Page 72 of American Royals

Teddy might not be the love of her life, but he was so many other things—honorable and true, reliable and steady. He was the type of man a girl could lean on in an ever-shifting world.

She just hoped it was enough to build a life on.

“So I can take that as a yes?” she asked.

“Yes,” he assured her.

Slowly, with a quiet reverence, Teddy kissed her.

Beatrice had sensed that this was coming, and tried not to think about it too closely—not to think anything at all. But it took every ounce of her willpower not to recoil from the feel of Teddy’s lips on hers.

Just this morning she had been tangled in bed with Connor, their kisses so electrified that they sizzled all way down each of her nerve endings, while this kiss felt as empty as a scrap of blank paper. She wondered if Teddy sensed her reluctance, if that was why he kept the kiss so swift and chaste.

Beatrice cleared her throat. “One more thing. I know we’ll both share the news with our families, but would you mind if we didn’t tell anyone else, just until the press announcement? I don’t want to risk a media leak.”

She didn’t need Connor finding out any earlier than he absolutely had to. Maybe it was selfish, but she wanted as much time as possible with him before he knew.

She didn’t think he would look at her the same way once he learned what she’d done.

“Press announcement?” Teddy glanced down at their hands, and his eyes widened. “Should I bring you a ring?”

“You could pick one out from the Crown Jewels collection and give it to me at the press conference,” Beatrice offered, and managed a smile.

Teddy nodded. Normally when the heir to the throne proposed, he brought his fiancée a ring from the royal vault. Except that every heir to the throne up till now had been a man.

Beatrice had considered bringing Teddy a ring today, but honestly, she hadn’t been able to face the thought of going down to the vault to pick one out. It would make all of this feel too sharply real.

“That sounds great. I’ll call my parents now with the good news, but don’t worry, I’ll swear them to secrecy,” Teddy replied.

Beatrice nodded her thanks. She had to force herself not to reach up to her lips, where that unfamiliar kiss still lingered, now grown cold.

Beatrice paced across her room with all the caged panic of a jungle cat. It was almost midnight, and Connor still wasn’t here.

She knew she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep, not after what had happened today. She kept envisioning the way Teddy had knelt before her like a medieval knight, swearing to forever bind his life to hers. It was too much, far too fast, and her heart simply couldn’t keep up.

Before she could second-guess herself, Beatrice had pulled an old college sweatshirt over her pajamas. She ducked out of her suite and started soundlessly across the palace: down a series of hallways, then up another flight of stairs. The marble floor pushed the cold up through the soles of her slippers.

She only had to knock at Connor’s room once before the door cracked open.

His eyes widened when he saw her standing there. He reached for her arm to quickly pull her inside, then shut the door behind them.

“What are you doing here?” he whispered, looking as if he would rather shout at her for her recklessness.

“I just …” She swallowed. “You didn’t come, and I needed to see you.”

“How did you even know which room was mine?”

“I looked it up. Top security clearance.” She tried to sound flippant, but she knew he heard the tremor in her voice.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

She blinked back her tears, looking around the room as she took a moment to collect herself.

It was small but very tidy, the narrow bed made with crisp military precision. On a wooden dresser stood a series of framed photographs: Connor and his family at a theme park; Connor and his sister as small children, their arms thrown around a golden retriever puppy. And then, to Beatrice’s surprise, a picture of her and Connor from her Harvard graduation. She barely remembered taking that photo.

“We need to replace this. You’re not even looking into the camera,” she informed him.

“I would,” Connor said carefully, “but this is the only picture of you and me.”