The Man's Outrageous Demands (8 page)

She looked so beautiful running along. She was incredibly sweaty and he could tell she was still furious with him. He didn’t care. No matter what mood she was in, he thought she was sexy as hell.

Max appeared in his vision, looking down at him from above with laughter in his eyes and a smile on his face. “What’s up, old man? Why did you ask me to join you for a work out if you’re not going to concentrate?” Max asked and held out his hand to help Sam up off the mat.

Sam groaned slightly as he took the offered hand. “I guess I’m just slow today,” he said and took the stance again.

They battled for another forty five minutes until both of them were worn out. “I guess my sister leaving gave you back your concentration, huh?” Max joked.

Sam’s eyes snapped to watch Max. “I don’t know what you mean,” Sam said and toweled his face off.

Max only laughed at his friend’s attempt at ignorance. “Give it up, Sam. You have it bad for her, don’t you?”

“No.” Sam tossed the towel into the laundry bin before grabbing another one to towel off his face again.

Max laughed at Sam’s grimace. “It’s okay,” Max pounded Sam on the back in a brotherly fashion. The men had been friends for a long time. “In fact, it is more than okay. Why don’t you pursue her? I know my father would be thrilled with you as a son in law.”

Sam wiped the sweat from his forehead with a towel and thought about Max’s words. He liked that idea too much but he didn’t answer Max. “I have work to do,” he said and started walking away. “Thanks for the workout.”

Max watched the older man walk away and considered his next words carefully. “Sam, you know she has to get married soon. Better you than anyone else, is what I’m thinking,” Max called out behind him.

That got Sam’s attention. “What do you mean?” he asked, swinging around with a look like a thunderstorm on his face.

Max hid his smile at Sam’s furious expression. He took a few steps to close the distance before replying. “Marabeth has to get married.”

“Why?” he demanded.

Max held up his hands and laughed. “Not because of what your thinking and you know it. You keep closer tabs on her than anyone so you know she hasn’t dated anyone in the past month.” Max stopped and thought about that for a moment. “Come to think of it, she hasn’t dated anyone since you started working in the palace.” Max was silent as he connected the dots, then laughed out loud at his suspicions.

Sam understood where Max’s mind was going and shook his head, denying it although secretly he wished it was true. “You’re reading too much into things, as always,” Sam said and started walking again. Then the rest of what Max had said sunk in. He stopped and turned around again. “What did you mean about her having to get married? Why does she have to?”

Max shrugged his shoulders and tossed his own towel into the laundry bin. “Because she’s a princess and my father wants grandchildren. She was engaged two years ago but her fiancé died suddenly – not that there was any love in that relationship. If that hadn’t happened, she would already be married, probably with a child.”

“You could get married and give your father grandchildren,” Sam said reasonably but he didn’t feel very reasonable. He was furious and didn’t really understand why.

“True, but I haven’t found the love of my life, like Marabeth and you have,” Max said and pounded Sam on the back. Max walked away, leaving Sam glaring at him from behind.

Max entered the main drawing room later that night and was glad to see that his mother and father were there but Marabeth had not yet joined them. Two years ago, their sister Anastasia would also have been here but she married Prince Erik and only comes to visit occasionally. Everyone was delighted to hear that they were going to have a baby soon.

Max walked over to the bar and poured himself a bourbon, tossing an ice cube in the glass before turning to his parents. “I’m glad I found you two alone. I was wondering if you had anymore thoughts about a suitor for Marabeth?” he asked.

King Stephan sighed and shook his head. “Unfortunately no. That girl has become downright belligerent at the idea lately. Before, she was just not interested. But we can’t even bring up the subject now.”

“Interesting,” Max said and laughed. “How long has that been going on?”

His mother, Queen Natasha understood that her son was trying to figure something out. “About three or four weeks. Maybe a little longer,” she replied, waiting for her son to explain his comments.

Max nodded and smiled again. “That’s what I thought.” He walked over to the phone and dialed a number. “Sam, I was wondering if you had dinner plans tonight.” After a moment, “Good. I’m sorry to make this such short notice, but, since you don’t have any plans, would you mind filling my father in on the submarine issue you were telling me about earlier today? I think he should be in on the decision.”

Max nodded and hung up the phone before turning back to his parents. “Sam will be joining us momentarily,” he explained but his parents had already figured that out.

“What’s going on?” his mother asked, a curious smile on her face.

Marabeth walked into the room at that moment, her hair piled on top of her head and wearing a flattering, dark green dress that had a deceptively simple design. It fit Marabeth from her slim shoulders right down to her knees with no other embellishments. Max noted how pretty she looked and that her face was flushed with color.

“Father, I wanted to talk to you about something. I really need you to step in…” Marabeth stopped when she saw the other figure step into the room at that moment. Her lips thinned and her blue eyes flashed but she didn’t continue. “I’ll talk about it later,” she said and stepped over to the sherry cart to pour herself a drink.

“Your majesty,” Sam said and bowed first to the king, then to the queen, Max and Marabeth. “I can quickly brief you now so you can continue with your family dinner without me intruding,” Sam was saying.

The queen waived his papers aside. “Please don’t go into that right now. You can discuss it over brandy later. What would you like to drink?” she said graciously, immediately understanding that there was something going on between her daughter and this man that Max had picked up on already.

Sam looked back at Marabeth and shook his head. “Really, I don’t want to intrude,” he said.

“You’re not intruding at all,” King Stephan said and patted him on the shoulder, guiding the taller man over to the bar. “What would you like to drink?” he repeated.

Sam requested a bourbon and the waiter immediately poured some into a crystal glass. He turned and watched Marabeth while the rest of the family discussed their day.

It was Marabeth’s turn to talk about her day and she shrugged her shoulders. “Nothing spectacular to report from my end. I just hung around the palace today. Sam? What wonderful mischief did you get into today?” she asked and all eyes turned towards Sam.

He wanted to smile at her not so subtle jab. But he didn’t. He kept a straight face and shook his head. “I can’t believe nothing interesting happened to you today, your highness. Surely you ran around causing havoc and mayhem.”

Marabeth shook her head but the fire got brighter in her eyes. “Not today. But I’ll be ready to do so tomorrow. It was a very calm and boring day. Just one confrontation that I can barely recall now,” she said and shrugged her shoulders delicately.

The queen raised her eyebrows at her daughter’s obviously provocative behavior but was still trying to determine what was going on. She could feel the tension between these two people and wanted to understand what was causing it. “What confrontation was that?” she asked. “And who won?”

Marabeth shrugged her shoulders delicately. “Like I said, it was nothing of significance and the war has not yet begun. Only a minor skirmish which wasn’t enough for anyone to declare a win or a loss.”

Sam raised an eyebrow at her statement. “Surely nothing you are involved in has 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 didn’t you?” the king said, stating that as fact instead of phrasing it as a question. “You know more about Marabeth’s comings and goings than I do, I’m betting,” he said shrewdly.

“I doubt that,” Sam said.

“Regardless, I think there’s only one thing left to discuss,” Stephan said.

“What’s that, your majesty?”

“What are you going to do about this situation between you and Marabeth?” he asked, laughing at the way the younger man was reacting. King Stephan was delighted to finally have the matrimonial decision made for his daughter.

“Do?” Sam repeated, not sure what the king meant by his question. “I’ll continue to have Manny monitor the security of the palace occupants and will review the security briefings, daily.”

Max shook his head. “I don’t think my father is talking about Marabeth’s security.”

“I don’t understand,” Sam said but he already knew where this conversation was going.

“Sure you do,” Stephan said and took a sip of brandy. “You’re an intelligent man. Explain your plan of action. And tell me how you want me to phrase it.”

Sam looked sharply into the king’s eyes. After considering all the possibilities, he sighed and nodded. “Fine. But I’ll tell her.”

King Stephan nodded. “My wife and I would like to see the date set for approximately two months in the future. Will that give you enough time?”

“More than enough. I’ll have the deed done tonight, sire,” he said. All three men stood up and King Stephan smiled broadly. “I want you to know that a few grandchildren are an order,” he said, eyeing Sam carefully.