Page 20 of The Prince's Secret Twins

She thought so, but then why was he so adamant about hiring extra help?

“Here’s the thing, love,” he continued, guiding her over to the table. He paused to pull out a chair for her, then waited until she was seated before he sat down opposite her, “you’ve had to do it all on your own for two months. Longer, actually. I don’t discount having to get through a pregnancy alone and I wish you’d let me know that you were pregnant. I never would have left you alone all this time.”

“I did!” she asserted firmly, irritated that he didn’t believe her.

His dark eyes darkened for a moment, but then his gaze cleared. “Suffice it to say, I didn’t get the messages.”

“That’s not because I didn’t send them,” she insisted, refusing to back down. She could hear the disbelief in his tone and refused to stand for that. “Get me my phone, Joran. I’ll show you the messages I sent to you. I’ll show you every message I sent, pleading with you to acknowledge my messages.”

He stared at her for a long moment. Tila glared right back at him, and he lifted a hand. Immediately, a guard appeared by the table.

“Talk to Gino,” Joran commanded. “Tell him to check the text messages and phone calls from Ms. Ayed’s phone. I want to know where the messages she sent to me went.”

The man nodded in acknowledgement, then stepped back and slipped from the room.

“Wow!” she whispered, watching the door where the man had disappeared. “Can you do that with anyone in the palace?’

“You can too,” he told her, then nodded towards someone behind her. A moment later, a servant arrived with a platter. He set it down in the middle of the table, then lifted the dome and walked away.

“What would you like to drink?” he asked.

“I can’t have wine or beer,” she told him as another waiter started forward with a bottle of wine.

Immediately, Joran waved the servant away. “Will water suffice?”

“You can have wine, Joran. I just can’t because I’m nursing.”

He’d started to serve himself some of the creamy looking chicken and rice dish in front of them, but paused, his hand frozen with the serving spoon halted. “Tila, you’ve sacrificed everything over the past months. I can do without wine until you are able to enjoy it with me.”

Tila didn’t have a response to that, but she felt something warm and fuzzy low in her belly. Lowering her lashes, she stared at her empty plate. A moment later, Joran put a heaping portion of the chicken and rice with a creamy curry sauce on the plate. She was startled by the amount and laughed. She actually laughed for the first time in months.

“I can’t eat all this,” she protested.

“Try,” he ordered and piled twice that amount onto his plate. “You need some proper nutrition.”

“I need to lose weight,” she grumbled, picking up her fork.

“You donotneed to lose weight,” he told her firmly. “You need to heal after your pregnancy. And since you are nursing, you need as much nutrition as possible.”

She tried to ignore the warmth she felt at his words, but it was nearly impossible. She’d felt so discouraged about her inability to lose the post-pregnancy weight. So the glow of…happiness? Appreciation? Whatever, was intense and she was gratified.

When she took the first bite, she closed her eyes, amazed at the burst of flavors. “Oh, this is delicious!” she sighed.

“You haven’t had creative foods for a while, have you?”

She shrugged. “I used to love to cook, but now…I haven’t had time.”

“You haven’t had time for anything, I’m guessing. They are a handful.” He looked over to where they continued to sleep peacefully in their small bassinets.

“How long have they been asleep?’ she asked, stuffing another bite into her mouth. She wanted to eat as much as she could before they woke up. She knew from experience that there wouldn’t be much time once they were awake and demanding attention.

“They fell asleep right before you stepped out.”

For the next thirty minutes, they chatted about the boys’ schedule, foods she wanted to try and cook, his role in the Lativa government, and anything other than what might happen next. It was nice, and terrifying, Tila thought. Whatwasgoing to happen now? How was she going to get through the next five minutes? Five hours? Five days?!

Chapter 13

They were gone!! The babies were gone! All the carefully crafted plans were obliterated! The empty house was infuriating! Where had those infants disappeared to? It was like they’d just vanished off the face of the world!

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