Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 95609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
“I don’t think Anika will back down. I think Anika will fight you.”
I feel tears roll down my cheeks. He did this for me. All of it. He’s putting himself and his plans at risk, and he couldn’t have done it if he hadn’t cut me. If he hadn’t done what Joe wanted, there’s no way he could have gotten him talking.
“She’ll lose.” Joe waves a hand. “Women like her mean nothing in this business. Relax, Luca. You’re going to get everything you want out of this. No one expects you to actually marry any of these idiots. It’s all for show, and they’ll move on and settle for whatever chumps they can get to marry them and no one will remember their names.”
The feed cuts back to the anchorman. “But apparently the king has no intention of forgetting Anika Fox’s name. He does, however, hope she will change it.”
I turn and the crowd parts, and I see Luca standing in the middle of the pedestrian walkway that cuts through the center of Times Square. He’s dressed in a military uniform, looking more stunning than I have ever seen a man look. There are thousands of people around us, but in that moment he’s the only thing I see.
“He didn’t sacrifice me,” I say, my eyes holding with his.
“Only for a moment,” Hans says. “Only so he could give you what you need, my queen. At least I hope you’ll be my queen.”
“That’s a good grovel.” Ivy Jensen of the cold-heart clan, as she calls it, is crying. “It is acceptable.”
“Tell me you’re going to say yes.” Harper’s got tears in her eyes, too. “I mean if you’re not going to, we’ll get you out of here but this is some next-level shit here, Ani.”
I turn back to my friends. They should know better. “Be my maids of honor.”
I’m already running to him when they shout back.
“Always.”
I don’t care about the cameras or the people. I don’t care that we’re standing in the epicenter of my country and everyone is watching. All that matters is him.
He smiles and proves he knows me because he braces himself, his arms coming up to catch me as I throw myself into them.
I wrap myself around him, arms around his neck, legs around his waist.
I breathe again because I am home.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispers. “I know I should have walked away the minute they came to me, but it wouldn’t have helped Patrick.”
I squeeze him tight. “You did great, babe. You did perfect.”
He sets me down and there’s a somberness to his expression as he steps back, and I realize my mom and Tonya are standing at the front of the crowd.
My moms. I should have called them that all along since Tonya’s always been there for me.
“By all the traditions of Ralavia…” Luca starts.
Oh. He sounds super serious and this is an important moment, but I am who I am and everyone should get used to it. “Babe, is that why Hans threw me in the back of a limo? He wasted a good latte, and somewhere the Internet is waiting for the appearance of Danish Rat.”
A smile splits his handsome face. “Yes. It’s from our Viking ancestors. Almost no one does it, but it’s now a tradition among royals in Ralavia. Hans should have explained it to you.”
“Hans needs some lessons in communication.”
“Can I continue?” he asks, but there’s nothing but pure joy on his face.
I nod. My heart feels like it’s going to beat out of my chest.
He drops to one knee. “Anika Christina Fox, will you marry me? Will you stand beside me and all the people of Ralavia as queen?”
I’m going to be snotty and red in the face in all the pictures, and I don’t care. I manage a nod because words won’t come.
He might never say the words I love you, but it’s there in his actions, in his willingness to put me first, to trust me with his precious country. I’d been told that words can lie but actions never do.
Unless someone bungles the heads-up he was supposed to give a girl.
Luca rises to his feet and hauls me into his arms, kissing me right there in the middle of Times Square as the crowd erupts in cheers. So they’re tourists and that’s a good thing because if he was doing this in the middle of Brooklyn, they would congratulate us and tell us to move it along because they have places to be.
But this is a slice of fantasy, and everyone seems to love a royal wedding.
He cups my face and puts his forehead to mine. “I love you, Anika.”
“You don’t have to say it.” I have everything I need from him.
“I do. I was afraid of it, but this feeling, this beautiful space you fill inside me, I think this is love,” he admits.