“Actually, you weren’t clear in your note, but we’ll circle back to that. What’s going on? Why were you crying?”
“I wasn’t—”
Leaning toward her, I placed two fingers under her chin and tilted her head up. “How about we each do the other a favor and cut the bullshit? Tell me the truth. What is goingon?” I tilted her head to the side. “Why is there a bandage on your neck?”
Hannah pushed away from me and tossed me a glare. “You don’t get to do that. We’ve known each other a few days. You don’t get to come into my life and start bossing me around. Besides, I thought royalty had better manners than to pick a fight out in the open where anyone could hear.”
“Who’s going to hear?” I gesturedto the empty parking lot around us. The only people in the vicinity were my security detail. “And if someone did hear us, I don’t care. All I care about is you. What the hell is going on? Why did you leave without saying anything to me?”
“I said what I needed to say in the note. I can’t do this. I’m not comfortable in your world.”
“What about yesterday was so bad? The helicopter ride? The picnic?The amazing sex? The food you raved about? What part of my life is so abhorrent to you that you left without talking to me first?”
“I’M SCARED!” Hannah shouted. “Okay? That’s my big secret. You’re making me feel things and you’re a prince and I’m scared. If things keep going on—the way they’re going—I’ll fall for you. And then I’m gonna have my heart broken, because there is no way that thisis ever going to work. You’re amazing and sweet and sexy, and there is no way this ends any other way but with my heart broken and me all alone.”
“Hannah.” I lifted a hand toward her, but she took a step back.
“No. We’re just fooling ourselves. And I’m not in the mood for yet another glimpse of the amazing things that I can’t have. You’re like those annoying house decorating shows on TV. It’sfun while I’m watching, but it’s also a gutting reminder of the life I’ll never have. I’m an out-of-work cosmetologist who lives in a fucking apartment. I’ll never have a second home in Tahoe or the money to redecorate it. And I was foolish to think otherwise.”
I stared at her for a second as I tried and failed to figure out what she was going on about. “I’m lost. What does a house in Tahoe haveto do with us?”
“It’s a metaphor, okay? You’re the house in Tahoe. The thing I’ll never have. It’s like those dinners with my dad. They were fun while we were there, but I never forgot his expression at that last dinner when the check came. Or how we ate canned and frozen food for the next two weeks. We couldn’t afford it. It was so outside our reach that we paid the price forweeksafter. You’rethe house in Tahoe. You’re the fancy dinner that I can’t afford.” Hannah shook her head, her eyes gleaming. “I’m just cutting my losses before the entrée comes. We’re done.”
“That has to be the most convoluted and ridiculous argument I’ve ever heard.”
“Thanks.” Hannah folded her arms and looked away, but not before I saw the tears welling in her eyes. “It’s nice to know how ridiculous you thinkI am. Yet another reason we’ll never work.”
I closed the distance between us and buried a hand in the hair near her temple. After pressing a kiss against her forehead, I rested my head on hers. The fact that she let me get so close to her was telling. “I don’t think you’re ridiculous. I think the fact that you’re running so hard from this is ridiculous.” I closed my arms around her and liftedmy head so I could look into her tear-soaked eyes. “Why won’t you give us a chance? Why don’t you think you’re worthy of a life with me? You are an amazing, beautiful, challenging woman who can have or do anything you want. I can see that. Why can’t you?”
Hannah made a sound halfway between a laugh and a sob. “I’m just an average girl. I’m not special.”
“You are to me. You make me feel thingsI’ve never felt before.Youare changing me. You, the out-of-work cosmetologist, are changing me, the annoyingly entitled prince. You make me want to be a better man. You make me want to be worthy ofyou. You are worth all my time and effort. So if that specter of self-doubt raises its ugly head again, just tell me. I’m a prince; I’m experienced at slaying dragons. It’s in the job description.”
Hannah laughed as all the tension and angst leached from her body. Then she buried her face in my chest. Her arms came around me and held me tight. “You are silly and ridiculous, and I still can’t believe you want to be with me.”
“Believe it.” I pressed a kiss on the top her head and squeezed her every bit as hard as she squeezed me. “Now if we’ve successfully conquered all that self-doubt, howabout you show me where you live?”
“You want to see my place? My apartment?” Hannah pulled back slightly, worry wrinkling her brow.
“Really? After that whole conversation we just had? You think I care what your apartment looks like?”
“Well, no. I guess not. It’s just—I wasn’t exactly expecting company, and well…You know what? It’s fine. If you’re so certain that you want to be with me, it’sprobably best that you see what you’re getting into.”
I chuckled softly as I followed Hannah down the sidewalk toward her building.
That didn’t sound ominous at all.
