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“Pardon me?”
“I’ve always thought you were adorable. The Fearless Little Princess. My scheming, funny little friend. I hadnoidea you’d grown up since I saw you last.”
“Oh. All right then. So I blindsided you with my beauty and maturity?”
“That is such an understatement.” His gaze softened as he looked her over. “I felt like I’d been walking on a dimly lit trail my entire life and suddenly the sun washed over me and everything was light and warmth. You’re the sun, Kiera.”
“Mace …” She was blindsided by the sweetness and depth of his feelings. She almost rushed to him, but he held up a hand as if he knew what she was thinking. What was that about?
“I was so overwhelmed by you. I was certain everyone would see straight through me,” he continued.
She smiled at that and bit at the side of her bottom lip.
“Please don’t do that,” he groaned.
“What?”
“Bite your lip.” He folded his arms across his chest, his posture tight. “It’s hard enough to stay in control when you’re in the same room.”
“Youdolike me,” she said, glowing with happiness as everything he’d said sunk in fully.You’re the sun, Kiera.He’d said that, and he couldn’t take it back.
“Like you?” His voice was incredulous. “Kiera … I …” He stared at her, and she thought he’d storm to her and sweep her off her feet, admit that he loved her.
Instead, he shook his head and said morosely, “If I would’ve had the slightest clue that you were all grown up now, and everything I’d always thought was incredible about you—your humor, great attitude, fearlessness, resilience, and sense of adventure—would percolate into the most perfect woman in the world for me …”
He paused again, and her heart raced. The most perfect woman in the world for him? That was delightful, especially from his enticing mouth.
“I never would’ve made that promise.”
Her neck tingled a warning. “What promise?”
Several beats passed, tortured beats where their gazes were locked and all the longing she felt for him was reflected in his blue eyes.
“I promised the general I would never pursue you.”
The seriousness of his voice, his posture, and his gaze yanked the beautiful things he’d said earlier out from under her.
“Never?” she squeaked out.
He nodded.
“Never is a very, very long time.”
His brows lifted, and he splayed his hands.
“Why would you make a promise like that?”
Kiera pushed out a breath, frustrated and scared at the same time.
“Because at that point I was honestly offended when he intoned I would pursue you, that I’d trifle with your feelings, as if I was a man who chased, dated, and dumped college girls in my spare time. Like I said, I had no idea you were no college girl. Instead, you have transformed into my dream woman. The only light I want in my life, besides the Spirit of my Savior.”
Kiera adored hearing she was his dream woman and his light, that he saw her as a full-grown woman now. But a promise to her too-serious, too-protective brother, from one of his military men? How could they change, tweak, revoke that kind of oath?
“It had to be Ray, didn’t it?” She groaned. “You couldn’t have made the promise to literally any of my other brothers?”
“Prince Malik didn’t ask, you see.” He smiled at her, but his own frustration was evident in his blue gaze.
“Your word is your bond, of course.”
