Page 55 of Awestruck (Starstruck Love Stories #4)

Chapter Thirty-Three

Elliot

I have no idea where we’re going, but it’s really hard to care when Freya keeps a tight hold on my hand as she leads the way down a moonlit gravel path that follows the lakeshore.

While I’m doing my best not to get my hopes up until I have solid evidence that things are going the way I hope, Grimstad’s parting words to me as he walked by held a lot of implications.

“Take care of her.”

I’m her bodyguard, so he could have been telling me to do my job. But Grimstad knows he doesn’t need to tell me that; I have a bullet wound to match his, proving I’m pretty committed to my post.

When we reach a thicket of trees on the far edge of the grounds, Freya takes a sharp right toward the lake, nearly pulling me off balance from the sudden change in direction.

I can’t see much as the moon disappears through the leaves, but my feet hit wood only moments before the trees open up to reveal a long dock stretching out over the water.

Dropping my hand, Freya stops at the dock’s edge, and a quick glance back tells me the trees are dense enough to block us from view of the house. Another good sign, but I still refuse to jump to conclusions.

I was so certain that Freya would step onto that stage inside and confidently tell the world that she was making the mistake of marrying a man she didn’t love. I was wrong about her not changing her mind, and if I’m wrong about this too, I’m not sure I’ll make it out the other side.

Until she says the words, I have to operate under the assumption that nothing has changed.

But now that we’ve stopped moving—now that we’re alone—I can’t take my eyes off the princess.

From the first moment I saw her at the start of the ball, she was breathtaking, and I spent a long time watching her from a security lookout while I worked up the courage to be in the same room as her.

Derek called me a coward—I nearly punched him in the nose for that—and went down to enjoy the ball, and I stood there in awe of this woman.

Seeing her inside and from a distance was nothing compared to now.

She’s always beautiful, but right now, her shimmery blue dress hugs her curves and makes her look taller.

In the moonlight, her skin is porcelain, her hair a creamy white, and the tiara on her head glitters like stars.

When she turns to face me, her cheeks are flushed with color and leave me breathless.

“Hex said you’re leaving,” she whispers as her eyes rove over me, sparking a trail of heat in their wake.

If she had looked at me like this before I put in my notice, I never would have been able to say the words. I swallow. “I was.”

“Was?” Her gaze is so hopeful that my heart feels like it’s going to beat out of my chest.

Forcing a breath, I slide my hands into my pockets to keep them from doing things they shouldn’t. “That kind of depends on what you said to Grimstad back there.”

Freya smiles. “I told him I would not break my promise.”

That’s why I didn’t let myself hope. “I see.”

“He called off the engagement.”

So, she would have gone through with it if he hadn’t stepped back. That…hurts. Blowing out a breath, I try for a cheery tone as I say, “Okay, he’s a good enough guy that he’s allowed to be picky, but pretty much anyone is going to be a step down from a princess, so I don’t know why he would—”

“He knew my heart already belonged to someone and could never be his.”

My body freezes, and I stare at her while I try to come up with any meaning for what she just said other than the one I want.

Anything that might give me a reason to doubt.

I’ve got nothing, unless she’s about to tell me that she’s been in love with Derek this whole time, in which case she might as well take my heart out of my chest and stomp on it a few times.

With another breathtaking smile, Freya steps close and brushes her fingertips along my jaw with a painfully light touch, and it’s all I can do not to wrap her up in my arms. I still don’t know where this is going, and Freya taught me to take my time.

Think things through before I act. “You are beautiful, Elliot Reid.”

A curse slips off my tongue, and I take a step back, away from her reach, so I can breathe. Think. “You’re not marrying Grimstad,” I say because I’m not sure I believe it.

She shakes her head. “It would not have been fair to either of us.”

“‘Either of us,’ meaning…?” I hold my breath and wait.

Freya’s eyes seem to glitter in the moonlight, just like her crown. “You and me, Elliot.”

I swear again and run a hand through my hair.

I’m on the verge of hyperventilating and struggle to get any words out.

“So, you’re not… I mean, you’re…” Drop me in freezing waters in enemy territory and make me swim a mile in full gear?

No problem. Ask me to figure out the feelings of the woman I love? Impossible.

Chuckling, she touches the jewels strung around her neck. “I am unattached. Well, I suppose that isn’t necessarily true, given I am very much attached to you, but technically speaking, you and I haven’t discussed the particulars of what we are, so it’s hard to say if—”

“Stop talking.”

She blinks, caught off guard by my rough command, and lifts a delicate eyebrow. “Did I say something wrong? I was only saying—”

“Stop.”

She narrows her eyes. “How quickly you forget that I do not take orders from—”

“Freya.” On that exasperated word, I lunge forward and grab her, pressing my lips to hers because it’s probably the only way to shut her up.

Completely empty of self-control, I kiss Freya with everything I’ve got, wrapping my arm around her waist and pulling her against my body.

Her hands slide into my hair, tugging a growl out of me, and I do everything I can to get her closer.

My hand is on her back, at her neck, in her hair, tangling in the thick tresses and getting stuck but I don’t care.

I thought I was falling for her, but this doesn’t feel like falling.

I’ve hit the bottom so hard that I may never recover.

A thunderous explosion booms overhead, and Freya pulls back, leaving me bereft without her mouth on mine. The large gold firework reflects in her eyes when she looks up, and I am completely awestruck. I’ve never seen a more beautiful sight.

“I’m in love with you,” I say, struggling to find the air to get the words out as more fireworks join the first.

Freya’s gaze drops back to me, her expression turning unreadable. Is she afraid? Sad? Nervous? I can’t tell.

I tuck a loose bit of hair behind her ear. Her hair is a mess, but I can fix it later. “I’m sorry for saying that.” Then I shake my head, berating myself. “No, I’m not sorry. I love you. I know things are complicated, but I—”

She slams into me, knocking me back a step as her lips lock with mine again, and then she’s deepening the kiss and pulling herself flush against my body.

She kisses with a wild passion, and I can barely keep up, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever experienced.

It’s better than that first moment when you jump from a plane at twenty thousand feet in the dead of night, and you don’t know how far the ground is below you but you don’t care because there’s nothing like the exhilaration of the freefall.

I feel weightless but with my feet firmly on solid ground, and her kiss is more familiar than anything I’ve known.

I never want her to stop.

She pulls away—of course she does—but keeps her arms around my neck and her fingers in the hair at the base of my skull as she looks at me.

“I think we’re beyond complicated, Elliot,” she admits.

I don’t hear her through the fireworks, but I read the words on her swollen lips. “I don’t know what comes next.”

Wrapping her in a tight hug, I speak in her ear so she’ll hear me. “It doesn’t matter. You’re going to be a queen. I can’t predict the future, but I do know right now.”

The sounds of the fireworks fade, leaving the world in a tenuous silence I’m almost afraid to break.

But I have more to say, so I gently push Freya back so I can look her in the eyes.

“No matter what happens in two days, I will stand by your side, Freya. Wherever you go, whoever you become, I will always protect you. Your body.” I run my hand down her arm.

“Your heart.” I touch a finger to the soft skin just below her collar bone.

“Your mind.” I press my forehead to hers and close my eyes. “No matter what.”

“So, you are not leaving?”

I chuckle. “Assuming there’s a grace period for resignations, no. I don’t think I could have left anyway, even if you did marry Grimstad.” I could have gone to the farthest reaches of the earth, and my heart still would have stayed behind in Candora.

“Elliot.” Freya waits until I open my eyes, then she smiles, gliding her fingers across my face, from my temple to my cheek, my nose to my jaw.

The touch is as featherlight as the last time and completely maddening, and I never want her to stop.

Then her fingers find my lips, and I’m done for.

“I don’t think I would have let you leave. You are stubborn, but I am worse.”

Cursing under my breath, I tuck my hand behind her neck and drag her mouth back to mine. Who needs oxygen when there is kissing to be done? I could get lost in the taste of her.

Freya breaks the kiss far too soon and plants her hand over my mouth before I can try to keep it going. “Elliot, are you sure you know what you’re getting into? I’m not—”

Grabbing her wrist, I tug her hand down and steal a quick kiss. Then another. And then I kiss her long and slow until I think my body might burst from the tension of it, and only then do I pull away.

“Freya Isolde Marit Alverra, I know exactly who you are.”

“Vitte,” she breathes and grabs me, exploring my mouth with her own like there’s something she’s looking for. Her next words are spoken against my lips like a prayer. “Elliot Parker Reid, your tongue is dangerous around my name.”

I grin. “Only then?”

“Foren skaar og himlen!” Freya follows her Candoran exclamation with another kiss that is almost enough to completely mute my thoughts.

But I have enough mental capacity left to translate: For heaven’s sake and the skies. I can’t hold back my laugh, even when Freya is doing her best to keep me distracted.

My laughter finally breaks us apart, and I get my first good look at the princess since I first kissed her. Her dress looks mostly unrumpled, tight as it is, but everything else about her, from her makeup to her hair, makes it extremely obvious that she was kissed senseless.

Biting my lip, I reach up and gently free the tiara from her head, the first step to making her look presentable again.

Freya wraps her fingers around my wrist to pause my movements, and together we look down at the jeweled silver crown I’m holding between us.

The air around us, a moment ago charged with heat and passion and warm words, starts to cool, but not in a bad way.

It’s more like we’re sinking back into reality, and there’s one piece of the future that we should probably talk about before this thing between us goes any further. Like before, Freya has made her choice. I need to make mine.