LukeI sat on the bed next to her. “I need you to get dressed.”She shoved her hair off her face and turned to the alarm clock on the side table next to the bed. “What time is it?”“Three,” I said.“In the morning?” she asked, more confused than ever.“Just, please trust me,” I said.“Luke, I don’t understand.”I helped her out of bed. Turning on the light in the bathroom, it gave us enough illumination to navigate the bedroom. Injuring her before arriving at our location wasn’t in the plan.“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Why are you dressed like that?” The more she asked, the fewer excuses I gave her. She would find out when we got there. I feared if I gave it all away too soon, she might refuse to come.I had chosen a good time because in her sleep-delirium, she was quite pliable and went along with helping me get her dressed.While I would have wanted to make it a formal affair, I wasn’t going to have her freeze to death. The temperature at night in Dallas put frost on the windows, s
SophiaIn the past, I had worked into the wee hours of the morning on a regular basis. Living on coffee and other caffeinated beverages was my thing. After a month of not working, my sleep became precious to me.Luke waking me up in a panic drew forth terrible thoughts in my mind. Was there a fire? Or a burglar? My building was safe, but no place was completely safe in our day and age.Luke’s lack of information worried me. After he refused to talk to me about the job interview, I thought for sure he would be on a plane back to Qatar. Initially, I thought his early morning wakeup call was to do just that, but I was mistaken.My mood improved only slightly when the cold air blasted me as we left the building. We were really doing this, whatever “this” was.In the past, Luke had surprised me by taking me to unexpected places, but this little jaunt took the cake.From the way he woke me up, it seemed like an emergency. Questioning him got me nowhere, but asking him the right question got
Sophia“I did,” I said before he could say anything else. If I could have the upper hand in any part of this conversation, it was going to be at this moment. “None of this is traditional. I want you to at least pick the ring.”Without any hesitation, Luke grabbed the middle ring. It was the one I would have chosen for myself.He slipped it on my finger, and I held up my hand.“Beautiful,” he said.“I know,” I said, glancing at him. He wasn’t looking at the ring. He stared right into my eyes.The world around us fell into darkness, and I was only able to focus on Luke. A month ago, if anyone had said I would end up in a jewelry store with Luke, I would have said he or she was crazy. But being in the moment with the love of my life, I wondered why we hadn’t made it there faster. All of the family and political drama seemed like nothing compared to the feeling of happiness zipping through my veins.Luke kissed me again, a small peck on the mouth. Gerard excused himself to bring the bill
LukeSince I finally had Sophia forever, I was able to get some rest when we arrived back at her apartment. But she was quite the opposite. She went on about the photographer, wondering why he’d taken so many pictures of us. It wasn’t until the later hours of the morning that I calmed her down enough for us to get a few hours of sleep. We were going to have a busy day, and there was no reason we had to trudge our way through it because of tiredness.The spineless photographer from the night before seemed to bother Sophia more than me. Even though I hadn’t been photographed in some time, I knew there wasn’t much of a market for foreign princes in America. At least, not those who weren’t connected to the British crown.Sophia enjoyed her privacy, and I had attempted to assure her that she wasn’t in any danger of being exposed.I made sure both of us slept in as much as we could. And that wasn’t a problem because we both rolled out of bed around one the next afternoon. That was what a sl
Luke“Nothing,” she said. “At least not with me. I’m a little worried about what to expect when we get back to Qatar.”As if from her mouth to Mother’s ears, my phone rang again. I gritted my teeth and turned my phone on silent. She wasn’t going to ruin this moment for us.“You don’t need to worry about anything,” I said, placing my phone face down on the table. “Once we’re wed, you will outrank Mother, and she won’t be able to say anything to you anymore.”“But until then, will she just try harder to break us up?” she asked.I touched her chin with my finger, lifting it up so we were eye to eye. “We love each other, right?”“Right.”“Then, nothing and no one, especially not Mother, will get in the way of our happiness.”“Okay,” she said, letting out a big breath. “It’s a big change. A good one, but a big one.”“I’m here for you. Every step of the way.”“Every step of the way,” she repeated. “But don’t you think that you should at least warn her that I’m coming? Even if you want to su
SophiaMy heart felt as if it were going to burst from my chest. Talking with Matt only made it more real. He was as giddy as I was. I hung up the phone and let out a long sigh. Was this shit really happening?I knew that we would end up in the tabloids eventually, but not this soon. It felt like an invasion of privacy for my face to end up in a newspaper without my consent. I knew better than most that consent didn’t matter in a lot of situations. The article didn’t show any sign of libel. At least, not yet. That was why I purchased the paper, so I could take a closer look once we were out of the public eye.How did anyone know who or where Luke was? Mr. Fraser had sent me away to England to find the story. Did Mr. Fraser have someone tail me the moment I quit? Knowing Luke and I were involved, my old boss would know it was only a matter of time until I exposed what I’d been doing with the prince turned king. I didn’t think Mr. Fraser would stoop that low, but I had no idea what peop
SophiaWhen we arrived at my apartment, stacks of boxes leaned against the wall outside my door, along with rolls of bubble tape and other packing materials. A few of the stacks blocked the hallway. My neighbors wouldn’t appreciate that when they got home. Good thing I was leaving.“This seems like a lot of boxes,” I said.“I wanted to be sure we had enough to pack everything,” Luke said, grabbing my keys and opening my door.I knew I was going back to the palace with Luke, but going through the process was much different than I expected. This was the first place that I’d lived without roommates. In a way, it was my bachelorette pad, and here I was, just letting her go in a day.Everything moved too quickly for me, and I wasn’t sure how to slow it down.I went inside and dropped my purse onto the table, as I always did. Glancing around the room, I asked, “What about the bigger furniture?”“Whatever you don’t want to bring to the palace will go into storage for now. Unless you want to
LukeWe cut it close when it came to packing up Sophia’s apartment. I didn’t leave much time for rest since I knew Mother was only going to keep blowing up my phone until we arrived back in Qatar. I hoped that with some time to let the news sink in, she would cool herself down, and we could have a civilized conversation.It was probably wishful thinking.I had taken a quick reprieve from packing to call Abir and inform him of what we’d done. I also asked him to keep Mother distracted until we returned. We had a long two days ahead of us. As much as I wanted to get the conversation over with, we had a planned stop in England for the pilot to rest and refuel while Sophia and I could do the same.Two days was enough time for Mother to relax before we had to deal with her. There was nothing for her to do except to take what we had done and start to accept it.She needed to understand I was no longer just her son. I was a ruling king and could make my own decisions in life. The sooner she