“Always Your Majesty,” he said.
She met his gaze and shook her head, smiling. “Wrong title. And you know I don’t want you to address me formally.”
He kissed her again. “Always Your Majesty because you, Ele, you are my queen.”
29
4 August
Celebration Gala
“How long have we been here?” Ele asked.
“Probably too long,” he answered honestly.
Ele was tucked up under his chin, her head resting on his chest, and his arms were wrapped around her. The chair was rubbish, probably some sixteenth-century heirloom, with a stiff back and a hard seat, but Tristan would stay in it for hours if he could keep her right where she was. His hand crept up her back, diving into her hair before nestling on the nape of her neck. She sighed at the contact and wiggled in deeper. Tristan chuckled.
She began to extricate herself, and Tristan felt the loss. As she sat up, her hand slid along his jaw, and she stared at him, memorizing him maybe.
“What?” he finally asked.
His question made her nervous. She looked away, her hands found her thighs, and she rubbed against them, like she was wiping sweat from her palms. Her tell. He grasped her hand and interlaced their fingers.
“I want to be able to see you,” she said, her gaze returning to his.
He resisted the urge to smile. It was exactly what he wanted, but he hadn’t thought she would be willing to attempt anything other than preplanned, official rendezvous. “What do you have in mind?”
“I thought we could try dating.”
He snickered. At the hurt on her face, he sobered and attempted to choose his words wisely. He knew how important this moment was for her. One didn’t get to pick their fears, and Ele had been sidled with some very inconvenient ones for her station in life. Her willingness to enter into any kind of association with him, a man who thrived on media attention, spoke to the depths of her feelings. He heaved an inward sigh of relief because he was so very aware of the weight of his own feelings for her.
He squeezed her hand. “I would love that,” he said simply. He could have pointed out how beyond dating they were. Yet he understood her hesitation to commit to more than such a casual descriptor.
“Really?” she said, her eyes alight with excitement, pleasure, an
d surprise.
“Did you think I would give you a different answer?”
“I wasn’t completely sure. I mean, I see you.” She swallowed and winced. “I know how much you like your life and what you’ve made of it. And I understand flying under the radar isn’t your style.”
Tristan’s face locked up, his smile frozen. “Under the radar. You want to date secretly?”
It was exactly what he didn’t want. He’d spent his allotted amount of time in stale hotel rooms with her. He wanted to be able to be with her for real even if he had no idea what it might look like. They both had impossible schedules, but he would love to come home to her every night and to find things to do with her on days when their commitments were light. To be confined to their homes held little appeal. Besides, it wasn’t like he could hang in the Royal Palace.
How would that work?
And as he asked himself that question, he understood her hesitation. She was hedging her bets.
They had spent very little time together in a fairly ideal situation and with Robert running interference. She wasn’t sure what she felt for him. She was still searching for certainty. And he was already there.
Bloody hell, that hurts.
Suddenly, he needed space. His hand slackened on hers until they drifted apart. Ele’s gaze remained zeroed in on his mouth, and Tristan watched as her smile faltered. Her eyes snapped to his, and she shifted in his lap. He put his hands on her hips and steadied her as she stood, no verbal communication needed between them. When he knew she was firmly on her feet, he got to his and walked to the other side of the parlor, looking out into the darkness.
“I said something wrong,” Ele commented.
The heel of his hand rubbed over his heart, like the touch could soothe the weird ache residing there. “No,” Tristan assured her. It might be wrong for him, but he wasn’t going to argue for her to feel something more or different.