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There needed to be something to top it all off, to smooth over the little trickle of stress and doubt thathad accumulated through the articles and the issues with power. The thought, combined with a distracting sparkle from my ring, gave me an idea.“We should elope.”

Adrian choked on his coffee. “What?”

“It would command the news cycle for weeks.Andit would be a good finale to this arrangement.” The more I thought about it, the more it sounded like a wonderful idea.

Adrian’s mouth was hanging open in shock. Which would have looked somewhat goofy on anyone else, but on him only served to highlight how full his lips were. “You don’t want a big wedding?”

I scrunched up my nose. All I wanted was my family and friends there. “Do you?”

Adrian shook his head slowly. “I don’t.”

“Good,” I said, with a dip of my chin. “Unless you think having a big one would be better for public opinion?”

“Reyna,” Adrian said, shaking his head with a disbelieving laugh. The midday clouds split with the sound, sun pouring into the kitchen. “You’re offering to marry menow. I don’t give a shit what the public thinks.”

I laughed softly. “We can just flaunt our rings at every public event for a year.”

Adrian pulled my chair towards him with his foot. “Whatever you want. How does tomorrow sound?”

“Wonderful, actually.” I was sure my parents would be fine with that. Though my mother might screech a little. The thought of my parents made me say, “You know I’m not giving up the family business, right? And I don’t want to give up my last name either.” I’dworked hard enough to earn the spot as my father’s heir undermyterms. And after his confession of how much it meant to him, it didn’t feel right to abandon the Romulus name.

“Wouldn’t expect you to,” Adrian said casually. “You’ll get a title regardless of your last name.”

“Lady Reyna Emilia Jupiter Romulus sounds quite nice, I think. Another middle name won't hurt,” I said, smiling the whole time, and recalling the first little piece of information he learned about me.

Adrian’s chest rumbled with a deep laugh. “It sounds nice if you’re trying to give me another heart attack.”

I tapped his chest twice, right over his heart. “Can’t have that.”

Adrian lightly shoved a piece of bread in my mouth after that quip, making me laugh in shock. The smile it brought to my lips didn’t drop for the rest of the day, wrapped in a state of happiness and contentment that would give me something to look forward to on the days where my mind kept it just out of reach, and something to bask in on the days where it fell over me like the sunlight streaming through the soft clouds of Adrian’s creation.

Epilogue

Adrian

Reyna was mywife.That didn’t seem quite real, even though I’d spent hours planning for this very occasion, it hadn’t quite clicked.

But watching her stare at my closet like it would magically reveal a secret to her in the form of a hidden compartment so she could shove more clothes in there was still a shock to the system.

After an admittedly chaotic morning in front of a priest that ended in a swarm of photographers and onlookers trying to crash our elopement, Reyna had insisted that we do something mundane to balance out the day.

Which apparently meant attempting to move half her wardrobe into mine so she didn’t have to travel back to her house every few days to grab clothes.

Fine by me. She could invade my space all she wanted.

Leaning against the door frame and watching her move with such beautiful grace, I was struck with heavy emotion. Love, contentment, and lingering worry all in one.

It would be a long time before I forgot what it felt liketo watch her almost die in my arms.

But that meant I could spend as much time as she allowed me replacing that memory with better ones.

Ones where she was smiling at me like I deserved to see it and teasing me for showing emotion.

Even though I felt them in full swaths of color now.

I didn't want to leave her. Especially when she was deciding to be a little devil and resist my attempts to sweep her away to a lavish honeymoon.

Apparently, there were "responsibilities" we both needed to handle before that could happen.