Chapter 7 – Bellamy #2
His hands squeeze my breasts, his new favorite toys.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure what purpose her lying to us has.
She lost her husband and child that night and has mourned their loss since.
She was never the same after.” She also didn’t come to our wedding because she didn’t approve of me.
I have no nobility in my blood, nor am I even French or Italian.
Before our wedding, I overheard Sebastian on the phone with her when she called me gold-digging American trash or something like that.
He subsequently told her she was never allowed to speak of me that way and hung up, but still, it stung to be dismissed without her even meeting me.
“Is that from guilt for her crimes or grief from those she lost?”
Another sigh, this one heavier. “I don’t know. We’ll have to confront her soon. But for now,” he reaches into his pocket, pulls out a box, and places it in my palm. “I want you to have these. Since we were there.”
“Sebastian!”
He chuckles, running his nose against mine. “Don’t argue. They’ll look so lovely on your ears. What good are all these jewels just sitting in cases if I can’t give them to the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met? You’re my queen. I want to spoil you as such.”
He pulls back and both of us stare down at the black cube in my hand. Without waiting on me because he knows I’ll never freely open it, he lifts the lid, and there are two massive—and I mean fucking massive—diamond studs.
“I can’t.”
“You can. They’re your Valentine’s Day present.”
“Valentine’s Day?” I snort. “That…” I trail off as I think about it.
“Was yesterday. I forgot too until Rowan reminded me this morning.”
I scrunch up my nose. “Oh. Sorry, I didn’t get you anything.”
“I’ll take your body again later and we’ll call it even.
Your hair will cover the earrings most of the time, but I might have you put it up when it’s just us so I can see them in your ears.
You know…I’d have the rarest, most priceless diamonds and gemstones turned into pieces of art designed simply for your body.
” A smirk curls his lips. “That was, of course, before you allowed our daughters to bring home a fucking ferret.”
I burst out laughing. “Don’t blame me. Your daughters are crafty and insanely smart.”
“And I’m a sucker.”
“There are worse crimes than a man being a sucker for his children. In fact, it’s beyond endearing and sexy.”
“Endearing and sexy enough to get you to wear these for me?”
They each have to be at least five carats. “You’re going to have me dripping in diamonds I’m not fully comfortable wearing. What if I get mugged and someone steals the crown jewels?”
“Mugged in the palace?”
“You never know.”
“I’ll take the risk with how stunning you look in my country’s priceless gems.” He grins against my lips and licks the seam before demanding entrance and kissing me like a man in love. Like a man staking his claim.
My heart gives a thump.
“Say yes.”
Like I could ever say no to him. “Yes.”
Another deep, plunging kiss. “How’s your father?”
“Not good,” I admit, sagging against him. “I’m hoping some of this cloud clears when the worst of the fall is behind him.”
His hand cups the back of my head and holds me close, whispering right into my ear, “I’m so sorry, baby. If I had one form of magic, I’d use all my powers to make him better for you.”
My heart swells and I wrap my arms around his neck. “How did I find you? How did I grow so lucky?”
I feel his smile against my neck. “You have no clue, do you? All that you’ve brought to my life.
To our lives. I never believed in love. I never imagined it was possible for me, for a man in my station.
And yet, here I am. So totally, completely, and absolutely in love with you.
You allow me to be me, and you love me for who I am, not what I am, and you love my children as your own.
Bellamy, my queen, you are everything I don’t deserve but will selfishly never relinquish. ”
Oh, may it be so.
With his help, I put the studs in my ears, never losing sight of his smile as I do. And then we walk down to dinner together. Hand in hand, even as he instructs Emily to call a vet to come examine our new nameless ferret.
“A ferret. Fuck me.”
I laugh. “But your daughters are so happy.”
“They better be,” he grumbles. “Otherwise, the rat will be turned outside at the first chance, winter or not.”
“Liar,” I tease because he’ll never turn out a poor animal, ferret or not.
“Did you tell her?” Rowan asks, coming over and dropping his arm over my shoulder.
“Tell me what?”
Sebastian makes a face at Rowan and turns to me as we wait for everyone else to join us. “We’re going to the cottage to have a look around.”
“Oh?” I raise an annoyed eyebrow at Sebastian. “So much for telling me everything. When are you going and how long are you going for?”
“I was going to talk with you about it tonight after we put the children down. We’re thinking of going tomorrow and it should just be for a day or two.”
“And this is what you want to do? Go looking through the cottage where your sister was taken?” I can’t imagine that would be easy for anyone.
“I want to go,” he tells me, his eyes holding mine, watching for my response. He doesn’t have to wait long as I frown and look away for a beat. Selfishly, I don’t want him to leave. We haven’t been separated since I moved into the palace and certainly not since we’ve been together.
“So do I,” Rowan says. “Honestly, I think we need to.”
I clear my throat and turn back to Sebastian. “You should go. I’ll miss you and I’ll pout, but you should go. This is too important not to.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive,” I promise. “I’ll be home with the children and my dad. I’ll have Emily and Althea with me. You need to go. But, again, if you ever hold back things like this from me again…”
“I won’t.”
“Good, because I’ll withhold sex and turn to my vibrator.”
He laughs and Rowan sputters, but I’m not kidding and I’m not laughing.
I pause here, my fingers automatically coming up to my neck. To the slightly indented scar that slashes across my otherwise unmarred skin.
“How do you know this isn’t a trap?”
He leans in and presses a sweet kiss to my scar as he gently removes my fingers from it. “We have no reason to believe it is,” Rowan states flatly.
“But you don’t know for sure,” I counter, my voice climbing. “You worked side by side with Samil for years without knowing he had been plotting your death and was the one who took down Nora’s helicopter.”
His hand takes mine, giving me a reassuring squeeze.
“I knew Samil hated me for years, Bellamy. Despite not expecting his actions the night of the Christmas ball, I wasn’t surprised either.
This is an abandoned cottage. A cottage where the person or people who took Desta originally went with her.
The press already reported about it and we will have Javier with us as well as our national crime agency, Messalina intelligence, and the local police. ”
I snort. “You could have led with that.”
He grins against my lips. “True. I could have. But you’re very beautiful when you worry about me.”
The children enter the room, putting a halt to our conversation.
We eat dinner and the girls can’t stop talking about Arthur, since that’s what they’ve named the ferret.
Althea is beside herself that she didn’t notice, but neither did I, so it ends there.
The girls manage to convince Sebastian to purchase a cage, a bed, a blanket, and other things Arthur will need.
I force smiles and laughs with the children all the while I can’t stop wondering what they’ll find in that cottage. And with one look at Rowan, I know he’s thinking the exact same thing.