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Angelina smiled, for the first time understanding completely the expression like a cat at the cream pot. “Five minutes,” she said, soaping his body briskly and moving so the shower spray would rinse him off. “You could spare five minutes.”
“Yeah, but now I need to return the favor, and that will take a hell of a lot longer than five minutes.”
She shook her head. “No time. You must get to the embassy, remember? Besides...” She laughed softly. “I am way ahead of you already. Even after this.” She was out of the shower before he could stop her, and she handed him the towel she’d used on her hair last night. They dried off in silence, but when she wrapped her towel around her and tried to slip past him into her bedroom, he stopped her with one hand on her arm, all banter gone from his expression. “This doesn’t end here, Angel.”
Part of her wanted to tell him it had to. That this was a one-time thing. But another part of her yearned to believe in the fairy-tale ending. And because she knew neither of them had time for the kind of discussion Alec was obviously intending, she compromised. “I must get to work, too,” she told him. “Now is not the time.”
“When?”
He wanted to pin her down. “Tonight?” she offered. “I am off at five. You could meet me here after that. Or I could come to your apartment.”
He hesitated for only a second. “I’ll come here. Five-thirty okay? I’ll take you to dinner, and we can talk.”
She would have agreed to anything that got Alec out of her apartment now. She’d worry about tonight later. “Fine.”
* * *
When Angelina arrived at the palace for her regular duty guarding the queen, she was stopped outside the queen’s suite by Captain Zale and Lieutenant Arkady before she could knock and gain admittance.
“The king wishes to see you, Lieutenant Mateja,” Captain Zale said without preamble. “Lieutenant Arkady will take your duty today.”
This cannot be good. A sinking feeling swept through her, but she stiffened her spine and asked coolly, “The entire day? Or just until my audience with the king is finished?” She caught her breath as another thought occurred to her, one with devastating impact. “Or am I being relieved of duty permanently?”
“Let us say until further notice. Until we hear what the king has to say.”
Angelina followed Captain Zale down the long corridor, but instead of taking the grand staircase down to the king’s public office suite on the first floor, he stopped abruptly at the door to the king’s secluded private office off his personal suite of rooms and knocked. She didn’t know if this was a good sign or bad—she’d rarely spoken to the king, and never in his private office.
The door was opened by one of the king’s bodyguards, Major Lukas Branko, a man she’d known only by sight until yesterday’s interrogation. The expression on his face wasn’t encouraging, and Angelina’s heart sank further. But she wasn’t about to betray how she felt to anyone. No one would know it would kill her to be relieved of duty. No one would know she would never be able to hold her head up again if that happened.
“Captain Zale and Lieutenant Mateja to see you, Sire,” he announced without letting them enter.
“Thank you, Lukas,” came the deep voice she recognized as belonging to the king. “Please leave us. And take Captain Zale with you.” The king moved into her line of sight. “Come in, Lieutenant.” He waited for Angelina to enter and the two men to leave. Then he closed the door behind them. “Please have a seat,” the king said, indicating one of the chairs in front of his massive desk.
“I would prefer to stand, Sire,” she said, speaking nothing more than the truth. If the ax was going to fall, she’d rather receive it standing than sitting.
“As you wish.” The king seated himself behind the desk, silently observing Angelina standing ramrod straight in front of him, then smiled his faint smile. “It has just occurred to me you might have misinterpreted my invitation,” he said finally.
She was startled into blurting out, “Invitation, Sire? Captain Zale presented it as a command.”
“Ah,” he said, his smile deepening as the little mystery was explained to him. “Let me apologize, Lieutenant. I have not called you here to relieve you of duty. Nor have I called you here to reprimand you. I merely wanted to thank you in person for saving my son’s life.”
Monumental relief flooded her at the king’s words. She wasn’t being relieved of her commission. She wasn’t even being removed from the queen’s security detail, the two things she’d feared most. She closed her eyes and thanked God. Fervently. Then she opened her eyes again and looked at the king. “No need to thank me, Your Majesty. Keeping your family safe is my duty...and my honor.”
