She looked down, saw one of his hands on her leg, the other twined with one of hers, and the sight of them gave her courage to finish the tale. “The leadership of Envision is all white males with only a few females, and some of those still living were at that dinner long ago. The rest are dead, either from natural causes or, more likely, they were killed because they were of no use to Envision anymore. They’re a vicious, brutal, brainwashing machine without compunction to kill. I know it won’t be easy to take them down and avenge my parents’ death. It might not even happen in my lifetime because of how extensive their connections are, but I’ll do everything in my power to help.”
He was watching her with those dark, fathomless eyes, one hand rubbing her leg, the other holding her hand. “I’ll help you take them down.”
It had been three months since he’d declared he wanted to become an agent. Three months where she’d tried to talk him out of it, then he talked her into it, and then her sense returned and she tried to talk him out of it again. “Ethan.”
“I’ll be good at this, and you know it.”
“You don’t have the right training—”
“I do. I’ve been working with the Navy Elites.”
She blinked. The Elites were incredible, highly trained teams that conducted missions all over the world. “How did that happen? You’re a doctor and they usually don’t have those on the teams.”
He narrowed his eyes. “They decided they wouldn’t mind a doctor on missions, and I’m a fucking great one. In exchange for the training, I’ve already gone with them on missions. Usually, I’ve just stayed at their nearest home base, but I did go into the field to get you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? What about Marcello, or your family—do they know?”
“They don’t know, and I’m sorry I never told you. Each time I tried, I knew you might talk me out of it and I just…I just needed to do this.”
She inhaled sharply, shaking her head as she exhaled. He’d already told her his whys, and she understood, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t fucking worried for him. “You’re playing a dangerous game. What if something happens to you? You’re a prince, for fuck’s sake.”
He stood, his body rigid but his eyes full of swirling emotion. “I’m a prince who’s in love with you.”
Her anger, her arguments deflated on the spot. Still… “Ethan. You can’t.”
He leaned over her and cupped her cheek. “I already have. Don’t you realize that there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you? Nothing I wouldn’t do to help you? Would you…would you rather I didn’t help you? Would you prefer to work alone?”
What was she supposed to say to that?
Only the truth. With him, only ever the truth. “No agent works alone, and I’d be honored to work with you. But the danger…I don’t know how I’d live with myself if anything happened to you.”
Her voice broke. “I’ve lost everyone I’ve ever loved, everyone I’ve cared about. I can’t lose you, too.”
“Oh, fuck, Anda. I didn’t think of it that way. I’m sorry. I—”
She put a finger over his lips. “Shhh. It’s okay.”
His lips puckered against her finger, then he shifted it away to kiss her soft and slow. “We would make great partners, but if you want me to back off on this, I will.”
A hundred questions flitted through her mind, but she settled on the one she needed answered first. “Do you understand why I need to go after Envision? Do you accept that I’ll do what it takes to bring them down?”
There wasn’t any hesitation before he spoke. “Of course I understand why you need to do it, and I’m glad you shared it with me. So, to answer your first question, yes. I understand the need for revenge. I’m the son of a king who’s been under threat numerous times in his life. If you think I didn’t want to go after the assholes who tried to hurt him or the other members of my family, you’re wrong. I wasn’t able to, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t want to.”
She’d barely let those words sink in before he continued.
“As for your second question, I don’t know that I would be okay with you doing ‘whatever it takes’. Only because the way you feel about me getting hurt, is the same worry I feel for you. I’ll prove to you that I’ll be an asset on missions, and I’ll do whatever it takes to help you.”
She frowned. She didn’t need him to prove anything to her. She wasn’t like his family. She accepted him, just as he accepted her. For fuck’s sake, she’d just told him nearly every ugly and awful thing about her past and he hadn’t run from her. He was determined to help her and he really, truly cared forher.
She was about to tell him not to worry about proving anything when he interrupted her with the words that made her forget what she’d been about to say.
“I love you.”
Love was such a fleeting feeling to her. As a girl, she barely remembered the love her parents had shared, what that had looked like, and what that had meant to each of them. As a woman, she’d seen love in a different way. She’d seen other people in love, but she’d never expected to be in it herself. Even with Ethan, she never expected to fall in love, she’d just done it.
Ethan had a different perspective. He’d grown up in a loving home, as strange as it was to think of a royal palace as a home and a loving one at that. The King and Queen seemed to love each other, as did Ethan’s siblings with their loves. Ethan had always been surrounded by love, but she hadn’t. So, she wasn’t always sure what the best thing to say was.
What she did know, however, was that she wanted to move forward with him. Always.
