Page 88 of Fit for a King

“All right,” he said, handing me the glass and then leaning back against the table. “Tell me about him.”

I shook my head and took a sip before slumping back in the chair. “That won’t help.”

“Hey, my brother fell in love with someone, and I don’t know anything about the guy other than he makes a killer cup of tea and can kick my ass in mahjong.” When I narrowed my eyes at him, he backtracked. “Sorry, Noah.”

I ran a hand over my face, feeling exhausted in a way I couldn’t put into words. “I…can’t.”

“Then I’ll stay until the scotch kicks in.” Gabriel winked at me over his glass as he brought it to his lips.

It wasn’t like I didn’t have the answer to his question. The problem was, how would I stop once I started? There were endless reasons to love Noah, and I found a new one every day.

Well. Had.

Because he wasn’t mine to love anymore.

“He made me look forward to mornings,” I said, my gaze drifting to the window. “At first it drove me crazy, the way he’d try to force me to eat something, and then it became a sort of game. Silly, I know, but…I like the way he challenges me.” Challenged, I corrected myself, because I’d made sure he wasn’t in the vicinity to do that anymore.

I hated it.

“I like him for you already,” Gabriel said, hopping up to sit fully on the tabletop, getting comfortable. He seemed genuinely interested, and I’d held all my feelings for Noah inside for so long that they all came bursting out.

I told him about the ballroom and why I’d been okay with our switching places that night. I told him about the tour, how Noah had been my rock, how we’d both shown each other our worlds in the small ways we could. How we’d visited his home and I couldn’t stop myself from telling Noah I loved him.

And I should’ve been ashamed to tell him I’d wondered how to get out of my arrangement with Alejandro to somehow be with Noah, but it felt like such a relief to be able to say those words out loud that I couldn’t find it in me to regret it.

Through it all, my brother just listened, smiling when I lit up, frowning when I hurt—supportive in a way I hadn’t realized I needed.

When I was done, silence fell between us, but it wasn’t the awkward kind that made me regret what I’d said.

Gabriel let out a heavy sigh. “You know what I keep thinking of?” he said, and nodded at the family portrait over the fireplace. “Our parents. Well, not just our parents, but all the Valemonts, going back generations.”

I didn’t know where he was going with that, but I stayed quiet.

“Our parents weren’t a great match, even though they did produce two of the most perfect humans that ever existed.” He grinned, and I would’ve rolled my eyes if I had the energy to do it. “Can you imagine what it would’ve been like if they were ever in the same room for more than dinner? If they’d actually liked each other and weren’t just some arranged marriage?”

Maybe they would’ve been happier, I thought, but what was happiness in the face of royal obligations anyway? It was one luxury the crown couldn’t afford.

“But they didn’t and it wasn’t. Pretending otherwise is just a fantasy,” I said.

“Fantasy or not, you know what happens when Valemont men marry for duty. Do you really want to share that fate?”

“What choice do I have?”

Gabriel spread his hands wide. “You’re the king. The choice ultimately lies with you.”

If only it were that easy to push aside my duty and obligation for a chance at true love. But that was a fairytale.

So really, I didn’t have a choice at all.

28

NOAH

EVERYTHING IN THE palace carried on like nothing had changed. Montclair ran smoothly, the way it always had before I arrived and the way it would long after I was gone.

But for me, everything had changed.

With no explanation from Baxter or anyone, my duties had been quietly rearranged now that Nicholas no longer required my presence. He didn’t send for me at night or ask for me in the morning. Reynolds attended to him now, along with another footman named Pierce sometimes. Both of them were competent and discreet and perfectly suited to the work of a king’s senior footman. They’d done nothing wrong, but still…I hated them for it.