Page 122 of Modern Romance Collection May 2024 Books 1-4

“I did the same.”

She looked at him then, her gaze thoughtful.

“Yes, you did.”

A different type of intimacy settled between them. For the first time since he’d arrived, he felt as though they were seeing each other, truly, in all their beauty and faults. And still they sat side by side, content.

“Join me on the balcony.”

She smiled and accepted his hand up. He kept his fingers wrapped around hers as they walked onto the terrace and settled at a bistro table by the edge. Aside from the glistening drops still clinging to the trees, there was no evidence of the storm that had battered the island the night before.

“What would you like for breakfast?” he asked.

“I’ve already had some fruit.”

“Fruit is not breakfast,” he replied. “You’re on an island where you can have anything you want.”

She glanced down, her cheeks turning red.

“That’s one of the things I love.”

Her head shot up, her eyes widening.

“What?”

“I can always tell your emotions by the color of your skin. For example, right now with that beautiful bright red and your cheeks like apples, I know you’re embarrassed.”

“Stuff it,” she replied, her cheeks growing even redder.

“I also know,” he added, his voice deepening, “that whenever you look like a rose, you’re thinking about everything that we did last night.”

A smile tugged at her lips.

“It is one of the curses of being a redhead.”

“Not a curse.” He paused. “It was one of the ways that I knew that there was more to our past relationship than what you were telling me.”

He had mostly reconciled what had happened, the way she had manipulated the truth. But it lingered in the back of his mind. A conversation unfinished.

She glanced out over the ocean.

“I am sorry for that,” she said softly. “It was never my intention to lie to you. It just...”

Her voice trailed off. Regret hit him as he remembered the pain in her voice when he’d first arrived. Her shock and pain.

“I’m sorry, Esmerelda. Unfortunately, that’s all I know how to say now. I wish I could remember why. Could remember what I said.”

Esme sighed.

“It was painful yes. But it was more how you did it, which we’ve already been over.” She looked back down at her coffee. “I was embarrassed, too. I thought we had a little more time together. I thought that our affair was more than just a one-night stand. Not that I expected anything to come of it,” she added quickly. “I always accepted that we were from different worlds. That you would have to eventually move on as I would. I just didn’t expect for that to happen less than a week after we...” The rosiness returned to her cheeks. “After Paris.”

“Why do you think it did? Truly.”

“Your father is doing well for his age. But he’s nearing seventy. He’s been vocal about wanting to step down before he’s seventy-five, perhaps sooner, and pass you the crown.”

Julius’s hand tightened around his cup. He could barely wrap his head around being a prince. Now he might be a king in less than five years?

“Hence his encouraging me to get engaged.”

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