Chapter 12
The moon outside the lattice windows was bright and clean.
So, I realized with a strange fullness in my chest, was the life ahead of me.
I had married a man the capital pitied.
A fool prince, they called him.
A broken remnant of the royal family.
A burden no noble daughter would want unless she was desperate.
They were wrong.
They had all been wrong from the start.
The fool who clung to my sleeve, pouted for kisses, and asked the most shamelessly innocent questions had been real.
The prince who stood between me and the world without hesitation, who tore through lies for my sake, who trusted me even when I confessed my worst thoughts, had been real too.
Both men were him.
Both belonged to me.
And somehow, impossibly, I belonged to him as well.
I shifted in his arms, the movement making him look down at once.
“Can’t sleep?”
I shook my head.
Then, because there was no point pretending with him anymore, I asked the question that had been sitting quietly in my chest.
“When did you first start liking me?”
He smiled faintly.
“You already know.”
“I know what you said,” I corrected. “I don’t know if it’s true.”
His fingers stroked slowly through my hair.
“The day you pulled me from the lake,” he said. “I was half-conscious, barely aware of anything. But I remember one thing clearly.”
“What?”
He lowered his head until his forehead touched mine.
“I remember opening my eyes and seeing someone who looked like she had jumped into danger for me without caring what it would cost her.”
My breath caught.
He continued in a soft voice.
“I remember thinking… if she’s willing to risk her life for a fool, then she must either be very brave or very lonely.”
I stared at him.
“And then?”
“And then,” he said, “I wanted to keep you.”
The words should have sounded overbearing.
Possessive, even.
Instead, warmth spread through me from the inside out.
I reached up, touched his face, and whispered, “You did.”
He kissed my fingers one by one.
From outside, somewhere in the distance, I could hear leaves shifting in the night wind. The prince’s residence had finally fallen into stillness.
No scheming stepmother.
No cruel father.
No poisonous marriage arrangements hanging over my head.
No need to fight alone with only my own thin strength.
Just this.
Just him.
I tucked myself closer against his chest.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
Then, because I could not resist, I murmured, “You know, if you keep teasing me with that line, I really will get angry.”
His voice was lazy with amusement. “Which line?”
I pinched his side.
“The one about little boys wetting the bed.”
He caught my hand at once and pressed a kiss into my palm.
“I only say it because my princess blushes so beautifully every time.”
“That’s shameless.”
“You discovered that late.”
I narrowed my eyes. “So you admit it now? You’re not nearly as dignified as you pretend to be.”
He looked at me with calm innocence.
“I’m perfectly dignified in court.”
“And in private?”
“In private,” he said, drawing me closer still, “I belong to my wife.”
That answer was unfair enough to make my chest ache again.
I tipped my head up and kissed him.
Once.
Twice.
Then he turned the kiss deep and slow, and by the time he finally let me breathe, my face was hot and my limbs had gone weak all over again.
He chuckled softly.
“Sleep.”
I made a face at him. “That tone makes it sound like an order.”
“It is a request.”
“That sounded even more like an order.”
He kissed my forehead. “Then consider it concern.”
I closed my eyes, smiling despite myself.
For the first time in many years, tomorrow did not frighten me.
Tomorrow would come.
And after tomorrow, another day.
And another.
There would be court politics, family consequences, palace intrigue, endless whispers from the capital, and a hundred small storms still waiting for us.
But there would also be peach blossoms in spring.
Eight-treasure duck at Golden Pavilion.
His hand reaching for mine in crowded places.
His voice at my ear when the world grew sharp.
His body curved around mine in the dark.
His laughter, rare and quiet, saved only for me.
A long life, perhaps.
A good one.
At last, sleep came gently.
And held in Prince Adrian’s arms, I let it.