Crowning His Unlikely Princess

Swallowing heavily, Cassidy straightened and turned to face him. ‘That’s nice, I suppose, but I can’t come back to work for you. Is that why you’re here? Because I thought—’

Logan clasped the tops of her arms, staying her words. ‘That’s not why I’m here. I don’t want you to work for me. Did you not read the notice I put out at all?’

His eyes met hers, the usual arrogant sparkle in them missing. Cassidy swallowed heavily. ‘Of course I read it. And I suggest you fix the typo pretty quickly if you haven’t already.’

‘It wasn’t a typo.’

‘You referred to me as your fiancée—ah!’ Cassidy nodded, finally catching on. ‘Clever.’

Logan frowned. ‘What’s clever?’

‘Your strategy.’ She nodded, wishing he’d used the phone instead of coming in person because she was struggling not to wind her arms around his waist and lean into him. She had thought that with time she’d get over never seeing him again but with him here now, larger than life, she knew that had been a fool’s dream. ‘Rather than deny that we had a fling, you’re trying to make it look more serious so that the scandal factor is removed. But, honestly, with my history I wouldn’t have gone with that, not to mention that your mother—’

‘Cassidy.’ He gave her a little shake. ‘Be quiet.’

She blinked up at him, not sure if she should be offended or not.

‘Sometimes you talk too much. The notice isn’t a strategy. It’s a plan. A plan you would have known about before the statement was released had you done what I asked and stayed at the palace.’

‘A plan?’ Her brow furrowed, her brain sluggishly stuck on how good it felt to have him touching her. ‘I don’t think—’

‘Dios mio!’ His hands lifted to her face as he brought her body up against his. ‘How I convinced myself for two years that I didn’t want you I don’t know.’

Instant desire slammed through her when he kissed her, her hands gripping his shoulders as she held onto him.

‘Logan...’ She was panting as she pulled back from him. ‘You can’t kiss me any more. It feels too good and I—’ She shook herself out of his arms, shocked at how close she had come to revealing how she felt about him. The words I love you had been about to tumble from her lips.

‘Mi precioso amor, look at me.’

Cassidy shook her head, resisting the hand beneath her chin as he tried to get her to look up at him.

‘Don’t hide from me,’ he rasped. ‘I don’t ever want you to hide from me because I don’t ever want to hide from you.’

Confused, she risked a glance up at him. The look in his eyes made her breath catch. ‘You don’t have to hide from me.’

‘Good.’ His hand stroked her hair back from her face. ‘Because I love you and I want you to come back to Arrantino with me, as my Princess, not my EA.’

Cassidy blinked up at him, her brain still on a go-slow. ‘You love me?’

His eyes scanned her face, his thumb tracing over her lips. ‘So much I feel like it wants to burst from me.’

‘But you don’t do love. You said—’

‘I’ve said a lot of things in my life that turn out not to be true. Love always seemed like a burden that was best avoided and I arrogantly assumed that I had control over how I felt. But I don’t...’ The emotion in his eyes was spellbinding. ‘What I feel for you is beyond logic and control. It’s like a part of me is missing when you’re not beside me.’ His smile turned soft. ‘You make me smile even when you’re not there.’

Cassidy felt tears well up in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks. ‘Logan, I...’ Clumsily she reached up and pulled his head down to hers, half laughing and half crying as she kissed him. ‘Do you mean it?’ she whispered. ‘Do you really mean it?’

‘You doubt me?’

‘No.’ She shook her head, a glorious laugh leaving her throat at his affronted look. ‘I don’t doubt you. I love you back.’

Her arms tightened around his neck as he lifted her off the floor and her legs wound around his waist. ‘I love you so much I can’t stop crying. But you know that I’m not princess material. That I’m not suitable. That photo—’

Logan made a dismissive sound. ‘That photo is nothing.’

‘I’m sure your mother doesn’t think so. If she knew you were here—’

‘She knows. And she will come round as soon as she gets to know you and realises that you’re the most suitable woman in the world for me. You and no one else, mi amor. Eres todo para mi.’