by Imani King
We were quiet in the taxi on the way to his friend’s flat. When we arrived at the building, I couldn’t help but give it a double take. It was apparent from just the exterior that it was one of the most luxurious buildings in the city. We entered the elegant lobby, and the elevator took us to the top floor. Aidan had a key, and he opened the door and moved aside to let me pass through the doorway first. As I walked out into the main room that opened in front of us, I felt my mouth drop at the views of the city skyscape and the Eiffel tower in the background.
“Who is this friend again?” I asked.
“His name is Rylan,” Aidan said as he came up behind me. He put his arms around my waist and pulled me against his chest. There was something right about it as we looked out at the city with the setting sun behind it. It was so romantic that I felt the spark of the magic in the air. Paris was a city that was supposed to be explored by lovers, and I could see why.
“So how do you know Rylan?” I asked. I pulled away from him trying to give myself some time to settle into everything. My life had been upended on the train ride even though I knew that this had already been the case. Spending the last two and a half months with Aidan had accomplished that goal.
“We went to school together,” Aidan said simply, but I knew there was more to it than that. “He is working late tonight, so we probably won’t see him. I’ll introduce you to him in the morning. He said that he just needs to gather up his luggage, and then he’ll be on his way again.”
I nodded and then heard the buzzing of the phone. I looked over and saw Aidan pull his cellphone out of his pocket. He stared at whatever was on the screen and frowned.
“Do you need to get that?” I asked.
Aidan shoved it back into his pocket. “It’s nothing,” he said. He started to show me around the flat. It was obvious that he had been there before many times. He showed me the room where we were going to be staying, and I couldn’t help but notice the bed was large and looked wildly inviting. I was surprised that I had napped on the train, and I was even more surprised that I was still feeling a bit tired and out of sorts. The nap had not done me any good so far.
I went and stood to look out the windows. It gave me a kind of chill to know that every morning while we were there, I was going to wake up and see the Eiffel Tower first thing. It was crazy for a small town girl like me.
I heard the buzzing of Aidan’s phone again. I turned around and knew that something was going on now. Ever since we had gotten off the train, his phone had buzzed at least every five minutes. I wondered why he hadn’t completely turned it off if he didn’t want to speak to whoever was calling.
“It seems like somebody wants to get a hold of you,” I said. I started to feel the first tendril of dread take hold in the pit of my stomach. Everything had changed between us so fast that it couldn’t be a good thing.
Aidan picked up his phone and grimaced. “It’s my mother. I imagine she is calling because she has noticed that I am missing.”
My heart started beating faster, and a faint feeling overtook my body. “Missing? You did at least tell your parents where you were going, right?”
“I told you earlier that I didn’t tell anyone,” Aidan said.
I knitted my eyebrows together, trying to understand. “What are you saying? I mean, this looks bad. We’re both gone, and so it’s obvious that they’re going to know that we’re together. Your parents weren’t supposed to be suspicious of us that way.”
“Everyone is already suspicious about us that way. You think that it escaped everyone’s notice that we’ve spent every waking moment together for the last two and a half months? Come on, Eva. They know that something is going on. The only thing they don’t know is the extent of it and how serious it is.”
“So what does that mean?” I asked. “They know that we’ve been hanging around together. They can’t prove anything else. We’ve been totally discreet when we’ve been anywhere in public.”
“I was supposed to ask you to leave the villa over a month ago,” he finally admitted. This was news to me.
I felt a flash of anger. “Great. So you told them without telling them that something else is going on, and they wanted to get rid of me.” Aidan tried to move closer toward me, but I backed away from him. “All your talk about wanting to change things and wanting to do what you want to do and be with who you want to be with. I told you that your parents would never accept that. You’re supposed to marry someone else; someone they picked for you. Did you think that they were just going to fall over and accept something else when it’s the law of your country? And now they know that we’re here together, and it looks even worse.”
He huffed angrily. “I told you that I don’t want to marry Imogen, and that’s true. I want to be able to make the decision about who I want to be with, and I’ve told you the truth, Eva; I want you. What if we eloped?”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I looked at him as if he had gone mad. “An hour ago, you said you might be falling in love with me. Now you’re asking me to run away with you and elope? What good is that going to do? You have made this whole situation so awkward. I don’t know what to believe anymore. So we elope, and then what? You lose your throne, and your parents hate me? Yeah, that sounds like a wonderful way to start a new life off on the right foot. Add to that the fact that I wasn’t good enough for you to begin with either because of my common blood.”
“Eva, don’t say that. I’ve already apologized for ever using those words. I don’t think that way about you, and I know if we just give it time, my parents would come around,” Aidan said.
I shook my head. “I can’t be part of this. You don’t know what you’re saying. It’s like you’ve gone insane. You want to throw away everything for me? You’re not thinking this through, Aidan, and I can’t let you make a mistake like that.”
I started to move towards the front door. “Where are you going?” he said as he caught my arm. I shook it out of his grasp.
“I need some fresh air,” I said. “This whole situation makes me feel sick to my stomach. I need to be alone right now. Please respect that.”
I left the building as quickly as I could, feeling like there were demons on my heels. I hadn’t been lying when I said that I felt sick, but what I had neglected to mention was that I had felt off my game all day. I hoped that I wasn’t coming down with something right as I was getting ready to start our vacation. I had wanted to enjoy every day that I had with Aidan in Paris, but now everything was thrown into question yet again.
I couldn’t believe that Aidan had left Sorenia without telling anyone where he was going. That was something that was guaranteed to cause an uproar with his parents. As if they didn’t already detest me.
I had noticed a small café just up the block from Rylan’s building. I knew that I wasn’t going to go far; I just need some time away from Aidan to think and get everything straight in my mind. I wandered into the café, glad that I had thought to take my purse with me before I left. At least, I had money. I ordered a latte and sat in the corner with it in front of me staring at it as if I was hoping I could read the foam like tea leaves.
I didn’t know what to do. It seemed so crazy that Aidan had all of a sudden jumped from a summer fling to wanting to elope. I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to get married. I knew that I had strong feelings for Aidan that could likely be called love, but I was only twenty-three years old. Getting married and doing married couple things like having kids was the last thing on my mind. Plus, I couldn’t let him throw away his entire future for me. At some point, I was sure that he would come to resent me for that decision. It was all so crazy.
“This was exactly what I was trying to avoid,” I murmured to myself. It was true. I had sought to put boundaries on the entire relationship from the get-go, and Aidan had barreled through every single one. Of course, I couldn’t lay the blame at his door entirely. I had been the one who had let him in. I was the one who was the fool.
; Eventually, I pushed the cup of coffee away. The pit of dread in my stomach had turned into a rolling ball of nausea now. I felt like I was going to get sick, and the last thing I wanted to do was do that in public. I needed to go back to the flat and back to Aidan. But if we were going to continue forward with anything, it needed to be on my terms. My mind made up, I headed back. I had a small moment of anxiety when I walked into the building realizing that I didn’t have a key.
I saw the doorman nod to me. “Welcome back, Ms. Wilson. You can head on up. Mr. Ilves let me know that you forgot your key.”
It seemed as if Aidan was intent on taking care of everything. I knew that was a petty thing to think considering otherwise I was trapped out of my only place to stay, but it rankled me that he seemed to think that everything was going to turn out okay when everything was in an apparent state of chaos. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was wearing blinders or because he was just that naïve.
I made my way back to the top floor and found Aidan standing there in the open doorway. He looked upset, which made me feel better and worse all at the same time.
“Can we talk now?” he asked. I moved past him into the beautiful flat. I made my way to the nearby couch and sat down. He sat down across from me, and I could tell that he wanted to say something, but he was waiting for me to speak first. I thought about everything that I wanted to say. It was time to put down my terms.
“Look, this has all taken me by surprise. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to react to any of this, and this is far from a normal situation,” I said. “I have no idea what the protocol is, what I’m supposed to do or say that won’t be offensive or inappropriate or politically incorrect. I usually trip when I wear high heels. I hate wearing makeup. These all seem things that would be important to someone who would be in the public eye all of the time on the arm of the prince.”
Aidan shook his head with a heavy sigh. “I am falling in love with you for who you are. If I wanted a fancy socialite or a noblewoman who was bland and boring and said all of the right things all of the time, my life would be boring too. You’ve shown me a new way of looking at the world. I don’t have to do what I was always told to do. I can have the life that I want, and I told you I want to have that with you.”
“I told you earlier that I think I’m falling in love with you too. I wasn’t telling the whole truth. I am in love with you,” I finally admitted. There. It was out in the open. It felt good to have that weight off my chest. I saw Aidan’s face light up at my words. You have thought that I’d given him the best present he’d ever received in his life.
He started to move toward me, but I put my hand up to stop him. “Here’s the thing. The one thing I cannot stand in relationships is dishonesty. You have to promise me that from this point forward we will always be completely and totally honest with each other and the people around us. I don’t want to hide or sneak around. If we’re together, then I don’t want to lie about it. That’s not the point of being in a relationship. I’m still not quite sure that I’m comfortable with everything that comes as part of being in a relationship with you, but you asked me earlier to be open-minded, and because I love you, I am willing to do that.”
Aidan nodded solemnly at me. He knelt down on one knee beside me. For a moment, I was terrified that he was going to propose again, but he took my hand in his and then brought it to his heart. “I agree with everything that you said. I am so sorry that I’ve made you feel like I’m hiding you because that’s the last thing that I would want you to feel. I will tell my mother and father in the morning about you, and that I want to be with you and have a real courtship with you. I will tell them that I do not want to marry Imogen, and then we can go public whenever you feel comfortable. I would never force you to do something you’re not comfortable with. We’re in this together.”
I felt my lip tremble as my emotions threatened to overwhelm me. But I felt so off-kilter physically that I thought I might have turned green in front of him. Aidan noticed right away. He touched my face and asked in a concerned voice, “Do you feel all right, darling?”
“To be honest, it’s been a long day, and I think that it’s all catching up with me. I’d like to lay down if you don’t mind.”
“Of course,” he said. He surprised me again as he swept me up into his arms. “I’ll tuck you in.”
With that, my prince took me to our room and put me to bed. It made me feel a little bit better when he laid down on the bed next to me. He put his arm around me, and I snuggled in next to him. That was all it took to lull me to sleep.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I watched over Eva as she slept through the night. Her sleep seemed troubled, and I knew that I was the cause of it. But, for all of the angst that it happened that day, she had admitted that she loved me. That was what I needed to know to start planning through the decisions that I knew I had to make. Rylan sent me a text that he was home as a courtesy. His bedroom was on the other side of the flat, and I knew that he would not disturb us by knocking on the door.
I got up the next morning, and Eva told me that she still was not feeling well. In fact, I knew that she had gone to the bathroom several times throughout the night, and I was pretty sure she’d gotten sick. I hoped that she wasn’t coming down with anything serious, and I promised that I would take care of her. After procuring some tea and crackers for her, I made my way back out into the living room. I saw Rylan in the kitchen making coffee. His bags were by the door.
“Hey there,” he said to me with a wave. “I’ve got a few hours left before I need to be at the airport. Would you guys still like a quick tour of the real Paris?”
“Eva isn’t feeling well,” I said. “But I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you and I took in a few sights, though, while she rests. I’m disappointed I won’t have a chance to introduce the two of you.”
“Next time,” Rylan said. “I hope your girl feels better. This city was meant to be enjoyed by lovers, after all.” He winked at me.
The truth was I have been looking forward to seeing Rylan for the entire summer. Although he and I were not as close as Kian and me, he had been my best mate at school.
For the next couple of hours, Rylan showed me all of the small spots around Paris that weren’t the usual tourist spots. I made a mental note of each one, knowing that Eva would love them. I was excited to show them all to her, and I was concerned that she was not feeling well. I had texted her several times while we were out, and each time she assured me that she was fine and that I was to have fun with my friend.
“This girl seems pretty special to you,” Rylan said observing my fourth text of the morning.
“She is special,” I admitted. I hadn’t been entirely honest with Kian because I was afraid that if I told him too much, he would go back and tell my parents. For as much as I thought my brother would be supportive of any decision I made, I knew that if I were to take an American bride as well, there would be an intense focus on what would happen to the country. Whether he would ever take the throne or not, that was a matter that affected him as well.
“I bet your parents aren’t thinking very highly of the situation,” Ryland said.
I snorted. “Constance is as frigid as ever,” I said. With my friends, I never referred to her as my mother. I’d had a long string of nannies throughout the years who I was closer to than my mother. Although she was frigid and not warm, I never sensed any malice from her. Being a mother wasn’t a role that she comfortable playing. And for the benefit of both of us I guess, she never really bothered to try.
“So what are you going to do?” Rylan asked.
“Well, I’ve been thinking about that for quite a while,” I said. “I’ve been over all of the laws looking for any loophole or any way that I can get around not having to marry the woman that my parents have picked out for me. I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with her--despite the rumors--but at the end of the day, she’s not Eva.”
“Ah, love. I never thought I would see the mig
hty Aidan Ilves fall prey to her wiles.”
I wanted to deck him, but at the same time, I knew he wasn’t wrong. “I know that I’ve had a pretty strong opinion about the whole concept of marriage in the past, but you have to give a guy credit for getting older and perhaps even maturing.”
Rylan laughed. “Perhaps. So Imogen Sutherland is the woman that they’ve picked out for you. She is a noblewoman who would be perfect on your arm and give you beautiful babies to continue the bloodline,” he said in a mocking tone. In most European country nowadays the king and queen were nothing but figureheads, and Sorenia seemed behind the curve on that aspect. My father was still involved on a daily basis with affairs of states and very rarely would something go into law without his express approval. When that did happen, it wasn’t ever anything of significant consequence.
“I didn’t make the rules. I’m just trying to see how I can break one of them,” I said.
“That’s the spirit,” Rylan said. “If you want to do what you want to do, you should. Life is too damn short. If you find something you want, you’ve got a grab onto it. Take a chance, or you’ll regret it otherwise.”
I looked closely at my friend. “Speaking from personal experience, Ry?”
Rylan shook his head. “No woman has managed to take down the mighty Marchal prince yet. But I’m open-minded enough to think that it is possible.”
That made me chuckle. I wasn’t the only one who had been adamantly against the idea of love when we were in university. Rylan’s reputation had been almost as bad as mine.
“Look at us. Maturing and shit,” I said.
“So seriously, man. What are you going to do?”
“There is a law, or part of the law that I read from a long time ago. It’s been stripped away in the newer text, but I believe it is still relevant. It said that if I can produce an heir, then I can marry whoever I want to. But I don’t think that Eva has any interest in marrying into the royal family. She doesn’t believe that she’ll fit in, and that’s not a lifestyle that she wants. Being in the public eye, being the subject of constant speculation.”