Her flattery pacified my frustration with her stubbornness and I allowed her a small, tiny, miniscule smile. She pinched my cheek in response.

“But I didn’t forget about you, I couldn’t forget about you.” She continued. “So I decided to just avoid you at all costs and hope that someone else caught my attention even half as much as you had. But then as soon as I walked into the castle, there you were. And worse you were staring at me like you were a man dying in the desert and I was the first drop of water you had seen in years. And I wanted to run from you and every feeling I felt and was convinced you didn’t.”

“But, but…. but…. Then I pursued you,” I argued, still confused.

“And I was convinced it was just because I had grown up and finally caught your attention. I heard all about the girls that you went through. I didn’t think I could take being just one of your conquests,” she admitted in the sweetest, most unsure voice ever. “I was protecting myself.”

I couldn’t think verbally. I didn’t want to think verbally. I crushed my lips to hers, taking her mouth in the most passionate kiss I was capable of. My hands slipped beneath her thin t-shirt but stayed planted on the soft skin of her waist. My mouth moved against hers in aggressive possession and I tangled our tongues together like she said, like I was a man dying of thirst and she was the drink of water that would save my life.

I slowed down into soft, gentle, loving…. that’s right…. loving kisses, pouring my emotions into her like now I was the water and she was the glass. She responded. I wanted to shout that. She responded! She kissed me back with the same emotion plunging into me, drowning me and I would happily give up air and breathe only her until my last, final breath.

“Why were you protecting yourself?” I breathed against her lips.

I didn’t want to stop kissing her, but I had to. I had to get to the base of our feelings for each other so we could do this…. live the rest of this together.

“I didn’t want to get hurt,” she admitted shyly. “My feelings for you were too deep.”

“But it didn’t work,” I tried to make my statement into a question, but my determination made me say it in a way that could make her believe it was true.

“No, it didn’t work,” she shook her head and held my eyes tangled in her gaze.

“I’m glad it didn’t work,” I smiled at her, lifting her hand from my shoulder and kissing her knuckles.

“I’m sure you are,” she laughed at my arrogance.

“Do you need to think about this…. us?” I forced the words out of my mouth but they felt heavy and vile on my tongue. Her eyebrows pinched together in confusion and I knew I had to explain. I thought these words would be hard for me, that they would come out unsure and anxious, but as I prepared myself to explain I realized this was one of the easiest speeches I would ever make. “Do you remember saying that whoever I asked to be with me would have to live forever too? You made it sound like a burden, like living with me forever was an impossible thing to ask of someone.” She opened her mouth to protest, so I silenced her with a quick kiss. “You were right. Asking someone to be with me is a huge request. Not only am I asking you to be Queen, and give up whatever life you are leading now, I’m asking you to take on my magic and live with me…. be with me for potentially ever.” I laughed at the irony of my love. “You see, when I say I want to be with you forever, I literally mean…. forever.”

Her eyes danced at my joke. She brushed her fingers across my forehead, pushing my hair out of my face. “It is a lot to ask. Do you think I’ll get tired of you?” she asked seriously, but the light in her face let me know she was joking.

“I’m serious,” I pouted. And then more seriously, “Amelia you can walk away from me as soon as you can’t stand me anymore, but I would like to try. I would like you to be with me for as long as you can stand me.”

“And how long will you be able to stand me?” she asked. A flash of fear crossed her expression.

I dipped my head closer to her so that I was ready to swoop in and kiss the uncertainty away from her as soon as she would let me. “Always,” I whispered.

“Always?”

“Always,” I confirmed.

She nodded her head then, her eyes filling with unshed tears. I stared down into her beautiful, perfect face and waited. But then her lips quirked into a small smile and her fear was replaced with unwavering certainty and she nodded again.

“Ok, Avalon,” she whispered. “I want to try too.” And then her fingers tightened on my collar and she pulled me into the most perfect kiss of my life.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Hours later, after the hottest makeout session of my life, Amelia laid cuddled up in my arms. There was a word floating around in my head that I wanted to share with her, but I was afraid that I would scare her. She had just admitted to “try” this out, not to marry me and definitely not to live by my side for the foreseeable and future forever.

Although technically that’s all I had asked of her.

But her, tucked into my side, tracing lazy circles on my bicep with her delicate fingers had cemented into my mind exactly what I wanted and it was a whole hell of a lot more than a trial run.

Not that I wanted much.

I mean, only everything.

Except I talked myself out of asking her for it and offering her my everything in return.

Well, for right now.

I had to prove to her that I was serious and that she wouldn’t be just another set up that I would get bored of. Hell, I could never get bored of her. I could never give her up. And even the idea of her deciding she wasn’t into us was hard to swallow. I couldn’t even think it without pulling her closer to me as if my physical proximity to her would keep her from thinking those thoughts.

“You need to throw Lilly and Talbott an engagement party,” Amelia announced casually.

“What?” I laughed at her subject change after the thoughts that had been rolling around in my head.

“You do!” she defended her position.

“That’s what Eden’s for,” I explained as if she forgot I had a sister and a co-ruler to do that kind of dirty work.

“Yes, but everyone will expect that because Eden is her best friend,” Amelia argued.

“Exactly.”

“No, wait. This is everything you want. Talbott and Lilly will change everything for our people, they will break the invisible barrier keeping others from doing the same,” Amelia explained gently.

“I know all this,” I smiled down at her. She was adorable when she was trying to prove a point.

“Ok, good. Then you should also know that our people don’t think of Eden as their Queen. I mean, they do. They know that she’s the Queen. But they think of you as the King that makes all of the important decisions and runs things. Eden and Kiran have basically been on vacation for the last several years. You have been behind the wheel of the machine and the people associate you with the actual power of the Kingship.” I opened my mouth to argue, but she shushed me by placing one of her irresistible fingers over my lips. “If you really want their marriage to make an impact then you have to be the one to endorse their union. You already let Kiran announce their engagement when it would have been much more profound coming from you. If you want real change then you’re going to have to buck up and play benevolent King.”

She giggled when I chomped down playfully on the finger that had silenced me. “Are you always this good at diplomacy?” I pounced on top of her, loving that her point made sense. I tickled her sides so that she squirmed and writhed underneath me. It wasn’t the easiest thing for me to admit that I was wrong and even more so that someone else could be right…. but somehow the fact that Amelia had her head wrapped around this whole….. Monarchy thing, made me fall for her all the more.

“It’s easy to be good when you’re so bad at it,” she giggled, gasping in between words while I attacked her relentlessly.

She wiggled her arms from underneath me and pulled me down to her mouth with her hands tightly on my collar. It was a move I was very quickly becoming fond of.

“Mmmm,” I murmured against her, trailing kisses along her jaw and ear. “You’re so unbelievably sexy.”

“That reminds me,” she declared in a tone that was not so much sexy but attention grabbing. I lifted my head reluctantly from her soft skin to look her in the eyes. “While we’re on the subject of diplomacy….”

“We’re not on the subject of diplomacy,” I argued, dipping my head back to pay her neck some much needed attention while she let out a soft sigh of approval. “We moved on to a new subject.”

She laughed and her chest moved against mine. “Have you thought about filling the rest of the Kingdom in on Terletov?”

“Mood killer,” I moaned grumpily and plopped back down next to her. I lied though. Even Terletov could not stop me from wanting this girl. I pulled her close to me and thought over her words. “I’ve thought about it.”

“And….?” she started drawing those circles again, but this time they were on my wrist.

I focused.

Ok, I really, really tried to focus, but damn this girl would get me to agree to anything at this point.

“I’m not sure it’s such a good idea.” I breathed out unsteadily.

“The people need to know, Avalon.” Amelia reasoned, but did not stop with the circles. “You can’t protect them if they are not protecting themselves and right now they don’t even know if there is a threat.”

“I don’t want to cause hysteria, or plant doubt in our fragile infrastructure.” I had a valid point, but it came out not even close to confident.

“Why not give them a chance to strengthen our framework? Give them a chance to trust you completely by you trusting them.” Her voice was so sweet, so wise, she was every single thing I needed in a girl….in a wife. And she was going to make me fall completely in love with her, body, mind and soul before I even let her out of my bed. How could I have ever overlooked her? Even as a younger version of herself she had to have been captivating.

“Any more points you want to make before I agree to this plan of yours?” I asked dryly, relenting to her idea.

“Yes, actually,” she laughed. “If you don’t make a claim for your people, Avalon, Terletov will. Without full disclosure, he is more than welcome to swoop in and take over. He doesn’t have to share what he’s doing to Immortals to gain their following. He is working against you around the clock. We don’t know what he’s doing with these…. experiments, but he obviously has a following. And unless you are upfront and honest about what is going on that following could potentially grow and organize until you have no Kingdom left. Your silence could land our people right back under another tyrannical rule and get yourself, along with your friends and family killed.”

Her serious words immediately sobered me up. I pulled her against my chest, losing my fingers in her thick hair. I had a long list of people I loved and cared about, but suddenly the one I was most scared of losing was lying in bed with me and she didn’t even know the depth of my feelings for her.