Page 30 of Will You (Not) Marry Me

“You’re lying there with a broken leg, but otherwise you’re fine. But it’s a broken leg, right? That’s going to hurt. A lot.”

“I suppose so.” Eva still wasn’t sure where this was going.

“In the bed next to you is someone with a broken back. Shattered ribs. They might not ever walk again. They’re in the most awful pain imaginable. And you look over and feel bad for them and their pain.”

He looked down at Eva then, eyes on hers, fingertips stroking her cheek. “My point is there will always be people in pain. I see it all the time. People who can’t afford to pay their electricity bills. People with sick children in the hospital. But just because someone has a broken back, it won’t make a broken leg hurt any less. You’re allowed to feel pain, Eva.”

Eva sniffed, desperate to look away from the intensity of his gaze, but unable to.

“And what about you?” she said.

“What about me?”

“I’ve seen how much pressure you’re under, Finn,” she said, stroking his face. “From yourself. From everybody. Do you let yourself feel your pain, or do you bury it when you see other people that have it worse?”

Finn’s small smile turned into a sly thing. She’d caught him out, and he knew it. The air in the room had turned concentrated and dense like Eva was trying to move through concrete.

“We’re not talking about me right now.”

“We should.”

“Should we?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe I don’t want to talk right now, Eva.”

Her fingers froze on his face, but Finn’s kept moving, slowly caressing their way down to her neck. There was something new in his expression, too. Something like freshly welded steel—hot and sharp. She felt her neck flush along the trail his fingers had left behind, their noses almost touching.

“I’m sorry,” Eva breathed, needing to say it properly at least once.

Finn quirked the corner of his mouth up in a smile. “I forgive you. Like I said, you’re independent to a fault. I wouldn’t expect someone like you to take all that scheming lying down.”

Eva pressed her forehead against Finn’s, and they sat there like that for a moment, eyes closed, just holding each other. She felt…safe. Even though her eyes were itchy from crying and there were still trails of tears drying on her face and neck, she felt safe and at peace, right there in Finn’s arms.

“This isn’t just another devious plan, is it?” said Finn, sounding amused as his free hand ran down her back.

Eva couldn’t help but huff out a laugh, her own hand sliding into his hair. “This certainly wasn’t on my plans for the day.”

“I’m sorry to disrupt your plans.”

“When did I say it was a bad thing?”

With that, already sharing each other’s breath, Finn removed the last of the space between them and pressed his lips to Eva’s. There was no talking after that.

CHAPTER15

EVA

Eva woke up in Finn’s bed wearing one of his sweaters, long enough to be a makeshift nightgown on her. It had grown too cold during the early hours of the morning to continue to try and sleep without anything on, which had led to her stumbling in the dark through the pile of clothes that she had happily torn from him the night before, Finn shaking his head at her sleepily as she tripped over the nightstand and pretty much fell back into bed.

Now with the morning sun trickling through, dappling her face in light, Eva looked around bleary-eyed and found herself alone in Finn’s room. She didn’t have her phone with her so she had no idea what time it was, but it felt late enough that Finn must have let her sleep in. She sighed and sank back into the pillows that still remained on the bed, fingers fidgeting with the collar of his sweater.

She had some decisions to make, as unpleasant as the process might be. Staring at the ceiling, she forced herself to stop shying away from the thoughts she’d rather ignore right now. Or ignore forever, really. That wouldn’t make them go away.

Was she falling for Finn? After all this scheming to get out of the marriage, was she really just going to go ahead and fall in love with the guy?

Yes. She could feel the potential of it all creeping in on her. How easy it would be to love him. Would marrying him really be that awful? Now that she’d gotten to know him, instead of running from any possibility of marriage, the idea of a traditional, arranged royal marriage wasn’t quite so terrifying and disastrous as she’d first felt it to be.

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