Page 24 of Royally Arranged

“I think I’d know,” she said, facing me with a half smile. “Everything you did was the opposite ofhurt. That was ... just wow.” When she reached up to fix her hair I noticed there was bark under her fingernails. There was nothing shy about the flushed red dusting her cheeks. Nova was comfortable, maybe even proud of herself.

I moved before I thought it over, kissing her where she stood. When I leaned away to look at her again, she was staring at me. I wasn’t sure she’d shut her eyes during the kiss.

Aware of my naked cock arching stiffly from my fly, I tucked it inside my underwear and closed my zipper. “That was amazing,” I said, laughing as I heard myself. Fuck, I sounded like a teenager. “I really needed that.”

“Me too,” she said, her fingers wringing in her dress. A breeze swirled around us in the cemetery. Nova shuddered, working to keep her hair from her face as she hugged herself.

Overcome by a compelling need to shelter her, I grabbed my jacket from the grass and swept it around her shoulders. “Here, use this.”

She tugged at the sleeves of my jacket. “Thanks.” We both glanced at our feet—at her own coat in easy reach—but didn’t mention it. She accepted my chivalry with her flawless smile.

Together we sat on the ground, our hips touching, my arm around her shoulders. The world was quiet, the way the bottom of the ocean was—nothing but infinite blackness and a crushing pressure on the top of your head. It should have felt lonely.

With Nova at my side, it didn’t.

“Will you do it?” she whispered. “Take the crown, I mean.”She had to go dragging us back to reality. What a fucking shame.Lifting my arm, I spread my fingers and stared through the gaps at the starry sky. “Between you and me ... I don’t know what choice I have. Your family has tried to hurt us before. If I back out, they’ll do it again.” I made a fist, imagining I was crushing a handful of constellations. “The only way I get any sort of happy ending is by suffering for it. Farewell, freedom.”

“Would marrying me be so bad?”

The light plea in her voice drew my attention to her. We were inches apart, the flecks in her irises glowing more than the moon over our heads. “As amazing as I certainly am,” I teased, “why wouldyouagree to this? Why marry me just because they say so?”

Her gaze fell to the side. A cold flare in my gut told me she was thinking of how to lie to me. “I never said I was doing anything because of them.”

Startled, I touched her shoulder until she looked at me again. “You didn’t say it, but it’s the only thing that makes sense.”

Pain rippled through her face. It darkened her eyes. Then it was gone, hidden behind her shuttered lashes and a placid frown. “You’re not the only one who has had to suffer to earn their happy ending.”

“Do you like being cryptic?” I asked. “You told me nothing that would help me understand you.”

She stood up, dropping my jacket onto the grass. Nova stepped backward, and for a second I almost reached for her. She sensed my urge and hesitated in place, giving me a chance. I didn’t take it in time. Moving away, she tugged her own jacket on. “You might not get me,” she said, “but I’m starting to understand you.”

“Am I that easy to figure out?” I scoffed playfully.

Nova watched me zip my jacket, studying my movements and thinking things I couldn’t possibly guess. I ached to ask her what she’d learned about me. To beg her for even a hint of what she’d gleaned. Because after all these years, I wasn’t sure I understood myself.

- CHAPTER ELEVEN -

NOVA

The streets were mostly empty as I ran through them toward my hotel. It was doubtful I’d have noticed anyone if they were there, though. My brain was full of one thing.

Hawthorne Badd.

When I’d run into him yesterday, it had been an accident. I hadn’t thought twice about leaping in to help the poor woman who’d been robbed. But then I’d looked up, and my heart had tangled in my ribs. Hawthorne was right there. Right in front of me.

Even though I’d changed drastically in the six months since we’d seen each other ...

He hadn’t.

He was still painfully beautiful, the same haunting hurt buried in his eyes and behind his ever-present smile. I’d actually thought I’d messed everything up, that he’d recognize me and wonder what was going on, why my family was here. It was better for my situation that he didn’t know. It still stung. Worse, he’d thought I’d misled him all along.

I didn’t get it—how could his father not have prepared him? Iknewmy father had talked to the man about wanting to arrange this marriage. Just last night he’d sent a message to Maverick’s hotel room, laying out the general offer.

Why had Thorne’s own father not warned him?

Because he didn’t have a chance,I realized abruptly. Frosty shame slowed my running.Thorne was with me all night, he didn’t go back to his hotel until after we separated.That had been close to midnight.

Thinking it over, I wondered if a warning would have made much difference.He really doesn’t want to be the king.I’d expected him to be excited about the news. Most people would jump for joy over such a blessing. I’d listened to my brothers seethe over being told they couldn’t claim the throne by force, that it didn’t work that way. If you didn’t have blue blood, Torino wouldn’t accept you as a ruler.

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