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Jonah’s thumb is stroking up and down the side of my neck now.
“What does that mean?” Jonah asks Torin. “Fully committed and going to give Cara your heart? You’re here. You’re stepping up. What the hell else does he want?”
“He wants proof,” Torin says. “He wants to seeevidencethat I’m here to stay.”
“Okay.” Jonah says, clearly still confused by what that means exactly.
Me too.
“But I think I know how to prove to him that I’m here to stay,” Torin says thoughtfully. “That I’m putting myheartinto Cara.”
“Okay. How?” Jonah asks.
“I need a wife.”
Jonah’s answer is immediate. “No.”
I feel a little shiver go through me. I love his firm, commanding voice. And that, combined with that touch of jealousy, makes me want to haul him up to his room right now.
Torin frowns. “What?”
“No. You’re not marrying Linnea even if it’s fake.”
Torin’s not talking about me. I open my mouth to respond.
But Torin answers first. “I’m not talking about Linnea.”
“Then who?” Jonah asks, still scowling.
“Someone special.” Torin seems to be thinking out loud. “Someone who will see Cara for the amazing place it is, with lots of potential for more. Someone who will commit themselves to our country in a way that will impress my grandfather the way Linnea has. Someone so incredible, that I can convince my grandfather, and the media, she is the reason I’ve been going back to the States so often for the past two years. Someone who I can seem so in love with that the king will believe I’ve brought myhearthere and that I’m ready to settle down, put down roots, and truly stay.”
He picks up the bottle of lavender oil and takes a long inhale.
Both Jonah and I are watching him with wide eyes.
“But…” I start. “Youareready to settle down here and put down roots…right?”
“I am,” Torin answers. “But the king isn’t seeing it. Me saying it is obviously not enough. So I need to give him something more apparent to prove it.”
I look up at Jonah, then back to Torin. “So you want to find someone to fake marry you?”
“No.Realmarry me. It has to be real.”
Right. The king would be able to verify if a marriage was real or not. But wow. This is big.
“So you need to find a girlfriend and get her to fall in love with you and agree to marry you in the next six months,” Jonah says.
“Sure,” Torin agrees. “Let’s try that.” He finally looks up at us. “You think this is a good idea?”
“I think you being king is a good idea,” I say honestly. Then I decide to tell him why. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since I’ve decided I’m not going to be queen. “Your grandfather needs to step down. He deserves to rest. He also deserves the peace of knowing that his beloved Cara is in good hands. He deserves to seeyoubeing a good king. You deserve the chance to show him that. I’d love to see the two of you mend your relationship. But I don’t think that will happen until he steps aside, and you have the actual chance to lead. So yes, if you’re ready to fall in love and get married then I think this plan is…not terrible.”
Torin looks incredibly pleased by that. He claps his hands together as he rises. “Wonderful. Then let’s go get our princess.”
“Wait,” Jonah says. “You have someone in mind?”
Torin grins, then leans over and clicks on a file on his desktop before he steps back and points at the monitor.
Jonah and I both lean in.