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Are you sure keeping her here is the right thing to do, though? You know how weak you can be.
Yes, yes, he knew that. But he had himself well in hand. She might have got under his skin twice already, but there wouldn’t be a third time.
Galen pushed himself up from his desk and straightened. ‘Naturally, it is my problem. I am King here and I will decide how best to proceed.’
Her gaze was steely. ‘If you send me home, I’ll fight you. I’m not going anywhere without my son.’
This little warrior was quite a change from the seductive, passionate woman of the night before, and, he had to admit, it intrigued him. He’d seen flashes of this same steel in the back of his limo the night before and it had been...sexy. Especially in combination with her white-hot desire and the way she’d surrendered to him.
An intoxicating combination in a woman, if he was honest with himself, and one he’d never experienced before, not even back in his bad old days of university.
If you married her, it would solve all your problems at once.
The thought came out of nowhere and was so ridiculous, he almost laughed. Because while it was true, he’d been thinking of a wife, he couldn’t marry Solace. The Kings of Kalithera married women from important, aristocratic families, not poor commoners. He couldn’t break tradition, not given how carefully Kostas watched him, and besides, given the mistakes he’d already made concerning Solace, marrying her would no doubt be a disaster. No, it wouldn’t work.
He was going to have to think of something else.
‘That won’t be necessary,’ he said. ‘Though I’m not sure exactly how you think you can fight me.’
It was a pointless thing to add, and he wasn’t sure why he had, especially when her gaze sparked and she virtually quivered in her seat with suppressed anger. As if she was a hair’s breadth away from springing over his desk and strangling him.
‘I may look powerless, but I’m not,’ she said fiercely. ‘I can create trouble for you.’
‘You’ve already created trouble for me.’
‘No,youcreated the trouble.’ She paused, then spat, ‘Your Majesty.’
You need to stop this. Baiting her is a terrible idea.
Especially when the gulf in their stations was so vast. And most especially when he knew all too well that he was only doing it because he found her rage intoxicating. She was like a cornered alley cat, hissing and spitting because she had nowhere else to go, and was no doubt secretly terrified. In fact, him deliberately baiting her was not only cruel, it was also selfish.
So he ignored her sharp retort and looked into her bright silver eyes. ‘Would you like to see him?’ he asked.
CHAPTER FIVE
SOLACEHADFELTas if she were going to spontaneously combust with rage. He was so cool and in command standing behind his desk, radiating authority. His voice sounded as icy as his blue eyes, as if nothing at all touched him. So very much not the man she’d been in bed with the night before.
She didn’t know what to do.
She wanted to be as cool as he was, as in command and powerful, but all that honesty, laying out all the facts of what had happened to her, had ripped away her defences, leaving her feeling raw and exposed. She wasn’t a man, and she certainly wasn’t a king, and all she had was her anger, so that was what she’d grabbed hold of. The fire inside her that had propelled her out of the pit of depression and landed her here, in his study, telling a king she was going to fight him.
She’d expected him to send her away, if not taking her directly to jail.
She had not expected him to say in that same cool voice, ‘Would you like to see him?’
It sucked the anger right out of her, leaving a cold fear sitting in the pit of her stomach. ‘Him?’ Her voice shook.
The hard lines of Galen’s perfect face softened slightly. ‘Our son. Leo.’
It felt as if a shard of glass had pierced her heart, an agony she tried to ignore yet it echoed through her all the same. And before she knew what she was doing, she’d shoved herself out of her chair and walked to the windows, turning away from him to hide the tears that filled her eyes.
Leo. Galen had named him.
You didn’t. You didn’t even think of a name.
Because she hadn’t been able to think. Her head had felt foggy with postnatal hormones and shock. And solving the problem of how she was going to manage with a baby had seemed more important than finding a name for him.
There was silence behind her, then Galen said quietly, ‘Leo is short for Leonidas. It is an old family name and it seems to suit him.’
