Behind Palace Doors (Hollywood 3)

“Tori, I can’t change what I did, but I can’t let you go, either. I need you.”

“Ah, yes. The beloved crown and country,” she all but mocked.

“Don’t,” he told her. “Don’t let your anger get in the way of doing what is right.”

She nearly laughed at that. Doing what is right? Fine, then, since she prided herself on honesty, she’d do what was right and tell him how she felt.

“I fell in love with you,” she blurted out. Her eyes locked on his. “Crazy, isn’t it? And I don’t mean love in the way a friend loves another. I love you in the way a woman loves a man, a wife loves a husband. You don’t know how I wish I could turn these emotions off.”

When he remained silent, Victoria kept going, ignoring the dark circles beneath his heavy-lidded baby blues.

“I thought you loved me,” she said, not caring that she was bearing her soul. This situation couldn’t get any more humiliating, anyway. “I was naive enough to think that all your actions were signs that you were taking our relationship deeper, but you don’t love me. If you did, I wouldn’t be hurting like this right now. You only flew here because you care about yourself, not me.”

Moisture filled Stefan’s eyes, but Victoria refused to believe he was affected by her declaration.

“But I’m willing to give you a chance to speak for yourself. Do you love me? Is that why you’re here?” she asked, searching his eyes. “Honestly?”

“As much as I ever did,” he told her. “You’re my best friend.”

She lowered her lids over the burn, a lone tear streaking down her cheek. “Do you love me as more than a friend, Stefan?” she asked, opening her eyes.

“If I could love anyone, Tori, it would be you.”

“So the answer is no.”

Silence enveloped them, and she couldn’t stand another minute in his sight. And since he was making no move to leave, and this was her turf, she’d have to be the one to walk away.

“You’re the last man I will ever let humiliate me,” she told him, damning her cracking voice. “And you’re the last man I’ll ever love.”

He reached up and swiped away a tear with the pad of his thumb. “Can you at least work with me for the coronation?”

“I will stay married to you until then, but I cannot live with you. This marriage will be in name only from here on out.”

She stepped off the platform and started to move by him.

“But you’ll you be at the coronation?” he asked.

She stopped in her tracks, her shoulders stiffened, but she did not turn around. “I would never go back on my word to a friend. I’ll be there.”

* * *

Countless times he’d lied. He’d lied his way through his teen years, lied when he knew the truth would only get him into trouble, but he couldn’t mislead Victoria when she’d asked him if he loved her. Not even when he knew the truth would break her even more.

She’d accused him of humiliating her, which made him no better than the bastard who’d publicly destroyed her. The end result was the same. Victoria trusted and loved with her whole heart and had ended up hurt.

Stefan rested his hands against the marble rail on the edge of his master suite’s balcony. Over and over during the past three months, he’d replayed his time with Victoria, looking for those moments he’d missed, trying to see exactly where he went wrong.

He knew she loved him as a friend. Friend love was something he could handle. But this deeper love he’d been afraid of coming from her was just something he couldn’t grasp. He’d never loved a woman other than his mother. In his world love meant commitment and loyalty—two things he reserved for his country.

Victoria’s declaration of love had speared a knife through his heart sharper and deeper than anything. Victoria Dane, the woman who’d captured his attention as a teen and quickly turned into his best friend, the woman who saved him time and time again with her selfless ways and her kind heart, and the woman who would’ve graciously helped him work on clearing his family’s reputation, had walked out of his life. And there was no one to blame but himself.

He missed hearing her voice, missed knowing her smile would be waiting for him at the end of the day. Missed her body lying next to his. He missed everything from her friendship to their intimacy.

Every time he walked into their closet he saw her standing there in her silky lingerie trying to decide what to wear. When he lay in bed at night, his hand reached to her side as if she’d magically appear. And when he’d tried to take a stroll on the beach, he recalled the day he’d kissed her by the ocean, when he felt that something was turning in their relationship. He’d known then something was different, but he hadn’t wanted to identify it.