The rest of her day was busy but, thankfully, uneventful. When she finished for the day, she couldn’t wait to shower and change into Mom instead of Queen Mari. She checked on the baby in the nursery and was disappointed when she found her napping. Mari had responsibilities as queen, and she took those duties very seriously, but she missed her children. Ki had insisted she hire nannies for the children after Janel was born, and she hated it.
The moment Shayla and Kaden saw her enter the school room they jumped up from their desks and ran to her for a hug.
“Mommy, come see my drawing,” Shayla giggled as she took her hand and led her back to the work table. “This is Daddy, and this is you!”
Mari admired the picture. “I see Daddy has his crown on.”
“Yes, this is his crown, and this is a soccer ball,” Shayla proudly pointed out.
Mari smiled; she couldn’t remember seeing Ki play soccer with a crown on. The picture was pretty good; her daughter may actually have some drawing abilities.
“And what’s this? Why is Mommy wearing a mask?” Mari pointed to the picture of herself.
“No, Mommy, that’s not a mask.” Shayla giggled and pointed to Mari’s eyes in the picture. “That’s those lines around your eyes.”
Mari’s hand went instantly to her eyes and she tried to give her daughter a proud smile. Did she really have crow’s feet? That’s what her mother always called them, but older people had them, not her. After spending a few moments more with her children, she left so Kassie could get back to their lessons.
After leaving the schoolroom she stopped at the bathroom down the hall. She peered into the mirror and gasped; where did those lines around the corners of her eyes come from? When did those happen? She wasn’t a vain person, but the reality of her body beginning to change and mature was unsettling at best.
And then a small little niggle of a thought started forming in her mind. Could that be why Ki hadn’t kissed her last night? No, absolutely not. Ki loved her just the way she was. And then the little voice prodded. But what if he wasn’t attracted to her any longer? Last night he hadn’t even noticed her new negligee from the naughty store. A year ago he would have taken one look and the gown would have ended up in a heap on the floor within thirty seconds.
No, she absolutely refused to allow any thoughts like that into her head. What she needed was a visit with her husband, and that was exactly what she was going to do. Ki would tell her she was silly, and then maybe they could do that thing she liked so much on his desk. Her insides felt all shivery at the thought.
Mari made her way to the office wing of the palace and stopped when the woman sitting behind the assistant’s desk wasn’t Rima. In fact, the woman sitting behind the desk would have looked at home on the cover of Sports Illustrated. “Who are you?” Mari asked, as she straightened her blue button-down shirt, which suddenly made her feel dowdy.
“I’m Benita, Your Highness. Rima moved to the States to be closer to her grandchildren.”
Had she been so busy that she didn’t even remember Ki telling her about Rima? “I see. How long have you been working with my husband?”
“Almost a month now. It’s a very rewarding job, and Ki is so wonderful to work with. He has been very patient and understanding while teaching me.”
Mari’s ears perked up at this causal reference to her husband, “Ki?” Her eyebrow rose in displeasure.
“Oh, yes. Ki asked me to forgo his royal title since we would be working so closely.”
“I see.” But she really didn’t…or maybe she was beginning to.
“May I help you?”
“Yes.” Mari pushed her shoulders back and straightened herself to the full potential of her five-foot-four-inch frame. “I’m here to see my husband. Is he available?” Ki hadn’t mentioned he had a new assistant. Why would that be? That little voice was back, and she didn’t like what it was saying one little bit.
“Yes, Your Highness. Shall I announce you?”
“No, that won’t be necessary.” Mari took one more look at the picture-perfect Benita and made her way down the hall and into Ki’s office.
Mari pushed the door open and paused. Her husband never failed to make her heart beat faster. Her eyes strayed to his large wooden desk and she felt her skin warm and her breasts tingle. She loved it when Ki bent her over his desk and took her from behind. Of course, she also loved it when he laid her down on top, pulled his chair up, spread her legs and dived into her. Ki had a very talented tongue. Her stomach began to shiver in anticipation.
Ki noticed her standing in the doorway and smiled before motioning her in while on the phone. He held up one finger letting her know that he would only be another minute. From listening to his end of the conversation, things weren’t going well with the eCommerce committee. Just as she always did, she scooted on top of the desk right beside Ki. Usually that was an open invitation for his hand to wander, no matter who he was on the phone with. But today, he pushed her hip over to get at a piece of paper beneath her and then began to take notes.
Mari’s gaze ran appreciatively over her husband. If anything, he had only grown more handsome through the years. There wasn’t a single gray hair anywhere in his thick, dark hair. Shayla couldn’t have drawn lines in his picture because there weren’t any to be found on his handsome face. His jacket was thrown over a chair, and his white dress shirt was unbuttoned at the collar exposing that small triangle of skin that always drove her nuts. His body hadn’t changed either; he was just as tall and muscular as ever. He didn’t even wear glasses. Mari frowned. At her last doctor’s visit she’d been prescribed glasses—only to read with, of course. Mari sighed. It didn’t seem fair that men aged more gracefully than women.
When his one minute turned into ten, she decided to wait and talk to him at dinner. She jumped down from the desk and kissed him on the cheek. She turned back around before she went through the door, and Ki never looked up. Did he even know she had left? Mari frowned. Did Ki even know she had been there to see him.
Mari chided herself all the way down the hallway. The thoughts running through her head were preposterous, and she refused to give any credence to them. So what if Benita was a lot younger and firmer than she was? Mari even bet the assistant’s breasts were perky, something that Mari’s stopped being around child number two.
She didn’t get to talk with Ki at dinner that evening because he sent a message that “they” would have something sent to his office and he regretted he would be unable to attend dinner. Mari didn’t want to dwell too long on who “they” were. Often-times Ki needed to work late. With her appetite gone, she pushed her food around on her plate and finally gave up the pretense of eating. She spent time playing with the children, tucked them into bed after their bath, and read them their favorite story.
After a quick shower, she dressed in Ki’s favorite shorty nightgown and settled in on the couch in their sitting area with a new romance novel she was reading on her ereader. She must have dozed because she woke with a sore neck, with the room in darkness, lit only by a small lamp on the end table. She checked the time and couldn’t believe Ki was still working at three in the morning. Her steps faltered when she found Ki sleeping soundly in their bed. Never could she remember a time, in all the years of their marriage, when he hadn’t carried her to bed after finding her asleep on the couch. Never. He said he couldn’t sleep without her tucked against him. His snores proved that wasn’t true.
He was tired. That’s all it was, she said to herself as she closed the bathroom door and flipped the light switch. Her lower lip began to tremble when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.
She ripped her gown off, and there it was staring back at her. Her breasts were no longer firm. She picked them up in her hands and moved them up to where they used to be. Dropping them back down into their new deflated position, she ran her hands down her body and over her fluffy stomach. Turning sideways, she saw the once-flat area between
her hip bones was now rounded over and … she peered closer to the mirror and squinted because she wasn’t wearing her glasses. Where were her hipbones? They were still there; she just had to push on the bone to find them.
Her lower lip began to tremble again when her eyes moved lower to her bottom. Ki always loved her bottom. Now her butt was just a great big mass sitting on the top of her legs. This was how Ki saw her. No longer did she have the body he first married. Did he no longer find her attractive? Was that why it had been almost a month since the only thing they’d done in their bed was sleep?
A month… hmm. Mari tapped her finger against her bottom lip. She remembered the conversation she had with Ki’s new personal assistant. Benita said she had started working with Ki about a month ago. No, Ki would never cheat on her. That was a preposterous thought. If there was one thing she knew about her husband, she knew he would never turn to another woman. He loved her unconditionally. But the woman gazing at her from the mirror wondered if he still desired her.
With a glint of determination in her eyes she pulled on her workout clothes and headed to the palace gym. If she hurried she could put in a couple hours on the treadmill before the children awoke. She also made a mental note to have Gena contact the trainer she used after Shayla was born; she could probably fit in three workouts with him a week if they had their sessions around five in the morning.
CHAPTER TWO
Ki walked into his wife’s office and smiled when he found Gena on her knees under her desk. He cleared his throat and heard a bump from underneath.
Gena crawled out, rubbing the top of her head, and straightened when she saw who the visitor was. “Oh, Your Highness, pardon me, please. I dropped my pen.”
“Are you alright, Gena? That bump sounded pretty hard.”
“It was nothing sir. How may I help you?”
“I just stopped by to see my wife. You need to put some ice on that bump.”
“Yes sir, I will. I’m afraid you’re out of luck, sir. Mari isn’t here.”
“Is she with the children?”
“No, sir. I’m afraid I don’t know where she is.”
“I thought she didn’t have any appointments or appearances today. I stopped by to take her to lunch.”
“She didn’t, sir; she just told me to work on bookings for next week and that she was leaving for the day.”
Ki left Mari’s office confused. Mari thrived on her schedules and for her to stray off course was concerning. Maybe she wasn’t feeling well and went back to their suite to rest.
The more he thought about it, Mari had seemed preoccupied for the past few weeks. Had he been so preoccupied with work that he’d missed something? Ki rubbed the back of his neck, easing the tension that had gathered there. Work had been consuming him lately. He never seemed to catch up, and issues requiring his attention continually built up.
His new assistant Benita was working out beautifully, but really he needed more than one competent assistant. That would free up some of his schedule so he could spend more time with Mari and the children. He made a note to have Benita begin looking for additional help.
His wife and children were most important to him, but the welfare of a nation also weighed heavily on his shoulders. It wasn’t always easy to balance the two. Mari could be feeling neglected. Ki wouldn’t blame her; he had been putting in long hours.
Ki found their suite empty except for the cleaning staff. There was only one other place she could be, her kitchen. Years ago, when they’d first married, he’d had an exact replica of Mari’s mother’s kitchen constructed in a corner of the palace’s industrial kitchen. It had been important to him to give her a small piece of the home she left behind to be with him.
“Good afternoon, Sire.” Chef Omar greeted Ki when he walked into the kitchens.
“Omar, it’s good to see you. Is my wife here?”
“No sir. I’m afraid we’ve not seen her in the kitchens in a quite a while now.”
“She doesn’t come here for lunch or to bring the children to bake cookies?”
“I’m afraid not. Let’s see. I guess it’s been about four weeks since she ate lunch with us. We certainly miss her happy face around here. Sire? Is the Queen unwell? Lately she’s been returning the lunches we’ve sent to her almost untouched.”
He would have noticed if Mari felt ill, wouldn’t he? “She’s not been eating?”
“Oh no, Sire, she has been eating, but fruit mostly during the day.”
Ki didn’t know what to make of that. He tried to remember if she’d been eating dinner. He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling guilty that he couldn’t recall. Lately, he and Benita had been putting in so many hours they just ordered something brought to the office. Mari was usually asleep by the time he came to their rooms. Something was going on with his wife, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.
“Omar, would you please prepare dinner for two tonight in the garden room.”
Ki put a call in to his security. They would know where Mari was. It was their job to know where all the royal family was at any given time. Within two minutes he pocketed his phone and smiled, relieved to hear she was simply in the palace gym.
He checked the time and hurried from the kitchens. He had a meeting in ten minutes, and they were probably waiting on him now. He debated going to the gym anyway, but then duty to his country won out. Pulling his phone from his pocket once more, he called Gena on his way back to his office and asked her to inform his wife to meet him at eight for dinner in the garden room.
***
Mari slowed her excited steps as she approached the garden room and brushed the front of her dress, smoothing any wrinkles her visit with the children may have caused. She’d taken extra care with her appearance and felt rather giddy. She and Ki hadn’t had a dinner alone, just the two of them, in months.
The muscles in her legs protested the workout she’d given them that afternoon, but she’d ignored reason and strapped on the heels she knew Ki loved. Instead of a tight form-fitting dress, which would have shown her left-over baby tummy, she’d chosen a short, flowing number that barely reached her knees. The dress had a plunging neckline, and with the help of an industrial strength push-up bra, made her cleavage appear enticing. If she knew Ki, and she did, he would never even notice the dress. His eyes would be glued to her chest. The corner of her lips inched up with the wicked thoughts of how long it would take Ki to get her out of her clothes and exactly what he would do to her afterwards. She was pretty sure they would never make it to dessert. Well, at least not the dessert Chef Omar prepared. Mari tilted her head and grinned, or maybe she could wear the dessert while Ki licked it from her body. She hoped it was chocolate; they could really do creative things with chocolate.
Thank goodness she’d been putting in extra hours in the gym lately so she wouldn’t feel too terribly guilty if she had just a small bit of dessert. Every muscle and bone in her body might be screaming in protest, but she was determined to get back to her pre-baby weight. She really couldn’t tell any difference in her body yet, but she wouldn’t give up. Her weight had been inching up a little more after each child; she couldn’t expect to lose it all in a week.
The garden was empty when she got there, but the table had already been beautifully prepared and looked so romantic it took her breath away. Candles decorated the table and the perimeter of the stone patio. Bright colored flowers gently swayed, and their sweet perfume wafted by in the breeze. Mari sat on the rim of the fountain in the moonlight and rested her aching feet while waiting for Ki. She eyed the water bubbling beside her and considered dunking her poor abused feet.
She ran her hand through the cool clear water, wishing Ki would hurry. She needed this night with him. They needed time alone to reconnect. As terrible as it made her feel to even think it, she needed to feel cherished once again by Ki instead of ignored. She needed him to hold her in his arms and make her feel like the most important person in the wor
ld to him and not an afterthought.
Mari sucked her lip between her teeth. Who was she kidding? She needed sex to prove to herself that all the disturbing and foolish thoughts running through her brain lately were just that, foolish.
When one of the palace staff brought her a note from Ki, she knew what she would find inside even before she opened it. Her previously high spirits suddenly sank as she read:
Ki has been called away to the north on an urgent matter. We should be back by the end of the week.
Benita
Mari read and re-read the note. Ki had been so rushed to leave that he couldn’t even take two minutes to write his wife a personal note? He could have called her from the plane and explained the rushed trip.
She read the note again. It was obviously written by his new girl-wonder in her feminine swirly script, but the word “we” made Mari’s stomach drop like a rollercoaster ride. He took her with him. Of course he did. It was a business matter; why wouldn’t he?
She gripped the impersonal note in one hand and tapped it against the open palm of her other hand. When Ki went to the northern regions, he stayed in their beach house, their very romantic beach house where they had spent countless hours lost in each other. He would be staying there, for who knew how long, alone, with his new bombshell assistant. Okay, so they wouldn’t be alone. The staff would be there, and he probably took more than just Benita.
Mari shook her head, “No!” What she was thinking was absurd! She tossed the note on the table, her appetite gone. She would put in a few hours at the gym before she retired for the evening.
***
“Benita, did you send word to my wife?” Ki asked, as he buckled into the planes leather seat.
“Yes, sir,” Benita took the seat across from him.
This trip couldn’t have come at a less opportune time. He had been meeting with the elders of the senior board when he received notice of a potential oil leak in the northern region. He demanded the highest level of safety precautions be in place to prevent just such a disaster. The fact that they weren’t would be treasonous if the leak was the result of an inside job.
You Promised Me Forever (The Dirty Ankle Series Book 1) Page 21