Page 17 of His Forever Princess

His eyes flashed at her before he turned away. "That ice princess bit doesn't work on me. Never has."

"Gideon, don't walk away from me. From this." She dared to reach out and stop him with a hand on his arm. Beneath her touch, he was tense. "Why do you think I didn't need you?"

"Because you had him. Arnault." Another man might've spoken the words explosively. But Gideon had never shouted. When he was most angry, he got quiet.

She felt the reverberation of his near-whispered words, as if they’d been a bomb detonating between them.

Her hand fell away from his arm.

"Ronald?" Her own anger spiked. "Please tell me you don't believe the drivel those gossip rags write."

"It isn't what they write," he said bitterly. "It's how Arnault looks at you in the photos. Like a sappy, lovestruck fool."

She felt as if he'd slapped her.

"I have never been unfaithful to you." The words trembled, like her body, from the force of her anger. "Is this really what's kept us apart all these years? Paparazzi photos? You should've just asked me—"

"I didn't need to." Now he exploded, a little, one hand flying out from his side.

She flinched. He ran his hand through his hair.

"I flew to Glorvaird for your birthday." He exhaled, a bitter sound. "It was supposed to be a surprise. You can't imagine how difficult it was to leave Maggie. She was still so vulnerable. She'd only started speaking again." He paced to the window and stared out. "I bypassed everybody in the palace, coming to see you. And when I arrived at your private chambers, he was there. You were in this embrace..." He shook his head, as if he could wipe the memory. "I'd seen a few photos of you together. I already knew how he felt about you. But the look on your face..."

He clamped his mouth shut, but she'd heard enough. What he'd seen had devastated him.

How could she fix this? How did she tend a wound so deep and so old?

New tears fell, these for the pain Gideon had gone through, for the years they'd lost.

"I have never been unfaithful to you," she whispered. "I swear it. I gave you my heart. Not anyone else."

"Honey, I saw..." She heard the resignation in his tone.

Shook her head. "I can't even remember what we were working on. A proposal for the royal council, maybe? I'd been terribly distracted. My family was falling apart. I never told Ronald. Eloise was the only one who knew. He worked seventy-two hours straight and rewrote the proposal. Maybe you saw gratefulness on my expression. I was grateful. He saved that proposal when I was too heartbroken to do right for my country." She wiped her face again. "There's only ever been friendship between us."

She wished she would have known. All this time... all the wasted years between them. Maybe they could've been spared some of the pain and loneliness.

He stared at her, and she willed him to see she was telling the truth. She'd given Gideon her heart. No one else.

He blew out a loud breath, startling her. Rubbed both hands down his face."I don't know what to think right now."

She wanted him to reach for her. To hold her again, kiss her like he had not that long ago.

"By the time I hit the tarmac back in Texas, it was like what had happened was confirmation of what I already knew. Maggie needed me—in Texas. The ranch needed me. And you were tied to Glorvaird."Still are.

He didn't say the last part out loud, but she knew he must be thinking it. She had a deadline to get back to. A proposal to finish. Her country needed her. She had a duty.

Thirty years ago, they'd believed they could do it all. She could work for the crown, uphold the family legacy. And Gideon could manage the Triple H with help from Carrie and Trey.

But those parts of their lives had pulled them in opposite directions. Still were.And she didn't know how to change that. Whether or not it could be changed.

She would always be a princess. Glorvaird needed her.

And Gideon would always feel the pull to Texas, running the ranch and the charity.

She ached from wanting to be close to him again, but he didn't cross the space that separated them.

And neither did she.

---