She was a mess when she discovered Liam had dismissed Myles as her personal protection officer. He was her shadow for five years; she trusted him, and the thought of going out with someone new only caused her to draw further into her shell and the protection this apartment offered.
I begged her to let me whisk her away to Milan, away from all of this, but she’d refused. Lucy might have been hurting, but she was adamant that I begin my post as a consultant to the treaty law team. The shake-up to our line of succession had the potential to alter relationships with other nations as Leo was the prominent face in international relations for over a decade.
The only problem was that I didn’t know how I could leave her alone in the apartment in this state. As it was, we slept with the lights on every night. She was struggling, even if she wouldn’t verbally admit it. The signs were all there.
“The world is watching, waiting for Liam and me to fail to produce an heir.” It was a statement of fact from Lucy—her voice had no emotion.
“I shouldn’t have been watching,” I apologized. “Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks or has to say. Your only focus should be on getting better.”
Pulling back, her blue eyes met mine. “I’m okay.” Then, she stood up and went back to bed. It was 10 AM, and that’s where she would remain for the rest of the day.
She wasn’t fooling anyone. She was not okay.
The shrill screams woke me from a dead sleep, and I bolted into action. Lucy was thrashing in bed beside me, her body covered in sweat as the nightmare played behind her closed eyes.
This was the third time she’d woken me like this in the past week.
The lights were on already, so I didn’t waste any time pulling her into my arms, hoping to wake her up so she knew she was safe.
“No! Get off me!” Lucy screamed, her eyes moving rapidly beneath their closed lids.
It broke my heart when she called out in her sleep like this. I learned more about what happened to her in that cold room beneath the castle when she was asleep than she ever told me when she was awake.
“Luce, baby, wake up. I’ve got you. You’re safe,” I begged her gently and calmly so as not to scare her further.
Slowly, her body relaxed, and her eyelids fluttered open to reveal bright blue unfocused eyes. Patiently, I held her until she realized where she was and who she was with. Then those beautiful eyes filled with tears, and she began to cry.
“Preston,” she sobbed, clutching me like I had the power to take away all the bad things that happened to her.
God, if only it were that simple. I would do it in a heartbeat. I felt so helpless while she battled these invisible demons.
“I’m right here, Princess.”
“I can’t do this.”
“Can’t do what, baby?” Whatever it was, I would move heaven and Earth to help her.
“I can’t stay here. Every time I close my eyes, I see him, hear him, knowing he was right beneath us for months, just waiting for an opportunity. An opportunityIgave him.”
Lucy was referring to the night I took her home from Desire, leaving the tunnels accessible from the doorway in Remhorn.She explained to me that’s how he got in and that he’d been living down there since that night.
My response was instant. “Then we leave tomorrow. We can go to your place in Milan, Liam offered up his house in Connecticut, or we can go somewhere warm where we are alone and forget the rest of the world exists. I will take you anywhere—throw a dart at a map, and we’re gone.”
Tears streamed down her face as she searched my eyes. “But your job . . .”
“Fuck the job, Lucy. It’s not worth it to see you in pain.”
“But it’s your dream. I can’t ask you to give it up for me.”
I knew what she was doing, trying to give me an out. We’d spent months trying to push each other away, and now she was telling me she would walk away if that’s what I wanted. She couldn’t stay here, but she was willing to leave and let me remain, giving me a chance to have everything I wanted before I fell in love with her.
Five months ago, I would have skipped out of this palace with a giant smile on my face if she decided to call it quits, but so much had changed since then. I needed her just as much as she needed me. My world would crumble without her.
I almost lost her once. I couldn’t bear to lose her again.
Cupping her cheeks with my hands, I shook my head. “I have a new dream now. One that sees you safe, happy, and whole. You matter more than anything, Lucy. A life without you is a life I don’t want to live. Jobs come and go.Youare what I want for the rest of my life.”
She choked back a sob. “You really mean that?”
