Page 19 of His Forever Princess

Gideon stood nearby, pretending to peruse a shelf of crime thrillers. She knew he was diligently watching.

Not that there was much to be wary of. The librarian had smiled at them from behind her desk near the door when they'd entered. There was maybe one other patron browsing in the stacks at the rear of the building.

Her assistant was worth her weight in gold, for only three emails had been flagged that needed Alessandra's attention. Two she was able to answer immediately. The third was from Eloise, asking for an update. Alessandra closed the browser window and cleared the cache without answering.

She should've finished the proposal by now. She could’ve found a courier for her handwritten notes on the document. She was letting her sister down—her country down—by mooning over her husband.

She couldn't continue like this.

She stood and went to Gideon. "I'm finished."

He took them a more circuitous way to the door, so that they passed by a bank of windows overlooking main street.

He was so determined to keep her safe.

"This way," he murmured on the street. They walked toward the park, but the SUV was down the street in the other direction. Where—?

She grew distracted as they passed the park entrance. A mother and teenage daughter sat with a picnic blanket, where they'd set up a big cardboard box. On the side of the box in thick, black marker strokes was written "Puppies for sale".

Two floppy ears and a snout covered in blond fur peeked above the edge of the box.

Alessandra glanced at Gideon, only to find him watching her. His eyes had gone soft, and the corner of his mouth was twitching.

"You'd better stop for a minute."

It was all the permission she needed.

"May I?" she asked the mother, who nodded.

She knelt on the blanket and reached inside the box where there were not one, but three puppies.

They were happy for the attention and clambered all over each other to try to get to her. She laughed when one got close enough to lick her chin.

A sneaky glance at Gideon showed he was watching her, smiling. Not keeping an eye on their surroundings at all.

"Did you—?" He couldn't have planned this.

"I saw the sign when we were driving through." Not planned, but he'd brought her down the street just so he could give her this moment.

The man knew her every weakness. Knew she could never resist a puppy.

For a moment, she let herself get caught in his smile, let herself imagine what it would be like to stand up and throw herself into a hug.

He'd catch her.

But she didn't. No one in this town knew who she was, but there was still decorum. When she stood up, she beamed at him. He seemed to steel himself, before he looked away.

Gideon might know everything about her, but he didn't know she was falling in love with him all over again.

"Time to go?" she asked.

He nodded.

They walked on the opposite side of the street this time. As they came out of the park, a teenager and her boyfriend were passing. The girl did a double-take, but then seemed to forget about them as she kept walking with her friend. Gideon had noticed, though he didn't seem bothered.

The setting sun shining off the mountain behind the buildings across the street distracted Alessandra. It was picturesque.

And then Gideon took her hand.

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