He saw the surprise, but she only nodded. ‘That’s fair, I suppose.’
‘So you agree?’
‘I don’t exactly have a choice, do I?’ She clasped her hands together on her lap and he found himself saying words he knew he shouldn’t be saying.
‘You have a choice, Nalini. You’ll always have a choice here.’
Emotion filled her eyes before it was replaced by cool indifference. ‘Of course I will. I only meant that it wasn’t like I could return to Mattan.’ She blinked and quickly added, ‘Because it would put them in danger.’
‘That’s not what you meant.’
‘What else could I possibly mean?’
‘That’s what I’m asking.’ He studied her, noting that she was avoiding looking at him and knew his gut feeling had been right. ‘There’s more to why you’re here, Nalini, isn’t there?’
‘You didn’t exactly propose this arrangement as a question.’
‘Yes, but you’ve already told me you chose to do this. Tell me why.’
‘I have,’ she replied stubbornly. ‘I’m here for Mattan.’
‘And yet the more I get to know you, the more I think that isn’t the only reason.’
‘But since this is a business arrangement, as you said, I don’t have to tell you anything other than what I want to.’
Her face lit with the challenge, but there was a dullness in her eyes that...that bothered him. He couldn’t place a finger on why—wasn’t sure he wanted to—and instead he asked, ‘So, you agree then?’
‘Yes.’
‘Great. We’ll make appointments to plan the wedding. I’ll have my secretary arrange a schedule for us and I’ll send it to you for approval.’
She nodded. ‘Is that all?’
‘No, actually there’s one more thing.’ But he couldn’t bring himself to say the words.
‘You have something planned already, don’t you?’ Her mouth relaxed into what he thought was the beginning of a smile. His body tightened.
‘I don’t have anything planned. But there is...a plan. An appointment for us, really.’
‘What is it?’
‘An...engagement shoot. Tomorrow.’ Damn it, he felt foolish even saying it.
‘An engagement shoot,’ she repeated, and laughed. It was a soft, happy sound that made him think of a music box. ‘You must hate the thought of that so much.’
‘It has to be done.’
‘Of course,’ she responded in a grave tone that echoed his, but her eyes sparkled with laughter.
His lips twitched. ‘So, you’re fine with this?’
‘My schedule happens to be open,’ she said wryly. ‘Why not?’
‘Good.’ He frowned. ‘I didn’t expect it to be that easy.’
‘I’m here to serve at your pleasure, Your Majesty.’
It took some time for her to realise that she’d said something provocative, and when she did her eyes widened and colour flooded her skin.
‘I didn’t mean—’
He couldn’t help the smile now, even though his attempts at dimming his body’s reaction to her unintended suggestion had proved futile. ‘I know.’
‘It’s because you make me nervous.’
‘Why?’
‘I’m not entirely sure.’ She gave him a chagrined smile, but there was emotion on her face that paralysed him and he couldn’t look away. ‘Maybe it’s because today was the first time you and I have really spoken. The events we’ve seen each other at...’ Her voice faded and he quickly figured out why.
He’d kept himself apart from the Mattanian and Aidaraen royal families at those events. Oh, he’d greeted, had done his duty, but the ease that had always been between the two families hadn’t included him. Of his own accord, he knew, and realised that Nalini was referring to that one-sidedness he’d embraced. But he’d known what was at risk if he’d become one of them. His family’s most well-kept secret.
His mother’s affair.
‘Or it could just be because you’re a little scary, King Zacchaeus.’
Despite what he’d been thinking of, that drew a smile from him. ‘You’re not the first person to say that.’
‘No, I don’t imagine I am,’ she replied softly, and her mouth curved up in the smallest of smiles.
For the first time, Zacchaeus realised he was in trouble. No, he corrected, taking in what that smile did to the already lovely features of her face—and what it did to his heart rate. He’d known he was in trouble the moment he’d come up with the hare-brained plan to marry Nalini.
He’d convinced himself, just as he had Xavier, Leyna and Nalini, that it had been for the sake of the alliance. And, up until that moment, he’d believed that that was the only reason. Except now he remembered how often his eyes had strayed to Nalini at every event. How her smile, polite as it had been, had made it the tiniest bit harder to breathe.
He thought about how he’d felt after he’d left the discussion with Leyna and Xavier the day he’d told them of his plan—the anger at their responses, the fear that it would put Kirtida at risk—and how it had changed when he’d seen Nalini in the castle
