“Is there a point to this?” he asks in a grumble.
I grin. “There is a point to everything I say, Elliot.” When he smiles back at me, my heart swells with affection for this man. There is every reason I should not—cannot—entertain ideas of being with him, but those reasons fade with each second we gaze into each other’s eyes.
“You and I,” I say, taking his hand and lacing my fingers through his. “We are not an obvious pairing. But surely you can admit that we are good for each other.” I look down at the haphazard stitches holding his skin together. “For the most part,” I add with a wince.
“This would have happened even if I wasn’t falling for you, Princess.”
My eyes jump back to his. “You’re…?”
“Falling? Yeah.” He looks downright angry about it, though I feel as if the ground has disappeared from beneath me once again. “Do you have any idea how frustrating that is? This wasn’t supposed to happen.” He gestures between us. “We’renot supposed to happen.”
Despite his words, I smile wider and bring his hand to my lips to brush a kiss against his knuckles. “If I have learned anything from my friends and their stories, love always comes in the most unexpected of ways. You and I are no different.”
It is only when his face goes slack that I realize what I said.Love. I could take it back, explain that I did not mean things the way they sounded, but I do not. I let my words fill the space between us and settle in my chest. I love my friends as I love my family, but the way I feel about Elliot is different. That should scare me, but I am more afraid of keeping these feelings to myself and never giving them a chance to blossom.
“Your friends,” Elliot says after a long while, “the celebrities?” He quirks his lips up in a smile that warms me to the core. “You know you can’t base anything on their lives, right?”
“I can when I am a princess,” I argue.
“But I’m not.” He winces, his smile shifting to amusement. “You know what I mean. I’m not royal.”
“I know.”
“Even if I wasn’t your bodyguard, I’m not Candoran. I can’t…” He has thought about a future together like I have? He shakes his head and sighs. “Laws aside, I’m not royalty material.”
“You are not,” I agree. “But I think you could be.”
Groaning, he adjusts himself on the bed, tilting to the side to lessen the pressure on his stitches. “You don’t know that, Rapunzel. I’m just a kid from Montana with a lot of weird and specific skills that don’t really translate to anything outside of the Special Forces.”
I snicker and stand because he looks wildly uncomfortable, and the least I can do after he took a bullet for me is help him relax. “You are remarkable with languages,” I tell him as I help him roll over to his left side, leaving both sides of his wound exposed and untouched. Despite his beautifully muscled body, he must be cold after losing so much blood, so I take a blanket and drape it over him. “You have a natural inclination toward reading body language and facial expressions.” He is turned toward the wall now, and I would like to see his face while we talk, so I settle on the bed, my back against the wall and his head on my lap. He fights me but doesn’t resist for long, resting the full weight of his head on my leg. “You are far more intelligent when it comes to politics than you pretend to be.”
He looks up at me with his eyebrows low but his eyes soft. Like he wants to argue against everything I am saying but does not want me to stop talking. He looks so tired—of course he is tired—and he shouldreally sleep while he can. I do not know how long it will take for someone to come for us, but he needs his strength.
“You keep a cool head when it matters,” I tell him and start running my fingers through his hair, smiling when his eyes immediately slide closed. “You make connections with people. And you are selfless, and strong, and kind, and more than once I have wondered what it would be like to have you by my side, not as my protector but as my equal.”
I am not usually this open with people, particularly when it comes to my heart, but Elliot makes it easy. He has proven time and time again that I can trust him. That he has my best interest at heart, and not just because he is paid for that. It is who he is.
“I’m no good for you,” he mumbles, half asleep now.
I snicker. “Who says so?”
“Your mom. The internet. Everyone.”
“Not me. I think you and I could be something great, Elliot Reid.Youcould be great, if you would only give yourself a chance.”
He hums but says nothing, and soon his breathing slows and deepens. I continue running my fingers through his hair, thinking through the things I said to him. I meant every word, but his qualifications, great though they are, will only go so far. A man like him marrying a queen, assuming that is the direction our lives take us, is not unheard of in other parts of the world, but Candora is steeped in tradition. I cannot know if my people would accept him if we found a way around the laws preventing it in the first place.
Am I willing to take that risk?
Wulfric comes back inside a few minutes after Elliot falls asleep, his gentle eyes taking in the pair of us. When he first came across me in the forest, his wild look frightened me, but he has been nothing but kind. The way Candorans have been for centuries. I wonder what he would think of a queen marrying someone like Elliot.
“You are not a royalist, Wulfric,” I say to him, keeping my voice low to not wake the man asleep in my lap. Using Wulfric’s own words will hopefully make him receptive to my coming question. “Do you think the monarchy needs to change?”
Setting a bucket of water on his rickety table, he shrugs. “Politics don’t have much effect out here.”
“Would it bother you? If a queen married someone like him?” I nod down to Elliot, smiling at the way he looks so peaceful. He was in so much pain before, even unconscious, but now I no longer fear for his life. He will take time to recover, but I am certain he will survive.
Filling a cup with some of the water, Wulfric grunts before handing it over to me. “Depends on your reasons, I suppose. Are you trying to stir up trouble?”
