Page 113 of A Girl and HER Prince
He wanted Livvy to know everything going through his mind. “You forget,” he said. “Odysseus finally came to his senses and came home to his Luvvy.”Penelope, but that wasn’t the point.
She startled. “Who said you could call me Luvvy?”
He was hypnotized by how he could still make her so breathless. “Honey, I told you,” he said. “You’ll always be Luvvy to me.” He met her lovely—suddenly misty—eyes. “Get used to it. I’m calling you my Luvvy until we’re old and gray.”
Her hand went to his and she squeezed his fingers wordlessly.
Deedee wasn’t being shy with her phone anymore. Her camera lens sailed over their heads. “Well, this is cute, I guess. Hey, Livvy, Venice, you owe me, you know. If it wasn’t for me, the two of you never would’ve met.”
Deedee couldn’t take credit for this. This was fate. “It wouldn’t matter if we lived on opposite sides of the ocean,” he said. “Our paths would’ve crossed… somehow.”
Livvy’s laugh was a feast to his ears. “You’re not going to give Deedee an inch, are you?”
“Not even a centimeter,” he said. “You and I were meant to be.” Never feeling more vulnerable in his life, he felt his love for her pouring from his lips in reckless abandon. “Angel, you belong with a saint, but if you don’t mind, I’d like you to stay with me.” He knitted his fingers through hers. “I need you.”
Her amusement cleared as she watched him thoughtfully. “As a king?”
He gulped. “Yes, a king… do you care about that?”
“I was always fine with that, you jerk.”
His breath caught in his excitement. “A king needs his heart.” He couldn’t believe that was leaving his mouth. Did talking this way make him a romantic or a believer in the powers of love or whatever they said in those cheesy novels he’d caught his sister reading from time to time?
Studying Livvy’s teary eyes, he didn’t care. For once he’d say exactly what was on his mind. He’d be telling her a lot more… and fortunately for the both of them, he didn’t have to be burning up with a fever to do it.
He’d never felt so free.
His mouth met her cheek, and he whispered for her ears alone, “I would cross the ocean. I would conquer my enemies. I would have my Lavinia.”
All the fury that sparked in her eyes turned to mush… and this time, she let him kiss her when he managed to wriggle free from the medics. Finally, he could slow down and really take her in because no miserable bad guys were chasing after them to stab him to death. Each move between them sent delicious, sizzling sparks through him and felt blessedly… unhurried.
“Oh, gross!” Deedee said. She turned the camera on herself. “Enough of that cheesy monologue. How about we discuss where we’re going next on my travel vlog?”
Good! Venice couldfinallyhave Livvy to himself! She tugged back from him, giving him a stern look. “Now wait a second! We didn’t have our tie-breaking basketball tournament yet!”
“When?” he asked.
“Soon,” she said with a breathless smile.
He brushed her curly hair back and proceeded to take advantage of their time together. Even if it was going to be for the rest of their lives—it was still too short.
Epilogue
Saturday, July 8th
Now this was the vacation Livvy was looking for!
Her hand met Venice’s. He’d set up his lounge chair across from hers. The pool on his yacht mirrored the glittering orbits sprayed across the galaxy.
They’d meant to go stargazing, but they only ended up gazing into the stars of each other’s eyes in between reading passages aloud from their books.
Was that too cheesy? Definitely!But Venice had turned into an absolute cheeseball when he was in love, which he admitted to her—and often. Livvy adored how open he was.
She pressed down the pages ofThe Aeneidwhile he pretended to readThe Odyssey, but mostly he dipped his toe in the pool to flick water at her.
The final time Livvy felt the cool water splash over her leg, she cried out and set her book down. “Venice!” She launched from the wicker furniture to join him on his. He laughed when she’d done exactly what he’d wanted her to do—she read him that easily.
Nothing about this lighthearted playfulness was new—it had been this way since he’d declared to his father that he was in love with a commoner that was in no way common, and then dipped her with a kiss in front of the stern royal’s suspiciously bright eyes.
