Page 54 of The King's Fake Bride

Her gaze flickers past me as she forces a smile onto her face. “Yeah, everything is fine. I’m just tired from the flight and then having that show of reuniting in front of the cameras. I just want to crawl into bed.”

“Did you want to stop by the bakery building first? They changed the color of the counter to that shade of blue you liked and installed a new butcher-block top on it.”

She opens the car door. “I don’t think so. It’s been a long day.”

We get in the car, but it feels like the oxygen has been sucked out of it. I don’t know what to think about any of this.

Should I tell her that I missed her?

It’s the truth, but I think it’s just going to make things more complicated between the two of us.

And to be honest, I didn’t think I would miss her as much as I did. I’m still trying to process it myself and telling her is only going to confuse me more.

Amy shifts in her seat, her hair falling like a curtain between us as we leave the airport behind. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the wedding. I know that Gabby and my friends aren’t going to be in the room with me while I’m getting ready — due to the security issues and all that — but they are going to be in the front row, right? They’re the only family I have.”

“Of course they’re going to be there, and Daphne is going to make sure that they’re taken care of all weekend. You don’t have to worry about a thing.”

“I have a lot to worry about.” She twists to look at me, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Do you think that we’re making a huge mistake and that we should call this off before it’s too late?”

It feels like she’s punched me in the gut.

“What?”

Her cheeks turn a bright red. “I know. Maybe we should’ve thought about this a little more. We rushed into the plan thinking that everything was going to be fine, but the truth is that we don’t love each other.”

The ground is falling out from beneath me. It feels like I’m grabbing onto the sides of the cliff, trying to haul myself out of the free fall.

“No, we don’t love each other,” I say, though my voice sounds strangled. “I didn’t think that mattered, though. We agreed to get marriedbecausethere was no risk of us falling in love, and then we could both have everything we wanted.”

She bites her bottom lip, rolling it between her teeth as she looks past me out the window. “I know.”

“Are you having second thoughts?”

“Maybe.” She shifts in the seat again, huddling closer to the door and farther from me. “I keep thinking about Gabby’s wedding and the love that was there, and I don’t know if getting married without love is right.”

I take a ragged breath, torn between spilling the rollercoaster of emotions in my head and letting her think that she isn’t the single most important person in my life right now.

The other part of me — the one that knows a king can’t be vulnerable — shoves those emotions down the best he can.

“I think that we’re making the best decisions we can with the cards we’ve been dealt. This is only temporary, and I do care for you. It’s just not in that way.”

But it might be.

Though I don’t know what being in love with a woman feels like, if I was going to fall for anyone, it would be her.

It would be impossible not to.

The way Amy connects with everyone she meets is astounding. She understands me on a level that nobody else ever has.

When I’m at my worst, she charges at the problem headfirst instead of shying away like so many other people would.

I’m not sure there’s anything in this world or the next that would scare her into backing down.

And that’s why I can’t drag her down and tie her to the crown forever.

After all that she’s been through in her life and the ferocity with which she attacks the world, I can’t cage her. She’s not a bird to be kept by the rules of a council.

She should be free to live her life without the weight of it all hanging over her head.

---