And all for what? So he could remain on that lofty perch of sanctimonious hubris? Where everyone could point to his life-long sacrifice as a beacon of piety to be followed? While he remained silent and anguished and deeply alone?
‘Are you hurt?’ he asked uselessly. Because of course she was hurt. Physically, no doubt. But definitely emotionally. Because hadn’t he also made everyone around him suffer, if only by making them feel inferior to his mighty self-sacrifice?
Even his mother had learned to pick her moments around him very carefully after he’d returned home after Helga’s death, not wanting to be seen to be vilifying Cartana’s superhero in case she angered the palace and had her privileges revoked.
He’d secretly welcomed and celebrated that position, silently said nothing as the majority of her vitriol was redirected to his twin.
Oh yes, he had a lot to be ashamed about.
But most of the reparations were owed to the beautiful creature lying on her back in the dirt at his feet. His heart. His precious soul.
‘N-nothing that won’t heal, eventually. I hope,’ she said, her voice shaken. Soft. Warm despite everything she’d been through. ‘You came for me.’
A thick, pain-filled rumble swelled in his chest. ‘Too late. Far too late,litla.’
She started to shake her head, then winced. The rumble tore free. Charging him into scooping her up carefully. Oh so carefully. His whole body wracked in tremors as he strode to his SUV.
A bodyguard hurried to throw the back door open.
Valenti climbed in and tucked her into his lap, his senses screaming when he saw the gashes and grazes on her beautiful skin.
‘Take us to the hospital. Now,’ he barked at the driver. To the head of his security who stood at the window, he snarled, ‘Him you take to the palace dungeon. Keglar will face Cartanian justice. Is that understood?’
The car was moving before his man executed his salute.
His Adam’s apple bobbed convulsively as he stared back down at her. With a groan torn from his soul, he buried his face in her hair. ‘Forgive me. Por favor.Forgive me.’
Her fingers curled around his nape, dug in, holding him. Always holding him closer than he deserved. ‘There’s no need—’
‘No, there’s every need,’ he insisted. ‘I minimised everything you said, everything you felt because…’ He paused, the weight of it too much to handle. ‘For the first time in my life, I met a challenge I couldn’t overcome. This thing…this beautiful thing you shoved in front of me and forced me to acknowledge. It terrified me when it shouldn’t have. It was why I reacted the way I did when you came here three years ago. Why I’ve been running since.’
Her head slowly lifted. ‘What are you saying, Valenti?’
‘What you said at the palace…at the cabin, it was all true. I have been hiding behind my guilt and my tragedy and my bitterness. It was…safer that way.’ A mirthless smile twitched his lips. ‘I will move mountains so you never find out, but I can attest that people will leave you alone when they believe you live permanently in a state of pious sorrow and miserable self-sacrifice.’
She was shaking her head. ‘But no more? Please, Valenti, no more. Helga would’ve hated for you to live your life like that in her name.’
‘I know. A week and a half with you in a cabin brought more colour and bliss into my life than the previous three decades, Lotte.’ He buried his face in her shoulder once more, breathing her in simply because she was life. A life he’d almost thrown away.
‘Do you…do you still want to be left alone?’ A sheen of tears filmed her eyes again. ‘Because I can’t bear to hope for…anything if you—’
‘I need you,litla,’ he confessed in a raw rasp, shaking his head at the sheer simplicity of it now he knew. Now he recognised that no alternative would do. ‘To keep me living. To keep me sane. To remind me of the beauty in the world.’
The motorcade screamed into the courtyard of the private state-of-the-art royal hospital and relief poured through him. But when he went to step out, she stopped him.
‘I can’t go in, Valenti. Not until you tell me…not until I know.’
He stared into her beautiful blue eyes and swallowed. ‘No more hesitation, Lotte. No more hiding. I love you. So very much. I’m yours.’ A breath shuddered out of her. ‘As arrogant as it sounds, I’ve been yours since Helga implored me to keep you safe. I intended to keep that promise long after you’d turned twenty-five. But now I intend to keep you as my wife. My lover. The mother of my children. If you’ll have me?’ He leaned in closeand brushed the tip of her nose with his. ‘I should also add that I will set you free if you wish it, but you will never be free of me. So really, it’s in your best interest to—’
Soft, lean fingers brushed over his mouth, stopping his words. ‘I believe you. Even the arrogant part. Which is why it helps that I love you too.’ More tears spilled from her eyes, and he brushed them away the better to see the emotions surging free. ‘You will never need to set me free, Valenti. I’m right where I want to be. With you. Loving you. Forever.’
The surge took hold of him then too, and everything and everyone, including the team of doctors who waited impatiently beyond the doors, faded away. ‘Dios mío. I love you, Lotte.’
Her throat moved. ‘I’m so glad you’re mine, Valenti. I hoped and prayed…’
He anointed her gift of love with a kiss drawn deep from his soul, the place he now recognised had been feeding him the sacred emotion all along. And when they came up for air, he braced his forehead against hers. ‘We have to go inside now,mi amor.I have to make sure you’re well.’
She looked from him to the hovering team, a small, breathtaking smile curving her lips. ‘I’ll come inside only because I know you won’t rest until I do. But I have a feeling we’ll leave here with a little more than we’ve bargained for, Prince Valenti.’
