The sheets were smooth and slick where they touched her bare skin, which should have been a soothing counter to the pounding in her head, but as she typically slept in an oversized T-shirt rather thanau naturel, the sensation only served to accentuate the sense of unfamiliarity.
Once covered, she answered her suite door.
Moustafa and d’Tierrza stood on the other side, the latter grinning like a fool.
“Good morning, sunshine! You’ve been summoned.”
Her brow crinkling, Mina’s voice was a dry croak. “Summoned?”
D’Tierrza rolled her eyes. “His Royal Majesty has commanded your presence at breakfast.”
Mina frowned. Not once in the time since she’d been at the palace had Zayn requested her presence for a meal. Of course, that had been before he had kissed her in front of the entire country.
The memory of it flooded her senses as she stood in the doorway.
He’d kissed her on the dance floor, in view of everyone in attendance, and then there had been too many toasts to count, as if they were celebrating the dawn of a new year, rather than a new queen.
Mina groaned and squeezed her eyes shut. Now, at least to the rest of the world, their marriage was very real.
Dressing quickly, she met her guards at the door, flashing her best determined smile and saying, “Lead the way.”
The two guards led Mina through a new series of twisting hallways and corridors until they came to yet another set of high wooden doors.
Moustafa and d’Tierrza pressed them open for her and Mina walked in, her head high. She would face the King this morning with dignity—even if she had no idea how you faced someone you had kissed.
The King sat at the end of a long table, face hidden behind his newspaper. It occurred to Mina that the length of the dining table and hall seemed particularly excessive when one was slowly approaching one’s mercurial husband who had kissed one the night before.
A staff member in crisply starched attire rushed forward to pull out her chair as she neared, and the King finally lowered his paper.
As always, his beauty struck Mina like a physical blow. In the fresh morning light the darkness of his hair and the deep violet of his eyes were so pure she could drown in them. As usual, he wore all black. This morning his clothing consisted of a perfectly tailored black button-up shirt with a sheen to it, and trim black pants that appeared to flow with the line of his leg like water.
The table was set with breakfast for two, and it crossed Mina’s mind that her presence had been assumed. Summoned, indeed...
The King cleared his throat as the breakfast server pushed her chair in for her, and his brows came together in a frown as he took in her appearance.
“They’re calling it a love match,” he said.
“Excuse me?” she choked out.
“The nation’s media outlets are quite abuzz about it this morning. They say I fell madly in love with a commoner. The story is currently the most trending topic online in Cyrano.”
Mina’s stomach twisted. “Should we correct them?”
At the King’s decisive shake of his head she felt some of the tension ease in her. She didn’t know what that reaction said about her integrity, but the thought of clarifying the nature of their relationship for the public was more than she could bear.
“It serves no purpose. However, I prefer that my personal life not be the nation’s most trending topic. Therefore, we’re going to the summer palace, in order to give the public time to find something else to fixate upon.”
“We are?”
“We’ll leave by the end of the day. The Champions League finals begin in three days. That should be enough distraction to supersede any gossip about us. We will be gone for five days, as we must be here in attendance for the Ambassadors’ Dinner on the fifteenth. Are you going to eat or simply stare at your plate?”
“Yes...” Mina said, reaching to serve herself from the platters of fruit and pastries and fluffy golden eggs laid out in front of her—though she wasn’t sure she was hungry, and this was the first she was hearing about the Ambassadors’ Dinner. Her secretary probably thought she had enough to deal with before then.
“We will leave here at five p.m. We’ll have a late meal at the summer palace, and then enjoy the island. The Ambassadors’ Dinner is one of the less glamorous royal engagements. Returning for that should keep any mention of us to the government pages, rather than the front page of the culture section.”
He indicated the paper he’d set aside earlier, and Mina noticed the picture for the first time.
It was her and Zayn, their bodies molded to one another, lips pressed close—the very picture of a man and woman in love, or at the very least in lust.