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As for the would-be assassin, his corpse was discovered dangling from a tree in the forest.
I tried to force my attention back on what my father was saying. Contracts, deeds, negotiations. Accounts, agreements, business plans. All of it was clear to me, but I knew that part of the process of his handing things over to me was to explain them in his own way.
I stood up, helping myself to another cup of coffee from the sideboard, and stood at the window, looking at the wide swaths of frosty fields that ran into the forests beyond.
Natasha stood outside, shaking out one of my mother’s down duvets; we’d taken her in when my brother was sitting in jail, and she’d become something of a companion to my mom. Natasha was still a fucking mess, bone thin and wild-eyed, but she had a good heart and my mom enjoyed having her nearby. I wasn’t sure I completely trusted her not to steal all our goddamned silver—her own fortune sadly whittled away by addiction and my brother’s spending habits—but she was getting better. Day by day.
Mostly thanks to Daniel. From the time I had him return her here to the estate and got her under the care of our doctor, he’d barely left her side. I recognized the look in his eye, it was the same look I had when I looked at Valeria…
Glancing down, I double-checked that I still had the only thing that had any value at all to me anymore: the ring I’d given Valeria. I still had it, hanging from my neck, underneath my shirt, on a ribbon that she’d left behind that she’d used to tie her braid the night I’d kidnapped her. Thinking about that, I couldn’t help but laugh to myself a little. She’d fought me like a fucking champ. And beat me in the end.
A knock at the door jolted me back to reality. My father barked at the door to come in. His butler emerged, looking apologetic.
“There’s a visitor for you, sir,” the butler said.
“Tell them to wait!” my father huffed. “I’m in the middle of something. Or trying to be!” He turned his frustrated eyes on me.
“Not for you, sir,” the butler said, bowing now towards me. “It’s a visitor for you, Mr. Vasile. And I would say it’s rather… important.”
Important? Please. There was only one thing that was actually important, and that was her.
“Who is it?” I asked.
The old butler lifted his gaze, with a small but definite smile on his face. “It’s Princess Valeria Valentine, sir.”
Hang the fuck on. She was here, in this house? To see me? I was so fucking stunned that I sat there, completely speechless, until I finally got my shit together and managed to ask, “Is she… is she okay?”
“Oh yes, sir,” he said with a little sparkle in his eye. “Quite as lovely as ever. She’s waiting for you in the drawing room.”
Holy fuck.
CHAPTER 33
Vasile
My heart banged like canon fire in my chest as I entered the drawing room. She sat across the room, near the window, looking fucking beautiful as ever. Thinner than she had been though, not nearly as voluptuous as she’d been before the fever. Something about her looked slightly fragile. And it made me want to protect her even more.
When she saw me, she smiled that big, beautiful smile. Fuck, I wanted her. I wanted to be inside her right then and there. She was a goddamned vision. The woman of my dreams. But I didn’t dare let myself think about why she was there to see me. Didn’t fucking dare let myself hope. Just the fact that she was sitting there, waiting for me, was enough. One glimpse at her and I felt like a starving man who’d had his first bite of food in ages.
For the first time, I felt awkward and tongue tied in front of her. Bashful. Fucking love-struck. I reached out to take her hand and she offered it to me. I kissed the back of her palm, giving her all the reverence she deserved. Not just because of her title. But because of what she meant and would always mean to me.
She was my Queen. My one and only.
I stopped short of actually dropping to one knee and bowing to her, though fuck knows I wanted to. Instead, I managed to pull my pussy-whipped self together and sit down in the chair across from her.
“I missed you so fucking much,” I said, my voice all gravelly and deep.
Hearing that embarrassed her, clearly, but she had too much poise to let her veneer drop completely. She nibbled her lip as she looked at her hands in her lap, then raised her pretty eyes to me. They looked bigger and more innocent than I’d remembered. Even more powerful somehow.
