Chapter 94: Inseparable

Daphne

Louis led me through the castle to what he called “the informal dining room”. Which still looked pretty damn formal to me, with a long table that could seat fourteen people, a chandelier dangling from the ceiling, a fireplace on the far wall, and some dreary oil paintings on the walls. It looked like something out of a movie.

So did the other dinner guests. The man, shorter in stature than the king, with broad shoulders and a barrel chest, and a neatly trimmed beard that was streaked with white, wore a tuxedo, while the attractive young woman next to him wore a cocktail dress that shimmered in the lights. She had large eyes, and her blond hair was cut in a pixie style. Both of them stood as we entered the room.

I felt very under dressed in my casual trousers and blouse. Louis strode into the room confidently, and shook the man’s hand. “Alpha Larkin, welcome, it’s good to see you.” He turned to the woman and extended his hand to her as well, “I’m sorry, I don’t recall the name of your daughter.”

“Pilar,” the young woman said with a demure smile. “So pleased to meet you in person, your highness.”

Louis did not tell her to just call him Louis. He let the formality stand between them.

He put his hand on my back, and pressed me forward a step, “May I introduce Daphne Redhawk. She is joining my staff here at Royal.”

“Hello, nice to meet you.” I said politely, and then I couldn’t help but turn to Pilar and add, “Miss Pilar, that dress is stunning.”

“Why thank you,” she said, and her eyes raked over my outfit. She couldn’t seem to find anything to compliment in return, so she just stretched her smile over her teeth and took a seat at the table. I noticed that her father pushed her to the chair closest to the king.

“Sit here, next to me, Daphne,” Louis instructed, directing me to the chair on his right, and placing me across the table from the Larkins. As I sat, he pushed my chair up to the table. It seemed a weirdly courteous gesture from a royal, and I’m sure it wasn’t lost on the other guests. He then took his own seat, and made a gesture.

Suddenly, staff marched into the room carrying the first course, setting salad plates and tureens of soup in front of each of us, as well as a platter of fresh baked bread in the center of the table. Wine was poured, and I politely shook my head when the waiter reached for my glass.

“You don’t drink, Miss Redhawk?” Pilar asked as she held the glass before her nose, like she was a connoisseur of fine wines..

It was a simple question, but there seemed to be a barbed edge to it. “No,” I said easily. “I prefer my grape juice fresh and unspoiled.”

Louis had said that we would talk more at dinner about how he could help me find my missing baby-daddy, but there was no opportunity to talk about something so intimate with the other guests sharing our table. The father-daughter duo dominated the conversation, while Louis seemed content to just sit back and let them prattle on. In fact, he seemed to encourage it, as he kept asking questions that only encouraged their monologues, particularly Pilar.

“Oh, that’s very exciting. Tell me more.”

It irritated me at first. I felt annoyed that he seemed to be giving the Larkins his full attention while he ignored me. He made no effort to include me in the conversation. Not that I had much to add to the topic. I had never been to Europe, and although I did love to shop, I knew almost nothing about high fashion and top designers. I liked to eat real food, but I had never dined at a Michelin Star restaurant, and I didn’t know the names of famous chefs. I’d never heard the names of the billionaire businessmen and women that they dropped, nor did I keep track of the foreign exchange markets.

I turned my attention to Louis instead, and that’s when I realized he wasn’t actually listening to a thing the guests were saying. It was almost like he was playing a game to see just how much he could make them talk. Not just to talk about empty, boisterous things, but he was getting them to overshare, to spill details that were personal, and in the case of Larkin, to slip details about his pack that were strategically sensitive.

Not to mention that they were so busy talking that they barely had time to eat. By the time the waitstaff came to clear away the dinner course, the alpha had barely touched his plate.

Dessert was served; little flutes of layered chocolate mousse. Pilar shook her head and waved the waiter away. “Thank you, but that’s too much sugar for me,” she said politely.

“Oh, well, you can give me yours then,” I said, licking my spoon. “This is divine, its so rich and creamy!”

Pilar gave me a cold smile across the table, “You are lucky,” she said, barely moving her teeth when she spoke. “You aren’t concerned about your figure.”

I’m sure she meant it to be a backhanded insult, but I wasn’t the least bit bothered. “That is very true,” I took a moment to deliberately scrape one last spoonful from the sides of the glass, probably breaking several rules of royal etiquette in the process. “I love to eat, I have an enormous appetite, and I don’t worry about my figure, as long as I’m healthy.” I set down my spoon and gave a satisfied sigh, placing a hand over my comfortably stuffed belly. “Thank you for the meal, Louis. I think I will retire now.” I pushed back my chair to stand, and Louis stood with me.

“I will join you, Daphne. If you aren’t too tired. We never had the opportunity to discuss that other thing.” He gave me a knowing smile and then turned to dismiss his other guests. “Alpha Larkin, Miss Piper, please enjoy the rest of your evening. It’s been… a pleasure. If you need any help getting back to your rooms, do not hesitate to ask a member of my staff for assistance. Good night!”

And with that, he grabbed my arm and practically danced out of the dining room. I had to jog to keep up with his long strides. When we were a safe distance from the common areas, he slowed, and released my arm to hold my hand. “I’m so sorry you had to endure that, Daphne.”

I smiled, “I’m sorry for you too.”

“Yes,” he began walking, unhurried now, toward the wing that housed our rooms. “Unfortunately, I have to entertain those types at least once a fortnight. It's a hazard of my profession.”

“But you extracted a lot of information from them,” I pointed out.

“Ah, you noticed that, did you?”

“Sure,” I shrugged as we rounded the last corner. “I’m good at listening, good at observing. Good at picking up cues from body language.”

“And what did you observe about Alpha Larkin,” He asked, as we paused in front of the door to the Daisy suite.

“Well, he was lying about his military strength. He tugged at his collar every time you asked about it, and the first time he mentioned having around a thousand trained soldiers, and later, when you asked him again, he said a few hundred. But I actually got the feeling that he’s not exaggerating his strength, he’s low-balling it. Why would he want you to think he has weak defenses?”

“Very astute, Daphne,” his smile stretched wide in approval. “Every man who comes to my table has an agenda. These meals, as unpleasant as they are, are useful to start sussing out their real intentions. When I meet with Larkin officially on Monday, he’s going to give me a very carefully polished proposal. Hopefully, I have already gleaned enough about his pack, his family, and his daughter to see through the b.ullshit.”

He nodded to the door, and I reached for the handle to open it. He did not ask permission to enter, but stepped in behind me. I turned to face him again. “Um, about what we talked about earlier,” I said, rubbing my arms. “I don’t want it to seem like I am just one more person asking for something from you.”

“You didn’t ask, I offered,” he pointed out diplomatically. He took another step forward, stopped the agitated motion of my hands chaffing my skin, and instead ran his own palms over my arms. Soothing warmth followed, and flowed, making my whole body feel warm and comfortable. “I don’t know what this is between us, Daphne.”

“But there is something,” I confirmed.

“I’ve never felt this before,” Louis continued, letting his palms skim slowly, up and down my arms.

“I have,” I said, the words escaping my lips a little breathlessly. “I felt this with…” I almost said Nate, but I was painfully reminded that there was no Nathan Straight. “I felt this with the baby’s father. Only…”

“Only what, Daphne?”

“It was different too, it was… stronger. More…” I felt my face growing hot and turned away, letting my gaze fall on an ugly vase in the corner. How could I tell him that what I had felt with Nate was hotter, more sexual? Nate’s touch felt like warm honey at first too, but then it quickly combusted into something more.

The king’s kisses were nice, and I couldn’t deny that they had me feeling the coil of desire in my core, but they didn’t set me on fire the way that Nate’s did.

“I think I understand what you are saying,” Louis said softly. “Either way, you need to find him, Daphne. He deserves to know…”

He let one hand slip off my arm and rest over my belly. It should have been weird, having another man touch me like that, having Louis rest his hand over Nate’s baby. But it wasn’t weird. It was… right.

We stood for a long moment like that, and then Louis pulled his hand away. “Now, let me get a pen and paper,” he strode over to the writing desk and took the pad of paper with the royal insignia printed across the top, and a ballpoint pen. “Tell me everything you know about this man.”

I walked over to the couch and collapsed heavily onto the cushions. “This will be the shortest list ever.”