Page 31 of Crowned For The King's Secret

She looked even more beautiful with that hair spilled out over his pillow. Head thrown back, gasping his name...

He tugged at his tie. No, those thoughts had no place here. Perhaps they could discuss intimacies after they’d come to an agreement. Together, they were blisteringly compatible. There were natural consequences of a marriage. Should Victoria want to, they could enjoy the considerable pleasures of a physical relationship. It made perfect sense...once he’d won this battle. He motioned to a seat in front of him and she sat but there was no deference in any move she made. No curtsey for the sake of a member of his staff. Nothing. He didn’t know why he enjoyed it so much.

‘Coffee? Tea?’ he asked.

Victoria’s face was impassive. Not a hint that she was other than entirely unaffected in his presence. Unlike him in hers. It was a humbling moment. She nodded.

‘Tea, please.’

‘How do you like it?’

‘White, with no sugar.’

His assistant left with the order. Sandro smiled.

‘Sweet enough?’

It was a quaint phrase his English nanny had used to use when she asked him if he wanted sugar in his tea as a child. A drink he’d come to enjoy so much in his time in England he’d had his favourite blend imported to the palace.

She looked at him, spearing him with her stony blue-grey gaze. ‘I’ve never been accused of being sweet.’

He could see it. She carried that edge to her. Tart and refreshing as a lemon. Never sweet.

‘How’s Nic?’ he asked, keeping the conversation on safe ground.

‘Well, as ever. Settling into a routine. Were you planning on visiting him tonight?’

Her voice carried an almost sing-song quality, with a bite. As if she was mocking him. Holding back something she had to say. No doubt there were several things each of them would want to discuss today.

A tightness squeezed at the back of his neck. He rubbed the area. Negotiations needed to begin. Sensible steps to secure a marriage that would stabilise his country and ensure Victoria and Nicolai’s welfare. Yet how to start when he was used to commanding those around him and they acted without question?

‘My team and I have been discussing the best way forward.’

Victoria frowned. The moment was interrupted by a knock at the door and tea and coffee arriving. After taking hers with thanks, she sipped, levelling him with her granite gaze once more.

‘The best way forward for what?’

Sandro attempted a benevolent smile. ‘You and Nicolai.’

Her eyes narrowed. ‘And what were your conclusions?’

‘We had a number of ideas, but one stands out as obvious.’

‘Nice to know,’ she muttered into her tea.

‘Your safety is paramount, which is why it’s clear we must marry.’

Indeed, it was the only solution. The simplest answer. He’d always accepted he’d need a wife one day and to have children as soon as possible. However, he’d decided he should take at least a year or two to stabilise Santa Fiorina before doing so. Victoria’s presence in his life fitted the timeline. When contemplating marriage, he’d assumed it would be arranged with a suitable candidate. He’d never experienced romantic love and he didn’t expect it as part of his life, so its lack here wasn’t an impediment. As for the attraction that exploded between them, the way they were in the bedroom together...that was a windfall. A bonus for both of them. He tried not to think of it, how she felt in his arms, how he lost himself inside her. Those thoughts were for a later time...

Victoria froze, her cup part-way to her mouth. She placed it back on the saucer with an emphatic click. Her eyes took on the coldness of a glacial lake.

‘Well, there’s a proposal for the ages. They’ll be writing poetry about it.Tragicpoetry.’

Not exactly the reaction he was expecting. A tightness gripped his head again. Sandro pinched the bridge of his nose.

‘There is nothing poetic about our situation.’

‘No kidding. What about me, specifically, makes marriage the answer to this situation?’

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