Royal Protocol (23 page)

Feeling as if he’d just run a marathon, he kissed her cheek, her temple and pressed her head to his shoulder.

“I told you I was lousy at relationships,” he reminded her.

“I think you just need practice.”

“Practice would be good.”

She tipped her head back, her eyes smiling into his, her voice a little breathless. “Can I help?”

“How long are you available?”

He saw her smile falter. She was still wary of him, he realized. Hating that, needing her not to be, he edged her back and dipped his hand into the pocket of his uniform slacks. Pulling out her earring, he lifted her palm and placed the small gold ball in it.

“I want to replace these with diamonds. It seems like an appropriate engagement present,” he explained, watching her eyes as she lifted her head. “When this is all over, I’m going to ask you to marry me. I love you, Gwen.” He hesitated, realizing the absolute truth to the words. She’d shown him that he needed more than duty in his life. She made him realize that he wanted more. That he wanted her. “I really do.”

Her heart leaped, her chest feeling oddly tight. Closing her earring in her fist, she swallowed hard. “I love you, too,” she murmured, and slipped her arms around his waist. “And when this is all over, I’m going to say yes.”

She felt as if she were coming home as he wrapped her in his arms, enclosing her in his strength, weakening her knees with his smile. She had never seen him smile before.

The effect was devastating.

“Why don’t you just say it now?”

Everything she felt must have been reflected in her eyes when she smiled back. “Yes,” she whispered, and rose to meet his fierce kiss.

In the distance, music drifted on the breeze.

In the chapel, the queen was still on her knees.

The king was still ill. And the rescue team would be trying to free the prince at any moment. But in the precious minutes before the guard at the door started toward
them, wrapped in each other’s arms, duty was the absolute last thing on their minds.