Page 102 of Fit for a King

Her words made me smile, because there was no way on God’s green earth I was ever going to let Noah go again.

“I believe you,” I said, and her mouth twitched.

“Follow the path to the right and it’ll lead you to him.”

With a final wave, I headed in the direction she’d sent me, secretly wondering if it would lead me directly off a cliff. The thought made me chuckle because it would’ve been well deserved, but luckily for me, Mrs. Bennett wasn’t feeling overly vindictive today.

The path curved around the cottage and through her small vegetable garden, and when I pushed open a small wooden gate and stepped through it, I spotted a lone figure out on the cliffs.

It’d been a foggy morning, but as the sun rose over the water it seemed to part the clouds, to pierce the gloom to sparkle off the sea below.

It was beautiful, and so was the man standing at the edge of what felt like all of my tomorrows.

I stopped to memorize the picture he made there. But then, as if he could sense someone, Noah slowly turned, and the mug in his hands slipped free and fell to the ground.

“Nicholas…” My name was like a whisper on the wind as he stared across the open space, and the few feet between us felt like a chasm.

“Noah,” I finally managed, my eyes greedily roving over him, taking in every new thing I could see. His hair was a little longer, and fell across his forehead in a way that made me want to sweep it out of his eyes. His clothes were a little more casual than I’d ever seen on him, a pair of loose black slacks and a cream shirt that he’d tucked in at the waist. Appropriate to meet with prospective employers that weren’t of the monarchy, and relaxed enough that he looked effortlessly handsome.

But it was the dark circles under his eyes that comprised the biggest change in him. That and the way his lips turned down at the corners when he looked my way. Most unlike the spark and smile I’d grown accustomed to.

“What are you doing here?”

This was it. My chance to tell him everything I’d been thinking and feeling since the moment I’d stupidly ended things with him.

“You’re here. So I’m exactly where I’m meant to be.”

Noah blinked, several different emotions crossing his face at once. Shock. Disbelief.

And hope.

“I… I don’t know what that means.”

I took a step toward him. “It means I love you, Noah. I’ve loved you from the minute you walked into my chambers and acted as though we were lifelong friends, and then blushed from head to toe when you realized you’d in fact befriended my troublemaking brother.” Noah swallowed as I stopped in front of him. “It means that cutting you off and telling you to leave was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my life. But loving you? That was the smartest thing I’ve ever done.”

I moved down onto one knee and took his hand in mine, and he gasped.

“I’m lost without you, Noah,” I said. “The sun doesn’t shine, food has no taste, laughter has no joy, because you…you are all those things. Without you, I feel nothing—I am nothing.” I lowered my head and pressed a kiss to the back of his hand. “I’m sorry for hurting you, for making you feel I could ever dismiss you from my heart, because the truth of the matter is, you are my heart. I love you, Noah.”

I fell silent, all of the words I’d needed and wanted to say now out in the open as I knelt there at his feet. I was, in this moment, no longer King of Valoria, but a supplicant to the one who was my heart.

Noah gently pulled his hand from mine, and just when I thought he would send me away with my heart in pieces, he curled his fingers beneath my chin and raised my face to his.

Tears streaked his cheeks as he looked down at me, his hazel eyes swirling with love and forgiveness, then he leaned down and brushed a gentle kiss across my lips.

“I love you, Nicholas. I’ve always loved you.” My chest tightened at the words. “But you’re engaged.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I called it off.”

Noah’s mouth parted in surprise, and I reached for his hand, getting back to my feet.

“I couldn’t go through with it. Marrying someone other than you was a fate I wasn’t prepared to accept.”

“But…” Noah stared up at me, that hope from moments ago overwhelming all other emotions. “It’s expected. The king and the⁠—”

“The man he loves is who the king should be expected to marry.” I gently swept that strand of hair from his eyes. “And I don’t love a prince, Noah. I love you.”

He took a step toward me, until barely a breeze could fit between us. “I got a new job.”