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And I’m wondering if being incredibly turned-on can make people make terrible decisions.
Like proposing to a prince.
The door to the penthouse shuts softly behind Torin. My suitcase sits just inside the door, having already been brought up. The view from here is beautiful. Hell, even the drapes around the windows showing off the view are beautiful.
But I can’t focus on anything except the man who is stalking toward me.
“Did you just fly back from Cara today?” I ask as the thought occurs to me.
The penthouse looks lived in. It’s neat and tidy, I assume because of the maid service, but there are folders and papers on the desk, two other pairs of shoes near the door, and up a step and through open French doors I can see a suit jacket lying on the bed.
“No. I’ve been here working on the farm,” he says, stopping right in front of me.
“For how long?” It would be difficult to put this all together long-distance.
“Since the wedding.”
My eyes widen. “You’ve been here for the past two weeks?”
“Sixteen days. That’s how long it’s been since I last saw you.”
My breath catches. This man is…so much. He’s over-the-top. Everything feels extreme with him. He doesn’t just dance, he waltzes. In the center of the room. He doesn’t just go for a walk when he’s frustrated. He gets on a private jet and spends a week in another country. He doesn’t just wake up each day and go to work. He wakes up in a palace and his job is running a country. Or, at least, it will be.
Clearly, he’s willing to go to any length to make things happen his way.
That should be a red flag to someone like me. Someone who doesn’t like a lot of attention. Who prefers quiet and alone-time and to be behind-the-scenes.
But I step closer to him.
“Thank you.”
He puffs out a breath that’s part laugh and part sigh.
“Abigail, you need to know that I had no intention of just letting you go.” He shakes his head. “Of just taking your ‘no’ at face value. Not without a fight.” He reaches up and cups my face. “I couldn’t leave you alone that easily.”
My heart rate kicks up even faster, but it's not out of fear. This guy is intense. And typically, I don't like that. If someone had told me he was this intense I would have said that he was absolutely not my type.
But…
I love that he’s here.
I’ve never been pursued. I’ve never been wanted like this.
I’ve had people impressed with my work. Lauren and Mason came to recruit me, in person, when I was a junior in college. That felt pretty great.
And it was a tenth of what I’m feeling from Torin.
Guys don’t ask me out more than once. They don’t even ask me to dance more than once. I’m pretty good at saying no.
Except to this guy apparently.
I have this feeling he’s never going to let my answer just be ‘no’. He's going to make me truly think about it, explain it face to face rather than in a text, and really mean it.
I am happy in my little bubble in the middle of Nebraska. When I can just be in the fields or inside the greenhouses, I’m happy. It’s easy. When I can just go home, and read, and not try to figure other people out, I’m happy. Because it’s easy. When I can just socialize with people like Peyton and Riley and their husbands, which is honestly more of a spectator sport, it’s easy.
Even my own flirting with Torin has been easy and comfortable because it's mostly been via text. And most of the texts haven’t even required that many words.
But now there is a big, used-to-getting-his-way prince staring down at me with an expression that is a mix of determination, and heat.
