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“She’d already left to marry your dad before I was born, but I do remember meeting her here when I was about 10. I know that because it was right before I was sent to boarding school in England.”
“Wait. If you were 10, I would have been eight, which means we would have met. Dad told me I used to play in the formal gardens here with other kids, and I only visited a handful of times before my mom passed.”
“So we’ve known one another since we were children, not since that unfortunate incident in the cupboard?”
“It would seem so.”
He leans down and presses a soft kiss to my lips, and it sends a jolt of electricity through me. “I like that.”
“Me, too.” I nestle against him once more and gaze out at the view.
“I would love it if you would come to visit me at my home in Ledonia. I want to share my world with you, and not just the formal royal stuff, but all the other, everyday stuff.”
“The real you.”
“Exactly.”
“I'd love that. I’m there for the Lunar Ball, of course.”
“How could I forget?”
“But I’m only staying the night. I have to come back to Malveaux for some engagements. I’m meeting more of my charities.”
“You like that part of the role, don’t you?”
“I love it. When we were at the Children’s Hospital, I felt like I could bring a little ray of sunshine to their day. It might not be much, but it felt important to me.”
He gives me a squeeze. “I love that about you.”
Love.
He might not have said those three little words, but hearing the one word fall from his lips has my heart expanding in my chest.
“Remember, I’ll see you when you come to the Lunar Ball,” he says.
“That’s not for two weeks.”
“13 days,” he replies, and it shows me he’s been thinking about us being apart, too.
“Maybe you can come for a proper visit in a month or so?”
The thought of Alex not being here with me sits like a brick in my belly.
“I’d like that.”
Alex has been such a big part of my whole experience in Malveaux—some of it terrible, but most of it incredible. The idea of him not being here with me each and every day is one I don’t want to have to even contemplate.
He pulls me up onto his lap and I let out a surprised squeal. “A month will be utterly terrible because I won’t be able to do this every day.” He cups my face in his hands and presses his lips against mine. It’s a soft kiss, so very different from last night’s passion, but so emotional and meaningful.
“Can I ask you something?” I say.
“Of course you can.”
The way Alex reacted to his father after the wife race has been playing on my mind. He accepted what he said without hesitation, not standing up for himself—or for me.
“You know the wife race,” I begin.
“I seem to have a vague recollection of it,” he teases, his hands running up and down my back.
