Page 31 of A Heart Too Tender

“Then you’re a natural,” he breathed, his hands locked low around my waist.

“Have you danced this many times? With your partner perhaps?”

Julian chuckled. “No, I am unattached.”

Relief swept through me, cooling the flush that had bloomed on my cheeks. But not enough to keep it from notice. The song was drawing to a close as Julian studied me, halting us a moment too soon. He raised a hand to my face and swiped his thumb tenderly across my lower lip.

Stars shot across my vision as my heart accelerated. It was too similar and the feelings overwhelmed me.

Charles tapped me on the shoulder, giving Julian a look of reproach. As we walked, hand-in-hand, off the dance floor. I felt the truth wrapping around me like a warm cloak.

I had failed … all three trials. My chance at winning the Princes’ hand were now entirely gone, but I was not heartbroken. Quite the contrary. I had set about these trials with my only goal being to try my best, and I had. And maybe, I had stumbled across something much more important.

“That was entirely my fault—” Julian began, apology glimmering in his soft brown eyes.

I halted his speech with a shake of my head. “The fault is mine,” I shook my head. “If I wasn’t so fatigued I would have focused better on the task at hand.”

Charles stood at Julian’s side and cleared his throat. “Your announcement, My Lord.”

Julian looked pained as he opened his mouth and then closed it again. He took a deep breath as he faced the room.

“That commences the trials. I will collect all of my notes and present my findings to Prince August.”

Gisela squealed and Elizabeth clapped her hands together. Julian’s eyes never left mine.

“You may all leave,” Charles announced and pulled Julian aside. I didn’t want him to leave, I wanted him to face me. But Zuri’s hand slipped into mine as she pulled me away.

“I thought for sure you would win. What happened?” She whispered but her gaze kept flickering to Leo.

“Never mind that. Are you okay?” I asked, squeezing her hand.

Zuri grimaced. “The pain—is unbearable.”

“Did he say anything? About why he is here?”

Zuri shook her head, and my mind drifted away to Julian’s body pressed against mine and his thumb on my lip. The masked stranger had done the same exact thing and elicited the same feeling.

“I still think you might stand a chance, depending on your answers each morning,” Zuri whispered as we reached the hallway and strode arm-in-arm towards the residential wing.

“It doesn’t matter,” I breathed. My mind was slowly catching up to what my heart knew all along.