Pia stopped her Fruit Ninja game and set her tablet aside. “You look like a cat that got away with something.”
He pulled off his tie, shrugged out of his suit jacket and threw them into a chair. Toeing off his shoes, he rolled up his shirt sleeves and crawled up the bed to give her a kiss. And all of that was so damn sexy, she could have climaxed just by watching him.
Delighted to see him, she burrowed back against her pillows, kissing him back. He said against her mouth, “I missed you.”
“I missed you too.” When he pulled back, she smiled at him. “Did you hear the news about Aaron Davis’s arrest?”
“Oh, hell yeah. Things couldn’t be going better if I had arranged them, myself.”
As well as she thought she knew him, he had quite the capacity for surprising her. She squinted one eye at him. “You didn’t, did you?”
“No, but I almost wish I had thought of it. The vice president is now being accused of starting the Right to Privacy movement as a setup for the murder. She’s going to have to resign, or Ben will be forced to get rid of her. And nobody was wearing a scent blocker this evening.”
She sighed. “That’s a huge relief.”
“It doesn’t solve all our problems.” He rubbed his face. “There’s still plenty of protestors to the week’s summit, and we’re facing plenty of guarded government officials in our meetings. Senator Jackson is in clear opposition to mending fences, and public opinion is still on the downturn from the Nightkind massacre. But this latest development has slowed the momentum of the backlash against us, and I don’t think we’ll need to immigrate to our Other Greenland just yet, although I did talk to Niniane about hiring some consultants. She’s going to send some people when she gets back to Adriyel.” He slid back down the bed to put his head on her stomach. “How are you two doing?”
“We’re great.” She threaded her fingers through his black, silky hair. “And I’m excited that I get to go off bed rest in the morning.”
“I’m excited too.” He tilted his head so that he could look up at her. “Did the doctor clear you for normal activities?”
“I know what you really mean.” She tapped his nose with one finger. “And yes, I’m cleared to resume normal activities in the morning.”
He grabbed her finger and kissed it. “I can’t wait. And you got your shot. How do you feel?”
“I feel tired again, and my arm hurts a bit, but Dr. Medina said that’s all normal. She said she can give me the shot every two weeks in the evening, so I can just go to bed afterward.” She made a face and shrugged. “It’s not a big deal.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” He didn’t let go of her hand. Instead, he rubbed her fingers against his mouth.
Warmth spread through her at the gentle caress. She urged, “Tell me what else is new.”
“You’ve already heard the great news this evening,” he said against her fingers. “But there is also some not so great news, too.”
“Oh, no.” Her heart sank. “What’s happened now?”
“Today we were talking about what measures the demesne leaders could take that would lessen the risk of violence instigated by the Elder Races, and some goddamn fool in Ben’s administration got the bright idea that we could ‘foster good will and peace among the demesnes’ by having all seven leaders commit to sending a family member to visit another demesne for a week sometime in the next six months.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she exclaimed. “It sounds exactly like some stupid, useless program the government would come up with. That’s like the nobility who used to send their children to live with other nobles as hostages. What do they think, that we’re living in the Middle Ages?”