The Man's Outrageous Demands Page 0,25

so little significance?” he countered.

“You give me too much credit,” Marabeth shot back. “Most of my appointments are very staid and laid back.”

“Probably not. What kind of life would that be if you only had staid confrontations?”

“That’s what I was trying to convince someone this morning. But that person just refused to be reasonable about the situation. Hence, my very long, very uneventful day,” she sighed.

A waiter appeared in the doorway and formally announced that dinner was ready.

The queen and king both looked at each other and smiled, understanding what Max had been about to tell them earlier before Marabeth interrupted them.

King Stephan offered his wife’s arm, his eyes twinkling. “I understand, son,” he said behind him. To his wife, he chuckled. “How long, my dear?”

Natasha turned to Sam and smiled, “Sam, would you mind escorting Marabeth to dinner? Max, I need you to phone Ana and ask her to confirm her due date, please.”

The queen took his offered arm and pondered the question as they walked into the room. “Three months?”

King Stephan chuckled again and shook his head. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“Six months?” the queen said, already making plans in her head.

“Longer? I think that might be dangerous, given the circumstances,” King Stephan said and glanced back at his daughter, barely containing his laughter as Marabeth glared at Sam as he walked over to her and offered his arm to walk her into the dining room. She took it, but only her fingers would touch his sleeve.

Stephan turned his face away when Sam pulled her hand more fully into the crook of his arm and held it there while they followed behind.

The queen also saw the tussle and held her laughter as well. “I think you’re right. Two months is probably the only safe amount of time. But that will be making things very tight, won’t it? Oh, the details of the whole event are fairly mind boggling, aren’t they?”

King Stephan patted her hand. “Yes, my dear, but you’ll pull the whole thing off perfectly as always. How are we going to get the two main parties to agree?” he said so only she could hear.

“That’s the main issue, isn’t it?” she said and rolled her eyes as she heard her daughter sigh angrily behind her.

Dinner was very entertaining for the king, queen and Max. They had no idea what was going on but there apparently was a battle being waged between Sam and Marabeth. Both were painfully, obviously polite to each other, but the other three occupants knew that, if left on their own, the two of them would be yelling at each other. Well, maybe not Sam, but Marabeth definitely would be.

Once the meal was over, Marabeth and her mother left the table, leaving the men to remain at the table to smoke their cigars and drink brandy. It was an old tradition but one that was maintained when the king felt it was important.

“So, are you seeing anyone important, Sam?” the king asked.

Sam was slightly shocked at the question which he’d answered several weeks ago but he but answered it honestly again. “No, your majesty. I’m not seeing anyone at the moment.”

“Good, good. What do you think of Marabeth?”

Sam gripped the brandy glass and wished he could avoid this conversation. “She is very beautiful,” he said carefully.

King Stephan noticed the increased grip on the younger man’s glass and thought it was a good sign. “I appreciate your concern over her safety as well. How did she react to your increased security?”

“Not well,” Sam said, grimacing inwardly at the memory of Marabeth’s reaction.

“Didn’t think she would. I tried to warn you.”

“It was necessary,” Sam said. “All the data says….”

The king waived the explanation away. “No, no. I agree with you completely. I’m just glad you had to tell her and not me,” he chuckled. “The data indicates an increased kidnapping threat and I’m not willing to take any chances with my children,” he said.

“It wasn’t as bad as we’d anticipated.”

“Really?” Max laughed. “Why do you think she was in the gym for an hour?” he laughed. “That was her second workout of the day.”

“I have my suspicions,” Sam said blandly but he already knew the reason. Sam kept tabs on her even when she was inside the palace telling himself it was only because of the increased threat. He wouldn’t admit, even to himself, that he just wanted to know where she was and what she was doing.

“But you already knew that