“Of course not.” Eddy sounded horrified. “Men don’t get involved in one another’s affairs, if they can help it.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “This is hardly an affair, Your RoyalHighness.”
“I’m well aware. In an affair, I wouldn’t have to constantly dodge your insults.”
“But the insults come so naturally to me—” Hélène began, as a door opened on the terrace behind them.
“Your Royal Highness? Are you out here?” someone called.
Eddy grabbed Hélène around the waist and tugged her swiftly downward, so that they were both crouching behind a massive stone urn.
“Hiding from your adoring public?” she whispered sarcastically.
“We’re hiding for your sake! I’m trying to protect your reputation.”
Hélène said nothing, because she knew he was right. It was one thing to have been standing on the terrace alone, another thing entirely to be out here with a man, unchaperoned.
When the door to the ballroom had shut again, they rose reluctantly to their feet. “We should go back inside,” Eddy murmured.
But a wild, eager restlessness prickled through Hélène. The night seemed to unfurl before her, full of possibility.
“Let’s take a walk through the gardens first.”
Eddy frowned down at the pathways between the hedges. “We can’t go in there.”
“Why not?”
“Because,” he spluttered.
“Because of convention? Because of propriety? As you’ve gathered, I’m not particularly fond of either.” She shrugged, causing the sleeve of her dress—a deep blue velvet with resplendent silver detail—to slip lower. “I’m taking a tour of your family’s gardens. Feel free to join me or not.”
Hélène spun on one heel, wondering just how many people in Prince Eddy’s life had turned their back on him. Probably not many.
She trotted down the curved staircase and turned onto a gravel path. The limestone fountains and sculptures glowed eerily in the shadows, like ghosts.
Eddy rushed down the steps after her. “Hélène, you can’t just run around in the dark like this.”
“I wasn’t running, but that’s an excellent idea. See if you can catch me.” She cast him a gleeful smile, then grabbed two handfuls of her heavy skirts and took off.
After a moment, Eddy laughed and followed.
She marveled that she’d never seen it before: his bold vitality, his streak of childlike joy. Running around the garden like this, she wondered how much of Eddy’s libertine reputation was real and how much was just that—a reputation. He’d had affairs, yes, but she sensed now that he wasn’t malicious or callous about it, as some men could be. He was just passionate.
Perhaps that was why Her Majesty had sent Eddy into the military. She’d seen the uncontrollable spark within Eddy and wanted to stamp it out.A future king cannot act like a child,Hélène imagined her saying.
It was essentially what Hélène’s governess used to say about her.
She kept running, aware that Eddy could have caught her long ago. He let her reach the farthest corner of the garden, near the stone wall that marked the edge of the Waleses’ property, before he finally sprinted forward to touch her shoulder.
“Tag. You’re it,” he teased, and Hélène fell still.
They were both breathing heavily. Eddy stared down at her, his blue eyes luminous. Hélène curled her hand into the lapel of his jacket and tugged him close.
This time, she was the one who kissed him.
His tongue slid into her mouth and she moaned, arching her back. His hands skimmed slowly downward, caressing the sides of her breasts and her waist before settling around her hips to pull her closer. Hélène released his jacket and looped her arms around him, tangling her fingers in the soft hair at the nape of his neck.
God, she wanted him. She had wanted him since that moment he’d picked her up in the rain-soaked forest and held her against his chest. She didn’twantto want him, but she did, and her reasons for telling herself no felt increasingly flimsy.
