by Kat Mizera
Sandor kept anything that might resemble an emotion buried. Other than when we made love, he was tightly wound and always on alert. He didn’t sleep well and the only time he was ever relaxed was the five minutes or so after we’d had sex. Once in a while he let his guard down, like the few times I’d seen him with Luke, but the rest of the time he was both physically and mentally tough as nails. Sometimes it bothered me, the way he kept himself closed off to the world, but I was becoming increasingly aware that he was letting me in. He laughed a little more often now and though he struggled with emotional intimacy, I’d seen signs of him trying. There were tiny moments of tenderness when we were alone, traces of feelings I tried not to read too much into.
I thought of myself as a loner and kept the circle I considered friends extremely small, but Sandor took that to another level entirely. He had Erik, Casey and the kids, along with a handful of colleagues like Joe and Xander, but that was all. He’d even lost touch with his brother and sister over the years, though they appeared to be reconnecting now that we were all in Limaj. I wasn’t sure what demons he struggled with, but I also wasn’t sure if we’d reached a place in our relationship where I could ask.
Not wanting to let myself get any more distracted, I headed back to Casey and Erik’s living area and found her looking at something on her phone.
“Hey, Lennox, can you message Sandor and find out how much longer they’re going to go? Erik isn’t answering my texts, which means he’s probably talking, and I need to know if I should go ahead and eat without him.”
“Oh, um, sure.” I pulled out my phone and sent Sandor the message. He responded a minute later.
Sandor: We’ll probably be here half the night. Tell her to eat without him.
I relayed the message and Casey nodded. “Okay, well, I guess it’s just you and me, then. Want to eat with me?”
“Sure. What’s on the menu?”
“Really boring stuff,” Casey sighed. “Grilled chicken and veggies.”
“Welcome to my world,” I said with a laugh. “That’s how I have to eat if I want to stay in shape.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve never had to worry about it before, but I guess having a baby at thirty-five changes everything.”
“You’ll get back in shape before you know it,” I told her. “And once you’re feeling up to it, we can start working out together. I’ll get you into better shape than ever.”
“I’ll take you up on that.” Casey called down to the kitchen and then turned to me. “So, how are things going with Sandor?”
I chuckled. “Nothing new. We’re too busy to do much of anything but sleep and make love. We usually have about fifteen minutes a day to talk about stuff that isn’t related to work, and other than taking me to see that cottage on the outskirts of the city, we haven’t had much time together.”
Casey scowled. “Well, that’s lame. Has he even taken you out on a date?”
My face felt a little hot as I shook my head. “No, but there honestly hasn’t been time. We got together days before we moved to Limaj and in the month we’ve been here, we’ve been going nonstop.”
“But you’re living together, even if it was only because of circumstances out of our control. That has to mean something, right? Are you happy? Does he make you feel good outside the bedroom?”
I sighed, sinking into the chair beside her. “Honestly, I try not to let him make me feel too good outside the bedroom because even though you don’t agree, I still feel like he’s way out of my league. Have you seen the gossip columns lately?” I shuddered a little. “The number of women interested in him, seeking him out, looking forward to seeing him when we go to Vegas for the charity ball, well, it’s a little daunting.”
Casey smiled. “I know. And that’s why I’m having a custom gown made for you. You’re also going to have professional hair and makeup done that day, right along with me and the girls. He’s not going to know what hit him when he sees you.”
I tapped my foot impatiently. “That’s not who I am.”
“And being the queen of an eastern European country isn’t who I am, either, yet here we are. Erik knows who and what I am and loves me anyway. By the same token, I respect who and what he is, so I do my best to fit into both worlds. If you love each other, none of that other stuff will matter.”
“I think it’s way too soon to think about the L word,” I muttered.
Marisol came in with a large tray of food, setting it down on the coffee table before leaving us to our own devices. We ate in companionable silence, each lost in our own thoughts, until we heard Levi start to cry through the baby monitor. Casey started to get up but I stopped her since I was done eating.
“I’ll get him,” I said. “You finish eating.”
I went into the baby’s nursery and picked him up. Sylvia took overnight shifts now since he wasn’t sleeping well, but he was cute as hell. I held him against my chest, rocking him slightly, and for the first time in my life, I wondered what it would be like to have one of my own. I’d never really given it a lot of thought because between the military and my terrible luck with men, I figured it wasn’t going to happen. But now I had this gorgeous, sexy, sweet man who actually liked me.
Damn Sandor. This was all his fault, making me think things I shouldn’t and want things I hadn’t thought about in a long time. I was going to have to snap out of this romantic haze I’d been in and be a little more realistic about the future. Maybe the smart thing to do would be to break things off. Except I didn’t want to.
I carried Levi back into the living room and Casey looked up with a smile. “How’s my sweet boy?”
“He’s so beautiful,” I gushed, handing him to Casey. “You and Erik make some pretty babies.”
“You and Sandor would make some pretty babies too,” Casey said, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Let’s hold off on the baby shower, okay? I don’t think either of us is ready for that.”
“I wasn’t ready either,” Casey said quietly. “But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
While Casey tended to the baby, I opened my laptop and pulled up the cameras. Although there was a control room with a separate monitor for each camera, we also had direct links on our computers so we could access them from anywhere, at any time. I’d been checking periodically throughout the day because we’d been taught to look for either something completely out of place or something different that appeared too often. Like the same person going to the front gates repeatedly. There had been someone earlier today that caught my eye. And there he was.
I enlarged the frame so I could get a better look at him, chewing the inside of my cheek thoughtfully. Why did he look familiar?
“Casey?”
“Hmm?”
“Does this guy look familiar to you?” I turned the laptop so she could see.
She squinted and frowned. Then her eyes widened. “Holy shit.”
“Who is it?” I asked quickly.
“That’s Omar.”
“Shit.” I grabbed my phone and texted Sandor.
21
Sandor
I was fighting boredom and frustration from the lack of progress when a text from Lennox came through.
Lennox: Need to see you NOW.
I got to my feet with no explanation; Erik knew me well enough to know I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t have a damn good reason. I strode out into the hallway just as she was coming down the main staircase at a fairly fast pace.
“What’s going on?” I asked her.
“Omar. He’s been casing the front gate. I’ve spotted him at least three times today, but it took me until now to recognize him.”
“Fucker.” I started up the stairs. “I need you to take my place in the meeting. We need security in there. For protocol reasons, I need you standing at the front of the room, close enough to Erik to get to him before anyone else, should there be an attack of some kind.”
“You sure you wouldn’t rather—” she began.
“No. If Omar is nearby, it’s better for me to be involved because I know him and understand the language.”
“Won’t Erik wonder what’s going on?”
“Say, ‘Excuse me, Your Majesty,’ and whisper what’s going on in his ear. That’s all. He knows the drill.”
“What about Casey and the baby?”
“I’ll move Joe to be with her and take Xander with me. You’re with Erik.”
“Understood.” She moved into the room without hesitation.
I was grateful she did as I asked without question, considering our personal relationship. I’d worried that we’d have a hard time separating the two, but apparently not. I should have known better, of course. She was a consummate professional and wouldn’t let something like the fact that we were involved impact the safety of our friends and family. It was strange, how quickly she’d integrated into our family unit. Erik, Daniil, Elen and I were related by blood, and I’d had more than a decade to build relationships with Casey and the kids. Xander had been with us for a couple of years and was just now reaching the point where I trusted him implicitly.
With Lennox, though we’d had a rough start, we’d gelled quickly. In more ways than one. Even as I took the stairs three at a time to get to the control room and talk to Joe, she was in the back of my mind. Knowing I could trust her was worth its weight in gold and I was able to focus on the task at hand without worrying about Erik. Not only was she perfectly capable of protecting him, he was pretty adept at protecting himself, so I wasn’t overly worried. Not yet anyway.
Joe looked up as I came into the room and I told him what Lennox had seen.
“Good eye,” he muttered. “I must be losing my touch.” He tapped a few keys to enlarge the front gate screen and, sure enough, someone that looked very much like Omar was peering through the security bars. He was dressed like any of the other tourists or citizens who often came to look at the palace, but now that Lennox had spotted him, it was definitely Omar. And he had no business loitering at the front gate. He was up to something and I needed to know what it was.
I yanked off my jacket and tie, grabbing a hoodie off the counter. We had matching emerald green hoodies for the palace guards to wear during regular shifts. We wanted to be able to identify each other without being too obvious and this had been our short-term solution. I yanked it on and headed out, cursing the dress shoes on my feet.
“Tell Xander to meet me out front,” I called to Joe. “But don’t alert the guards or it might spook him.”
I took a back exit and lifted the hood over my head, scanning the area. I recognized the guard at the back door and nodded at him, muttering something about a perimeter check. He was probably surprised, but I was more concerned with finding Omar. Capturing him would eliminate our biggest threat, but he wasn’t stupid, and I wasn’t naïve enough to think it would be easy.
I skirted the side of the building, using the binoculars I’d thought to grab to scan the gate. He was still there. In my peripheral vision, I got a glimpse of Xander heading toward the gate from the other direction, but Omar must have had some sixth sense and quickly put up his hood, moving away from the gate. I picked up speed, sprinting across the grounds and past the two guards at the gate, who moved aside in confusion.
“He saw us,” Xander muttered, coming up behind me.
“Let him go,” I told him, coming to a stop. “There are too many people and he’ll be lost in the crowd in seconds anyway.”
“Shit.” Xander looked around.
I motioned with my head and we walked back in the direction from which we’d come. I hated that he’d gotten away, but I wasn’t surprised. He hadn’t gotten this far by being stupid, so we were just going to have to up our game.
“I have to go back to my meeting,” I told him, “so keep an eye on the surveillance cameras. It’s getting dark now and I don’t want to take any chances with the safety of our guests.”
“Got it.” Xander jogged off in the other direction and I yanked the hoodie off my head. I didn’t bother getting my jacket and tie; I needed to update Erik and the rest of Parliament regardless of how I was dressed.
Everyone looked up as I entered the room and I felt a moment of discomfiture, unprepared to have that much attention on me. But my eyes sought out Lennox, who was standing a couple of feet behind Erik, and her presence relaxed me. Erik immediately rose to greet me, concern etched into his face.
“Was it Omar?” he asked under his breath.
I nodded. “But we lost him. As soon as he spotted us, he took off, and there were just too many people for us to safely give chase.”
Erik sighed. “Well, at least now we’ll be able to tell everyone to look for him. Let me debrief the Assembly on what we know and then I’m going to get this education bill passed if I have to tie them all to their chairs.”
Erik got his bill passed just after midnight and we finally adjourned. We’d accomplished a great deal, to be honest, and it would have been a good day had I not been preoccupied with Omar’s appearance at the front gates.
“When are we leaving to go back to Vegas for the ball?” I asked him.
Erik hesitated. “Casey’s still struggling. Her doctor upped her meds and she’s hanging in there, but I’m worried about her. I’d like to go back a little sooner than we intended. I know it’s inconvenient, but she needs to be able to check in with her doctor, see her mom…and frankly, my children will only be small once. I already missed most of Luke’s childhood, and now I’m only seeing Leni a few times a year… I don’t want to spend these years working ninety hours a week. I can be a statesman when they’re older. I want to be a husband and a father too.”
“I don’t know if you can do it all.”
“I don’t know either, but I have to put a bit of a priority on my wife and children. Do me a favor, my friend.”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t make my mistakes. Take time for your own needs and don’t worry so much about mine. Or the country’s.”
“Coming from the man who literally gave up everything for his country and his people.”
“And learned a very hard lesson.” He gave me a meaningful look.
We parted at the bottom of the stairs and I watched him ascend toward his private residence before turning to my own.
When I got there, the suite was quiet and empty. I got undressed and stepped into the shower. Though I wasn’t dirty, per se, I’d been in the same clothes for sixteen hours and felt grungy. Especially since I hoped to be balls-deep inside of Lennox in the next hour or so. Hopefully, she’d be up soon. Casey and the baby were undoubtedly in bed, so there was no reason for her to hang around, though she’d probably been waiting for Erik to return before turning in for the night.
The glass shower door opened and I felt Lennox’s warm body up against my back. I reached back to slide my hands over the curve of her ass, smiling as she pressed a kiss into the middle of my back.
“Hey, babe.” Her voice was soft.
I turned, looking down into her face. “Hi. How was your day?”
“Mostly uneventful. Except for that Omar thing.”
I grimaced. “Yeah, we’re going to need to put his picture all over the palace so guards and employees will recognize him immediately if he shows his face anywhere near the gate again.”
“I get the feeling he won’t make that mistake again,” she murmured.
“You’re probably right.”
She turned her back to me, reaching for her shampoo, something that smelled like roses and lavender or something equally herbal that normally wouldn’t have meant much to me. Except now that she used it in front of me and then usually crawled into bed with me, the scent had become something I associated with her, and made me want to surround myself in it. I leaned over to kiss the curve of her neck, inhaling the smell of her shampoo and tasting the saltiness of her skin. She continued to enthrall me and I wasn’t sure whether or not it was time to verbalize something, to let her know how much I
liked her.
Jesus, that sounded stupid even in my head. How was I supposed to initiate a conversation about liking her without sounding like a dumbass? Or was I just supposed to assume she knew?
Fuck. I had no idea how to do this and I felt ridiculous.
“What are you thinking about so intently?” she asked, startling me back to the present.
“What makes you think I was thinking intently?” I asked.
“You get this little crease between your brows… It’s cute.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, okay.” I kissed the tip of her nose and then stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel. She followed a minute later, after squeezing the water out of her hair. We dried off in companionable silence and she brushed her hair while I brushed my teeth.
Maybe I didn’t need to say anything. Because this was easy and comfortable and felt really good. I’d probably muck it up if I said something this soon anyway. I was definitely better off keeping my mouth shut.
22
Lennox
The next couple of weeks were busy, keeping Sandor and me apart more than usual, except at night. But even then, we were surprisingly too exhausted for sex and usually just fell asleep in each other’s arms. Which was weird, considering how casual the relationship was in general. There were more and more moments of intimacy these days, especially when we made love, but mostly we were just too damn busy.
On a Sunday morning, the day before we were leaving to go back to Las Vegas for the charity ball and whatever else we were going to do, I woke up to the hottest guy I knew between my legs, doing something that made my hips arch up and my entire body quiver from the pleasure. By the time I was capable of rational thought again, he’d crawled up and wrapped his arms around me, erection pressed against my back, apparently in no hurry to find release.
