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Twenty four hours they had been in the same palace.
Twenty four hours under the same roof.
Twenty four hours in which they could have seen one another and had stayed apart.
It was as it had to be, but that didn’t stop it from hurting like hell. Is this how it had been for Kiral? Back then, when he’d been involved with the mysterious woman who had left him a changed man? A frown marred her brows and she thought back to that time three years ago when her brother had begun to alter. Oh so subtly, but to those who knew him best, the alteration was impossible to deny.
Had his heart been broken, as Lilah’s was being? Kiral had become distant and cold, distracted from her yet focused almost singularly on his duties and responsibilities. Lilah could understand that. She wanted to pack her heart away and never use it again.
She pulled the reins expertly, turning the beautiful horse in a wide circle, heading back towards the stables. She’d rode too far. Farther than the palace security liked her to go on her own. She moved the horse forward faster, nudging him in the symbiotic way they had until the palace stables loomed into sight. She slowed then, sitting upright and breathing in the night air deeply, waiting for it to soothe away her sadness.
It didn’t work, but she was able to smooth her features to resemble their usual appearance, and to wipe away her tears.
As usual, she brushed her own horse down, shaking her head when the Stable Master moved to take over. It was therefore late when Lilah returned to the gardens of the palace, cutting across the East Lawn. The familiar security presence was everywhere, but Lilah was used to guards and so barely saw them.
Perhaps it was for this reason she missed Will.
He stood, propped elegantly against the wall of the palace, watching as she moved. She was wearing a pale dress; it was long, too, covering her body in swathes of flowing silk. Her hair was braided and wrapped around her head and her eyes were downcast. It was only as she stepped through the gate that she lifted her gaze and their eyes clashed fiercely.
Surprise ripped through her.
“Will?” She startled, immediately clasping her hands in front of her. She swallowed, visibly trying to remove any sign of emotion. But it was as though she’d conjured him from the ancient desert sand and magical moonlight. “What are you doing here? It’s very late.”
His expression was grim. “I had to see you.”
“Why?” The word was barely a whisper. It seemed to brush away on the breeze. The tears she’d indulged so readily a moment earlier were threatening to spill over once more. “We saw one another last night. I don’t think anything was served by …”
“Find somewhere private for us to speak, Princess, or so help me I will kiss you right here in front of these guards.”
The thought alone made her pulse hammer and her heart race. “You wouldn’t …”
But the look of determination in his eyes made her gulp. “You would be arrested.”
“Yeah. And I’ll just bet your brother would be fascinated to know why.”
“Listen,” she said urgently, but he cut her off.
“I want to listen,” he bent his head closer to hers. “I want to listen to all of your reasons for why you don’t love me. I want to listen to your explanations again and again until I finally understand.”
She fluttered her eyes closed. “What are you saying?”
“Where can we go?”
“I …” Her eyes lifted straight to his. “It simply isn’t something I can do.”
He brought his head even closer to hers and Lilah’s breath hitched in her throat. Was it possible he’d be so daring as to kiss her here? He would absolutely be thrown into a cell for such impertinence. And yet Will wouldn’t care. A man like him barely acknowledged laws, much less obeyed them. She thought back to the way he’d rescued her from a highrise hotel, daring to hoist a rope over the side and climb to her, then help her down. How they’d fled the city like fugitives, regardless of the fact that law enforcement would have been seeking him.
Will Wright didn’t care about laws. He cared about getting what he wanted. And getting what he thought to be right.
“Don’t,” she said simply.
“Give me a good reason.”
“Tomorrow,” she promised. “I will have you moved to a different room.”
“A different –?”
“Yes. A different room. One I can access without attracting attention.” She stepped away from him. “Do not push this. Nothing you can say will change how I feel and how I must act.”
