CH 52.1

Iveca felt completely spent.

She had come into his bedroom carelessly, just to feed her desire and to feel his body for a night. But their tireless passion, their yearning, had turned that night into two. She was at least fortunate that she faithfully took her contraceptive pill.

The Bureau of Investigation would have to know already that she had entered the King’s bedroom and stayed for two full days. Sid must know, too – and that thought left a strange ache in her heart.

He had been her treasured colleague for four years, and the same he’d finally given her his desperate confession, Iveca had held another man. And Daniel had held the woman he’d desired the same day he’d learned that he had killed his own nephew. Love could be a cruel and selfish thing.

She slowly rolled over and slipped back into his arms. She let thoughts of Sid and the Bureau fall away.

“Is it okay for you to stay here like this? Don’t you have things to attend to?”

“The King can take a day off. I can attend to the throne well enough at the dinner meeting tonight.”

“What do you mean by ‘a’ day?” she couldn’t help giving a playful smirk.

His eyes darkened slightly, seeming to focus elsewhere.

“I haven’t rested a day since William’s death.”

He swept her hair away from her face and kissed her deeply once again. Iveca shifted out of his arms gently, fearful she wouldn’t be able to walk if they made love again. His eyes focused on her again. He whispered drowsily.

“You’re the only exception for me….”

She stared at the ceiling, saying nothing.

“Tell me you’ll quit the Bureau of Investigation and become my Queen.”

She didn’t reply.  Daniel sighed, shifted, buried his face in her shoulder.

“If you don’t want to be my Queen, I just have to give up the crown…”

For a Bureau of Investigation employee, loyal to the king and country, the words were like a slap. She couldn’t hide her stunned expression.

“What are you saying?! You can’t!”

“I can. It’s not even a difficult process,” he said, waving his hand casually. “Though if I do, by the time it’s done I’d be too old to play line ball. Dilemma.”

The next in line to the throne was William’s daughter, Giselle, who was so young she was still learning to pronounce words properly. If Daniel left his crown to her, Amathane would fall almost immediately into the grasping hands of the nobles.

If that came to be when the continent was already changing so rapidly, Amethane as it existed today would be lost forever. Whatever anyone – including Daniel himself – thought, only he could navigate the hazards of the throne with things the way they were now. He was just calculating enough to keep emotions tethered, just selfish enough to preserve his power and the strength of the state.

“You wouldn’t have to do anything, Eve.”

“Then I don’t think I’d be happy.”

“Well, that would be a problem.”

She would have to disappear from his life.

“Are you going to quit the Bureau of Investigation?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet. But even If I did quit…”

Iveca stroked his golden hair, focused on it. She remembered how it caught the light, how it had drawn her from the beginning, like a flame. But she would have to turn away from it soon, for both their sakes.

“I want to find something that I can do well and keep doing it.”

She didn’t know whether Ewill would ever allow her to quit, but she had no intention of doing it. It was the first identity she’d ever gained, the first credential she’d ever earned. Even if it meant being moved elsewhere, she didn’t want to give it up.

“So where would you go?”

“I don’t know. I’d have to think about it.”

“I don’t see you going from the Bureau of Investigation to the Bureau of Administration. Though if you were Queen Eve, I could make you the Bureau Head.”

“That’d be an abuse of authority. And I don’t think I’d go there.”

The Bureau of Investigation could move her, hide her. ‘Eve Jean’ would disappear. Even Daniel wouldn’t be able to track her down.

“Besides, the Bureau of Administration is always the same no matter who runs it, right? I… I like something that only I can do. I want to engrave my name onto something, make it my own.”

Her surname had been “Esselburn”, but she’d never been known by it. If she had to leave everything else behind, she wanted to take that with her, at least.

“Alright. I’ll bear that in mind,” he whispered, kissing her forehead. “I’ll give you whatever you want. Anything.”

“Daniel.”

She spoke calmly, her words measured and dispassionate.

“Eve Jean, the confident and competent Bureau of Investigation officer that you love, doesn’t exist anymore. Remember I told you I was once a gloomy, depressed kid. Now I feel like I’m back to that. No self-esteem, no confidence.”