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“I am Daphne,” the woman replied. Her mouth curved. “And I will let you know when you’re free to move about the palace.”
“See?” Nina asked. “Isn’t that better?”
Daphne smiled wider, then clapped her hands and emptied the suite, leaving Nina alone.
For a while, she stayed where she was, staring at pretty blue flowers in small earthenware vases while inside of her everything was...Zeus.
That night six months ago was all tangled up in today, a temple of light and all his dark-honeyed glory, as if baklava had taken human form and called itself a prince.
Nina let out a long, shuddery breath.
She got up, then went out of the study into the atrium that took the place of any central hall. She could see into the first salon and was pleased to find they’d left her the remains of her tea, which made her smile despite herself. Because if she needed to, she would have thrown open these doors and stormed the palace kitchens if she was hungry.
Clearly, Daphne knew that and had removed the temptation to leave here.
She walked into the center of the atrium, where a fountain gurgled sedately, appreciating the glass ceiling and the greenery everywhere. Slowly, she turned in a circle. She could see the bedroom beyond two blue doors, a massive four-poster bed set against a wall done in mosaic. There were several other rooms, but their doors were shut, so she could only guess what was behind them. Some of these palatial guest quarters had screening rooms and bowling alleys, their own elevators and private pools. Boardrooms and full offices for government and business-minded guests. Palaces these days were equipped to cater to the needs of visiting royalty and all of their expectations on the high end, and questionable guests like Nina in more self-contained units like this.
And then she laughed at herself, because the atrium alone was larger than any place she’d lived in the last six months. Maybe she’d have been happier if she didn’t know it was the sort of smallish suite Princess Isabeau would have sneered at—but deemed good enough for Nina.
She shook off memories of the wretched Isabeau and followed the light. Through the bedroom and out onto the wide balcony that she found waiting for her, wrapping around the side of the corner suite she occupied.
There was a shaded part of the balcony and then a far sunnier bit. Nina went out and stood in the sun for as long as she could, letting the heat sink into her bones and chase away the lingering cold after her last couple of months in England, then she made her way back into the shade. She found the chaise with the best view, straight out into the sea, and settled herself there.
And then, listening to the waves and staring at all that deep blue, she found herself getting drowsy. Despite her claims. She told herself it was all the food she’d just eaten. It had nothing to do with the day she’d had here.
Nina wasn’t gettingsoft.
And as she drifted off into sleep, all she could see was that bright, impossible light growing even brighter, and then Zeus stepping out of it, shining far hotter than the lot.
So it wasn’t as much of a shock as it might otherwise have been when she woke to find Zeus standing over her once again.
She was glad she’d worn her most hideous skirt, wide like a tent. Because it functioned like bedding, and she knew without having to look that she was properly covered. And then laughed at herself. The man had already seen her naked. That was why she was here in the first place.
Nina rubbed her hands over her eyes, then over the rest of her face, mostly to check to see if she had been caught drooling.
Then she tried to focus on Zeus, standing so still in the kind of dark bespoke suit that she associated with his inevitable presence across all the capitals of Europe. Cut to make him seem even taller, even broader, even more perfectly shaped. A love letter to his perfect body. The sky behind him was turning a deep blue, smudged with orange and pink, from a sun just set, as if it had prettied itself just for him.
And Nina felt breathless, as if the whole world was holding its breath when really, that was just her. She tried to force herself to breathe normally again. She assured herself it had nothing at all to do with the man standing at the foot of her chaise. She was pregnant. Surely she could blame any odd physical sensations on that.
Not on Zeus and the sunset all around him that made him look even more ancient and unworldly.
“I take it you’ve learned that you’re the father of my baby,” Nina said.
She blamed the rasp in her voice on her nap.
Zeus only looked at her a long while. The sky continued to put on a show behind him. “It seems we are to be parents, little hen.”
And Nina had never minded that nickname from Isabeau. She hadn’t liked it, but it hadn’tbotheredher. Isabeau had imagined it held more weight than it did.
But it was very different the way Zeus said it. And hekeptsaying it.
She had tried to ignore, earlier, the way his mouth moved over those words and, worse, the echo of them inside her. But his little hen was in danger of burning alive.
“At least we’ve established that I’m not a liar,” she said before she immolated where she sat. She smoothed her hair back from her face, then remembered that she’d deliberately left it wild. So she dropped her hands again and folded them the only place they folded now, up above her belly. “But I have no intention of marrying you.”
“I already told you that your intentions cannot matter in such a case.” He waved a hand when she started to protest. “I have avoided matrimony the entirety of my life, Nina. I will require sustenance if I’m to discuss such a drastic change in my dissipated lifestyle any further.”
Nina sat up straighter as lights appeared, and it took her a moment to work out it was from the lanterns hung on all the overhangs. And then she couldn’t think aboutlanterns, because Zeus was beside her, leaning down—
