Page 2 of Forbidden Forget-Me-Not

“Lani, enough.”

“What?”

Dropping the pillow, I slowly stood and stared at Kaylani Mikhailov. She was so fucking beautiful. Even when I was pissed at her, I was completely mesmerized by her beauty. My heart beat for no one else.

Her golden-blonde hair was styled and falling around her shoulders in soft curls. The sun glistened off her like she had been born an angel, but Kaylani had a devilish soul. That was why I loved her so damn much.

“Where are we?”

She shook her head at me, then pointed at the window.

“Vegas, silly, that’s obvious.”

Lani held out her hand and looked at her perfectly manicured nails that were no longer the pale blue I remembered from last night.

“How did we get here?”

“We flew.”

Frustration set in as I approached her while swaying back and forth. There was no way I looked half as angry as I felt. Gripping her arms, I gazed into her blue eyes.

“No more games. What is going on? The last thing I remember was accompanying you to a horse show and dinner in Phoenix, then nothing. Don’t try to lie to me. Just out with it. What happened?”

Lani sighed. “Can’t we have a nice breakfast first, and then I’ll answer all of your questions?”

I knew that line and shook my head. “No. Tell me, now.”

“Fine, I knew you’d never ask me to marry you…so I took matters into my own hands,” she said.

Bile rose in my throat, and I swallowed it down. Not because I didn’t want to marry her. I fucking loved her, but I was her brother’s head of security. Nothing more than a soldier.

Kaylani was the Mikhailov princess. She was…untouchable. The first time she kissed me, I was shocked and frozen to the spot, unable to form words. I’d known in that moment that the rest of my life belonged to her, even if we could never be together.

Then I did the unthinkable…I slept with her. That was three months ago, and I just couldn’t stop.

“Please tell me you’re joking,” I whispered.

She crossed her arms. “Why? Is the idea of being married to me so horrible?”

I backed up until my legs found the bed and my ass hit the mattress.

“No, Lani, you know that I love you, but you’ve just signed my death certificate.”

She waved a hand at me. “Goran, it’s not that bad. You’re being dramatic.”

“No, I’m not. I’m a bodyguard, a soldier. I have no influential backing, no political ties, no family name. I have nothing to offer your father.”

I burst up from the bed and began to pace, ignoring the chisel and hammer going to work behind my eyes.

“I have abused your father’s trust, but worse, Nathaniel’s. I was standing right there at the family dinner when Dimitri said he was assembling potential marriages for you. I’ve betrayed the Mikhailov family. What do you think he’s going to do when he finds out that his baby girl…no, his only daughter, ran off to Vegas and married a bodyguard? He’s going to have me dropped in the middle of the ocean.”

I started to pull the ring off.

Lani jumped at me and gripped my hand.

“Don’t. Don’t you dare take that off. You’re my husband. I’m sick of all the men around me telling me what I can and cannot have. Who I can and cannot be with. What is and isn’t proper. Screw all of that. I love you, and I choose you.”

“What you chose is my watery grave. I followed my heart and cock instead of staying loyal to your family. You knew we could never be together when this affair of ours started. You said…”