Page 112 of Awestruck
“I’m in love with you,” I say, struggling to find the air to get the words out as more fireworks join the first.
Freya’s gaze drops back to me, her expression turning unreadable. Is she afraid? Sad? Nervous? I can’t tell.
I tuck a loose bit of hair behind her ear. Her hair is a mess, but I can fix it later. “I’m sorry for saying that.” Then I shake my head, berating myself. “No, I’m not sorry. I love you. I know things are complicated, but I—”
She slams into me, knocking me back a step as her lips lock with mine again, and then she’s deepening the kiss and pulling herself flush against my body. She kisses with a wild passion, and I can barely keep up, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever experienced. It’s better than that first moment when you jump from a plane at twenty thousand feet in the dead of night, and you don’t know how far the ground is below you but you don’t care because there’s nothing like the exhilaration of the freefall. I feel weightless but with my feet firmly on solid ground, and her kiss is more familiar than anything I’ve known.
I never want her to stop.
She pulls away—of course she does—but keeps her arms around my neck and her fingers in the hair at the base of my skull as she looks at me. “I think we’re beyond complicated, Elliot,” she admits. I don’t hear her through the fireworks, but I read the words on her swollen lips. “I don’t know what comes next.”
Wrapping her in a tight hug, I speak in her ear so she’ll hear me. “It doesn’t matter. You’re going to be a queen. I can’t predict the future, but I do know right now.”
The sounds of the fireworks fade, leaving the world in a tenuous silence I’m almost afraid to break. But I have more to say, so I gently push Freya back so I can look her in the eyes. “No matter what happens in two days, I will stand by your side, Freya. Wherever you go, whoever you become, I will always protect you. Your body.” I run my hand down her arm. “Your heart.” I touch a finger to the soft skin just below her collarbone. “Your mind.” I press my forehead to hers and close my eyes. “No matter what.”
“So, you are not leaving?”
I chuckle. “Assuming there’s a grace period for resignations, no. I don’t think I could have left anyway, even if you did marry Grimstad.” I could have gone to the farthest reaches of the earth, and my heart still would have stayed behind in Candora.
“Elliot.” Freya waits until I open my eyes, then she smiles, gliding her fingers across my face, from my temple to my cheek, my nose to my jaw. The touch is as featherlight as the last time and completely maddening, and I never want her to stop. Then her fingers find my lips, and I’m done for. “I don’t think I would haveletyou leave. You are stubborn, but I am worse.”
Cursing under my breath, I tuck my hand behind her neck and drag her mouth back to mine. Who needs oxygen when there is kissing to be done? I could get lost in the taste of her.
Freya breaks the kiss far too soon and plants her hand over my mouth before I can try to keep it going. “Elliot, are you sure you know what you’re getting into? I’m not—”
Grabbing her wrist, I tug her hand down and steal a quick kiss. Then another. And then I kiss her long and slow until I think my body might burst from the tension of it, and only then do I pull away.
“Freya Isolde Marit Alverra, I know exactly who you are.”
“Vitte,” she breathes and grabs me, exploring my mouth with her own like there’s something she’s looking for. Her next words are spoken against my lips like a prayer. “Elliot Parker Reid, your tongue is dangerous around my name.”
I grin. “Only then?”
“Foren skaar og himlen!” Freya follows her Candoran exclamation with another kiss that is almost enough to completely mute my thoughts.
But I have enough mental capacity left to translate:For heaven’s sake and the skies. I can’t hold back my laugh, even when Freya is doing her best to keep me distracted.
My laughter finally breaks us apart, and I get my first good look at the princess since I first kissed her. Her dress looks mostly unrumpled, tight as it is, but everything else about her, from her makeup to her hair, makes it extremely obvious that she was kissed senseless.
Biting my lip, I reach up and gently free the tiara from her head, the first step to making her look presentable again. Freya wraps her fingers around my wrist to pause my movements, and together we look down at the jeweled silver crown I’m holding between us. The air around us, a moment ago charged with heat and passion and warm words, starts to cool, but not in a bad way.
It’s more like we’re sinking back into reality, and there’s one piece of the future that we should probably talk about before this thing between us goes any further. Like before, Freya has made her choice. I need to make mine.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Freya
Howisagirlsupposed to recover from kissing Elliot Reid? I feel as if my head is no longer attached to my body, and if I let go of his arm, I will float away and vanish in a flash of sodium and potassium, my own little firework.
Elliot lifts my tiara with the hand I am not holding captive and balances it on his own head, and I nearly die of asphyxiation at the sight. “Come here,” he says, gently taking me by the arms and turning me around so my back is to him. Then his hands are in my hair, removing pin after pin and letting my waves fall down my back.
Inexplicably, I start to cry, an unfortunate reaction that is made worse when my eyes catch on the dozens of lanterns coming into view overhead and in the water’s reflection. Softly glowing with flickering light, they float from the house and slowly sink toward the lake, surrounding us inthe most beautiful sight I have ever seen. I have come to this ball each year for much of my life, but never have I felt this way, like nothing will ever go wrong again.
It is all because of the man behind me.
Once he has removed all the pins, his fingers start working their way across my scalp in a soothing motion, and my breaths come in tremors as my tears fall more freely. I feel so cherished. Cared for.Loved.
A sob breaks free, and I can no longer hide my overwhelming emotion.
