know you are my wife, but you are, and I am thrilled you are here with me again.”
“You cannot just say that and make everything go away.”
“Then tell me what to say or do, and I will say and do it.”
“You...” My throat burned all of a sudden, and the words were stuck, struggling to come up for some strange reason. “When I married you, I was just barely okay with the idea of being some duchess of a country I did not know. Now you are a future king. I want to say the world is made of rainbows. I want to say sure we can just go on like we were. But we can’t—”
“So you are not against me. You are against my title?” Gale replied, placing his forehead on mine. “So that means you know there is still something between us, Odette. You feel it—even after so long. I feel it, even if I do not understand it entirely. I do not understand you entirely, but I want to. I want you here. I know your fears. And I know if you truly wanted to leave me, if you truly did not want me, you would not be looking at me with such sad eyes right now.”
He was touching my face, but I felt as though he was holding my heart. And it wasn’t fair. I had spent months building the strength, securing my emotions so that I could do this. Yet in minutes, he was breaking down all my walls and efforts.
“We have spent more time away from each other than we have spent together—”
“That can change.”
“Gale, what if I am a different person from who you—”
“It has not been that long. People do not change easily, even if they want to. You are still the same you that I remember. I feel it.”
“There are other people you could—”
“If I wanted to be with someone else, I would not be here.”
I sighed in frustration, hitting my hand against his chest. “At least give me a chance to finish.”
“Why, so you can lie to yourself and me?”
I didn’t speak.
“Odette, tell me your fears.”
“What if it’s just you?”
“It’s not,” he said so confidentially it was annoying.
“I don’t feel anything for you anymore! Sorry! I’m Odette the Coldheart—”
He kissed me before I could finish, and I felt my hand shake. Before I could push him away or kiss him back, he pulled back. “That was a lie, Odette, but it still hurt to hear, I must admit.”
“Gale, please...” Please, don’t pull me back to you. Why couldn’t I just say that? I hung my head, whispering what I knew to be true. “They will rip me apart, Gale. I am not a queen.”
I bit back the tears in my eyes.
“They will try, but I will not let them close enough to do so,” he replied, gently lifting my chin back up. “Because you are my queen,”
“My parents weren’t royal, yet I grew up watching as people who did not even know us tore into my mother. Every time we went someplace, people gossiped. That is why I have stage fright. When I was a kid, I didn’t understand. But then I got older, and the constant judging, the constant comments, the constant attacks, and every time cameras flashed in my face, I froze. Every time I got on the stage or spoke in public, I could hear their comments. Sometimes, I could handle it, and other times, it paralyzed me. That was the side effect of being around my parents. What happens when I am in the center of everything? It is going to be worse.”
“It is.” He let go of my face and leaned back, looking me over. “I do not know what to say to that because you are right. It will be chaos. But at least we will be in the center of it together, and we can make it our eye of the storm, so when it thunders, when the skies darken, and the winds howl, we will be calm and will find peace there, blissfully ignorant of everything else.”
“I can’t—”
“Odette, do you want to look back one day and see that you did not do what you wanted to do or be with who you wanted to be with because of the comments of others?” His eyes were glazed over...damn him and his stupid eyes. “I do not want to.”
“Gale.” Ugh, he drove me crazy. “I thought you said you did not know what