Sandor and Lennox had just gotten married, and Xander and Elen were not just married, but having a baby. So maybe they weren’t all that much like me, but they all had military experience and a background in intelligence or espionage. They knew the risks of this life. Solange didn’t and she’d already suffered enough. She hadn’t been kidnapped or tortured, but living in fear was its own kind of torture, and I couldn’t put her back in a situation where she went to bed every night wondering if I was coming home.
The connection between us had been immediate and intense, and the night we’d made love had proven just how easy it would be to get involved with her. I wanted her more than I’d wanted any other woman in my life and that was dangerous. Both for her and for me, which meant cutting this off before it went any further. The trouble, of course, was that my heart and my dick were at odds with my brain, and that was a problem.
“Hey, Axel?” Joe stuck his head out of the door of his office.
“What’s up?” I followed him inside.
“Depending on what happens with the Kovac family today, do you want to oversee getting them settled and—”
“I’d really rather not,” I said slowly. “I’ve paid my dues with busywork by taking on that job in Braksa. I’d kind of like something closer to home here at the palace. Can Natalia take it?”
Joe eyed me curiously. “A little birdie told me you and Solange had gotten close. I thought maybe you’d like the opportunity to spend time with her.”
“Not sure what you heard,” I said quietly, “but she’s just a nice kid. We’re not what I’d call close. I was being nice.”
“If you say so.” Joe nodded. “I’ll take care of it. Then I’ll probably have you on duty with Prince Luke. That okay?”
“Sure. Whatever you need.”
My duty shift with Luke ended at ten o’clock that night. The kids all had different bedtimes, but as a teenager who was on summer vacation, Luke had a lot more leeway. There were guards at the end of all the major corridors of the family’s quarters and the king and queen got alerts on their phones if any of the kids used their personal security codes to get on the elevators. Erik and Casey were doing their best to give the kids some semblance of normalcy at home in the palace, and while there seemed to be a lot of growing pains, we were doing our best to work out the kinks.
I stopped by the security office to check in. Logan Harper looked up at me. “Good thing you’re here. What am I supposed to do about her?”
“Her who?” I asked, following his gaze to the video surveillance screens.
“Camera three,” he said with a grimace.
I looked down and there was Solange. She was out in one of the courtyards, drinking from a bottle of some kind, her feet bare as she sat cross-legged on the edge of one of the fountains. She seemed a little unsteady as she drank, and I sighed.
Dammit.
“I’ll take care of it,” I muttered.
“You want me to call Natalia?”
“Nah. I got this.”
I jogged downstairs and out the back entrance to the private courtyard. Solange was holding out one of her hands, catching some of the water as it cascaded down from the spray at the top. I watched her for a moment, thinking how young and innocent she looked here. She’d had a little too much to drink—chardonnay, from what I could see of the bottle—but her sadness was palpable.
“Solange?”
She heard me, because she stiffened for a moment, but she didn’t look up. “Am I not allowed to be here?” was all she asked.
“You’re allowed, but the night guard was worried you might fall or hurt yourself. It seems like you’ve had a bit to drink.”
“I’m fine,” she said. “I’m just enjoying one last night of freedom.”
“What’s happening tomorrow?” I asked dryly. “Are your parents marrying you off to Prince Daniil?”
“That would be preferable to reality.” She paused. “I thought he was gay?”
“Bi, actually, but that’s beside the point. What’s happening tomorrow?”
“King Erik and Prince Sandor gifted my family some historical inn, right on the outskirts of Hiskale. We can live in it, run it, and keep all the profits. The only condition is that the integrity of the inn can’t be changed, that the historical aspects remain. The idea is to turn it into a bed and breakfast, and guess what I get to do?”
I grimaced, figuring it wasn’t going to be good. “Uh, what’s that?” I asked.
“I get to be a maid.” She threw up her hands, almost dropping the bottle of chardonnay, but catching it just in time. “My parents will cook, serve and entertain, while Kostya charms the ladies and I change sheets and scrub toilets. I think I’d prefer to freeze to death this winter in Vinake.”
“Can’t you tell your parents no? Are they really planning to run the whole inn by themselves?”
“Mama and Papa aren’t good about hiring staff and paying out money. Unless and until it becomes extremely profitable, they’re going to cut corners any way they can to make sure they put every penny into savings.”
“What would you like to do?”
She snorted. “It doesn’t matter. And anyway, if I’m not doing anything wrong, why are you here? You made it perfectly obvious earlier today you didn’t want to talk to me, so go away and leave me with my bottle of wine.”
I sighed and sank down on the edge of the fountain next to her. “I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“Yes, you did. You wanted to send a clear message that you weren’t interested in anything beyond our tryst the other night. Got it. I was a virgin, not a nun. I know how this works. So, go back to your security duty or whatever you do, and let me enjoy a final night of decadence.”
“Solange, that’s not—”
“Will you please go?” she asked softly. “That’s why I walked away at the hospital. I knew you were going to do this, and I truly didn’t want to get attached.”
I looked into her pretty blue eyes and a hundred thoughts ran through my head. My heart. My gut. Turning around took all the strength I had, and not looking back almost killed me.
13
Solange
The inn was beautiful, filled with gorgeous carved wood, a stained glass window that took my breath away, and a beautiful garden that would be perfect for young honeymooners to take romantic pictures in and spend warm afternoons in, gazing into each other’s eyes. Unfortunately, the beauty was mostly lost on me as I thought about all the work involved in keeping this place up. There were six guest suites between the second and third floors, and a caretaker’s suite in the back on the main floor. My mother was so excited about the caretaker’s suite, she hadn’t stopped talking since we’d arrived.
The king had arranged for us to come in today and make a list of everything we needed, from pots and pans to sugar and flour to sheets and pillows. We had no budget, no limits, and if we got everything together quickly, we might even be open for business by the end of summer, which was right around the corner. The winters here in Hiskale were much milder than in Vinake, so the inn would hopefully be in business year-round, but we’d get more tourists in the spring, summer and fall than in winter.