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He didn’t need someone who reminded him of all he was trying to live up to. He didn’t need someone who would help him struggle to be perfect. He needed someone who loved him just as he was.
Cassia loved him like that.
She was not destined to lose him, as she had feared tonight. Because she wouldn’t let that happen.
She withdrew her fingers from his lips and kissed him. He froze in surprise. But it only took a moment for her to thaw him. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him thoroughly, until he wasn’t trying to think of what to say. He was just kissing her in return, holding her to him, melting into her. She smiled against his mouth.
When she finally had to draw back for breath, he gasped with her.
“Cassia, I need you so much.”
“I know.”
PERFECTION
Lio blinked down atCassia, his lips swollen from her kiss. “I have no idea what my friends said to you, but I owe them my thanks.”
“We both do.”
“I’m afraid I needed some of their patient insight as to why you were so affected by the party. I came out here to apologize.”
“There’s no reason for you to apologize.”
“But you were so upset. At least let me explain.”
“It’s all right now, but if it will make you feel better, we’ll talk about it.”
His gaze darted over her shoulder to the statues. “I think we’re embarrassing the children. Shall we go somewhere more private?”
“It strikes me that Methu would approve of two young lovers seizing the moment at his statue. A kiss seems a better tribute to him than anything. But let us excuse ourselves, in case we feel inspired to do more than kiss.”
Lio laughed as Cassia drew him deeper into the woods. Well out of sight of the statues, they took shelter under a yew’s low-hanging branches.
Lio held both her hands. “I didn’t realize that when you and Xandra met, she introduced herself only as the Eighth Princess.”
“Of course you wouldn’t.”
“How did we all manage to talk about each other without you finding out her name?”
“It never occurred to me.” Cassia sighed. “I’m so accustomed to titles mattering the most. Amazing how she used hers not to hide, but to make me see her for who she really is. She wanted me to meet her without my feelings about the two of you getting in the way. In hindsight, I’m glad she gave me that chance. She carried out her plan well tonight, too.”
Lio framed Cassia’s face in his hands. “Her intention was to show you she’s on your side. She supports what you and I are trying to accomplish together.”
“I see that now. Putting me in a position to throw the game as Chrysanthos’s second was a perfect parallel to me working with you and the royal family from within the embassy.”
“Exactly. She never meant to make you feel like…”
“An inconvenient, momentary distraction from Ambassador Deukalion’s perfect, eternal partnership with Princess Alexandra?”
“Goddess, Cassia, how could you think that?”
“I allowed myself to become very misguided tonight, and for that, I ask your forgiveness.”
He shook his head, brushing her hair back from her forehead. “The reason I have said so little to you about Xandra is because I didn’t think I needed to. I thought you knew all that was in the past.”
“I needed some convincing, as it turns out.”
“I have not been convincing enough?” He nuzzled her neck, his words low and warm in her ear. “Who fell asleep in my arms last night? Who awoke with me this moon?”
