Page 49 of Her Red Hot Secret Royal Fling

“Your safe life,” he clarified, wishing the words weren’t sharpened by frustration.

She jutted her chin. “What’s wrong with that?”

Didn’t he want her to be safe too? And happy?

Or did he want her with him so much that he was prepared to crack through all the walls she’d built to ensure her emotional survival?

“This isn’t practical,” she said, firmly, rationally. Reasonably. “This isn’treal.We only work because it’s temporary, and we’re both breaking all our normal rules. We wouldn’t translate to the real world.”

“How do you know?”

She furrowed her brow. “What are you actually saying, Ares? What do you want from me?”

That was a great question. “I just know I don’t want you to go yet.”

“But play that through to its natural conclusion, is there anything about our relationship that makes you think more time together will make it easier to part?”

He was conscious of the sound of his blood pumping through his body. “The novelty will wear off.”

She bit into her lower lip. “I don’t think that’s necessarily true. Not for me, anyway.”

Not for me, either, he wanted to add, but some protective mechanism all his own held him silent. Wasn’t this a moment to go all out, to hell with it? Except he had to be completely honest with her. She deserved that, and he couldn’t live with himself if he weren’t.

“You’re right about the media’s scrutiny—and the country’s expectations. The next woman I date is going to be built up as a potential future bride. If that’s not a remote possibility here, then we would need to be very careful about creating limitations around this thing. But that, to my mind, isn’t a reason not to spend some more time together, Sofia.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

HER HEART ALMOST SLOWED to a complete stop, before it burst into life with ferocious intensity, so she could hardly hear herself think over its desperate thumping.

“I don’t understand,” she said, her voice strained to her ears. “Are you saying you want to marry me?”

His frown was hardly a ringing endorsement though. It was like he hadn’t even meant to say what he had. Or maybe she’d completely misunderstood. Mortification made her cheeks sting.

“You’ve been clear that marriage—and children—aren’t something you’d contemplate,” he responded, which was a perfect non-answer, really. It told her nothing of whathewanted.

Besides, he was right. Sofia had always known she’d stay single, and childless, because the alternative was way too risky. She didn’t want to get hurt again.

She didn’t want to feel, for any period of time, as though she belonged to a perfect, wonderful family, only to have the rug pulled out from under her, utterly by surprise, when she least expected it.

“If you were open to those things, then it would have some impact on how we proceeded.”

“Meaning you would date me openly?”

“Meaning that would be a step we’d have to take, at some point.”

Her lips pulled to the side as her whole life flashed, like a fairytale, before her. Not her life, but the life she could have if she were naïve enough to believe that everything worked out for everyone. If she was stupid enough to buy into the fantasy of a big happy ending with a gorgeous pink silk bow wrapped around it.

Only the happier she was in life, the further there was to fall. Why would she risk the pain of going from a sublime life with Ares, and then to the possibility of losing him? Of him falling out of love with her. Of him realizing she wasn’t worthy of him.

Her mouth went dry, a classic panic response, and she was shaking her head then, quickly, as if to clear the fantasy of the vision he was painting.

“I don’t want those things,” she said, though it wasn’t precisely true, it was easier to explain it that way. “I never will.”

Silence crackled between them and his eyes were unreadable, even when they were awash with emotion.

“So, we would have to take measures to keep it private—whilst acknowledging there’s a risk we wouldn’t succeed. And it would make sense to put a time limit on things, to avoid differing expectations.”

It all sounded sosafe.Just the kind of relationship she would usually negotiate. Pragmatic and reasonable, with a locked-in end-date. Only nothing was safe about Ares. No matter how many guardrails they put in place, he was unlike anyone she’d ever met.

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