The Royals Collection. Rebecca Winters

but Oxana at the moment.

      The queen sighed, looking at her sadly. “He cares for you.”

      Maybe Oxana wouldn’t be the best company either. Chanel just shook her head, moving to turn away.

      But Oxana’s hand on her arm stopped her from putting distance between them. “Come, I will take you someplace away from the scrutiny and company of others.”

      Chanel thought it a bit obvious when the queen led her to the retiring room for the ladies, but they didn’t stop in the outer room as she expected. The queen led her into one of the three small chambers with toilets, closing the door behind them.

      While the room was larger than the usual commode stall, it wasn’t exactly meant for two people and Chanel didn’t think talking about sensitive subjects with only a door between them and anyone who walked into the lounge was a good idea.

      But Oxana did not ask any questions, or make any attempts at comfort. She simply pushed up on a section of wainscoting and then the wall behind the commode swung backward.

      Oxana put her hand out to Chanel. “Come, I’ll take you to the private papers library for the House of Yurkovich. Your great-great-grandfather’s will has been stored there.”

       CHAPTER TWELVE

      DARKNESS SURROUNDED CHANEL as she stood on the balcony overlooking the now-silent grounds of the palace. The reception was long over, the last guest’s car having left the drive thirty minutes before.

      Temperatures had dropped since that morning and she shivered in the cold air, but she did not go back inside.

      Before leaving her to read over the will and relevant places in Bartholomew Tanner’s diaries the queen had marked for Chanel, Oxana had told her that her favorite place for solitude was this balcony.

      “The bedrooms do not have security cameras in them, but they do have infrared monitoring. The public rooms and hallways are all covered with video feed, though. The only two places in the palace where you can relax unmonitored in any way are the public address balcony and the one outside Fedir’s rooms.”

      “Isn’t that a security risk?” Chanel had asked.

      But Oxana had shaken her head. “The walls and every approach are covered.”

      Which meant that Demyan would eventually find her because Chanel’s path to the balcony would have been tracked by video monitoring once she left the secret passageway.

      She could have left the palace completely. Chanel was a resourceful woman and there had been dozens of cars departing the grounds over the past few hours.

      But she wasn’t a coward and she’d never hidden from the truth, no matter how much it might hurt to face.

      What that truth was, however, wasn’t entirely clear. Not after reading the will. Not after remembering Demyan’s words in the carriage that morning.

      Not after having Oxana tell Chanel exactly what promise she’d extracted from her son over the love thing.

      Not until Chanel asked Demyan the only question that really mattered.

      “Chanel.”

      She turned at the sound of her name on Demyan’s lips.

      He stood framed by the light from the hall. He reached and flipped a switch. More golden light flooded the balcony.

      “Turn it off,” she said, angling her head away so he could not see the damage tears had done on even the indelible makeup job her mother’s professional artist had applied.

      “No. We do not need more shadows in our relationship.”

      She swung back to face him head-on, anger making her muscles rigid with tension. “The shadows are all you.”

      He nodded, his expression as tortured as she felt, if she could believe the evidence of her eyes.

      She wasn’t sure she trusted her own perceptions at all, though, not after how easily he’d taken her in. However, she didn’t think he could fake the parchment-pale of his complexion, the way his black pupils nearly swallowed the espresso irises or the way he breathed in what she would consider panicked gasps in anyone else.

      “That day in my lab. It was planned.”

      “I needed to meet you. You are not a social person.”

      “So Yurkovich Tanner donated five million dollars to my department for research. That’s an expensive introduction.” Though nothing in comparison to what the Yurkovich fortune stood to lose if she had made her claim on the Tanner shares in the company.

      “It also ensured you were predisposed to look on me favorably.”

      “Your idea, or the king’s?”

      “Does it matter?”

      “No.”

      “You’ve read the will.”

      “Oxana told you.”

      “I saw you go into the personal archives library on the video monitor feedback.”

      “Oh.”

      “I spent two hours watching the tapes, trying to find you.”

      “We used the secret passages.”

      “Yes. You only showed up for brief periods on the video monitors and there were too many extra people in the palace to track you with the infrared body counter and placement.”

      “Poor you.”

      “Cha...” Her name choked off and he stepped forward, stumbling, though she knew the stone floor was smooth with no hindrances.

      “You never needed your glasses.” For anything.

      He stopped a couple of feet from her. “I told you that.”

      “But I thought you needed them as an emotional crutch.”

      “I do not use crutches.”

      “No. A man without emotions doesn’t need crutches for them, does he?”

      “I am human, damn it, not a puppet. I have emotions.”

      “I bet it was the king’s idea to approach me looking like a corporate geek to match my science-nerd personality.”

      “He believed I would be too intimidating in my usual way.”

      “That man, the corporate shark, he’s part of you.”

      “Yes.”

      “But he’s not all of you.”

      “I thought he was.”

      “Until when?” she pushed.

      “Until I met you.”

      “You don’t mean that.”

      “I’ve never meant anything more.”

      “You lied to me.”

      “I am ruthless when it comes to protecting my country and those I love.”

      “I noticed.”

      “There is little hope that will change.”

      “No. It’s part of your nature. You would have made a very good Cossack.”

      “We still have the elite in our army. As tradition dictates, I spent two years training with them before going to university.”

      “Wasn’t that Prince Maksim’s job?”

      “He wasn’t the oldest son to the king.”

      “But he is heir to the throne.”

      “Yes.”

      “Does