“I’m sorry; I didn’t think about where I could finish until I was close,” he said. “I had to improvise.”
“I don’t mind,” I said.
He sat next to my side, playing with my hair.
“I’d say something clever right now but I have no words,”I said.
“No words, huh? I’ve rendered you speechless? If making love to you is all it would’ve taken, I should have been corrupting you from the start.”
“You don’t corrupt me,” I told him. “You bring me closer to God.”
“Yeah? Give me a few minutes and we’ll find Him again,” he said.
He crawled into the space next to me, wrapping me into his arms.
I sighed. “Do you think if you hadn’t been forced to leave we’d be together now?” I asked. I looked up to see his face.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m sure your father would not have allowed us to marry.”
“Would you have asked anyway?”
He bent his neck. “I would'vewantedto.” He held his hand at the back of my head. “I will say… Nevermind. It’s stupid.”
“Oh, please tell me?” I asked. “I want so badly to be inside your mind right now.”
He sighed, agreeing. “I… It’s so silly. You’ll never let me live it down.”
“I might,” I pried. “If you’re nice to me.”
He laughed. “It’s just… When we were kids, I used to look forward to the days you’d find me working. I still remember howred your face got in the summer sun. How bad you did in heat, but came back anyway. I know it’s deranged, but I chose the name Cyrus Evergreen because of it. Yes, I would’ve asked your father anyway.”
“What? You picked…?”
“Cyrus. It means sun. And King’s Land, it’s paved in evergreens. I wanted to hold onto the memory of your crimson cheeks for life, so that’s why I picked it.”
“I think that is by far the sweetest, most devastatingly romantic thing anyone has ever said ever,” I declared. “Ever, Willem. Not just to me. ….Except, now I feel bad because it’s sort of not true.”
“What’s not true?” he asked.
“The redness,” I confessed.
“Sweetheart, I saw you. Every day. As much as you may hate to admit it, you’re not much of an outdoorsman.”
“No. It…it wasn’t the sun’s fault that I was red, you fool. It was yours.”
“Mine?” he asked.
“Yes,” I told him. “I wasblushingover you, not overheating. You made me feel…Well.”
We shared a laugh and his face twisted in a new way with his surprise.
“I’m flattered, and I don’t want this night to end,” he said.
“Nor I,” I replied. I snuggled closer. “How late will the party go on?”
He shrugged. “I don't know, but I should leave soon. The staff will do their rounds soon, I suspect.”
“You can go, if you must, though I am not opposed to you living here forever.”
