It was almost like she wasn’t there, as if he’d brought up a painful memory, and he didn’t want to consider what that might be. “All right. It’s okay.”
She was pushing back against her headboard, as if trying to move as far away from him as she could.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Genevieve,” he said softly. When she still didn’t seem to hear him, he tried again. “Genevieve.Gen. I’m not going to hurt you, okay? I’m not even going to touch you. You have all the control here.”
He kept saying the same words to her for at least a minute, probably more, until she finally seemed to come back to herself.
She blinked, her eyes full of tears which started trickling down her cheeks. “G-Gabriel?”
He kept his voice soft and low. “I’m here. You’re safe. I won’t hurt you.”
She shifted in the bed—tugging her legs even closer, curling her toes into the bed, and turning her head away from him—and seemed to be rocking gently.
“Don’t hide from me.”
She shook her head.
“Genevieve. Please. We should talk about what happened.”
Another head shake, followed by a sniffle, then a series of coughs. She sighed and finally relaxed a little as she reached for another makeshift tissue.
After she blew her nose and tossed it into the wastebasket by her bed, she turned to him. “Well?”
His head jerked back. “Well, what?”
She settled back to sitting against her headboard, and pulled the covers over her, even covering her chest, tugging at them so hard that he was forced to stand. “I can see a thousand questions on your lips. Get them over with then.”
He sat down, the bed squeaking slightly as he did. “Will you answer them?”
“Probably not. But maybe you’ll finally leave if you realize that I’m more damaged than you thought.”
He’d held back his anger, but he let it seep through now. “Who hurt you?” he ground out. “Tell me their name.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “No.”
“I’m a prince. You know I can make them pay for what they’ve done.”
She scoffed. “You know nothing.” She shook her head. “You’re just as selfish as the rest, only thinking about whatyouwant, and thinking nothing about me.”
His eyes widened. “How can you say that? This would be for you.”
“Oh really? So, you’ll go to this person and name me as the reason you’re pressing charges or whatever against them, even though you don’t even know what happened and you don’t even know if I want them to be charged, bringing me into a spotlight I’d rather not be in, and then force me to go through a trial, all the while people speculate on our relationship since you’re the one who got him arrested in the first place. Then, I’ll probably be forced to leave the country to escape the press and to find someone who will actually marry me.
“Trust me when I say that destroying my life isn’t about me, it’s only about what you want.”
He hadn’t thought about it from her perspective, not completely, and hadn’t considered what the impact would be on her life. He merely saw a problem that needed fixing. He should have done better, as a man and as a prince that would one day hold the country’s future in his hands. He should have thought further ahead about the consequences of this decision. Still, he wanted to understand her better. “Don’t you want this person charged?”
Her fire came out again, just the smallest spark but it made him feel better for some reason. “Don’t you fucking judge me,Your Highness. Whether I choose to bring charges againstsomeone ismydecision. And choosingnotto do it, is just as valid a choice as choosingtodo it.”
He was quiet for a moment. “He could be hurting others. Don’t you want him stopped?”
“Of course I don’t want him to hurt other people. But I can’t make a decision that will affect my whole life based on other people. No one believes the woman when she comes forward with a claim like this, and I just wouldn’t be able to handle that. Besides, he’s…powerful. He could not only destroy me but he’d destroy my family. I can’t have Diana’s future destroyed by a choice I make. I won’t do it.”
“Is he more powerful than a prince?” He already knew the answer but asked it anyway. The only one more powerful than him was his father, and there was no way his father was the one who’d hurt her.
“No,” she said softly. “But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have friends in high places.”
So he was a member of nobility, maybe even someone his father knew. Fuck. “Do I know him?”
