Page 40 of Lorenzo & Lily

“You,” she burst out. “N-not of you hurting me, not like that. But of you leaving me.”

He was gobsmacked. “Why would I leave you? Is there some other deep dark secret you haven’t told me?”

She bit her lower lip, but didn’t answer.

“Lily? What is it?”

She released her lip and spoke softly. “It’s me.”

His hands itched to bring her close, give her comfort, but he resisted. He didn’t think she’d want it just yet. “What about you?”

“My past. My family’s past. If we got together again, it would all come out again, this time on the front pages of newspapers, and on the evening news. It could hurt you and your family. Not to mention everything the press might say, and the scrutiny we’ll be under.”

“Once people realize we’re together, it won’t be an issue. We’ll handle it.”

Her brows arched up. “How? Are you going to force me to marry you or something?”

The corner of his lips tipped up. “I would never force a woman to do anything. I will ask you to marry me. Though, don’t worry, I won’t ask just yet.”

She shook her head. “We don’t know each other anymore. We’re–”

“–the loves of each other’s lives.”

She sucked in a loud breath. “You–No, we’re not.”

“We are. At least, you’re mine.”

Her body stiffened. “Lo–”

“You think I don’t know what I’m feeling? You think I can’t breathe you in, feel you pressed against me, hear your goddamn sexy voice and not know it? Not realize it? I’ve been lost for years waiting for you.”

She tipped her nose up. “You weren’t exactly celibate these last several years.”

All those damn rumours were coming back to haunt him now. “No, I wasn’t. The press exaggerated some of it, but I did see other women. I never hurt the women I was with, but I was with other women. ‘Playboy Prince’. That was my brother Nate’s moniker until he found his love. The press has since declared it mine. What’s a man to do when the woman he loved left him shattered and broken, knowing he’d never find that kind of love again? I slept around. It’s something we’ll both have to deal with, not only because of what our daughter might hear about me, but also because of what I want us to be.”

“And you want us to be together? A family?”

“Would that be so terrible? No, don’t answer now. I don’t think I can bear the answer either way.”

She was silent for a minute as her body relaxed once more. “What now?”

“Now I go home and tell my parents they’re grandparents again. They’ll want to come down and visit, and I’m sorry that can’t be avoided.” Her skin went deathly white and he rushed to her. “What’s wrong? Lily, talk to me!”

She shook her head. “It’s nothing. I’m just, uh, wondering, if I should, uh, tell my parents about this before the news hits the papers.”

She hadn’t been thinking of that, he was sure of it. She’d been thinking about meeting his parents for the first time, but he let it slide for now since the color had just begun to come back into her cheeks. “Don’t call your parents. They haven’t bothered to help you, so there’s no reason you should do the same. They’ll try to contact you, I’m sure of it, but we can hold them off. Another benefit of living at the castle: no one comes in if they’re not allowed.”

“Yes. Of course. Yes, you’re right.”

“One more thing before I go. Things will get terribly confusing if I call you both Lily. Do you think our daughter will mind being called Liliana?”

“Oh. You can call me Cecilia, or Cece.”

He brushed his knuckles against her cheek and saw a blush bloom. “I’ll never be able to call you anything but Lily, I’m afraid. It’s how you’re etched in my mind for all eternity. Would our daughter find it so upsetting to be called by her full name?”

She swallowed, and this time he followed the line of her throat with his finger; she shivered. “I don’t want Lily to feel too many changes at once. I don’t know if she’ll like being called by her full name.”

“My parents will never call her anything but; they only ever call us by our full names. What’s her last name? We’ll need to change that, too.”

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