Page 51 of Her Red Hot Secret Royal Fling

Because, when it came time to leave Moricosia, and Ares hadn’t found an opportunity to see her again, it slammed into Sofia that this really was the very final end to what they’d shared.She wanted to go back in time and change everything about how she’d handled their conversation that morning.

She should have agreed to stay. Even just for one more night. What if she went to him now and proposed it?

And then what? Did she really think this would feel any easier in the morning? Of course it wouldn’t. With each moment, each kiss, each touch, each night that passed, it would get harder and harder to leave him. More time with Ares was not the answer to this—she just had to go.

But emotions were deluging her as she waited for their car to come to the private forecourt of the palace and for the first time in her adult life, Sofia didn’t know how to control her feelings. Usually, it was almost effortless. She put up a wall and arranged her features into a mask of bland disinterest, no matter how her heart was breaking. No matter how she was feeling.

As she stood in the palace forecourt, with Salvatore at her side, she was blessedly grateful for the fact that at least Salvatore hadn’t seemed to notice. Usually attentive to a fault, he was engrossed in an email on his phone, so didn’t see the way her lower lip quivered, or the pale colour of her skin.

Their car drew up and she sucked in an uneven breath. This was it, then. She subtly glanced back at the palace, her heart feeling as though it were beating right at the base of her throat.

“Okay, then.” Salvatore slipped his phone decisively into his pocket, then frowned at the car. “Let’s go.”

Sofia’s feet wouldn’t move though. There was no reason for her to stay in Moricosia, and yet she didn’t want to leave.

The crunching of the gravel came as a distant sound at first, one she was hardly aware of, until it grew loud enough and seemed to be right behind them. And it was. “I’m glad I caught you.”

Ares’s voice, deep and so familiar, made Sofia’s blood gush, wrapped around them.

“Ares,” Salvatore smiled at his old friend, whose eyes showed a hint of strain. Did Salvatore notice it? Or was that only visible to Sofia, who now knew this man so much better than she did anyone else on earth? “I didn’t think we’d see you. Your secretary said you were in meetings all day.”

“I was, but I intended to at least say goodbye, and to thank you for coming. I appreciate your work on this.”

“We appreciate the opportunity,” Salvatore corrected, looking at Sofia and waiting for her to say something, to back him up, but all she could do was stare. Her voice, she feared, wouldn’t cooperate if she tried to use it. So, she kept her lips clamped together and her hands firmly by her sides.

Ares nodded, his gaze flicking to Sofia’s and lingering there, so she wanted, more than anything, to click her fingers and go back in time. To be back in the forest, with just the two of them.

“I enjoyed hiking with you,” he said, his voice only slightly different. But she heard it. The emotion. The ambivalence. The weight of words he wasn’t speaking, because Salvatore was there, with no idea what had happened between them.

She nodded. Damn her voice.

“So did Sofia,” Salvatore interjected, frowning. “Didn’t you, Sof?”

She nodded again.

“If you are ever in Moricosia, I can arrange for another trip.”

Her heart stammered, but she knew she couldn’t come back. “Thank you,” she said, hoarsely. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“And we’ll catch up soon,” Salvatore said, pushing his hand forward to shake. Ares looked down, almost confused, then reached for it, but his eyes flicked to Sofia, and his frown grew.

It was the work of an instant to drop Salvatore’s hand and then reach for Sofia’s, and even when she knew touching him was the last thing she should do, she put her smaller hand in his and let her whole body absorb the energy of that touch,the electricity of their contact, until she could hardly stand up anymore. It was two seconds, if that, but it was enough to make Sofia want to cry. She took a hurried step backwards, towards the car. The driver had stepped out and was standing with the rear passenger door open. Sofia quickly got in and stared straight ahead, a lump forming in her throat she couldn’t get rid of.

Salvatore joined her on the other side and looked at her, but the moment they were both in the car, she turned to Ares and stared at him. He stared back. Every cell in her body was screaming at her to stop the car, to get out, to run at Ares and wrap her arms around him, and kiss him here in full view of everybody, to hell with their agreement to keep this secret. To hell with her fears. What would her life be like if she didn’t overthink everything? If she was capable of just throwing herself into a situation and letting it play out?

But she knew the awful wrenching feeling of heartbreak and hurt and she wouldn’t willingly expose herself to that again. It already hurt like the devil, after just one week. What would it be like to leave him after a month? Two months? Six?

He moved his hand slightly. A wave? Or something else. Their eyes clung even as the engine started, but then the driver began to pull the car forward, away from the palace, and a single tear rolled down Sofia’s cheek. She didn’t dash it away; that would attract more attention. Instead, she kept her face averted, as another tear fell, and then another.

She was grateful beyond words that Salvatore was once again absorbed by something on his phone, and didn’t seem to notice.

“You understandhow grateful I am for the opportunity,” she heard herself say, as if from a long way away. Everything had been like that since coming back from Moricosia three weeks earlier. Sofia felt as though she were going through life with noise cancelling headphones on—she could see what was happening around her, but almost through a fog.

Dante Santoro leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees. “But it’s not for you?”

Sofia swallowed, pleating her skirt distractedly. Outside, the London sky was a lead grey, and rain threatened. She thought of the light in Moricosia, as she often did, and her heart gave a twisty little pang.

“I want to find my own way,” she said.

---