Page 59 of Awakened On Her Royal Wedding Night
“Tell me first why you left. You didn’t trust me to keep you both safe, did you? I failed you. I did. I will never forgive myself for that and I will never make that mistake again. But I don’t think that’s why you left. Is it?”
She shook her head. “I knew we were a liability for you. That as long as he could attack you through me, he would.”
“I don’t think that was it, either.” He nodded thoughtfully as he ambled closer. “I think you were forcing me to make a choice.”
“Not between the crown and me,” she cried. “I know that’s not fair.”
“Between bitterness and love.” He drained his glass and set it aside. “Between the life I was told I had to accept and the future I could have with you, if I was prepared to fight for it.”
“I didn’t expect you to duel him, Felipe.” She searched across his frame, looking for injuries. “The reports said you both had several cuts.”
“Cuts, yes. Nothing compared to the way you carved out my heart then left with it.”
“That’s not f—”
“No. Listen.” He captured her hands. “Try to imagine never being loved, Claudine. Not for one moment in your whole life. There was a little affection when I was very young—a kind nanny. An aunt who gave me sweets and told me stories, but my mother preferred my brother and my brother hated my guts. My father never had a thought in his life that was not wrapped up in duty to the crown and I was told to emulate that. Now imagine you have found a sort of comfort in that vacuum of true caring. You understand how it works the way people learn to exist in the arctic. Then along comes someone who radiates love. Who pours it over you. I didn’t even know what itwas, Claudine. Sex? Charisma? A needy child finally tasting what it is to be noticed? Nothing made sense.”
She tilted her head, so anguished for that child he’d been. For the man who’d had to learn to live in isolation and like it.
“I accept your pity. I accept your mistrust of the man who saw you as someone who was useful, rather than the person who would save him, not from his cold family, but from his own cynicism. I was determined to remain autonomous. It was comfortable. Loving youhurts, Claudine. Every part of me is unprotected because you are walking in this cruel world, susceptible to harm. Whether it’s my vindictive brother or a mosquito, I don’t want anything to touch you because that will hurtme. It terrifies me to be this vulnerable.”
He was crushing her hands, but she didn’t protest. She only clung right back, letting him know he wasn’t alone anymore. He never would be again.
“But I can’t go back to that life of emptiness. You can have my heart because I have yours. I know I have it because I feel it inside me. It’s soft and endlessly warm and fills me with light. I am keeping it, Claudine. It’smine.”
She had to bite her lips because they were quivering so hard.
“Will you take mine in return?” he asked humbly. “Please? It’s small and hard and will need a lot of tending to make it grow, but I know you can make it happen. I know I will be a better man for it.”
“Oh, Felipe.” She was blinking her wet eyes as she thrust herself into his arms. “I love you so much.”
“God knows why you do, but I will take all that you’ll give me.” He scooped her up and carried her into the bedroom.
“Not the sofa?” she teased as she looped her arms around his neck. “Even the floor has served us well in the past.”
“You’re pregnant.” He frowned in a small scold, then his mouth kicked to the side. “Also, I’d have to carry you to bed after so it’s better to get it out of the way while I still have my strength.” He came down onto the wide mattress with her and carried her ring hand to his lips. “I do love you, Claudine.” His face flexed with emotion. “I don’t know why I feared saying it. It fills me with power to tell you. With a certainty that I can and will do anything forus.” His hand slid to her abdomen. “All of us.”
They kissed as though sealing the promise. Hot tears spilled from her eyes, it was such a fiercely sweet benediction.
Passion mingled with this new, profound tenderness, slowing them down. As they kissed and undressed each other, their caresses were unhurried and sure, imbued with caring. With need and admiration and love.
When they were naked and he shifted to settle between her legs, she cradled him with her thighs and welcomed his intrusion with a blissful sigh of utter contentment. With supreme rightness.
They stayed like that a long time, barely moving, enjoying the sensation of being joined while still pouring affection on each other. A trailing touch here, a chain of kisses there.
“I’ve never felt so free as when I’m with you like this,” she murmured.
“I’ve never felt so alive. Youaremy life, Claudine. Never believe otherwise,” Felipe told her.
He began to move with more purpose. When climax arrived, it was a startlingly new pinnacle, one intensified by the naked emotion between them, melding them together as they tumbled through the cosmos. Joined. Forever.
EPILOGUE
Four years later
“HOWAREYOU, my love?” Felipe’s voice still had the power to make her skin tighten and her pulse ripple when he caught her unawares like this.
She covered the hand that came to rest on her shoulder and tilted her head back for his kiss, but didn’t rise from her comfortable position on the lounger.
