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“Your prospects as a wife. What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. My mother made it clear that she wanted me to marry for love and avoid an arranged marriage at all costs. It wasn’t uncommon for members of the court to form alliances with a marriage to increase their power, but Queen Isabelle knew my mother’s wishes; certainly they wouldn’t force me to marry someone? I still wanted to go to college. I wanted to see the world.
Not to mention, my heart belonged to someone else.
He stroked my ankle. “I’ll figure it out.”
“I’m still in school. Barely eighteen. We have plenty of time to worry about that,” I said with a casual wave of my hand. Certainly, the king wasn’t planning on me getting married anytime soon.
August stood and scooped me into his arms. My heart skipped a beat as he carried me over to a patch of grass. The royal gardens were well-tended and a weed-plucked oasis behind the castle. Fountains of carved marble in the distance had steady streams of water spilling from their mouths. Even in the dark, I could see the symmetrical bushes and neatly organized walkways. There was something so clinical about their garden that never sat right with me. These flowers were meant to be wild, twisting thorns and fallen petals that litter the walkways.
It was too perfect.
Too controlled.
“You know you’re my best friend, right?” August asked. He fidgeted with a blade of grass before putting it in his mouth to chew on.
I reached out to squeeze his arm affectionately. “Of course I do.”
“Things have been different lately.”
I tilted my head down, wincing a bit at the truth in his statement. It wasn’t just that he’d been pushing me away, he had a different journey than I did. His life was planned out for him before he was even born. When we were kids, everything was so much easier. It was just the two of us. We knew the responsibilities placed upon us but didn’t feel the weight of them. Perhaps we were naive or even a little ignorant. But now, we were staring down the barrel of a future that felt like a chasm between us.
“I tried, you know? To put some distance between us.”
I snapped my attention to him, locking my eyes on him as pain flooded my chest. “Why?”
“To maybe make it easier when I inevitably have to give you up. Want to know a secret?”
I nodded, too stunned to speak.
“It didn’t help any. If anything, it made me want you more.”
“August…we’ll always be friends. You never have to worry about that.”
He had a pinched expression. “Friends. Always friends.”
I refused to allow myself to hope, but something about his words made me wonder if he wanted more.
“You’ve always been there for me,” I whispered.
“Always will be.”
“So, are you going to stop hooking up with every girl in our school now?” I asked, nudging him.
He patted his chest in mock pain. “But I’m trying to beat a record.”
I moved away from him, but he wrapped his powerful arms around my body, pulling me close until I was lying in his lap, my ball gown spread out around us like a blanket. “We should get a flat together when we graduate from the Royal Academy. Something away from the castle. Just the two of us.”
I turned to hide my face in his abs, a grave mistake because the second I felt his hard muscles against my cheek, I blushed. “You have to stay at the castle.”
“Do I?”
I giggled. “You’re the future king, August.”
“We could spend our nights watching TV and snuggling.” He held me closer to show me just how great a night of snuggling August could be.
“You have a country to run,” I teased him.
