Page 53 of Forbidden Royal Vows

But Mila sat there anyway, as the first rays of the dawning sun peeked over the mountains and then tumbled down into the valley, lighting up the maze.

And bathing her in all of that shine.

“You defended me,” Caius said.

He watched her go stiff. Then she whirled around and her jaw dropped open. Her gray eyes went wide.

“You’re here,” she whispered. “You’re really here.”

“How could I be anywhere else?” he asked. He searched her face, looking for clues. Answers. His own heart. “Why did you defend me, Mila? I thought I was your dirty secret.”

And to his surprise, she turned all the way around, and then came to her feet. Or maybe he met her there in the middle. He would never know. It was all a brand-new sunrise and her gaze, wide and gray and fixed to his as if she was drowning and he was safety.

Caius had never managed to be safe for anyone, including himself. But for her, he would do it. He would figure it out.

“I hate myself for making you feel that way,” she was saying, and there were no echoes of the Queen that he’d watched so many times on his race across the world. This was Mila. This was his Mila. “I hate that I wasn’t strong enough to admit what you were to me years ago. I hate that it took all of this, all of this separation and all of these games I was so sure I wasn’t playing, to understand what I needed, without question, a long time ago.”

They drew closer together, in this secret place that felt like freedom to him. Because it was the first place he’d understood he hadn’t lost her. That even if he had, he could find her again.

It was the first place he’d hoped.

“There has never been anyone for you but me,” Mila told him. She blew out a breath. “And I don’t care how many times you might have sampled those other queens you mentioned, because—”

“I’m a married man,” he said, cutting her off. He caught her gaze and held it, because this was what mattered. This was a truth that had nothing to do with masks or charm or any of the smoke and mirrors he knew how to use so well. “I have never broken our vows. There were times I wished I could. But I couldn’t. I didn’t.”

“Caius...”

And the way she said his name was like a song.

Something shifted inside him, then. All those blows he’d taken since that photo was published. All the things that had become so clear to him out there on the trail.

There had only been one path in his life and it had always led here, to her.

“I’m happy enough to be your secret,” he told her now. “I don’t need you to claim me in front of the world. That you would think to defend my honor is a gift too sweet to bear.”

“But bear it you must,” she replied. “For it is a gift freely given. And I do not think it is the last of the gifts I will give you.”

“I understand who you are,” he told her, holding her gaze, because these were vows far more important than the ones they’d made five years ago on a beach. These were the ones that counted, because he understood the two of them better now. “I always did. Of course you had to come back here and do your duty. I know that you always will. And when you have time to sneak away and make omelets in the kitchen with your own regal hands, I’m your man.”

To his astonishment, her eyes welled up. Then actually spilled over, tracking tears down her face. “I think I will take you up on that,” Mila whispered.

And he found himself smiling, wide and bright. And real. All of this was real.

No wonder the joy of it hurt.

She took a breath. “I don’t know what you’ve been doing for the past few weeks—”

“I’ve been getting myself right,” he said. And he took a step closer. “To claim you, Mila. To claim my wife in whatever way she will have me.”

And the way she smiled at him made his chest feel as if it was bursting wide open.

“I’m happy to hear that,” she said. “Because I intend to claim you, too. And not as some secret affair who has to sneak in and out of tunnels to see me. I’m not doing that again.” She leaned in, sliding her hands up his chest and around his neck. “Do you remember when you asked me to marry you?”

“Of course I do. We were muddy and sore and it’s one of the best memories of my life.”

She was still smiling up at him. “I always expected that I would marry one day, but it was never going to be like that. I was never going to get a surprise proposal, a man suddenly on his knee out of nowhere. It was never going to be based on love, emotion, sex. Any proposal that I could expect to receive would involve half the palace. A vetting committee. There would be many discussions and signatures. So you have already given me the most romantic gift that I could receive.”

“I think you need more gifts, My Majesty,” he murmured.

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