by Maisey Yates
“It’s not...”
“There are people here. Oppressed by this country. I was taken to be a symbol.”
“But you weren’t used.”
“Things didn’t go as planned. The woman Dionysus was with that night... She lured him into the wood. It was never wolves.”
“Is he...”
“He’s dead. I was not a part of that. You must believe it. And that, is where my fault lies. I cannot bring myself to kill you. Any more than I could’ve brought myself to kill him. Just as I couldn’t take your woman. She loves you. And you love her. Those are gifts that I will never have, Brother, for they were stripped away from me a long time ago. And I let that fester into hatred, of you, of this place. Which was exactly what my captors wanted. But I... I see a different path.”
“What path? I don’t understand.”
“You might be the Lion of the Dark Wood, but I am the Prince. And I have my own people to protect. And you and I... Well, we have some negotiating to do.”
“Surely that can wait.”
“It can. Though... I heard that you broke your engagement.”
“Yes. I did.”
“Why? As I said, it was clear to me there was a great deal of love between the two of you. You don’t have to stand in front of a fire to know it’s warm. I don’t have to be able to feel love to be able to recognize it.”
“You might have been raised to hate me, Lazarus, but you... You cannot possibly hate me more than I was trained to hate myself.”
“And is that why you can’t be with her?”
“She doesn’t deserve to be tied to someone like me.”
“She doesn’t deserve to be with a man she’s clearly in love with?”
“It is not so simple.”
“Life is actually quite simple,” Lazarus said. “You must live. Whatever it is that’s in front of you, take it if you can. For there are guarantees of nothing. I was born a prince in a castle, ended up raised in a shack in the woods. If you can have the castle, why are you choosing the shack?”
“What does that have to...”
“You can have love, you’re choosing not to. Don’t be a fool. You and I will have a meeting in a few days. But I expect you will have resolved things with your Queen by then.”
And just as quietly and suddenly as he had appeared, Lazarus was gone. And everything Alex thought he knew about the world had been turned on its head.
Lazarus made it sound like a choice.
Lazarus was alive.
He was alive.
And if he was alive... If there was more to all of this than Alex had ever known...
But perhaps he didn’t know everything.
Perhaps it didn’t have to be the end of him and Tinley. Because they had something that had stopped Lazarus from taking revenge.
Something powerful.
And he... He was choosing fear instead.
He had hidden behind the title, because it meant he didn’t have to feel. Not the grief over losing either of his brothers, or the pain of his mother’s rejection.
But Tinley had asked for the man.
And suddenly, he realized, there wasn’t only death in the wood, there was life too. And life was much the same. There wasn’t only death. He wasn’t only the King. There were miracles, and there were tragedies. There was pain and there was joy. There was hate, but there was love.
And as with Lazarus, love had won over hate.
Love had won.
He wished...very much that his mother had lived to see this. She had been hopeless, that was the problem. She had been hopeless and had seen no other way. And he... It had pushed him into that place too.
But there was hope.
There was life.
He no longer needed to carry the hurt his mother had put there. The sad thing was her life had ended before she could put it aside. But he could choose to. Now. He could choose hope.
He could choose love.
He needed Tinley.
Immediately.
Tinley was working on a sweater for her cat.
She felt that she had descended to some new low, but at the same time, it was so cute it felt like it could be a high. Life was funny.
She brought her needle around to the front of the yarn for a purl, when there was a knock on her cottage door. She shoved the work back onto the needles and set it down. “Yes?”
She wasn’t expecting anyone, and it wasn’t like her cottage was in the sort of place that got a lot of foot traffic. She stood up and peered out one lace curtain, and then her heart scurried up into her throat.
“Alex?” she called.
“Let me in,” he said.
“I’ll... All right.”
She went and jerked the door open, and there he was, tall and broad as ever. But disheveled. He looked tired, as if he hadn’t been sleeping.
Join the club.
“What are you doing here?”
“I have so much to tell you,” he said. “The first of which is that Lazarus is alive.”
“What?”
“He’s alive. And... There is more to that story, which I will explain, but first... I was afraid. Because I thought there was no way you could possibly love me. Not when my mother seemed to see how unworthy I was.”
“Alex, it’s never been about worthiness...”
“I know. I do now. It was easier, though, to accept that. Because it required nothing of me. And I’ve experienced my share of loss. So it was easier to hide behind the title of King. To hide behind duty. When Dionysus died, when I made the decision to seduce you while he was away for the evening... I was acting with my heart. And over the years, I’ve dismissed it. As lust. Because it was easier than admitting that those feelings I had for you were complicated. But the timing of everything was complicated, and it wasn’t evil of me to want you. Things happened the way they did. I will never be glad that he’s gone. Ever. But I do wonder if I would have ever had the courage then to override what everyone wanted because love is stronger. I wonder if I would have been able to admit that I loved you.” He moved closer to her, cupped her chin. “It doesn’t matter now. What I would have done. What matters is that I’m here now. We cannot change the past. But we have a choice now. I have a choice now. And I choose to make the future the best it can be. I love you, Tinley. I want you to be mine. My wife. My Queen. Marry the man and the King.”
“Of course I will,” she said, love bursting through her chest like a flame. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
“You’re my lioness,” he said, touching her hair. “How did I not see it before? The signs were everywhere.”
“Alex. It’s so easy to get caught up in the stories everyone else tells about you. But at some point we have to start telling our own.”
“Yes. We must.”
“Well, I suppose marriage is really the only course of action.”
“I couldn’t agree more. It’s why I have brought the vicar with me.”
“The vicar?” She blinked. “Now?”
“We can have a wedding for the benefit of the country. But I think we should have one now. For the benefit of us. Only us. This isn’t for your mother. It isn’t a symbol. It’s not because I told my father I would take care of you, it’s not because you will be a good queen—though you will. It is simply because I love you. And I will marry you here. With your animals as attendants.”
“Really, that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard you say.”
“I thought you would appreciate it.”
“I do. So much.”
“So will you marry me? Outside your cottage, on the edge of the wood?”
“I will. And we can have pie as a wedding treat.”
“I can think of nothing better.”
“I’m very glad we’r
e writing our own story, Alex,” she said. “Because I know just how I wanted it to end.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. Happily ever after.”
EPILOGUE
OF COURSE THEY did have to have a wedding, for the benefit of the nation. Things had changed dramatically in the time since they’d had their private ceremony at the cottage. Tinley had discovered she was expecting the royal heir, a cause for celebration in Liri, but celebrated most of all in the palace, between the King and Queen.
Tinley’s mother had fallen in love with an Italian count, and the man was her guest at the wedding.
And Lazarus was in attendance, along with his people. Reconciliation was being worked on, and the true history of Liri over generations was being brought to light. There were some hard truths to that. But Alex was passionate about making things right.
With his brother by his side.
But even more importantly, with his Queen.
When he spoke his vows to her, they came from his heart. The heart that was healing. That no longer felt so scarred.
The heart that had beaten for Tinley Markham from the very beginning. And he no longer looked back on those feelings as a sin, but a sign.
That love had always been there. And that in the end, love would always prevail.
For love was the source of all magic. Love could overwhelm curses.
Love was a light that no darkness could stand against. And for all his days Alex was committed to choosing love, with Tinley, forever.
Coming next month
THE COST OF CLAIMING HIS HEIR
Michelle Smart
‘How was the party?’
Becky had to untie her tongue to speak. ‘Okay. Everyone looked like they were having fun.’
‘But not you?’
‘No.’ She sank down onto the wooden step to take the weight off her weary legs and rested her back against a pillar.
‘Why not?’
‘Because I’m a day late.’
She heard him suck an intake of breath. ‘Is that normal for you?’
‘No.’ Panic and excitement swelled sharply in equal measure as they did every time she allowed herself to read the signs that were all there. Tender breasts. Fatigue. The ripple of nausea she’d experienced that morning when she’d passed Paula’s husband outside and caught a whiff of his cigarette smoke. Excitement that she could have a child growing inside her. Panic at what this meant.
Scared she was going to cry, she scrambled back to her feet. ‘Let’s give it another couple of days. If I haven’t come on by then, I’ll take a test.’
She would have gone inside if Emiliano hadn’t leaned forward and gently taken hold of her wrist. ‘Sit with me.’
Opening her mouth to tell him she needed sleep, she stared into his eyes and found herself temporarily mute.
For the first time since they’d conceived—and in her heart she was now certain they had conceived—there was no antipathy in his stare, just a steadfastness that lightened the weight on her shoulders. loz!
Gingerly, she sat beside him but there was no hope of keeping a distance for Emiliano put his beer bottle down and hooked an arm around her waist to draw her to him.
Much as she wanted to resist, she leaned into him and rested her cheek on his chest.
‘Don’t be afraid, bomboncita,’ he murmured into the top of her head. ‘We will get through this together.’
Nothing more was said for the longest time and for that she was grateful. Closing her eyes, she was able to take comfort from the strength of his heartbeat against her ear and his hands stroking her back and hair so tenderly. There was something so very solid and real about him, an energy always zipping beneath his skin even in moments of stillness.
He dragged a thumb over her cheek and then rested it under her chin to tilt her face to his. Then, slowly, his face lowered and his lips caught her in a kiss so tender the little of her not already melting to be held in his arms turned to fondue.
Feeling as if she’d slipped into a dream, Becky’s mouth moved in time with his, a deepening caress that sang to her senses as she inhaled the scent of his breath and the muskiness of his skin. Her fingers tiptoed up his chest, then flattened against his neck. The pulse at the base thumped against the palm of her hand.
But, even as every crevice in her body thrilled, a part of her brain refused to switch off and it was with huge reluctance that she broke the kiss and gently pulled away from him.
‘Not a good idea,’ she said shakily as her body howled in protest.
Emiliano gave a look of such sensuality her pelvis pulsed. ‘Why?’
Fearing he would reach for her again, she shifted to the other side of the swing chair and patted the space beside her for the dogs to jump up and act as a barrier between them. They failed to oblige. ‘Aren’t we in a big enough mess?’
Eyes not leaving her face, he picked up his beer and took a long drink. ‘That depends on how you look at it. To me, the likelihood that you’re pregnant makes things simple. I want you. You want me. Why fight it any more when we’re going to be bound together?’
Continue reading
THE COST OF CLAIMING HIS HEIR
Michelle Smart
Available next month
Copyright ©2020 by Michelle Smart
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