There was anger, there, too. It hadn’t faded. I wanted to be free of it, but still, I had resentment.
I didn’t want to be that way toward her. I had to be a gentleman, and remain in control.
“Hi,” Emma started. Her voice sounded small and meek.
“Hi,” I responded. Gods, could we do something else besides stand here and stare at each other? It was awkward.
Not to mention there was a heat creeping over my skin that made me want to shed my clothes. And Fuck, this was an ice rink, for the gods’ sake.
“What are you doing here?” Emma tried to make small talk, but she wasn’t very good at it. Her eyes ripped from mine and glued to my shoes.
“I had a meeting for the hockey team,” I said. “It was a luncheon to get the season kicked off.”
“Oh.” She hugged her bag closer. “I just came for a break.”
I knew the feeling. “How was Poland?” I didn’t bring up that I hadn’t called.
“I was sick a lot. Don’t tell anyone else. I said I had a great time.” Her voice was deadened, but honest.
The pit in my stomach twisted. “I’m sorry to hear that. My Christmas was full of pompous royal affairs. It wasn’t anything to miss.”
She grimaced. “Ethan, I—”
“You don’t need to apologize. What’s done is done,” I said. “It’s time we moved on from it.”
She dared to lift her gaze. “So what happens now?”
I blinked at her. “What? Do you mean... between us?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Yeah. That would be nice to know.”
A hint of her familiar sarcasm came through, and it made me feel relieved. She was acting like her sassy self again, instead of being apologetic. I could treat her as an equal now, and stop lording this power over her I didn’t want.
“We declared that we’re mates. I presume we’re together,” I began.
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “I hardly want to date you for diplomacy’s sake.”
“It’s not like that,” I rushed to say. “I like you, Emma. Really, I do.”
Her eyes challenged me with a statement that clearly spoke volumes. She didn’t say anything, but I could almost hear her thoughts.You like me. But do you love me?
“What about you?” I flung at her, before she could accuse me of anything. “We had that...momentin the tent, then you acted like you wanted nothing to do with me after. Have your feelings changed since then?”
“Not whatsoever!” she bit back, and her cheeks reddened. “I said I wanted to take it slow. That I didn’t want to rush into anything.”
“You should’ve thought of that before you agreed to be my partner for the King’s—”
“I know, I know.” She took a deep breath, on the verge of exploding. “Can we move past this stupid Contest already? I don’t understand what’s going on with us, Ethan. I know you were upset with me, but you didn’t pick up the phone all break. You never even checked in. How am I supposed to believe you want to be with me when you ghost me for weeks on end?”
“I was busy,” I said.
“Doing what?” Her voice was flat. The way her expression burned made me freeze. She was implying that sheknew something.
I gave a heavy sigh. “It doesn’t matter what I was doing. I know it isn’t an excuse. I should always make time for you.”
“Damn straight you should, if you really want to do this!”
“For gods’ sakes, Emma.” We were making a scene. There was no one at the ice rink this time of day, but still, I didn’t want a random paparazzi to walk by and snap a photo of me, the prince regent, getting into an argument with his fiancé in broad daylight.
