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“I’m not.” Bold Eva makes a reappearance. “That was… impressive. She terrifies me, and I’m not even one of her subjects. You don’t think she’ll deport me, do you?” She doesn’t sound particularly worried.
“To be honest, I’m not sure she has that authority. I suppose she could get us thrown in a cell temporarily by claiming you threatened the monarchy, but that would backfire when the truth came out.”
Eva’s jaw drops, and her face blanches.
“I’m kidding. I mean, she could, but she won’t. Despite what you saw tonight, she’s a very rational and careful monarch. She’s not going to jeopardize her standing with the Senate or the courts over you—or anything.” I take her hand. “But I don’t want to talk about her.”
She looks at our hands. “What do you want to talk about?”
I take a deep breath. “Us. You and me. We’ve been friends for a long time…” I take another deep breath and jump. “I want more.”
She finally lifts her eyes, and her gaze locks on mine. A little smirk twitches at the corners of her lips. “Took you long enough.”
I tug her hand, pulling her closer as my other arm slides around her back. “You think eighteen years is too long to court a girl?”
“Is that what you’ve been doing all this time? Courting me?” She bites her quivering lower lip, and my attention locks on.
I swallow hard and try to focus on our conversation. “Sure, that’s what we royals do. Court our ladies. Slowly. Deliberately.”
“You mean when you aren’t getting set up by your auntie?” She moves closer, pulling her hand free to slide it up my lapel. “That was very sexy, by the way. Standing up to the empress.”
My chest seems to burn under the light touch of her fingers. I slip my other arm around her, pulling her close. I press a soft kiss to her temple, savoring the feel of her in my arms. “If I’d known you felt that way, I’d have done it sooner.”
She draws in a quick breath. “Did you do that for me?” Her chin tilts up, and her breath warms my lips.
“I do everything for you.”
She pulls my head down and our lips meet.
The kiss is everything. That first, soft touch of her mouth to mine sends me into orbit and confirms what I’ve known but not acknowledged for so long. Eva is all I want. Her strength and sweetness, her boldness and her uncertainties—all of it makes me yearn to be by her side. To stand with her, to protect her, to be defended by her. I am consumed by the knowledge that together, we can do and be anything.
When we finally break apart, her hands tighten on my shoulders, as if she’s afraid she’ll fall without support. My legs feel equally shaky. I take a step back, pulling her with me, to lean against the stone wall under my grandfather’s portrait. “Was it worth waiting for?” My voice comes out deep and husky, my breath fast and jerky.
She looks up from under her lashes. “You tell me.”
I touch her cheek. “Definitely. But I was stupid to wait so long.”
“Maybe. Or maybe the timing is perfect.” She leans forward and kisses me again, and the world falls away.
“Ahem.” A very theatrical throat clearing breaks us apart. Hans claps slowly. “Bravo. About time!”
Lina swats his arm. “Hans! Sometimes romance takes time.”
He turns to her. “You did not grow up with these two. They’ve been pining after each other for—at least a decade! I kept telling Teo to make a move, but he’s shy.”
I roll my eyes. “You’ve only been saying that recently.”
“Recently? Try years! At least since high school. Senior year—that time we went to Portland to help decorate the float for the Rose Festival. Remember? Your mom and dad drove us because they wouldn’t let you ride the bus.” He turns to Lina. “I didn’t know his full identity back then—I thought he just had the worst helicopter parents in the world. They’d hardly let him do anything on his own.”
Hans points at Eva. “Anyway, she was going on the trip, so he decided he had to go, and he talked his dad into taking us to Portland for the weekend. ‘For cultural enrichment.’ We did the float decorating thing and a whole bunch of other ‘cultural’ things. I had to endure six hours at the Portland Art Museum. I still have nightmares about spiderwebs from that Pollock piece. And then he didn’t talk to her the whole time we were there.”
Eva stares at me, a hand to her mouth. “I didn’t even know you were on that trip. Not until you mentioned it the other day.”
My cheeks burn.
Hans nods, throwing his hands out. “See what I mean? A total basket case. He hid behind the float and watched her like a creeper.” He mimes poking flowers into the chicken-wire form with a besotted look on his face. I smack the back of his head lightly, and he grins, then points at Eva again. “And she wasn’t any better. She had such a huge crush on him in middle school.”
I stare at Eva.
