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He didn’t know. But right now, with her small hands holding his, he knew if he didn’t trust her vision of him, if he didn’t trust her with everything in him, then that would be one mistake he’d regret for the rest of his life.
Because you love her.
He couldn’t breathe, the moment drawing out, suspended for an eternity as he looked into her eyes, a feeling rushing through him, raw and powerful and relentless. Growing bigger and wider and deeper with every passing second. The sweetest, most welcome kind of agony.
But it wasn’t new. He’d felt it before. He’d felt it the very instant he’d seen her in that ballroom fifteen months earlier. And it had been there all this time, waiting for him to recognise it for what it was. He’d given it so many names, lust, desire, need, obsession, yet none of them had felt right. None of them encompassed its true nature.
It was love. And he’d been running from it for far too long.
He was tired of running, just as he was tired of all those other things he’d been doing for years now, and especially tired of the self-doubt his father had instilled in him over the years.
Because there was no self-doubt now, not about this. Not about her.
He loved her and he was never letting her go.
‘No,’ he said quietly. Then stronger. ‘No.’ And he adjusted their hands so hers were enclosed in his, his fingers no longer feeling quite so cold. ‘You’ve done everything on your own for far too long and that ends here. It ends tonight.’
There was uncertainty in her eyes. ‘What do you mean?’
She’d told him once he had to decide for himself who he was, and he knew now what that was supposed to be.
He was supposed to be her husband. He was supposed to love her.
‘I don’t know how it’s supposed to feel,’ he said roughly. ‘But when I’m with you I can’t think of anything else. When I’m with you all I want to do is touch you, kiss you. All I want to do is stay as close to you as possible and talk with you, listen to you laugh. Watch you smile. I want to know everything about you, every single thing, and I would kill anyone who hurt you. And I want to take care of you for the rest of your life and make sure you never know a moment’s pain.’
Her eyes filled with sudden tears. ‘Galen...’
He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it, holding her shimmering gaze with his. ‘And if that’s love then I love you, Solace Ashworth. I have loved you since the moment I met you.’
Her hands were shaking. Everything was shaking. This was the last thing she’d expected.
She’d spent the past week half in tears, weeping over him, and half in a fury. A dozen times she’d packed a bag, determined to walk out and leave him, only to get to the front door and stop, because of course she wasn’t going anywhere.
She couldn’t walk away from him. He had no one. He was the world’s loneliest king and if she left him, she knew she’d never forgive herself.
She was in it now, and of course she knew why.
She’d fallen in love with him body and soul.
Leaving him was impossible.
Which left her only one option. To stay and to show him exactly what love meant by loving him every day for the rest of their lives.
She could do it. She could be his queen. She could be his wife and live with him, and, in the end, she would show him.
Love had driven her from London to Kalithera, and love would keep her here, because love was her strength and it always had been.
So, she’d stayed and tonight had dressed with extra care, embracing that fire in her heart, and even though when she’d seen him standing by the cold fireplace, so impossibly beautiful in his evening clothes, the heavy gold signet ring of state on his finger, and yet, despite his friends, so alone, she’d nearly burst into tears.
But she wouldn’t. She’d show him her strength. Show him that she wasn’t going anywhere.
She’d expected to cry later, after the evening had ended, not now.
Except she couldn’t help it, there were tears on her cheeks, ruining her make-up, and she couldn’t stop them.
He loved her. He really did.
‘Galen,’ she said again, but he’d bent to kiss her now and his mouth was hot and sweet, the kiss telling her everything he hadn’t said. That he was sorry, and he’d missed her, and he was so hungry for her he might die.
