The Reluctant King

by Rachel Higginson

Page 46

 

  I swallowed back a torrent of emotions and cleared my throat to keep it from closing completely. The ring, my grandmother’s ring, was blinking back at me, but I could barely make it out through blurry, unseeing eyes.

  This would not do.

  I closed the ring box and set it down on the table. Then I stood up and circled around the high bar top table in one step, tugging Sylvia against me in one breath. I held her there while she sniffled against my chest and I clung to her, just needing someone close that felt the intense heartbreak of my grandfather’s thoughtfulness.

  We stood like that for a long time. The busy bar burst at the seams with people, hectic from a rushed lunch hour or trying to squeeze in anywhere to sit. And we stood in the middle of it all, lost in the tangled path of our own memories.

  Finally I pulled myself together and came back to the present. I loosened my grip on Sylvia and took a step back so that I could look down into her eyes. She smiled up at me, confident and at peace. And it was then, when I saw the encouragement on Syl’s face that I was able to sit back down and open the box again.

  The ring was breathtaking; simple but elegant. The single pearl was raised up from the simple gold band. There was nothing spectacular about the ring, except that it was my grandmother’s and that my grandfather had given it to her as a symbol of his love. I plucked the ring out of the box and turned it over in my hands. The setting was tiny and I had a feeling it would fit perfectly on Amelia’s slender finger. On the back was an engraving that I had to extend my senses with magic in order to see clearly.

  Eternity is only forever with your love.

  I swallowed back a fresh wave of feeling and tore my eyes away from the engraving, away from one of the only men that would understand my future. She was looking at me with a mixture of hope and love and I was so thankful that she was the one I shared this moment with.

  “I hope you didn’t buy a ring for Amelia,” Sylvia broke our silence from across the table, more like startled me back to the painful present. “I wanted to give this to you right away when you mentioned buying one, but I had to get it from my safety deposit box. It is absolutely perfect for her; she’s going to love it. ”

  Damn it. I knew Sylvia heard we broke up. I felt Eden telling her yesterday and had keenly shut off every single emotion and connection to Eden so I wouldn’t have to suffer through it. I decided to take back my gratitude that it was Sylvia I shared this moment with.

  “We’re over, Sylvia,” I choked out on a harsh voice just barely above a whisper.

  “Avalon St. Andrew, since when do you just give up?” she scolded from across the table.

  “Syl, she doesn’t feel the same for me. She wouldn’t look twice at this ring,” I explained. The thought of Amelia rejecting not just me, but this invaluable ring made me regret eating so much for lunch. I was going to throw it all up. I wouldn’t be able to handle her saying no to this ring…. this ring that single-handedly seemed to hold all of my real feelings and hopes and dreams.

  “Trust me when I tell you that Amelia is a girl, and no girl walks away from a ring without at the very least looking at it twice. ” She smiled at me and I found myself smiling back. She would know more about girls than me. “Amelia was in love with you once, remember that. ”

  “Not real love,” I countered. “She had a crush on me, that’s all. And I was a jackass. ”

  “Avalon, don’t minimalize a girl’s feelings. We know our hearts better than you do and if she says she was in love with you once, than she was. Besides that, I was there. I was at the wedding, so I can confirm that she had it bad for you. You might have messed things up with her back then, but you don’t have to do that now. Besides, since when have you ever given up a fight before?”

  I thought carefully about Sylvia’s words and wondered if there really was room to hope. “I guess, never. ” I answered her question, knowing without a doubt that I never had walked away from a fight in my life. And what better thing to fight for than Amelia?

  “So why on earth would you walk away from someone you love?” Sylvia leveled her gaze with mine and I gulped. She was right.

  In fact, in this moment I couldn’t remember why I ever let Amelia walk away from me to begin with.

  “Thanks, Syl,” I met her gaze, confidently this time. She blushed and then waved me away, signaling the waiter for our check.

  Amelia fell in love with me once for fighting for our people. My only hope was that she would have the same reaction while I fought for her heart.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  A gasp, aggressive hands and a hard yank greeted me when I got back to Sylvia’s house. Eden dragged me into the kitchen and shoved me against the kitchen counter. What the hell?

  “Let me see it!” she squeaked in a not so hushed tone.

  “You little eaves-dropper!” I accused but I couldn’t hold back my smile.

  “Shut up and let me see it!” she danced around in front of me, hopping back and forth on her feet and wiggling her greedy little fingers.

  I sighed a long-suffering sigh but pulled the velvet box from my pocket. I held it out to her as if it was the most boring possession ever, but had to chuckle at the way her black eyes lit up like sparkling jewels at the sight of it.

  She took it carefully out of my hands and opened it excruciatingly slow. I suffered through her theatrics and when she gasped another sharp inhale of breath it was worth it. Immediately she turned into a hysterical mess, tears streaming down her face, her nose running uncontrollably.

  “Oh good grief, E, it’s not like I’m proposing to you,” I whispered, pulling her against my chest.

  “But it’s so beautiful,” she whispered in a reverent tone. “And it’s perfect for her. ” A sob hitched in her chest and she sniffled against me.

  I sighed again, but this one was infinitely more patient. “We don’t even know if she’s going to say yes,” I mumbled.

  “She’ll say yes,” Kiran answered from the doorway. I turned around to face my brother in law who was looking at his wife with amused affection.

  “Everybody is really confident of her saying yes, but she has pretty much already told me no,” I reminded them. I let Eden go and she walked the ring over to show Kiran.

  “She didn’t say no to you, Avalon,” Kiran explained. “She said no to her fears, to her own insecurity. ”

  I thought about that for a moment. I thought about how I barely remembered her before she showed up at the castle for Eden and Kiran’s return, how I had ignored her and mistreated her all those years before, how I had convinced her to see where our relationship would go without making her feel like there was a strong attachment and how I told her I loved her right after her very first near death experience in Peru. She was overwhelmed and overly emotional and I had dropped a bomb on her.

  Maybe Kiran was right.

  We had only been together for a very little time; of course she would be insecure about our feelings.

  “I suppose you would know all about what to do when a woman says no,” I laughed at the sight of Eden in Kiran’s arms, her back to his chest while he looked at the ring over her shoulder.

  “I would,” he agreed seriously. Eden stiffened in his arms and shot me a nasty look. But then she went right back to admiring the ring. “I would also know a little something about fighting for the woman I love. ”

  He had me there.

  “Advice?” I asked, determining in that moment that I would fight just as hard, if not harder than Kiran ever did to convince Amelia she belonged with me.

  “Get her to listen and when she’s listening, tell her everything. Get it all out there. And then, after you’ve said everything you have to say, make sure she believes you,” Kiran instructed.

  Eden looked up at him and placed a kiss on his jawline. I averted my eyes before I was subjected to anymore of their grotesque public displays of affection. And when I looked back, Kiran had moved his han
ds to her stomach, holding it possessively.

  My chest groaned in jealousy. No, not jealousy…. something stronger. Something like longing.

  Make her believe you.

  “Sounds like you know what you’re talking about,” I admitted.

  “He does,” Eden answered simply.

  I walked back over to the happy couple and collected the ring from Eden. “Thank you,” I said sincerely to both of them.

  “I’m just happy you found her,” Eden whispered.

  “Me too,” Kiran agreed and this time when he smiled at me it was like we shared something now…. like we were a part of the same fraternity or something. The “Why are our women so difficult?” fraternity.

  I shoved the ring into my pocket, left the kitchen and bounded up the stairs to my old room. Amelia was sitting on the bed, talking on the phone to her mom. I stood in the doorway and made a show of knocking on the door gently.

  She did a double take when she saw me and I watched her breathing accelerate with nerves. My magic immediately left me for hers and when ours tangled together in the confines of my old room I bit back a smug grin.

  She started to tell her mom goodbye, while she avoided looking at me at all costs. That was fine with me. I stood in the door watching her. She was so beautiful. Her golden brown hair fell brushing her shoulders, making the urge to run my fingers through it impossible to ignore. Her smooth, exposed skin tempted me from across the room in her thin-strapped dress, revealing her shoulders, and delicate lines of her neck. Her fingers played idly with the hem of her patterned dress and without her knowing it she pulled it up her thigh driving me crazy.

  There was something about having her in my space, about her sitting on my old bed that ignited feelings of possessiveness and pride deep in my stomach. I pressed against the ring box in my pocket, desperately needing her to wear it, to let me claim her as mine.

  “Alright, have a safe flight,” Amelia told her mom. “I’ll see you in a few hours. Love you too mum, buh-bye. ”

  She pushed end on her cellphone and then took a stabilizing breath before looking over to me. I waited patiently. Her magic was already deeply embedded in mine; I prayed this would be an easy battle.

  But more than Lucan…. more than Terletov, this was the most important fight of my life.

  “Avalon,” she acknowledged in a surprised whisper.

  Her gaze penetrated the very depths of my being; her eyes deep pools of emotion. And they were afraid.

  I changed my approach. “I uh, I need to go pick up some things from Kingsley before the party tomorrow night. I need some help and everyone else is… uh…. busy. ” I didn’t give her the choice to say no.

  “Oh, um, sure, I can help you,” she relaxed a little, a tiny bit of confidence returning to her expression.

  “Alright, good. Are you ready now? I’d like to leave as soon as possible. ” I didn’t even have to pretend I was impatient; I was absolutely in a hurry to get this girl alone and make her mine.

  “Sure, let me just grab my sweater. I can meet you downstairs,” she gave me a pleading look so I left her alone so she could get ready to leave.