Page 25 of Lily and the Billionaire Prince

“Yeah,” Lily said.

“Why did you move so far away?” Henrik asked.

“Remember that bad relationship we talked about?” she said, venturing not to remember all the times she’d daydreamed over their beach stroll and the different outcomes it could have had. She should have let him kiss her. “I moved to get away from him.”

“I’m sorry you had to do something so drastic just to escape an evil ex.”

If only the move had worked. She smiled, not wanting to give him the impression it hadn’t. “Yeah, it’s been all for the best. My parents…” Another touchy subject. How much should she tell him?

The plane began taxiing around the tarmac and Lily gripped the armrests. Takeoff was the worst part of flying. Once they got into the air, she could relax, but she didn’t like the extreme gush of pressure or the flip in her stomach when the plane lifted from the ground.

“You don’t get along with your parents?” Henrik guessed.

“Not exactly,” she said. “We haven’t spoken in a few years.”

“I wish I could not speak to mine sometimes,” he said.

“No, you don’t.”

He lifted a shoulder. “Okay, I don’t. I’m sorry,” he said as the plane picked up speed. Lily pinched her lips, closed her eyes, and gripped the rests, waiting for the worst of takeoff to be over. When the plane leveled again in the air and her stomach stopped flipping, she opened her eyes.

Henrik watched her. “Better?” he asked.

Lily relaxed against her seat. “Better.”

“So tell me,” he began. “What happened with your parents?”

They had time. Once this was all over, Henrik would be marrying someone else and wouldn’t remember Lily for long anyway. Might as well talk. “Have you heard of King Toothpaste?”

“I can’t say I have. It’s an American brand?”

“Ironically enough, yes. My father owns the company, and he hoped my brother, Ethan, the one we’re going to stay with, would be interested in picking up where Dad left off.”

“But your brother didn’t want to be the toothpaste king?”

“Ethan joined the Marines right out of high school, and Dad was so angry. He removed Ethan’s name from the family trust and intended me to step in and take over the company.”

“I can see you dominating the head of a successful company.”

“Me?”

He brushed a finger near her hairline. The feel of his skin on her forehead sent tremors down her spine. “I’ve told you many times the excellent qualities I see in you as you quietly go about your duties for the Elirs. You’re also a knockout in a suit.”

Lily laughed if for nothing else than to avoid the way he made her want to touch him back. “Because that’s one of the qualifications.”

“It is. But let me guess, you didn’t want the position any more than your brother did.”

“I wanted it,” she said, glancing out the window at the tuft of cloud in the still blue sky. “But remember that bad relationship I told you about? My parents didn’t like him. They insisted I end things, but I thought I was in love with him. So I chose him over my parents, and they didn’t like that much.”

Talking about the fallout was like a vise on her throat. Lily’s words grew tighter and tighter the more she spoke.

“How could I ‘pick a good-for-nothing scoundrel over such a promising position?’” she said, quoting her dad’s words.

“We do foolish things for love,” Henrik said. “But he is the bad relationship you left?”

Lily sniffed, talking through the tightness in her throat. “My family had already written me off. I figured I didn’t have much to stay for and had a new opportunity.”

“With the Elirs,” he said.

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