Page 76 of The Princess Trap
Spending hours in a car with a woman who hated him was painful. Spending hours in a car with a woman he loved to distraction—a woman he knew from the coils of her hair to her pink-painted toe nails, a woman who hadn’talwayshated him but certainly did now—was torture.
Ruben really fucking wished he’d given her the ring before now. But they couldn’t meet his brother without it, and in a few short minutes, they’d be there. At the palace. The backdrop to all his nightmares.
“Cherry,” he said, cracking the thick slab of silence between them.
She turned her head from the window and looked across the limo’s dark interior to meet his eyes, her movements robotic. She didn’t reply. Just looked, her gaze burning, beautifully furious and breaking his fucking heart.
His hands clumsier than usual, Ruben fumbled with the pocket inside his suit jacket for a few heavy seconds beforeproducing the ring. There was no box; he didn’t know where the original one was, and he didn’t particularly care. The ring was all that mattered, and his mother would want Cherry to have it.
Hewanted Cherry to have it.
But Cherry was looking down at the diamond and sapphire ring in his hands as if it were a poisonous snake.
“You need to wear it,” he said gently. “For Harald.”
“Fucking Harald,” she muttered, holding out a hand for the ring. He wanted to smile at the sound of his own personal refrain on her lips. She hadn’t even met the king yet, but she already hated him. It almost made Ruben forget that Harald wasn’t the only royal she hated right now.
As the car slowed, the sense of panicked urgency that had been choking Ruben all morning—since last night, in fact—swelled to its crescendo. He must’ve lost his mind for a moment, because instead of handing her the ring, he reached out to take her hand in his.
“Cherry,” he said, his voice low. “Listen to me, okay? Just listen.”
She glared, tried to tug her hand away, but he couldn’t let go. He couldn’t.
“Please.Pleaselet me explain. Last night—”
“I don’t want to talk about last night,” she said sharply. Her mouth, so lush and full, was pressed into a hard, thin line. And he caught something vulnerable in her eyes, a wariness he’d put there. The sight threatened to tear his heart in two.
“I wasn’t thinking,” he said. “It had nothing to do with you. I’ve always been like that. I can’t bear the idea of children—”
“You love children,” she said, and for the first time he caught a flash of hurt in her voice. He’d known it was there, but hearing it…
She heard it too, because she looked horrified for a second, and then completely blank. When she spoke again, her voice was hard as steel. “It doesn’t matter. It’s ridiculous. I just don’t think it’s wise for us to keep blurring lines like this.”
“I hurt you,” he said. “I know I did. And that’s the last thing I wanted to do, because I don’t think of this as blurring lines, Cherry. That’s not what we’re doing. Being with you is a gift.”
The car came to a stop, and she gave him a mutinous glare, tugging at their joined hands. “Stop this. Just give me the fucking ring.”
He wanted to blurt out the fact that he loved her, but she’d probably punch him in the face. So he released her with a sigh, and gave her the ring, and she shoved it onto her finger as if it were an afterthought. For all she knew, it was meaningless, something he’d had Demi order for the purpose of this twisted charade. She had no idea how much that ring meant to him, and no idea how muchshemeant to him.
But he’d tell her. He’d make her see. Somehow. And he’d tell her about the thoughts that haunted him, about the anxiety that suffocated him whenever he thought of children, of creating another soul that might one day end up like him: vulnerable. Alone. Abused.
The car door swung open and an anonymous hand reachedin to help Cherry out, part of the security team. He heard her greet the man with her usual charm, her sparkling laughter floating into the car within seconds. She was already working her magic. And Ruben was frozen in time, struggling to breathe. Because it had just occurred to him that he might fail. He might not get through to her. He might not prove his feelings or win back her trust.
And then, when the year was up, she’d leave.
Ruben was used to having Hans at his back. He wasn't used to having Cherry by his side. But there she was, striding down this gilded hall with him, matching him step for step. Though her steps were more of a strut.
The corridor leading towards his brother's receiving room was as splendid as the rest of the palace, which made it fucking abhorrent to Ruben. But he wasn't going to pretend that vaulted ceilings and marble cherubs and velvet tapestries were a hardship on anything other than his taste. No, it wasn't the luxury that sent a bead of sweat crawling down his spine beneath the fancy fucking dress uniform he wore.
It was the memories.
“Good morning, Ruben. Are you ready for your lessons?”
Five year oldMagnus blinked up at his older brother. “I already had my lessons, Harald. Who is Ruben?”
“You,” his brother said in a voice Magnus didn't recognise. A voice he didn't quite like. It reminded him a little bit of when hisdaddy would tell him off. But when Daddy told him off, he was never afraid.
“When is Daddy coming back?” he asked.
