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‘Do you have any objection to Alexios joining us for the photos?’ Angel murmured covertly. ‘I thought it would be a pleasant, unfussy way of introducing him to our country.’
‘No, I think it’s a good idea,’ Gaby agreed, flushing as the photographer sent her a reproachful look as he tried to keep everyone engaged with the session. ‘But I’d agree to anything right now to get my paws on my son again. I’ve hardly seen Alexios since we arrived.’
‘It looks as though he feels much the same way,’ Angel remarked, watching his son squirm frantically in Marina’s hold and stretch out desperate arms in his mother’s direction.
Gaby clasped her son and endeavoured to restrain him from bouncing on her lap. Angel grabbed him and occupied him for a few minutes. The photo session came to an end. Alexios returned sleepily to Marina, and Angel and Gaby greeted their guests in the ballroom where the meal was being served. She met Saif’s wife, Tatiana, and took to her immediately. Her warmth and friendliness were very welcome, and it was no time before the two women and Liz and Laurie were discussing babies and laughing while Alexios and Amir sat on a rug side by side, only noticing each other when the more mobile Alexios moved to snatch at a toy that Amir also had his eye on.
Laurie approached her when they were taking their seats for the meal. ‘Have you told Angel yet about Cassia?’ she asked covertly. ‘I’ve sent you the recording.’
‘Thanks...no, not yet. I’ll choose a quieter moment,’ Gaby declared, reluctant to admit that she really didn’t want to tackle the topic or make use of the recording. It seemed underhand.
In addition, Gaby didn’t like attacking or confronting people. Perhaps resentment had sent Cassia recklessly over the edge and she would regret her wild claim and the subject would never be mentioned again. Did she really want to be responsible for Cassia being disgraced and losing her job? Gaby didn’t believe that Cassia was Angel’s occasional mistress, she reallydidn’t...but she supposed there was always the chance that she was being foolishly blind and naive, and she had to share that little scene with Angel.
‘So,’ Gaby whispered under cover of the music during the meal. ‘Are we going anywhere after this ends?’
‘Into the mountains to my grandparents’ hideaway,’ Angel murmured. ‘Although we have many other more glamorous options. I have a yacht and property in several major cities, but I thought that right now we would both enjoy time to decompress in a peaceful setting. Alexios and Marina will join us there tomorrow.’
‘Oh...’
‘You can tuck him in for the night before we leave,’ Angel told her teasingly.
Angel’s uncle, Prince Timon, and his wife took charge of the reception late afternoon and urged the bride and groom to make a quiet getaway.
‘Don’t take off the dress,’ Angel urged as Gaby walked towards the stairs, intending to do just that.
She spun back, soft pink warming her cheeks. ‘I was planning to put on something comfy.’
‘That doesn’t sound very sexy,’ Angel husked. ‘And the dress and the sapphires are a dynamite combo.’
‘Ican’ttravel to a mountain hideaway in a tiara and a wedding dress!’ she hissed back half under her breath.
‘We have one wedding day, one wedding night...this is a special occasion,’ Angel persisted, his dazzling dark golden eyes gripping her. ‘Let’s for once leave the sensible and the comfortable for another day,hara mou.’
‘I’mnotalways sensible!’ Gaby bit out in a mortified undertone.
His brilliant eyes gleamed. ‘If you’re not,proveit.’
It was true and she wanted to kick him for knowing the fact. She had always been sensible. Her parents had raised her that way, teaching her to set a good example for her little brother. After the death of her family and the pained awareness that her aunt really didn’t want the stress of raising a teenager and had only taken her on out of a sense of duty, Gaby had known that she could not afford to make any waves and she had focussed on being evenmoresensible. In denial of the obvious, she climbed into the SUV that awaited them outside the palace still in her dress and the sapphires. With incredulity, she watched Angel swing into the driving seat, sleek and assured in faded jeans and an open shirt.
‘You...changed,’ she enunciated grittily.
‘Yes...why? Were you just gasping for the opportunity to strip me out of my morning suit...or were you hoping I would do a lap dance for you and make the encounter a little more stimulating?’ Angel purred with rapier-sharp amusement.
Gaby tipped her head back, thinking that Angel in all his bronzed muscular glory was quite exciting enough without a lap dance included. ‘Well, we all have our fantasies,’ she countered, refusing to rise to the bait.
‘Care to share?’ he prompted.
‘Not right now,’ Gaby replied unevenly, keen to change the subject because when Angel mentioned intimacy, however obliquely, he threw her into a quandary because she had still to decide whether or not she intended to share a bed with him again. She liked to think things through but around Angel such straight thinking was a challenge. When she tried to weigh pros and cons into the equation it made her feel petty and appreciate that she needed to simply go with the flow.
‘I like your uncle, Prince Timon, very much,’ she remarked quietly.
‘A less than deft change of topic,’ Angel mocked. ‘Yes, Timon is a good guy and I was very lucky he agreed to accept the Regency and take charge after my father died. He had a life of his own as a business mogul in New York and he put it aside for several years for my benefit. For a younger brother, who never wanted the throne and barely knew his nephew, it was a big sacrifice. I couldn’t have managed without him though, and he taught me a great deal, particularly about business.’
‘Yes, you were only sixteen. Losing both parents together must’ve been devastating for you,’ she muttered ruefully. ‘I know I’ve never really got over losing my parents and my kid brother and I was only a couple of years younger at the time.’
Angel reached for her hand and squeezed it. ‘I know you were devastated. When you told me years ago, there were tears in your eyes and the way you talked about your parents and little brother made it obvious that you were a happy foursome. Your loss was tragic...’
‘Yes,’ she whispered unevenly.
