Page 78 of The Prince and the Bodyguard
We bid my parents goodnight and headed up to my room. Eddie let out a massive yawn that had me smiling. “You’re exhausted, baby.”
We both froze.Baby.Well, that was new.
Then he smiled at me, and everything inside me heated. “I can’t wait to wake up with you.”
We made our night routine short, just brushing our teeth and stripping down to our underwear, and then he crawled into my narrow full-sized bed with me. “It’s tight,” I said, half-apologizing.
“It’s perfect.”
I held out my arm and Eddie nestled right there, his head on my shoulder and his arm flung around my waist. Before I could even say anything, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
We woke up late on Christmas morning, practically on top of each other in the small bed. Not that I was complaining. I loved that Eddie was still in my arms, his hair a mess against my shoulder, and I couldn’t remember ever feeling more content.
“Merry Christmas,” I whispered when he stirred.
He stretched out like a cat, then smiled at me. “Merry Christmas.”
I worried about morning breath for a moment, then decided the hell with it and kissed him. We took our time waking up, lazily making out without it going further because I was all too aware of the sounds drifting from my parents downstairs.
When we made it downstairs, having showered and dressed, Mama had strong coffee and fresh cinnamon rolls waiting for us. Bless that woman. “Good morning, boys.”
“Mornin’, Mama.” I kissed her cheeks. “I love you.”
She grinned. “Because of the cinnamon rolls?”
“That, and the coffee.”
“Good morning, Mrs… Ellen,” Eddie said, a little insecure as he stood there in the middle of the kitchen.
“Good morning, honey. Merry Christmas.”
We settled at the breakfast table in the kitchen, chatting with Mama as she was peeling potatoes and cutting green beans for our Christmas dinner. I saw Eddie slowly relax, the tension seeping out of him.
“You okay?” I asked when Mama had left for a moment to talk to my father, who was chopping wood outside.
“I am now.”
“It’ll take some time to process it all,” I said softly. “A lot happened in a short period.”
“It feels different this time, being here.”
“Different how?”
“Last time, I was Prince Gregory, and I had to keep up a certain pretense, like that you and I weren’t friends. Now I’m Eddie, and I don’t have to pretend anything.” He looked at me with those beautiful green eyes, and I saw peace there that I’d never seen before. “I don’t have to hide how I feel about you. I don’t have to measure every word or worry about appearances or think about what’s expected of me.”
“You gave up everything,” I said, the weight of his sacrifice hitting me anew.
“I gave up things that were never really mine to begin with. Money I never earned, a title that was inherited, a family that, for the most part, only loved me conditionally. What I got in return is worth infinitely more.” He reached across the table to take my hand. “I love you, Bash. I’m in love with you, and I don’t have to whisper it or hide it or be afraid of who might overhear.”
Jesus, my eyes were filling up again. If this was part of being in love, I really needed to get a grip. I could hardly walk around all teary-eyed every time Eddie said something sweet. “Would you prefer to be called Eddie or Greg? ’Cause Floris referred to you as Greg.”
“I like being Eddie with you.”
“Eddie it is.” I leaned in for a kiss. “And I love you too, Eddie. Very much, in fact.”
“I have something for you,” Eddie said when we’d moved to the living room a little while later, handing me a wrapped package. “I literally have nothing now except what I could fit in one bag. But I wanted to give you something.”
I unwrapped it to find a leather-bound journal. On the cover, in Eddie’s careful handwriting, it said:
