Dragos Goes to Washington (Elder Races #8.5)(40)

He laughed. “No, I wouldn’t.”

“Well, okay then,” she grumbled, subsiding. “Besides, I can’t stay in bed for the entire two days without getting up. I’ve got to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth.”

She did so, and she also washed the remnants of last night’s makeup off her face, while he carried the presents to the bed. She felt shaky while she was on her feet, and when she was done with her toilette, she was glad to crawl back between the covers.

Then she opened presents while Dragos handed them to her, one by one. Sexy lingerie, a half a dozen books, several magazines, and ooh look, a beautiful pair of aquamarine earrings, vegan chocolates, a warm chenille robe, and a new tablet.

He had noticed that she had broken the screen of the tablet she had at home.

Warmed again by his attention and thoughtfulness, she turned to kiss him. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I can buy you a TV too and have a dresser moved in to set it on, if you want.”

She looked around the lovely, historical bedroom. “Thanks, but no, I like the bedroom this way. I can always watch things on the tablet if I feel like it.”

“Well, let me know if you change your mind.” Tilting her face further, he kissed her again. “I hope this all helps with the bed rest.”

“It does,” she promised.

The next day, he left her to join in the normal meetings and activities for the week. He texted her often, while she slept far more than she thought she would—she was still so tired—and nibbled on chocolates, and read.

The enforced bed rest also gave her a chance to really think about what the doctor had said, but even after a bout of soul-searching, the only real reaction she had was one of deep relief that she had actually fainted, which had gotten her the medical attention she needed before she could miscarry.

“Because you’re the most important thing,” she whispered to the tiny shadow nestled deep inside her. “The absolutely most important thing.”

Also, if she were to be honest in the privacy of her own thoughts, she wasn’t sorry at all that she got to miss two days of the week’s activities. Only the thought of worrying Dragos would keep her from pretending to be sick so that she could get out of a third day as well.

For now, she was quite content to keep up with the latest happenings through Dragos’s texts and by watching news shows on her new tablet, which was how she discovered that the police had made an arrest in the murder case.

It was early in the evening on the second day. Dr. Medina had given her the first shot of the drug protocol and cleared her for normal activities in the morning.

Eva lounged on the bed with her, reading and keeping her company while Dragos attended yet another dinner. Bored, Pia had run a Google search on Victor Colton’s death. To avoid disturbing Eva, she popped an earbud into one ear and clicked on the CNN link that promised BREAKING NEWS.

After watching a few minutes of the segment, she sat up straight and said, “Holy shit.”

“What is it?” Eva looked up from her mystery.

Her eye glued to the small screen, she muttered, “They arrested Aaron Davis, the vice president’s chief of staff. . . . There’s allegations of an affair with the vice president, who’s denying it. . . .” She pulled the earbud out of her ear and looked at Eva with round eyes. “This is very bad news for the White House administration, but it might be very good news for us.”

Later, when Dragos walked into the bedroom, he was smiling.

Pia stopped her Fruit Ninja game and set her tablet aside. “You look like a cat that got away with something.”

He pulled off his tie, shrugged out of his suit jacket and threw them into a chair. Toeing off his shoes, he rolled up his shirt sleeves and crawled up the bed to give her a kiss. And all of that was so damn sexy, she could have climaxed just by watching him.

Delighted to see him, she burrowed back against her pillows, kissing him back. He said against her mouth, “I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” When he pulled back, she smiled at him. “Did you hear the news about Aaron Davis’s arrest?”

“Oh, hell yeah. Things couldn’t be going better if I had arranged them, myself.”

As well as she thought she knew him, he had quite the capacity for surprising her. She squinted one eye at him. “You didn’t, did you?”

“No, but I almost wish I had thought of it. The vice president is now being accused of starting the Right to Privacy movement as a setup for the murder. She’s going to have to resign, or Ben will be forced to get rid of her. And nobody was wearing a scent blocker this evening.”

She sighed. “That’s a huge relief.”

“It doesn’t solve all our problems.” He rubbed his face. “There’s still plenty of protestors to the week’s summit, and we’re facing plenty of guarded government officials in our meetings. Senator Jackson is in clear opposition to mending fences, and public opinion is still on the downturn from the Nightkind massacre. But this latest development has slowed the momentum of the backlash against us, and I don’t think we’ll need to immigrate to our Other Greenland just yet, although I did talk to Niniane about hiring some consultants. She’s going to send some people when she gets back to Adriyel.” He slid back down the bed to put his head on her stomach. “How are you two doing?”