Charlie and Rebecca stared at each other a moment. Grace had a tragic history that included the loss of a child in a previous marriage; the aftermath of that meant she’d likely never have her own child naturally.
Rebecca, ever the diplomat, spoke first. “Maybe both of us?”
Grace’s eyes went wider. “Goodness.”
Charlie rushed in. “We haven’t told the men yet. We need to make sure the tests are conclusive. We—”
Now Grace made a ‘one minute’ sign and took a seat next to Rebecca, her eyes fixed on the tests. After composing herself, she looked up at them, tears in her eyes.
Rebecca reached for her. “Grace, I’m so sorry. We didn’t want to upset you.”
“I’m pregnant,” Grace blurted out.
Charlie and Rebecca sat in mute shock.
“Well, I might be pregnant, like you. This is the first test I’ve taken that’s come out positive since we started trying over a year ago.”
The three stared at each other.
Ho. Ly. Shit.
Three women, in love with royal men.
Rebecca, the royal bride.
Grace, the royal fiancée.
Charlie, the royal…well, whatever she was. Committed to a royal, in any case.
All three of them potentially pregnant.
Charlie huffed out a breath. “Fuck.”
Rebecca eyed Charlie, disbelief in her eyes. “I believe that’s what got us into this mess in the first place.”
Charlie smiled in an attempt to hold back the chuckle, but it burst free anyway. Rebecca’s laughter followed, and then Grace’s.
Charlie snorted. “I’ve heard of women on the same cycles, but this is a little extreme, don’t you think?”
The laughter burst out again. When it ebbed, Rebecca turned to Grace. “Does Marcello know?”
“Yes. He was with me when I took the test. He’s coming with me to see the royal physician tomorrow. I was coming by, actually, to see if you could cover a school opening I was scheduled to attend.”
Charlie pointed her thumb between herself and Rebecca. “We’re going stealth and seeing her doctor tomorrow. If you haven’t made your appointment yet, you could come with us.”
Rebecca nodded. “Oh, yes, please do. I usually go in the late afternoon. That should allow you time to attend the opening and no one would be the wiser.”
“I haven’t made an appointment yet, but Marcello would want to come with me. That means he’d likely know about you two as well.”
That would be a problem. Though Marcello dealt in secrets every day, Charlie wasn’t sure he’d keep mum about this to his brothers. “Maybe you could say we’re going with you for moral support?”
Rebecca pursed her lips. “I don’t think that would work with Marcello.”
“I don’t either,” Grace added.
“Why don’t I ask my doctor if she can see you earlier in the day? That way, you’d be finished before we needed to arrive there.”
“What excuse do you usually use for going there? Won’t people see?”
“No one will think anything of it. I do a lot of work related to health—women’s, children’s, mental health particularly. It would be easy to say that you’re joining me in some of that. In fact…” Rebecca pulled out her phone and began scrolling through. “There’s a board meeting late tomorrow morning. A royal usually attends, or their proxy which could be you. I was going to go and just extend my trip there by visiting patients until my appointment, but you could go in my place.”
“Then what excuse would you use to go to the hospital?”
“I’d still visit patients—I often visit the children’s wards in the evenings when I get a chance, and tomorrow we’re doing a quick video with a patient—but I’ll say Charlie’s joining me in those efforts, too. If you’re handling the board meeting, we’d just need to stop by for about an hour, then we can sneak off to my doctor’s office.”
Charlie’s gut clenched at the thought of a ward full of sick kids. What was she supposed to say to them? How was she supposed to interact with them? She had no clue what she was doing. At least she’d be with Rebecca; Charlie could easily imitate what she did and get through it.
She glanced down at the tests again, then up to Grace. “So, since you’ve taken some tests before, do you know how we can get rid of them without anyone finding out?”
Grace smiled. “My lady’s maid will do it, as she knows how and is very discreet. I’ll add yours to mine and she’ll be none the wiser. Do you have the packaging as well?”
Rebecca popped up from the sofa. “I’ll grab mine.”
“I burned mine already.”
Rebecca and Grace looked stunned at her admission.
Charlie just shrugged. “I shredded the plastic, but burned the paper part on the stove, then washed the ashes down the sink. Some air freshener and Nate won’t know the difference.” Charlie, who’d started in the palace kitchens as a baker, had worked her way up to Head Baker, then Head of the Palace Kitchens. She knew her way around a lit stove, even for burning paper.
“Er, right. I’ll be back.” Rebecca left the room.
“Rebecca?” Alex’s voice called out from the foyer.
Shit!
Charlie and Grace stared at each other in shock for one second, then sprung into action.
Charlie shoved all the tests into the bag she’d brought.
Grace called to Alex to distract him from finding Rebecca with a handful of pregnancy test packaging.
Alex walked into the sitting room. He was power and sex personified. Sexy, especially in that suit with a dark purple and gold tie—something Charlie vaguely noticed as matching with Rebecca’s dress today. His hair was styled, but not as if he’d spent hours on it. He had the air and authority of a man who would one day be king.
Though he was sexy, he didn’t hold a candle to Nate, in her opinion. No one was better or sexier than Nate.
Grace walked over to him, just a little too fast. “Alex, how lovely to see you.”
“Grace.” He kissed each cheek. “How are you?”
“Oh, very well, thank you. Since we happened upon each other, do you have time for a chat? There’s something I wanted to discuss with you.”
Confusion coated Alex’s face, but he would never be rude to Grace, something that would work in her and Charlie’s favor right now. “Of course.”
Grace widened her eyes at Charlie. “Perhaps you’d like to get Alex and I some coffee?”
Charlie stood quickly, the bag still in her hand. “Of course. Have a seat, I’ll be right back.”
Alex, still confused, chimed in. “I can get us all some coffee. I just need a minute with Rebecca.”
“No!” both Charlie and Grace shouted at the same time.
Grace laughed nervously. “Oh, Alex, you are very sweet. However, I think Charlie would be offended if we didn’t let her get the coffee.”
“Would she?”
Charlie played along. “Well, I do make the best coffee. Won’t be a minute. I’ll let Rebecca know you’re here, too.”
She rushed from the room, past the small kitchen that was in all the royal apartments, and into the bedroom. She caught Rebecca just as she came out, hands filled, from the bathroom. “Alex is here.”
Rebecca pressed the packaging to her chest. “Oh God.”
“Don’t worry. Grace and I are on it. She’s distracting him. I’ve got the tests here. Just dump the packaging inside and I’ll slip this to Grace.”
Rebecca fumbled it all into the bag. “He doesn’t suspect?”
“Of course he suspects something, but he’s not going to ask us about it. You’ll just have to deal with it when we leave.”
She sighed. “Great.”
Charlie squeezed her arm. “Listen. Try not think about tomorrow. No matter what happens, your test is positive tonight. Maybe think about that instead.”
“I’m afraid to believe it. I don’t want to get my hopes up.”
She said something she never believed before Nate. “There’s nothing wrong with hope. I’d stopped believing in it until Nate came along.”
“Are you hoping yours is positive, too?”
A loaded question, and the answer would hurt her friend and sort-of sister-in-law. “I’m not sure. Nate would be a wonderful dad, though.”
Rebecca smiled. “Yes, he would.”
“We’d better go. No doubt Alex is going to come storming back here in a minute.” They started walking out. “I’m supposed to be making coffee for him.”
“Oh, we ran out this morning so you’re off the hook. I keep meaning to order some from the palace kitchens, but it slipped my mind today.”
“Perfect. Then Grace and I can head out quicker. Good luck tonight.”
Rebecca whispered. “You, too.”
Charlie strode in first. “Wouldn’t you know it, you’re all out of coffee. Sorry, Alex.”
Alex, who’d been sitting, stood and walked towards Rebecca. “That’s all right. Hello, darling.” He pressed a quick kiss to his wife’s lips.
“Hi. The women were just leaving.”
Charlie grabbed Grace’s wrist and started pulling her quickly towards the door. “Yes, so sorry. I’ve got an issue in the kitchens to see to.”
“Yes, and I’ve got some prep work to do for tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Alex asked, still confused by their odd actions.
“Well, yes. Charlie and I have decided to assist Rebecca with some of her charity work at the hospital. We’ll both be attending events tomorrow.”
His confusion slipped away. “Oh. I see. Well, that’s very kind of you. Rebecca tries to do too much on her own, in my opinion.”
Rebecca’s face fell slightly but rebounded quickly. “Yes, it will be lovely to have them. Now, you were looking for me?”
“That’s our cue to exit.” Charlie gave them both a quick good-bye, as did Grace, and they exited the apartment through its main entrance.
Once outside, they nodded to the Royal Protection agents stationed there and walked out of their earshot.
Grace looked as though she was going to burst into laughter again. “Oh, goodness. I thought we’d been discovered. All of us. Caught red-handed with a pile of preg—”
“Shhh!” Charlie’s face whipped around and she pushed her hands down through the air in a ‘quiet’ motion. “Don’t say the p-word out loud.”
Grace stifled a chuckle. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being there for me.”
Charlie had never really had any girlfriends until she’d gotten involved with Nate and met his family, either. She still felt awkward sometimes about it but, other than Miss Lola—the last and best foster mother she’d had, who’d also been her mentor and taught her everything about cooking and baking—Charlie had never met a better, kinder group of women than the ones in Nate’s family. “Thanks for being there for me, too.”
They shared a moment, then Charlie lightened it by slapping Grace’s arm lightly. “Although, I didn’t appreciate your improv back there. Now I’m going to end up making coffee for Alex for the rest of my life.”
Grace didn’t hold back the giggle this time. “It’s only until we know, not forever.”
The sinking feeling in her gut returned. “Yeah.”
“You’ll let me know once you find out?”
Charlie swallowed and nodded. “Yes. You’ll do the same?”
Grace nodded and took the bag from Charlie’s hands. “I’ll take care of this.”
They said their farewells, and Grace walked away towards her apartment.
Charlie looked down the opposite way towards her own apartment but decided she couldn’t go back there, not yet.
Her stomach was getting tighter, the knots inside binding tight. If Nate saw her like this, he wouldn’t leave her alone until she told him what was wrong. She needed to calm down.
She headed for the palace kitchens. Baking always relaxed her. As she made her way to the bowels of the palace, she decided to make some brioche. Nate loved her brioche, ate it for breakfast with some of her homemade jam every morning.
Brioche also took time to make. She could spend hours in the kitchen and he wasn’t likely to bother her if she was making a favorite of his.
She couldn’t escape him and their apartment forever, but she could postpone it as much as she could. It was the best, for both of them.
* * *
Alex watched the door shut behind Charlie and Grace, then looked down at his wife.
His wife.
The words still gave him a thrill, even all these months later.
He nodded at the door, but his kept his eyes on her. “What was all that about?”
“What do you mean?”
“They were acting oddly.”
She gave him a little smile. “Don’t be silly. They were perfectly fine.”
Something was going on, but he wasn’t sure yet if it was good or bad. “They seemed in a terrible hurry just now although, not five minutes before, they wanted to chat over coffee.”
She started to pull away. “Which reminds me. I need to call down to the kitchens and get some more up here, otherwise we’ll have to face tomorrow morning without it.”
He pulled her right back, pressed her delicious body against his. “Forget the coffee. What’s going on?”
She was looking at him, but not quite in the eyes. “I would think that was fairly obvious.”
“Oh?”
“They caught that look in your eye when you saw me, that’s why they hurried out.”
He prided himself on keeping his emotions blank, even around his wife when needed. If his thoughts had shown on his face…
He sounded unintentionally angry. “What look?”
She stifled a giggle. “I think you know. You said you were looking for me. I have to assume it was for some personal reason.” She fingered the lapels of his jacket.
An idle brush of her fingers on his clothes and his cock was getting hard. Holy hell.
He pulled her even closer, the curves of her body fitting into the planes of his perfectly, proving yet again she was made for him, and him alone.
“Personal reason, was it?” He started inching her slowly backward, their legs moving in a stilted dance.
She simply smiled; it was a smile she saved only for him. She wasn’t scared at the fierce tone of his voice, not worried that she couldn’t see where she was going. She trusted him, and he took that trust seriously.
He backed her against the wall and boxed her in with his arms. “I’ll give you a personal reason.”
His lips leaned down as hers arched up, wanting exactly what he was going to give her: a deep, rough, long kiss that was not meant to fully seduce but playfully arouse with the promise of more later.
Her eyes, which had shut during their kiss, stayed closed as she sighed and pulled back. He thought he knew every sigh of hers, every breath and movement of her body and what it meant.
That sigh, however, was new, and he wasn’t sure if it was entirely happy.
“Are you all right, darling?”
She blinked her eyes open. “Who wouldn’t be after a kiss like that?”
He could see it now. Something was troubling her. He’d only seen her eyes that worried on a few occasions before: when nightmares plagued her after she’d been kidnapped, when a loved one ended up in the hospital, or when health problems plagued her.
She was still struggling to manage some of her pain. He hoped it hadn’t gotten worse; it was just the sort of thing she’d keep from him, to stop his worrying.
“Darling.”
Her head fell forward against his chest, her chestnut hair shifting with her and hiding her face. He ran his fingers through it, pushing some of it back and holding it away from her cheek. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing a night of you holding me won’t fix.”
If only it were that easy, but he’d give her anyt
hing she asked for. “I hold you at night as it is, nearly all night and every night unless one of us is traveling.”
“That you do, Mr. Santoro.”
His lips tipped up at that. It was their little nicknames for each other. “I plan to continue that, Mrs. Santoro, for as long as we both shall live.” He’d echoed their vows on purpose, to remind her that he’d always be there for her.
Her head popped up and her lips did, too.
The smile still didn’t reach her eyes, but he knew that whatever was troubling her, she would tell him in her own time.
In the meantime, he could enjoy one of his favorite pastimes, taking care of her. When she was troubled, she didn’t eat regularly either. “Shall we have dinner? Do you want to eat with the family?”
She shook her head. “Could we have a quiet night in?”
He gave her a soft kiss. “Those are my favorite kinds. I’ll let my parents know we’re not eating with them.”
“I’m going to get changed.”
“Want some help?”
“Not tonight.” She gave him another kiss and walked towards their bedroom.
Since she wouldn’t tell him what was wrong, maybe he could at least distract her. He knew sex was off the table—she’d have invited him back with her if she wanted him in bed—but there were other forms of distraction. Nothing quite as fulfilling as burying himself inside his wife, but they would do.
He needed to see to his wife tonight. The piles of work he’d hoped to make a dent in that evening would just need to wait until morning.
Chapter Three
Charlie slammed the dough onto a marble slab, then pushed the heel of her palm into the dough, its soft, sticky-as-well-as-slippery texture giving way, and stretched it out with her fingers. She pulled the end of the dough back to the front and started over.
She could have used the stand mixer, but she loved hand-kneading dough. Loved the monotony of it, loved seeing the gluten build in the dough until it was just the right texture, loved seeing that dough rise and take shape. Most breads only had yeast, water, flour, and time, but the same ingredients could make thousands and thousands of different combinations. If she changed one element, then she’d get a completely new taste and a completely different type of bread. If she added a new element—as she’d added eggs, sugar, and butter for the brioche—the possibilities were practically endless.
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