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“I decided that you are the queen of my heart, and I want you to have the world, my most beautiful, sweetest Maddie. You deserve it, all of it.”
What does he mean? Does he mean he’s decided to step back and allow me to take the throne? But I don’t want that. I want him.
“You once told me I was two different people: one around my father, and one around everyone else. Maddie, those words have stayed with me.”
“I shouldn’t have said anything. It was none of my business.”
“I’m glad you did. They made me look at myself and what sort of relationship I have with him. I don't expect the closeness you have with your dad. That's not who he is. But I can be myself around him, tell him what I want, what I need. I can ask for his respect.”
My heart bursts with pride. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
“Not as amazing as you. I talked to him about it today, before the ball.”
“How did it go?”
“I told him I’ve fallen in love with you and that one day, I intend to ask you to marry me.”
I suck in a breath. He’s going to ask me to marry him?
My heart squeezes. “You did?”
“You must know the depth of my feelings for you. How can I even think of a life without you?”
I’m lightheaded with happiness, the love I feel for this man filling every cell in my body—until my predicament pulls me back to my senses with a sickening thud.
“If we marry, I can’t be heir,” I tell him, fresh tears springing to my eyes.
His lips lift into a smile, at total odds with the turmoil raging in my heart. “It doesn’t need to be that way. I told father that if we are to marry, I’ll step down as his heir.”
“You said what?” I ask, my voice almost a whisper.
He smiles at me as though this is the easiest choice he’s ever made in his life. “Maddie, I would give up everything to be with you, to make you happy. To love you.”
“But…but your Crown. Your father. Your country. All this.”
“I’ve never sought the limelight. I’ve never really wanted to be king. You know me and politics.”
“But that’s not enough for you to give it all up, is it?”
“All my life I’ve searched for meaning, and I’ve only found it in your eyes. In your love. Maddie, you’ve offered me what I want and need, and I won’t give that up for anything, not even the chance to be King, and certainly not to please my father.”
I gawk at him, my heart going all kinds of crazy. “You’d do that for me?”
“I already have. And besides, I’ve got three siblings, one of whom is rather excited about what this whole turn of events could mean.”
I know he’s talking about his older sister, Sofia. He’s told me she’s always wanted to be their father’s heir, despite Max being the next in line after Alex, and feels the Ledonian law of succession is outdated and wrong.
He leans down and presses his lips against mine with the softest, most emotional of kisses. “You can be Queen of Malveaux, and we can be together.”
“Oh, Alex. I love you so much.”
My heart fills with the depth of his love, with the depth of his sacrifice.
I never dreamt I would fall in love with such a worthy man. But now that I’ve found him, and he’s moved Heaven and Earth to be with me, I know one thing for absolute certain.
I will never let go.
Epilogue
