She shrugged away from him and sat down on the edge of the bed. “The problem isn’t me not loving you. It’s that I love you too much.” She looked up at him slowly, her eyes loaded with fear. “It terrifies me that I can feel this way about someone. And someone like you.” She jabbed a finger into the hard wall of his chest. “This will only end badly for me, unless you let me go.” She looked down at her knees. “In time, I’ll get over you.”
Tamir was perfectly still. He stared at her for a very long time, and then walked across the room to retrieve his suit jacket. He brought it with him, and sat beside her. “I don’t want you to get over me, Olivia.”
“That’s just cruel,” she said, only half-joking.
“I had no place in my life for love or marriage.” He put a hand on her knee, simply because he had to touch her. “Selena wanted children, and Saf is from an excellent family. Their union made sense, and their child is a safe heir. Until I saw you, I had no idea that any part of me could want marriage.”
Her heart turned over. “Yo
u didn’t want marriage; you wanted my body. And that will change.”
“No.” He padded his thumb over her lip. “I might have told us both that, but in my heart of hearts, I knew that meeting you had set off a chain reaction inside of me. The thought of losing you filled me with abject terror. A sense of desperate panic that I have never known. If Jack hadn’t made things easier for me, I would still have kidnapped you.” His laugh was self-deprecating. “Or I would have given up my throne to live with you here.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it softly. “I can’t explain it. It makes no sense. But I fell in love with you the first moment I saw you, and I’ve never fallen out of it. I’ve been living in hope – hope that you would come to love me.”
She swallowed. Her mouth was dry. Her stomach felt odd. But now, she suspected it had far less to do with the tequila shots and more to do with Tamir’s impassioned declaration.
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
His lips twisted in a half smile. “You would have thought me crazy, if I’d said this the first night we met. I told myself I would buy time. That I would slowly convince you of our rightness. But then, I fell even more in love, and I discovered I could not go slowly with you.”
“But I loved you almost all along.” She frowned. “This whole time I’ve been stealing myself for the fact that we wouldn’t last! That month in Talidar, I told myself that so long as you didn’t know how I felt, I would be able to walk away, and get on with my life.” She shook her head. “I would have guessed if you’d loved me, Tamir.”
“How did you not see it?” He asked softly, his eyes staring into the depths of her soul.
She shrugged, causing him to laugh.
“Olivia, I could hardly keep my hands from you.”
“That’s sex,” she reminded him.
“And I cleared my schedule for you, day after day, in the end. I wanted to live and breathe only you.” He pulled her against his chest, and stroked her hair. “When I heard what Selena had said to you, I was in the most violent rage of my life. I could almost not believe how furious I was with my own flesh and blood. Had it not been for Saf, I would have written her out of the royal line of succession.” He shook his head. “She loved Marni like a sister, and has always blamed me for her death. In truth, Marni had dark demons that no one could save her from. I didn’t help matters, but there were many other issues at play. And your physical similarities were not apparent to me, until they were pointed out. I promise, Olivia, this is, and always has been, about you.”
She bit down on her lip. “What a waste it was getting divorced then,” she said shakily, unable to believe the conversation they were having.
“Actually,” he pulled away from her, to reach for his jacket. “I have a confession to make.”
Olivia looked up at him, but she was no longer worried. He loved her. Everything else was just details. With his love, nothing could bother her again. “Oh?” A smile spread across her face. “Can it wait? I just want to sit here and digest this for a moment.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I’m afraid I need to lock down this discussion.”
She arched a brow. “Kidnapping me again?”
“Not this time.” His brow was knit together as he searched for the right words. “Our marriage was, apparently, an exaggeration.”
She frowned, not completely comprehending. “What do you mean?”
“Kalil failed to formalise matters.” His lips were compressed. Then he shook his head and smiled at her. “And, if I’m honest, I’m glad.”
Olivia’s heart slowed and thudded. “You are?” Had she misunderstood? He did love her, didn’t he? “Why?”
He lowered himself from the bed, to kneel before her. “Because, my beautiful, wonderful Olivia, it means I get to do things properly this time around. As you deserve. I remember you saying that I’d robbed you of your perfect proposal. And a ring you would look at with happiness for the rest of your days. So let me give you those things.” He lifted a velvet box to her, and clicked the top open. She lowered her gaze to the ring – it was not the one she’d worn previously. In the centre was a large green diamond, and it was surrounded by a circlet of bright white diamonds. The band was platinum, and encased with more diamonds. She gasped at its beauty. “The time I believed myself to be married to you was truly the most joyous of my life. I had never imagined I would want a wife, simply because I always thought I was complete. But I’m not. Not without you. Everything I want in life now means nothing if you are not by my side. Olivia Anderson, will you allow me the privilege of making you my wife for all time?”
Olivia’s eyes filled with tears and she dashed them away desperately. She didn’t want to cry. She wanted to laugh and scream and jump. She nodded, and said, “Yes, yes, yes,” as she slid to her knees, so that they were at eye level and she could kiss him. Her arms wrapped around his neck, holding him to her, and her body pressed to his. “For the rest of my life, yes. For real this time.”
He laughed softly as he reached behind himself and pulled one of her hands down, so that he could slide the ring onto her finger. Olivia stared at it, her mouth beaming across her face. “I love it.”
“And I love you.”
He grinned at his bride-to-be. His future had been planned from birth, but no one could ever have predicted the happiness he would find for himself. King or not, Olivia had given him a Kingdom of pleasure, and he would always strive to deserve her.