Page 84 of The Prince Who Loved Me

“It doesn’t matter what she does or what she says.” Sebastien stayed with their foreheads together. “She doesn’t speak for you.”

Brandi gave a shaky laugh. “She was my guide to life for so long. It’s hard to shake.”

“You’re forging your own path now,mon ange.” Pride at the way she had taken charge of her life swelled in his chest. “I’m excited for the things yet to come.”

“You’re so good to me. So good for me.” She took his hand.

“Let’s go inside.” He lowered his voice, letting her know exactly why they’d be leaving the car.

She shook her head, an impish grin lighting her features. “Let’s go to Belle’s.”

She was that excited to go back to work? “I thought you were on vacation.”

She shook her head.

He leaned back, eyebrows drawn down. There had been only a few things to get her this excited lately. “The wine?”

Brandi bit her lower lip, but her eyes were radiant. “It’s been settling for about a month, so it’s ready.”

Sebastien instantly perked up. “You’ve been waiting for this day for a year and you didn’t say anything?”

“I didn’t want anything to upstage your art show. Or even have the possibility of upstaging it.” She snorted. “I obviously failed that one.”

“We failed together.” He told his men what was happening and started the car. “I feel like we should get some champagne to mark the occasion, but that would seem redundant. Celebrating wine with champagne?”

“Having you with me is celebration enough.”

Sebastien turned down the unmarked dirt road and stopped in front of Belle’s office. The motion lights came on, casting a harsh glow over the quiet land. Brandi walked past the building to the wooden structure that housed her experimental wine.

She unlocked the door and entered, fumbling along the wall for a light switch. The long tubes that had stretched along the floor now had some semblance of organization, and the crates with the wine bottles were now neatly stacked against the wall.

“I’m not sure if I did it right. The fermentation, the aging. It all seemed okay during testing, but… I don’t know.” She swallowed against a knot the size of a grape in her throat.

“It’s going to be great,” Sebastien said. “You’ve worked so hard at this.”

She pulled the door open on a large refrigeration unit. Large glass cannisters showed the perfect-looking golden wine. “I mean, it’s not totally done. I still have to add sulfite to stopthe fermentation, but we can try it and see what’s what.” She removed a couple of glasses from a cabinet, then lifted one of the bottles. After a slow exhale, she poured.

The vulnerability she was showing him made his belly tighten. She had always held a piece of herself back, putting on a disguise to keep that small part of her protected. That she was sharing this now had him falling for her all over again.

She handed Sebastien a glass, then clinked hers against his. “Cheers.”

“À la vôtre,” he replied. He took a sniff first. A tangy scent wafted up to him. So far so good. He tipped the glass back into his mouth.

Aside from the grit that scraped along his tongue, what should have been a bite of crisp pear was more like a week past its prime. He forced down the swallow and fixed his face in a questioning look, hoping to prompt her to express her opinion first.

He couldn’t take this away from her, not tonight. Not after the crazy couple of days. She’d been so excited and hopeful, and this travesty of a drink would break her heart.

The brightness in her unusual eyes dimmed when she took her own sip, and her mouth twisted. “What the hell was that?”

***

A year wasted. A year of Brandi trying to make something hers. A year of failure.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Sebastien said.

“Don’t lie.” She’d seen his face, the neutrality that was a clear giveaway. “That’s the most foul thing I’ve tasted since Wendy made a peach cobbler in high school.” She put her glass on the counter, turning to hide the tears that threatened, andtried to pass off being blasé. “Well. This sucks.”

“Maybe you didn’t have the right temperature.” Sebastien opened the refrigerator and peered inside.