**If you enjoy, please consider leaving a comment or vote!**
Be Worried
Luca grabbed my wrist to tug me inside the foyer, "Where do you think you're going?"
I shot him my cheekiest smile, "To my own room."
He didn't loosen his hold on my arm. "Stay with me a little bit longer," he pleaded, "I'm not ready to say goodnight to you yet."
I conceded without any more fight.
It had been that way since the ball the night before, my sweet prince never letting me out of his sight. I didn't mind it, not one bit.
It was better than I ever could have imagined.
When I awoke, there was an invitation to have breakfast with him in his foyer. He had already been up for hours, his hair wet from a recent shower. There was a happy glint in his eye, still riding on the endorphins from his morning training with Matteo. It had been an intense one, he had informed me, smile never slipping from his lips from the second I had entered the room.
I hadn't realized until that moment just how much I had needed something so normal as that. Having breakfast together and speaking about the mundane activities of our days.
I had avoided the training grounds from the time he had first pointed them out during my tour. But hearing him talk about training, about the drills and competition with his beta, I found myself wanting to wake up early one morning to watch it for myself. To see all of that lethal grace in action, the fabled DiLuna might. At one time, the thought of such a thing would have been the stuff of nightmares, not daydreams. But that Rose had been foolish.
He would never hurt me, and he would never allow any harm to come to me in his presence. By his side was the safest place in the world that I could be.
There had only been a short time that day where we had been apart, while I attended my usual lessons with Signora Flori and he met with the heirs of the other three kingdoms. The rest of the evening had been spent with me. Talking, laughing, kissing.
It was like a dream.
"How did the meeting go?" I found myself asking as we settled on his settee, his arm draped across the seat behind me, thumb rubbing soft circles into the skin at my shoulders.
His hand halted its movement for only a moment, before the circles continued, "It went well."
I turned my entire body in his direction to study his face, "You're lying."
He smiled, despite my accusation. "You're a sharp one, little mate, but you have nothing to worry your pretty little mind about." The arm that had been on the back of the chair, slipped down to my waist to pull me to his side, "It wasn't necessarily a pleasant exchange, but the end result was good. I held my ground, and they have agreed to leave our treaty untouched. It's all going to work out."
I sighed, relaxing into his embrace. When he said such things, it was impossible not to believe them. "You're incredible, I don't know how you pull it off."
He laughed, tightening his hold around me, "I wouldn't be able to do it without you by my side."
I snorted in a rather unladylike manner, "Now that is definitely a lie."
"No, I'm serious," he insisted, pulling me away from him until he could look into my eyes, "your strength and your courage inspire me every day to keep pushing despite the resistance. Whenever I think of you standing there that day in Bresce, defending your brother despite the odds stacked against you, willing to give your own life for another, all I can think is that The Goddess truly blessed me the day she chose you for my mate."
My heart was beating so rapidly I feared it would leap from my chest. I was sure that there was a blush across my cheeks, but I couldn't feel it. My entire body felt as if it were on fire. "I–," I hesitated, "I only wish that I could do more to actually help you."
He looked deep into my eyes, searching, before his hand came to the back of my neck to guide my forehead to his. "I know you still have four more months, and you have not made your decision yet," he murmured while I struggled to remember how to breathe, "and I am in no way trying to influence your decision, but there is something that I must admit to you."
He pulled away, but only enough to look more directly in my eyes, keeping less than a breath between our faces. "I think you would grow into an incredible queen," he told me, violet eyes boring into mine. I stared back as if in a trance, "I think you were made for it, and you're exactly what this kingdom needs, someone nurturing, and patient, and kind. Someone who can inspire the love and loyalty of commoners and highborn alike."
My mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. His hand rose to cup my cheek, "You have brought so much light and joy into my life, into everyone's lives here, more than you realize, and you do it without expecting anything in return. That's just who you are, you give. You help others. You care. I have never met anyone like you before in my entire life, and I have come to care for you so deeply." His lips pursed, "I know what you are going to say, that it is all just the mate bond, but I assure you that it is not. I love you Rose, and I fall more in love with you every day that you allow me the privilege of getting to spend with you."
My heart shuttered to a stop in my chest. I didn't know what to say.
A servant bustled in, saving me from having to make a decision. My eyes followed his movements as he crossed to where Luca had leaned away from me a bit, and whispered something to him in hushed tones that my dull, human hearing couldn't decipher.
Luca's smile faltered for only a second, before he nodded a dismissal to the servant and turned back to me, taking my hand in his. He brought it to his lips to press a gentle kiss to the knuckles, "There has been a bit of a development regarding the treaty after all. I must go see to it."
"Should I be worried?"
He kissed my knuckles one more time before releasing my hand to cup my cheek, "Never." He brought his lips to mine in a kiss that was much too brief, "Goodnight, Rosa, don't forget what I said. I meant it."
"Goodnight," was all I could manage as he walked me to the door that led to my bedroom. With one last lingering kiss on my forehead, he closed the door behind him.
My room felt cold after the warmth of his arms, despite the fire roaring in the hearth.
Eden was nowhere to be seen, but there was a cup of tea sitting on the little table by the settee, steam still rising as if she had only just left it for me.
I sat down, tucking my feet beneath me and bringing the tea up to breathe in the scent of it.
It smelled strange, unlike any tea I had ever had before, but that didn't surprise me. My time in the castle had been filled with new experiences, a new tea was so trivial compared to the others.
The taste was strange as well, and though I tried to keep an open mind. I set it back down on the table after my second sip.
He loves me.
The thought made me giddy with joy all over again. He had said it once before, months ago when I had first arrived. But it was different now.
It was real this time.
It wasn't something he was saying because the mate bond made him want to be near me. It was something he was saying because he meant it. Because he had taken the time to get to know me, my flaws included, and had decided he didn't want me to leave. A sudden drowsiness swept through my body, making it difficult to keep my eyes from drifting closed.
He said he loves me and I didn't say it back.
My eyes shot open at the torturous memory, the hopefulness that he hadn't quite kept from his eyes. Why hadn't I just said it back?
I knew the answer. I had thought that I had loved Jax once, thought that I could run away with him and live happily ever after by his side. But, I now knew that had only been a puppy love born of a childhood crush. It was nothing compared to the feelings I had for Luca.
But were those feelings love?
I was scared to find out the answer.
And so tired...
Unable to fight it any longer, my eyes drooped closed. Try as I might, I couldn't summon the energy to reopen them. Something is not right... but I didn't have the energy to follow that thought to its conclusion.
As I drifted out of consciousness, I thought I heard the sound of a window sliding open.