Page 44 of Lily and the Billionaire Prince

How could he dismiss the situation so easily? She and the Queen had left the room because the shouting had been too much. Lily’s arrival here clearly wasn’t okay with the King, and unlike Henrik, she couldn’t pretend that it was. “Henrik, what am I doing here? I can’t help but think—” She didn’t want to say it, but did he sincerely care about her, or was she some kind of pawn to him? A way to prove a point to his father and shove her in the King’s face?

He finished his scone and dusted his hands, gesturing to the tray he’d set on the table by the door. “You’re here because I invited you. You are my guest, but I hope to make you more than that. Now come. Eat some scones and get, how you say, bundled up. I have something I want to show you.”

15

If Lily needed anything else to make her feel as though she’d traveled to another plane in time, horses would do it. After dressing in jeans and a sweater, she was glad she’d packed for cold weather, even if she had thought she was only going to Vermont at the time. Lily brushed her teeth and hair and ambled out to the stables with the prince.

Though she loved animals, she hadn’t spent much time around horses. They were graceful and elegant, with their long, slender legs and steady gazes. She felt a pang of longing for her fur babies, but she had to admit, she wouldn’t miss the smell. Litter boxes had nothing on horse stalls. She made a mental note to message Snow and see how things were going.

A young man had a large black beauty hooked in the center between the rows of stalls. He patted the horse’s side and bent to secure the saddle around its belly.

“What an exquisite animal,” she said.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never ridden a horse before.” Henrik made straight for the saddled horse. He said a few words to the stable hand in Norwegian, and the stable hand nodded and smiled, stepping back.

“All right. I won’t tell you,” she said.

He rested a hand on the horse’s neck. The black horse was stocky, thicker than horses she’d seen in movies, her legs sturdy and tasseled around each hoof. “Thunder is a draught horse. She’s a gentle giant and she can carry us both if you’re not sure about riding on your own.”

“Both of us?”

Shaggy hair drifted into the horse’s eyes. Her ears pricked as if she knew they were talking about her.

Henrik’s breath stroked her cheek. “If you’re comfortable riding with my arms around you,” he said with a voice meant for quiet secrets and hidden longings.

Oh, she was more than amenable to that.

She approached the horse. Henrik cupped his hands and she climbed onto the horse’s back. Henrik lifted himself after and a pleasant shiver ran down Lily’s spine as he reached around either side of her and took hold of the reins.

“Lean back into me,” he coaxed. His hand slid around her waist.

Drugged by the gentle lull of his voice and the heat of his proximity, by the smooth safeness of his touch, she succumbed. Lily released an exhale and leaned her back against Henrik’s chest. With his arms secured around her, he clicked his teeth.

Thunder responded, lifting her great, black, tufted hooves to trot through the open stable door to sink into the untouched snow. Sunlight gleamed brightly among the trees, casting a sparkle across the ground that made the snow resemble a blanket of diamonds. She scarcely noticed the cold, enfolded by Henrik as she was.

“You never told me where we’re going,” Lily said.

“It isn’t far,” Henrik said. “I’d rather show you than tell you.”

“All right. Then are you going to tell me what happened with your father?”

Henrik’s hands in their leather gloves tightened on the reins. She wanted to regret the question, to let the beauty of the woods envelop her and let herself drown in this. But fairy tales weren’t real. Frogs didn’t turn into princes, and princes didn’t marry nobodies from Vermont.

She couldn’t let the snowy, spectral beauty or his embrace make her lose sight of reality. She’d already made that mistake with Damon, and he’d continued to make her pay for it.

“Stop here,” she said, pushing Henrik’s arms away. “Stop, let me down.”

“Whoa,” Henrik called to Thunder. The stocky horse slowed on command, and Lily slipped to the snow. Henrik slid down as well, comforting the startled horse with a hand. “What’s the matter?”

“I won’t go another step with you until you tell me what happened.”

Lips pressed together, he exhaled visibly in the cold air. “All right. My father is unhappy that I’ve brought you home. He wishes me to marry the woman I told you about. Lady Eden. He has invited her to stay and he claims she will be arriving tomorrow evening.”

“Then I don’t see any reason for us to continue this little outing.” Lily tried to step away, but his arm stopped her. She was ready to board the next available flight. The last thing she wanted was to get in the way of aking. A vengeful ex was bad enough. Why tell Henrik he had thirty days to find his bride if he was only going to withdraw the offer?

“I didn’t sayIwas choosing her. Whom I marry is still my choice, Lily.”

“Don’t you need some kind of…alliance marriage or something? To keep up good relations?”

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