Page 23 of Lily and the Billionaire Prince

He rested his hands on his hips, carelessly oblivious to how vulnerable this entire conversation was making her. “Pity,” Henrik said. “Sometimes the wrong choice can seem so right.”

He gave her that shameless grin, the one that spelled confidence and a charming disregard for the fact that he was tying her up in knots. The sun sank lower toward the horizon behind him, and he bent to the ocean and splashed in her direction.

Lily squealed in delight and dipped down to return the favor, glad for the distraction. The wet spray spattered on Henrik’s chest and legs. He gave out a playful groan, pulling her into his arms and threatened to dunk her in the water. Lily clung to his firm arms, laughing and enjoying the sensation of being held.

He paused beneath the sky, keeping her body close to his, and gazed into her eyes. His lids closed to half-mast and he took in her features, from her forehead to her cheeks, to her mouth. Lily froze inside, her heart thudding against his. Was he going to kiss her after all?

The moment came and went. Henrik released her feet to the sand once more, pausing long enough to brush a strand of hair from her face.

She needed oxygen, stat. Lily prayed he couldn’t tell how erratically her heart was beating, or how much more effort it took just to breathe. Somehow, she managed to shake sense into her brain.

“Okay, then,” Lily said. Significantly wetter than they were before, the two continued their stroll through the damp sand and lapping tide. She didn’t want to keep talking. She wanted him to sweep her into his arms again and kiss her; really, good and long, kiss her. “Since you’re logical and all-knowing, how do you know?”

“How do I know what?” To her relief, Henrik sounded a little shaken. Was she having the same effect on him as he was having on her? He couldn’t almost-kiss her twice in a row and not have it affect him.

“If someone is right for you? How do you know? Do you believe in soul mates? Have you found theright one?”

“No,” he said, sounding genuine, kicking his bare foot through the tide. “I believe happiness with someone else isn’t prescribed. I think you find someone you can love and then you love them.”

“Love them. Just like that.”

“Youlovethem.” He saidloveas if it meant more. As if it wasn’t the falling-into kind. As if it was the perfect fit kind, where you try on different sizes until you find just the right one.

“And this Lady Princess of yours, you can’t love her?”

“No.” Henrik said this with absolute certainty.

“Why not?” It was her turn to pester him for answers to difficult questions. Anything to make her forget the way he’d just made her feel.

“When you know a person after having been forced into conversations and time spent together, you learn quickly that while she is beautiful, not all shoes are meant to be a pair.”

“Shoes?”

“Indeed. If we were shoes, she would be a high heel and I would be a mountain man’s boot. Those two could never be paired together no matter how interesting the combination.” He emphasized ‘interesting’ again. “Imagine the atrocious hobble trying to walk in a pair of that making.” He demonstrated a tiptoe step and a lower one, making Lily laugh again.

“Interesting,” she said, deciding to bring up her thoughts. “Are you referencing her kissing this time? Have you kissed her?”

“A kiss is a good indicator. You have to want to kiss the person you marry, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Probably,” Lily said.

“At least you and I have that going for us.” He gazed out at the ocean again. Waves lapped the shore in gentle motions.

She cinched inside like a pleated seam. “You—we—what?”

Henrik’s touch was something she could never quite become accustomed to. He stroked her arm like a breeze, lifting every one of her hair follicles and sending goosebumps down her skin. His eyes gleamed with seduction and delicious possibilities. “Admit that you didn’t want to kiss me just now.”

Heat flared in her cheeks, but she couldn’t pull away from that glance. She couldn’t deny it, so she chose not to. “Are you always this straightforward?” Lily was embarrassed to hear the weakened lilt in her voice.

“Only when I’m with someone I can be open around. Another thing you and I have going in a matter of days that Lady Eden and I have never and will probably never have. A fact my father doesn’t care to note.”

If he kept implying this connection between them it was going to go to Lily’s head. That was the last place she needed any kind of ideas about being with a prince. She was running away to Florence. That was that.

“Dating is hard enough without a deadline hanging over you,” Lily said.

They walked in silence for several more footsteps. “One would never know it was almost Christmas,” Henrik said, changing the subject. She was grateful. She wasn’t sure how much more talk of kissing she could handle without laying one on him herself. She’d been the one to pull away, after all. What would have happened if she hadn’t?

“I must say, though this is beautiful, I do miss the snow.”

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