Katy smiled broadly, and David blushed. “I agree,” Katy replied. “And thank you for helping him. You helped me, too. Now I know who the people I can truly trust are.”
Marcos bowed. “And thank you, Katy.”
Katy cocked her head. “For what?”
She searched her mind. Marcos and David had done most of the legwork. They’d conspired together to show Katy the world as it truly was, something she had needed someone to show her for more than two decades. She was finally a freed woman who could make choices for herself.
So what could Marcos possibly have to be grateful to her for?
Marcos threw his arm around his son beside him and pulled David in close, using the few inches he had over his son to his advantage. David smiled and went along with it, and they looked like a father and son with a seamless history. Then Marcos looked sincerely at Katy, and she saw that his eyes were just about ready to mist over.
“Thank you,” he said, “for being the light at the end of the tunnel for my son. I truly think that fighting to get you back was what kept him going through the darkness. Thank you for giving him a reason to live.”
David smiled, but Katy could see in his eyes that he felt the same.
They spent the next few hours chatting, joking, and generally enjoying one another’s presence. Katy loved the fact that she could sit beside David and simply hold his hand as long as she wanted. She loved that Marcos and David were so similar in their gestures and appearances. She loved that she could do what she wanted, with who she wanted, and stay out as long as she wanted without anyone texting to “check in on her,” or pressuring her to adhere to the proper standards of courtship for a Lorrellian princess.
She’d never been this independent before. It was strange new territory, and she was getting to explore it alongside the man she loved.
As the late afternoon melted into evening, the conversation dwindled and Marcos rose to leave. David and Katy stood graciously to bid him goodnight.
“I hope we can do breakfast in the morning,” he said as he opened the door to David’s hotel room on his way out. “Brits eat a really large and filling breakfast. It’s lovely, actually. But, uh,” Marcos leaned in close to Katy and whispered, “fair warning. The little black puddings are made out of blood.”
Katy laughed. Marcos bid them goodnight and then left.
When he was gone, Katy realized just how unique her situation suddenly was. She was feeling nervous all over again, for new reasons this time.
“I hope you’ll stay with me tonight,” David said as he looked lovingly down at Katy from where they stood beside his bed.
“I don’t really have anywhere else to go,” Katy joked dryly, though the thought of her new reality—and some of its downsides—was really beginning to sink in. Like how she’d left all of her clothes in the palace, and she really wasn’t keen on going back there to collect them right now . . .
But she certainly wasn’t put off by the idea of finally being alone with David.
After all these years.
David chuckled. But then he seemed suddenly nervous, as if the thoughts that had occurred to Katy after Marcos left had just occurred to him as well.
“Look, Katy, I know this might be a tad strange. After all these years, I mean.”
Katy’s eyes widened a bit. Was David really about to broach the subject of intimacy so quickly? My, David sure must’ve been looking forward to this moment.
It was good to know they were on the same page on that one.
“But there’s something I was hoping to ask you,” he went on. “Now that we’re alone.”
“Of course,” Katy replied, looking up at David. She took a step toward him, the gap between them shrinking.
Of course I’ll sleep in your bed tonight. Of course I want to feel your touch after all these nights alone. Of course I can’t wait to feel you once more, in the way that I could only briefly taste before.
To Katy’s surprise, David didn’t grab her and kiss her. He didn’t slide his hand under the strap of her dress to loosen it from her body. He didn’t even continue standing.
As Katy watched, dumbstruck, David dropped down to one knee.
“I don’t have a ring yet, Katy. I wanted to wait to buy one in case things didn’t work out today. But I’ll go first thing in the morning. We can go together. The ring isn’t the important part. The important part is, well, Katy . . .”
Katy didn’t even wait for him to finish. She didn’t need him to ask. It had never been a question in her mind.
“David. Yes. I will marry you.”
38
David
The news cycle the following morning was . . . busy, to say the least. All of the headlines, from both gossip rags and high journalism sites, seemed to be very personal.
“Cuz Cass a Criminal?! Victims Vilify Bride, Get Vengeance During Vows!”
“Splitsville for Duke and Princess! Katy Back with Vindicated David!”
“Americans Promise Enquiry into Previous Charges for Royal Ex David Rosen.”
“Lorrellian Royals Announce: Katerina de Courtes to Abdicate the Throne.”
David read through the headlines on his brand-new laptop in a mad rush, sitting at the hotel desk in pajama pants also bought on Marcos’s credit card (no matter how stridently David had tried to turn the shopping spree down), trying to examine all sides of the very public response to all the drama.
“Don’t bother with it, David,” Katy said sleepily from the bed. She had slept in one of David’s shirts the night before, and they’d contentedly cuddled and held each other close after their emotional engagement. Everything had been so new, so tender. He’d been completely satisfied with that. There was no need to jump into anything more right away—after all, they had all the time in the world now. Not to mention the previous day had been . . . tiring, to say the least.
“You’ve got to see all of this, Katy!” David called back from the computer. He was more amused than irritated.
“Plot to Kill Royals? Cousin of Lorrellian First Family Interrogated!”
“Royal Cousin Cassandra Arrested in London for Treason, Conspiracy.”
“Infidelity Rumors About David Rosen Possibly Fabricated. French Ex Comes Clean.”
Page after page of tawdry headlines met David’s laughing eyes. It was like the past five years of his life were melting away all at once, leaving him feeling fresh and renewed.
“Who cares what they think, David? You and I know the truth. I’m done giving a damn about what others write about us.”
David stopped scrolling. Katy was right. Whether the news was good or bad, about David or the princess or her family, and no matter how it made him feel personally . . . the reality of the situation was in the room with him at that very moment.
He didn’t need to read about it. He was living it.
Still, the news would definitely reach certain people David knew he still owed a phone call.
“I wonder if Joseph, Cerise, and Zeke have all seen this already,” he mused as he closed his laptop.
“You should ask them yourself,” Katy chided, though her tone was gentle, playful.
David blinked. “You know . . . you’re right. I’m running out of excuses not to take care of this now.”
Katy frowned. “Are you worried about something?”
Worried that they won’t forgive me for years of ignoring them, perhaps. David simply gave a slight nod. “I need to call them today. All of them.”
“I agree,” Katy replied. “And I’m here for support. But for now, come back to bed. I’m not ready to wake up yet.”
David smiled and stood from the desk to walk back to the king-size bed. Katy looked luscious lying there with nothing on but her underthings and his button-up. And David had a right mind to pop a few of the buttons off.
But there was something he wanted to do first.
“Marry me, Katy,” David said as he crawled up on the bed and hovered over her supine form.
<
br /> Katy giggled. “I already said that I would. How many times do I have to agree to it?”
She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down toward her. David leaned down and kissed her passionately, his hands pressed against the mattress to support himself. When he pulled back, he looked down at Katy longingly.
“I meant, marry me now,” he clarified, his heart thumping madly in his chest. “I don’t want to wait. Let’s just do it.”
Katy’s smile faded away and her brow furrowed. “Wait. Really?”
David’s heart skipped a beat. He couldn’t tell how she was feeling. Her expression was blank, save for the obvious confusion.
David took a deep breath, steadying himself. What’s the worst that could happen? You could get sent to prison for five years? Become homeless? Lose everything? Get off it, mate. “Really.”
Another three or four agonizingly long seconds passed before Katy’s lips curled into a smile. “David. I would marry you today if you’re up for it.”
David’s heart exploded into pink-and-red fireworks. “That sounds like a challenge,” he said, his voice going low and sultry. Then he lowered himself back down, until the whole length of his body was pressing against Katy’s, and covered her lips with his all over again.
* * *
As it turned out, planning a same-day wedding wasn’t as difficult as David would’ve imagined.
A public English garden with a lovely rose-dripping altar was available that very afternoon. The string quartet that had played traditional Lorrellian music for Cassie hadn’t left to go back home yet and was more than happy to get another gig. David now had some wonderful tailored tuxes to choose from, though the one he’d worn to the fateful engagement party was ruined beyond repair. And, though she took some convincing to accept Marcos’s money, Katy quickly found a gorgeous vintage wedding dress in a cool secondhand store.
As for the officiant, they’d found an unlikely ordained minister in a surprising place.
“I just got it for kicks, actually. But yeah, I think I could put somethin’ together all right,” Mick had said when David told his friends at the camp his plan.
And David and Katy had looked at each other and shrugged. At least it’s free.
The two of them did all of the planning together, making calls and looking up websites, never fretting over the details or the guest list. They laughed and joked their way through the whole process.
They didn’t have many people to invite. Mia was touched but already on her way to Germany for a top-secret case, her professional life completely back in swing, this time without the specter of Cassie’s threats hanging over her head. Marcos was honored to receive one of the coveted word-of-mouth invitations, of course. As were Rufus and Giles, though Giles lamented his lack of formal attire.
“We’re keeping it casual,” David had replied with a wink.
As for Katy, she didn’t really have anyone to invite any longer. She wasn’t ready to forgive the king and queen entirely. And Cassie was a definite no-go. But she assured David that it didn’t matter to her.
“I still have my parents, if and when I’m ready to make peace with them. And I have you. I don’t want for anything,” she told him as they took a cab to the venue together.
David’s heart swelled as he looked over at her in her wedding gown. It was a flowy cream-colored lace gown that fit Katy perfectly, displaying modest little glimpses of her lovely figure, accentuating her slender hips and graceful neck, highlighting her glowing face. Not quite white and not stranglingly uptight, in the Lorrellian style David knew Katy hated. She’d attributed its discovery in the posh thrift shop to fate.
But still, David worried that he wasn’t giving his princess enough.
“I hope you know,” he said thoughtfully, “that I’d do this all over again if you ever wanted to. We could have the biggest, grandest wedding in the world if you wanted. Sometime when we’re more stable. We can invite everybody we’d ever know . . . I’d rent out the Taj Mahal. We could have a hundred-tier cake. I don’t know who’d pay for it, but I swear, we could do it.”
Katy laughed. “You know me better than that. This is all I need. Right here in this car.”
Under a trellised arch of English roses, Mick managed fairly well to wax poetic in his thick Scouse, as a Brazilian drug lord and a couple of tramps looked on.
“Do you, David, take this bird to be your lawfully wedded lass?”
Through chuckles, David managed to say two very important words. Words he meant from the bottom of his heart.
“I do.”
Katy gazed at him lovingly . . . until Mick went on.
“And do you, Princess . . . er, actually I guess you ain’t that no more, huh? Um. Do you, Katy, take this bloke to be your lawfully wedded lad?”
More chuckles. But Katy stopped giggling long enough to repeat back to David the words that almost caused his heart to burst right out of his proud chest.
“I do.”
“Right! Well, then by the power vested in me by an online course that, come to think of it, I might’ve cheated my way through . . .”
“Wrap it up, Mick!” Marcos called from the miniature crowd, to more laughter.
“Yeah, got it. By powers vested in me, I now pronounce you wed and whatnot. So go on, David.” Mick elbowed his friend crudely. “Let’s see that smooch!”
David rolled his eyes while Katy laughed. But even through all the ridiculousness, there was a palpable air of romance around them. And as David leaned forward, toward his beautiful bride, the sensation was almost too much to bear.
When they kissed, though he knew it was customary to close your eyes, David couldn’t help but open them before the kiss was done. He had to make sure it was real, and not just some beautiful dream that he had imagined for himself.
But it was real. David was kissing Katy Rosen. His lips were pressed against the perfect, soft mouth of the woman who had, up until very recently, been the world’s most sought-after bachelorette. And as her mouth parted ever so gently to allow their kiss to deepen, David realized that she had chosen him.
Of all the people in the world. Of all the millionaires, billionaires, princes, dukes, lords, and playboys. Katy had chosen him.
She gave up her family and her crown to marry me. And now I have the rest of my life to prove to her that it was worth it.
* * *
“You ready for this?” Katy asked on the bed beside David, after they got back to their hotel room. She was still in her wedding dress, her face flushed after the “reception” at a cozy pub. They’d shared laughs, memories, and well-wishes with each other (as well as chips and drinks, on Marcos’s seemingly boundless credit and with David’s limitless thanks), but the perfect evening had finally drawn to an end.
And now they were alone.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” David replied. “Unless . . . maybe we should wait until tomorrow? I mean, it’s kind of late.”
Katy grinned. “I think it’ll be okay. It’s important that we do this today, on our wedding day.”
“Right,” David said anxiously, nodding. “You’re right.”
“All right, so we’re doing it?” Katy pressed David. “Right now?”
David took a deep breath and shifted slightly on the bed. “Right now.”
Then he picked up his phone and punched in the number he had memorized. It rang twice.
“Hello?” Joseph answered.
“Joseph, I . . .”
“DAVID!”
David had to pull the phone away from his ear as Joseph continued to shout excitedly. He could see from her pleasantly surprised, amused expression that Katy was hearing every word, too.
“. . . CALLED. I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU FOREVER. WE SAW THE NEWS! WAIT, CERISE IS HERE, TOO! HERE SHE IS!”
David simply smiled and listened as his other cousin got on the phone.
“David! Oh my gosh! We saw the news about you and Katy! We’ve missed you so much!”
Katy watched David with a smile, her hand resting on his thigh, as he slowly regained the ability to speak again. He apologized for his time away, told his cousins how much he had missed them, and revealed that he was now a married man.
By the end of the call, they had all cried, laughed, and made their peace. And they’d also promised to visit each other soon. When David finally hung up, he felt like he had run a marathon.
His other call would have to wait until tomorrow. After all, it was the middle of the night for Zeke’s part of the world.
Which meant that now, he could focus totally on his wife.
“Now don’t you feel better?” Katy asked, sitting beside her new husband with a coy smile. “They were certainly happy to hear from you.”
“Thanks for being here to support me through it,” David replied. “It might seem like a small thing, but I was, uh, pretty scared about it.”
Katy faked shock. “You? Scared? I don’t believe it.” She giggled, but then her tone evened out. “Honestly, you’re the strongest person I’ve ever met. It means a lot to me that you can be honest about your feelings with me.”
David chuckled. “What if I told you that I’m still a little nervous, even now?”
“Oh? Why’s that?”
David looked back at her with a you-know-what-I’m-talking-about look.
“Oh,” Katy replied. She blushed.
“I, uh,” David went on, “haven’t been with anyone since . . . since five years ago.”
“Me, neither,” Katy replied.
David looked up at her in mild surprise.
“Oh, come on,” she said, shoving him playfully. “As if you’re surprised.”
He wasn’t, really. Although he wouldn’t have blamed her one bit if that wasn’t the case, given everything that had happened, he couldn’t help but be glad to hear it.
“Well, I still have some pretty stiff competition, though, don’t I?” David mused.
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