Page 86 of Royal Fling
Luke
My entire world, every mistake I'd ever made and every right decision I’d taken had been put under the microscope. I couldn’t wait to see how they spun this one!
Walking out on a prince in the middle of a marriage proposal?
I hated to even think of the names I’d be called.
But I couldn’t go along with this charade. Because that was what it was.
August didn’t want to marry me. He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life with me. He wanted to “protect” me, whatever that was supposed to mean.
No, what he wanted was to protect his reputation and that of his family. As if a prince couldn’t just have a relationship without getting hitched on hello.
But that was his world. A world of riches and arranged marriages and scandals. And my world? My world was full of struggle, frustrations, and hopelessness.
What had happened to the August that had taken me on wonderfully sweet dates and looked at me as if I was his entire universe? What had happened to the sweet guy who was chipping away at my heart one touch, one kiss, one look at a time?
I ran out of the hall followed by gasps and yet more flashes and jumped in the first cab I found.
I had to put some distance between him and myself if only to try and salvageanypart of my life before it was too late and I lost everything I had to rumor and toxicity.
I caught sight of a figure running out of the building. August!
He was running after me.
But I was already in the cab, and I had no intention of going back to him. No matter how much it hurt leaving him behind.
Victorian streets blurred outside the window, and every time I closed my eyes, I went back into the room, the hall, the dance. The proposal!
Did he really just propose in front of hundreds of people? In front of the whole world? Because I was certain my pictures of leaving August hanging would be plastered everywhere within hours, and he was to blame for all of it.
I didn't want to be a toy, a political agenda, a ploy, or a device for his coming out. I just wanted to be me.
I wanted to be just Luke. And I wanted him to be just August.
In a way, I preferred being his secret than whatever was happening now. At least when I was his secret, I was safe from the public eye and August was just another man I dated.
I didn’t want to be part of a political minefield.
And let's not even start with the fact that it was too early to be proposed to. We'd only known each other for a month. We hadn’t even said I love you to each other yet for fuck’s sake. How could he just... propose like that? As if it were nothing? As if getting married was no big deal?
Granted, I’d never allowed myself to dream of a future with him because I knew of his obligation and the heavy burden he carried being a crown prince.
But even if I had, that was not the way I wanted it to be. That was not the way I wanted my story to go.
And then, while the media hated me, your father proposed to me and we got married.
And what about “I love you,” Daddy?
Oh that? That came years later.
Yeah, that was definitelynothow it was supposed to be.
“Tough night?” the cabbie asked me.
“I’ll say.”
He offered me a kind, understanding smile, and I went back to window-watching.
