Page 38 of The Prince's Green Card Scheme

“You could come anytime you wanted,” I say, and she gives me a weird kind of look.

And then all the tension in her shoulders falls away and I can’t decode what she’s feeling at all.

“Come on. Let’s keep going.”

We wander around the fountain, and I tell her a little more about the house, about how it was built from Bellamari stone and how we had some of the finest architects of the age design it.

“How do you know about all this stuff?” she asks.

Smiling with faint embarrassment, I bring my hand to the back of my neck and rub my shoulders. “Well, you know how I just told you we open this place up for the public?”

She nods, and I sigh, knowing she’s going to judge me for this. “When I was a young teenager, my parents thought it might be nice if I offered some exclusive tours. They made me take members of the public around all day long, answering all their questions. I knew the basics, but I learned most from the history buffs who would try and trick me with questions they knew I wouldn’t know how to answer. I did that for a couple of years and learned a whole lot that I’ve never quite forgotten. It’s pretty useless knowledge really.”

“That’s cute,” she says, looking at me with a smile that seems to be trying to tell me something. I can’t decide what, so I don’t comment on it.

“Yeah, I guess,” I say. “It was definitely one of the better things my parents made me do. You should be glad you’ve never had to do royal duties before. Some of them really suck.”

“Am I going to have to start doing them now?” she asks, “You know, because…” She trails off, but I know the end of that sentence isbecause we’re married.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know where all this is going. But if you stick around with me, then yeah, probably you’ll have to. But if none of this is real, then you don’t really have the obligation to.”

We walk around the fountain, looking back at the house. Chloe doesn’t say anything, digesting what I’ve just told her.

This must be so much for her to take in.

Is it good or bad that she isn’t saying anything?

Does she want to stick around or not?

And then the day gets worse. Because Chloe isn’t saying anything, I let my mind and gaze wander. For a while, I linger on her. She’s wearing a light blue sundress, one that shows off her freckled shoulders and swirls around her legs. The breeze catches her hair and sometimes blows it so that it frames her face so perfectly, like something out of a movie.

She takes my breath away with how beautiful she is.

Not wanting to be caught staring at her, I look away, my eyes drifting back to the house. It always looks so lovely in the sun.

And then I spot Luca staring at us from one of the windows. He’s peeking out from behind the curtains, and there’s a shadow behind him that I can only assume is Miguel.

“Chloe,” I hiss, panicking. “Kiss me.”

“What?” she splutters, raising both eyebrows as high as they’ll go.

“My brothers are watching. Please, just kiss me. It doesn’t have to be anything deep. Just pretend. Please. It won’t mean anything.”

I’m ready to start trying to persuade her more, but before I can say anything else, she steps towards me, grabs the front of my shirt, and pulls me down for a kiss.

I flail for a second, and then my arms wrap around her, holding her as her magical lips press against mine. Inside my chest, my heart bursts like a firework all over again.

In reality, it doesn’t last for more than a couple of seconds at most. But in that moment, time seems to freeze altogether, shattering around us as if nothing else in the world matters. Nothing but me and Chloe, there and then.

Nothing elsedoesmatter except us.

Right now, I need her more than ever.

Then she lets go, and it’s over.

I’m reluctant to move back, but I do. Even though my body is crying out for her, aching, I don’t want to seem pushy. I glance back up to the window, and I breathe out when I see Luca and Miguel are gone.

Maybe they weren’t spying on us after all. Maybe I was seeing phantoms in my mind. But I doubt it. They have both been trying to catch me off guard for years, and this is a fresh target for them to aim at.

---