She set down her glass, observing me. "What is it?"
I stood abruptly, moving to the terrace railing, my back to her. The Mediterranean stretched endlessly before us, dark and unforgiving. Like the choice I was about to make.
"James?" Her voice was soft behind me.
"When we return to Bellavista," I said finally, the words coming out rougher than intended, "I'm going to speak to your mother."
Silence. Then the scrape of her chair as she stood.
"About what?"
I turned to face her, jaw clenched. "You know what."
Her eyes widened. "James, you can't?—"
"Can't what?" I stepped closer, something dangerous in my voice. "Can't tell the Queen of Bellavista that I'm fucking her daughter? That I've crossed every professional line there is?"
She flinched at my crude words, but I couldn't soften this. Couldn't make it pretty when it wasn't.
"You don't understand," she said urgently. "The palace, the protocols?—"
"I understand plenty." My hands clenched at my sides. "I understand that what happened today changes everything. That I can't go back to pretending you're just another assignment."
"And if she forbids it?" Her voice was barely above a whisper.
I focussed on Evangeline, for a long moment, this woman who'd turned my carefully ordered world upside down. "Then I suppose we'll find out how much a crown is really worth."
The words hung between us, stark and uncompromising. No flowery declarations. No promises I couldn't keep. Just the brutal truth of what I was willing to risk.
"You're serious," her breathing hitched as the words came out.
"Dead serious." I moved closer, close enough to see the pulse fluttering at her throat. "I don't do this, Evangeline. I don't... feel things. But you—" I stopped, the words catching.
"What about me?"
I reached up, my thumb tracing her jaw with surprising gentleness. "You make me want things I've no right to want."
She leaned into my touch, her eyes searching mine. The silent question hung in the air, a question I could read in Evangeline’s eyes. The same eyes that calmed my mind, those same eyes calmed my dark nights plagued with nightmares of the past. Evangeline did not know just to what extent she was my salvation, I would bleed for her. I loved Evangeline.
The question sat between us, heavy with implication. I could lie, deflect, retreat behind my professional walls. Or I could give her the truth that was burning a hole in my chest.
"You," I said simply. " I just want you."
The admission cost me more than I wanted to admit, leaving me feeling exposed and raw. But as her lips curved into a smile that was both tender and fierce, I knew I'd made the right choice.
Whatever came next, whatever consequences awaited us in Belavista, at least she'd know where I stood. At least she'd know that for the first time in my life,
I was going to risk everything for someone—something—I couldn't bear to lose.
Chapter Thirty-One
Evangeline
The late afternoon sun cast long shadows across the veterinary clinic's car park as I finished securing the last of my medical supplies in the boot. It had been another productive day—we'd successfully treated a mare with colic and vaccinated an entire herd of goats. The work was exactly what I'd hoped for when I'd proposed this placement—meaningful and hands-on in a way that palace-approved charitable visits never were.
James emerged from the clinic building after completing his final security sweep, his expression typically stoic but with that subtle softening around his eyes that I'd learned to recognise. Since we'd finally stopped fighting what was between us several weeks ago, everything had shifted. The careful professional distance had evaporated, replaced by stolen touches, heated glances, and an intimacy that made my pulse quicken every time he looked at me.
"Ready?" he asked, opening the passenger door for me with the same courtesy he'd shown since day one, though now his fingers brushed mine as I settled into the seat.
