Page 40 of Cooper

“He’s out on adate?” Joe asks, arching his brows. “I thought it was just a group thing?”

“It is, but there’s a girl he likes. They went to the soccer match together. Marcus, Harlow, and Isla are all there to chaperone. So to speak.” Casey shrugs playfully.

“Harlow is my sister,” Lennox says to Cooper. “She moved here and teaches at the international baccalaureate school we opened. And Isla is married to Dax, who essentially took Natalia’s place in Iraq to finish that part of his Royal Protector training.”

There are a lot of names and faces to learn, but Cooper doesn’t seem at all intimidated.

“You guys run a pretty tight ship,” is all he says. “It’s impressive.”

They talk logistics for a couple of minutes before Casey interrupts impatiently.

“Can I please put the baby to bed now?” she asks, tapping her foot.

Sandor chuckles. “Yeah. Go ahead.”

“I’ll be right behind you,” King Erik tells her.

“I’ll walk with you,” I offer, since it’s expected anyway. There’s no way we’d allow Casey to walk all the way to the royal apartment carrying Levi without an escort. There are a lot of steps and some of the newer tunnels aren’t well lit. That’s done by design, of course, to confuse anyone who manages to get down here that’s not supposed to be here, but it’s a hassle during drills.

“Someone will get Cooper back to your room,” Joe calls after me.

“Thank you.” I nod and fall into step behind Casey. Levi’s squirming to get down and she lets him but keeps a hand on the back of his shirt.

“I know these are necessary,” Casey murmurs, “but they’re exhausting. It’s part of the reason Xander and Elen are moving into their own place soon. Sandor and Joe firmly believe having these drills will make it so second nature that it will save our lives during a real attack. Like the last one. It was only a month ago, so it’s still a little raw, I guess.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here,” I whisper guiltily.

“Don’t do that. You’re entitled to a few days off. There was no way to know something was going to happen.”

“Yeah, but Lennox went into labor. She could have died.”

“She was going into labor whether you were here or not, and she didn’t die. Everything is fine.” She pauses. “Because we do these super annoying drills, everyone was prepared. We all knew what to do.”

“I feel terrible for Cooper,” I say. “But he’s as tough as they come.”

“You may want to treat him to a little something special later tonight,” Casey teases as we get to the stairwell that leads back up to the palace. The tunnels consist of different levels in different places, and there are a dozen secret entrances, all with different lock codes. One of the things we’ve all had to do—including Casey and all the teenage children—is memorize and learn them all. It’s a lot, and I feel bad for the kids, but this is part of the life we lead here.

“I hope this doesn’t scare him off,” I say after a moment.

She shakes her head. “If this scares him off, he was never the right guy. And frankly, I think it’ll take a hell of a lot more to scare him off than palace drills.”

“We already have so much working against us. We were having a conversation about it all, and then one thing led to another…” I flush even though she can’t see me in the semi-darkness.

“Who initiated? You or him?”

“Definitely him.”

“So you wanted to talk and he wanted sex?”

“We both wanted to talk and once I admitted I didn’t want him to leave, to go finish his recovery in the States, that’s when he initiated.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s all you need to know, Natalia.”

We step up to the door that leads to the Royal Apartment, and I punch in the code. “Is it?” I ask in confusion. “What do I know?”

“We already talked about this, but we can go over it again since you’re spectacularly resistant to listening when it comes to this particular subject.” She puts Levi down and he immediately heads for his toy box.

“You don’t have to—” I begin.

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