Love? He’d never mentioned love to her. She lowered the phone, going very still. “Are we about . . . those things?”
“Alex.” He took the phone out of her hands and tossed it down on the bed. In the next moment, he gripped her hands in his and slid off the bed, onto his knees on the floor in front of her.
On his knees. Her entire body trembled at the sight.
“I’ve never felt like this with anyone other than you,” he told her. His thumb brushed over her knuckles in that way she loved. “From the moment I met you, I thought you were different, and I was intrigued. And since I’ve come to know you, I can’t imagine spending a day without you. It breaks my heart that you think I’d deliberately use you. I love you.” His hands squeezed hers. “Alex, I want to marry you.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “Marry?”
Luke’s mouth cocked in a half smile. “Yeah. I love you and want to claim you as mine. I want to grow old with you. I want to make superstitious babies with cute dimples with you.”
She laughed and started to cry at the same time. “Luke . . . I’m a princess—”
“I might have noticed that at some point,” he cut in dryly.
“I can’t leave my country. I can’t abandon my throne and follow you to Hollywood.”
Again, he squeezed her hands. “I’m not asking you to, baby. I’m asking you to marry me. I know you’re a princess. I don’t see that changing just because we happen to be in love.”
Maybe he wasn’t understanding what it would mean to be her husband. Sudden pain shot through her. “Luke, I’m the Crown Princess. You’re not from Bellissime, so you can never be in line to inherit the throne. When I’m queen, you won’t be king. You’ll just be my husband.” Maybe a duke, but the Bellissime parliament would have to decide that.
He shrugged. “I don’t want to be in charge of anything. I just want you.”
“I’ll have to live here,” she continued, feeling a little desperate. He wasn’t getting this. “I don’t know if you’d be able to continue making the movies you do. The queen’s husband can’t be sleeping with other women on camera—”
“Shhh,” he said, when her voice sped up. He got to his feet and put his arms around her. “You think I haven’t figured that out? I’ve been frustrated for a while now. I’ll take some time off, and when or if I go back, I’ll pick up some smaller roles. A movie that I’ll do because it means something to me instead of because it’ll lead to other roles.”
“But all those scripts—”
“I looked through all of them. They’re all the same. Tentpole action movies with cardboard characters. I’d only take them for the money, and honestly? I’m doing fine on money.” He drew her closer to him. “What I don’t have is you, if you say no.”
Her hands tugged at his shirt, and she felt overwhelmed. He was going to give up his career to be with her? Her? “Luke, I don’t want to hold you back.”
“You’re not holding me back, baby. I love you. Being your husband is the next role I want to take on.” He kissed her gently and then paused. “You never said if you love me—”
“I love you,” she yelled in his ear and flung her arms around him. “I love you, you foolish man.”
He laughed and picked her up, swinging her around. “So does this mean we’re getting married?”
She clung to him, her head whirling. “Luke, if you’re sure . . .”
He set her down again and gave her a stern look. “Is this the part where I should tell you about how much I can learn about acting from you? Because you play a role every day, too, you know. Except yours actually means something. And if I can be at your side every day and in your bed every night? It sounds like the role of a lifetime to me.”
Alex bit her lip, worrying. “We’ll have to ask the queen for permission.”
His hands slid to her hips and he pulled her against him. “I have it on good authority that someone’s going to intervene for us and convince the queen that a royal princess marrying an actor is a very good thing for the country. Now, do you want to marry me or not?”
“I do! I do. So badly.”
“Then shut up and kiss me.” He grinned and leaned in.
She flung her arms around him and kissed him with all the happiness and joy in her body. Maybe even modern princesses could get a happy ever after, too.
***
It turned out that the queen did not need much convincing after all.
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His Royal Princess Page 12