“Hey, whoa.” Elliot wraps his arms around me and pulls me into his chest. Instantly I feel entirely warm and safe and never want to leave. “What’s wrong, Rapunzel?”
My tears are replaced by a soft laugh when I realize I am standing in a moment so like the one experienced by a fictional princess from an animated movie. All we are missing is a boat, but a dock will have to do. “Rapunzel,” I whisper. “How fitting.”
His embrace tightens. “Why are you crying?”
“Because I am happy.”
“Maybe it’s the American male in me talking, but I’m pretty sure tears are usually a sad thing.”
I lean my head back, resting it against his solid body. He presses a kiss to my temple, and I close my eyes before the moment overwhelms me again. “You are wearing a crown.” I know it is to keep my tiara safe, but I cannot help but imagine…
He chuckles, and I feel his laughter in my back. “It’s not really my color, but I can see why you like to wear it.”
“I hate wearing it,” I argue. “I feel pretentious.”
“As long as I won’t be alone in that, I’ll be happy.”
Gasping, I spin in his arms, nearly knocking the tiara off his head. He grabs it to hold it in place, and again I am so struck by the sight of him looking so royal that for a moment I cannot find my words. “Elliot, what are you saying?”
He smiles despite my obvious distress. “I already said it. I go where you go.”
“And if I become queen?”
“Then I’ll figure out how this royalty thing works, assuming you still like me in a decade after I get citizenship.” He is so calm about it. Children pretend all the time to be kings and queens, but when they grow up they realize that it is not the life of leisure they thought when they were young. Elliot already admitted his fear of being a king, and he has not spent his life preparing for the pressure like I have.
My tears start up again. “Elliot, I cannot ask you to—”
“You didn’t ask. I’m choosing.” He brushes a finger along my cheek. “I’m choosing you no matter how crazy your life might get.”
“Why?” I gasp and drop my face into his chest to hide. “Don’t answer that. What a terrible question!”
His fingers find their way back into my hair, taking up a slow rhythm against my scalp once more. Runa touches my hair all the time, but no one has ever played with it like this. No one has ever held me like this before. My friends are surprisingly affectionate for how private they are, but this is nothing like the way they embrace me.
“Maybe it’s crazy, but I love you, Freya, and I want to have a front row seat when you rise to greatness in a few days. Whether it’s as your bodyguard or something more, I want to be there for you. Is that okay?”
“Okay?” I whisper back. “No one has ever… I… You would really be a king?”
His lips press against the top of my head, and I open my eyes to watch the last of the lanterns drift away or fizzle out when they hit the water. The night is coming to an end.
“I’m not saying I’d be good at it,” Elliot says, his voice softer now to match the quieting world around us. “And I’m not saying it doesn’t still terrify me. But I’ve dodged sniper fire for three hours straight and climbed a hundred-foot cliff with a fractured ankle. How much worsecould running a country be? Besides.” He kisses my temple, then my cheek, my jaw, and starts up a trail from the shell of my ear down my neck, leaving me in shivers as I tilt my head back to give him better access. “I’d be standing beside a pretty incredible queen.”
He sounds so confident. Then again, Elliot usually sounds confident. Intelligent as he is, there is still so much he does not know about being royalty. That says nothing about how the Candoran people might react to an American king in the first place, regardless of the limited power he would actually hold. Elliot can say he will do whatever it takes to be with me, but can he really mean that without knowing exactly what we are facing?
Perhaps it does not matter. It will likely be years before we can marry, and so much could change in that time. We will have to take this one day at a time. “Elliot?”
“Hmm?” His kisses stop, though he lingers with his lips against my skin.
Running my hand through his hair and gently pushing his head back so we can look at each other, I offer up a weak smile and touch my hand to his cheek. “Thank you. For tonight. This has been the best night of my life.”
His expression hardens the slightest bit. “But?” he fills in for me.
I shake my head. “No. You gave me something beautiful. Thank you.” Leaning up, I press my lips to his and memorize the taste of him. “But I should get back before my mother worries I have been taken captive and sends the entire palace guard after me.”
He chuckles. “There it is.” He takes my hand and steps back, his eyes roving over me. “I should probably fix your hair first so your mother doesn’t think I’ve done anything too scandalous.”
Matching his smile, I reach up and brush my fingers throughhishair to try to tame the mess I made of it. “More than likely she has already come to some scandalous conclusions, but yes. That is a good idea.”
“You don’t think she’s going to fire me for seducing a princess?”
