Page 48 of Her Red Hot Secret Royal Fling

And with each day that passed, the possibility of discovery would grow, and the media would turn their focus onto Sofia, pulling her apart from absolutely every angle, as they had Louisa. Only unlike Louisa, who had a textbook, happy-family background, there was so much in Sofia’s past that would be unpleasant to her to have pushed into the public domain. The details of her father’s accident, for one.

How could he ask her to stay, knowing there was a risk of that?

But wasn’t that Sofia’s decision to make? Shouldn’t he at least make the offer? If he didn’t, would she believe it was because he was ready for her to leave? Would that underscore the low sense of worth she held? That idea was anathema to him.No matter what she chose to do, Ares recognized there was only one path forward for him. To ask her to stay and see where the cards fell. At least if he did, he’d know she understood one thing: he wanted more of her. He wanted her.

“If you’re at animpasse,”he began, choosing his words with care. “You could take some time out, here, whilst you plan your next step.”

Her eyes lifted to his and her lips parted, but there was a tightening in her features. A sense of caution and alarm.

“You mean, while working on the project?”

His lips compressed. “No.” He gestured from his chest to hers. “Thishas to be completely separate fromthat.”

To his relief, she nodded.

“I don’t want you to leave,” he said, simply, but then frowned, because itwasn’tsimple, at all. “But if you were to stay, things would get harder. Concealing a relationship for any period of time is almost impossible, given the level of scrutiny around my life. You’d virtually be a prisoner of the palace.”

Her lips pulled to one side. “I can think of worse places to be imprisoned.”

Something soared inside his chest. “And even then, there’s a risk. Someone could leak, as you’ve pointed out.”

She nodded slowly.

“I want you to stay,” he reiterated. “But I will accept your decision. If it gets out that we’re dating, you’re the one whose life will fundamentally and permanently change. You’ll always be linked to me. And they’ll dig into your past. Things will be printed in the paper that you won’t like—and I can’t control that.”

She bit into her lower lip. “You say you want me to stay, but you’re doing a pretty good job of trying to talk me out of it.”

“I want to be honest with you,” he said. “In a way I probably wasn’t with Louisa. I don’t know if I was ever clear about what this life is fully like.”

“She must have known?—,”

“No one can know until they’ve lived it.”

Sofia stared at him, her features unreadable, but he felt the tension emanating off her in waves

“I want to stay too,” she murmured, after a long, long time. His pulse sped up. “But we both know it would be stupid.”

“Why?” He didn’t want to listen to that.

“Because it’s just prolonging the inevitable, and, as you’ve pointed out, there are big risks to us both. Sure, I’d hate being in the papers, but what about you? You’re already front-page news because of Louisa, the speculation about your love life is all anyone here talks about. If it were to come out that you were dating already, you’d be right back in the position you were in—of feeling obliged to propose and get married.”

“Obviously, we’d try to keep this off anyone’s radar.”

“You know that’s a fantasy.”

Maybe she was right. Maybe this whole thing was a fantasy.

“The thing is,” she cleared her throat a little, and when her eyes met his, he somehow knew that it was costing her dearly to look at him, and yet she was forcing herself to do it because it was important. She was so strong, so stoic. “I’ve spent my whole life, or my life since the accident, actively pursuing a path of solitude. Of choosing to be on my own. And up until I met you, I never really found that difficult. But you threaten that, Ares. You make me want…you make me want things I told myself a long time ago I’d never have. Things I’ve made my peace with not having. Things you can never offer me.”

His heart was chugging in his chest.

“And if I stayed, every day would make it harder and harder for me to accept that, so I know eventually I’d want everything from you. Don’t you see? I have to leave now, while I still can.”

Everything.

What did that mean? Love? Marriage? Babies? With Sofia? She didn’t want any of those things, did she? But what if she did? What if this was her way of telling him that she’d be open to that, after all?

“I don’t want to want that,” she clarified, as if reading his mind. “I want to leave here and go on with my life.”

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