Page 64 of Tech Prince Troubles
“Because you’ve been… moping?” He mouthed the word twice as if he was trying it out. “What does that mean?”
“That I’ve been… behaving oddly, distracted, out of sorts.”
He studied me. “Why have you been out of sorts?”
Yeah. That was even harder to admit. Because once I told him I wanted him to stay, that I didn’t want him to go, I wouldn’t be able to take it back. How could I demand a prince to fit his life around a twice-divorced father of five?
“I talked to Layla earlier,” Adri interrupted my thoughts. “About booking one of the renovated rooms after the ball.”
My mouth dropped open. Not that he could see that. He had his eyes closed again, tilted toward the sun. “I thought you were going home?”
“I am. Until the wedding, at least.”
My heart pounded. That was at the end of September, wasn’t it? But… “You’re coming back after the wedding?”
“Yes. In October.”
I had the feeling I was missing something. There were so many questions circling around my brain as I sat staring at him, trying to make sense of what he was saying. “How long?”
“I don’t know.” He took a breath. “Maybe permanently.”
My heart raced and pounded like it wanted to burst free. “‘Permanently’,” I repeated, as the meaning slowly dawned on me.
“Yes.” Adri glanced at me with a shy smile.
“I thought you had duties to attend to?”
Adri nodded, though his shoulders tensed. “I had a long conversation with Frank and my mins. I don’t have to live on the island for that.”
“You don’t?”
He shook his head.
“And this is what you want?” My head filled with all the reasons he shouldn’t. That traffic was too loud. That there were too many people.
“I like it here.” His voice didn’t waver. “I like you.”
His words touched me deep inside. Would my heart ever slow down again? “You’d move here for me?”
“For us. If that’s what you want.” Adri took my hand in his. “I don’t want to leave.”
Me. He didn’t want to leave me. He didn’t say it, but I still heard it. I squeezed his trembling hand and took a moment to order my thoughts. “The whole ride here, I thought about ways to tell you not to go. But I have no right to ask you to rearrange your life for me when I can’t do the same. Even a month apart seems impossible, because I convinced myself I can’t do long distance.” As the words left my mouth, an unexpected calm settled over me. None of that mattered. Not because he’d be coming back, but because never seeing him again was not an option.
Adri gazed at me, his shoulders twitching. He needed to hear the words.
“Yes. Yes to coming back. Yes. Please stay.”
Lines shimmered brightly beneath Adri’s skin as his shoulders relaxed, and his hand stopped trembling. I ran my free hand across his bare arm, tracing the blue glow. Giddiness washed over me, and I threw him a sheepish smile. “I’m not sure my family will survive our moments apart, though. I broke my phone.”
“Oh. That’s…” A twinkle appeared in his eyes and his lips twitched as if he was trying not to laugh. “Did Julian scold you?”
“He will when I get home. I left it in my pants… put them in the washing machine.”
He was smiling openly now. “Because you were moping.”
I was going to regret teaching him what it meant. “Because your scent still clung to my clothes, my bed sheets, my room, and I couldn’t stop?—”
He claimed my mouth in a searing kiss—sparks shooting from his lips to mine—halting my brain… and my words. When he let me go, I couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
