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THINGS WENT WELL BACK IN Leah’s room. Very well. That side of things had never been a problem in their relationship—the passion, the physical side. But this time was different. There was more sweetness, gentleness, intention. She loved Marcus with everything she had.
They lay cuddling under the sheets, staring into each other’s eyes. “We’re not half bad at this, are we?” he said.
She bit her lip. “No, we’re not.” She ran a caressing hand across his shoulder. “But sex doesn’t fix everything... If anything, for the two of us, it kinda makes things...” She didn’t want to say worse, not about their child. “More complicated.”
Marcus pursed his lips. “Yeah.”
“So... Assuming we both do better at being considerate, and communicating, and controlling our tempers... Where do we go from here?”
“I took the week off, told them I needed to take care of some family business.” He stroked her hip with his thumb, a pensive look on his face. “I know the family wouldn’t like it, but would you want to join me up north? Move in with me? See how things go?”
Her heart was full of gratitude at the invitation, but it wasn’t enough. “There will be rumors.”
“I know.”
It felt like they’d be digging a bigger hole, digging deeper at making their families unhappy, at causing more drama. “Is it going to be that much different than hiding away here or at the cottage? I guess with the exception of spending our nights together...”
He drew a deep breath. “Option B: we go to the human world, assuming you still want to.”
“Really?” Her stomach flipped. “For how long? Just this week?”
His gaze was soft, his expression sincere. “For as long as you want. As long as it takes.”
“But what about your internship?”
Something flashed across his face. Guilt? Frustration? “Like you said—I’ve always been able to walk away unscathed. And I think I get it now. With hardly any advance notice, I told them I was taking a week off for personal reasons. And you know what they said? ‘Take all the time you need. We’ll hold your position for you.’”
“That’s really nice of them.”
He wrinkled his nose. “Too nice. Do you know how many people applied for that position? A lot. And I doubt they would have extended that offer to anyone who wasn’t Guillen’s son, and Catrina’s nephew.”
He’d talked about that with Leah before—wanting to stand on his own two feet. But he hadn’t seemed to fully understand his privilege until now.
“That’s kind of how politics go, right? It’s about who you know?” she said.
Letting out a soft sigh, he shook his head. “I guess I still need to figure out how I want to fit into the politics game, because it’s not just about wanting to do good, as much as I want it to be. Neither of us can escape our parents’ legacies. The difference is ... mine will always give me a leg up, and yours will always be ready to tear you down.”
She gave him a tender kiss on the lips. “You’d really be okay with spending time in the human world? How much time does ‘as long as you want’ entail?”
“I told you before Tobias’s wedding that I’d be willing to live in the human world, for the right person. And if that’s what it takes to make you happy, then we can stay there. Because you’re the right person.”
That gesture meant more to her than the world, especially considering what he was willing to give up.
He continued. “And even if this is a trial run, to see if you and I can really make this work...” He slid a hand to her belly. “Even if you and I don’t get...”
Married?
“Well, if we can’t sort out our problems, and we have to ... go our separate ways...” His voice was strained, pained. “Then we’ll know we gave it a fair shot. And we’ll figure out how to still get along, right?”
“Yeah.” Her heart was heavy at discussing the fact they may not be able to resolve their differences in the long run. They were both stubborn, and so different.
“No matter what, we’re always going to be family,” he said.
That little part of her that got the ick at technicalities squirmed. Their relationship was legal in all fifty US states, and no one in the Green Lands thought much of them being second cousins, through adoption or not, but still... “Please don’t bring up the shared family members thing when we’re in bed like this.”
He furrowed his brow. “I wasn’t. I meant that no matter what, even if we go our separate ways, I will always be this child’s father, and you’ll always be its mother. We’ll always be a family in that way, always there for him. Or her.”
And in that moment, something clicked for Leah. Something deep, visceral, primal. She couldn’t change the facts of her parentage, of her past. Wishing things had been different wouldn’t do any good. Fearing the unknown future hadn’t benefited her either. But she craved family, one of her own. One she could create and mold and nurture to be what she wished she’d grown up with. It was already staring her in the face, and growing within her.
“I’ll marry you.”
Marcus’s eyes grew wide. “Really?” His stare was cautious. “You mean it?”
“Yes. I... I still don’t want to be pressured to do it tomorrow, or in front of thousands or anything, but ... yes.”
“Whatever you want!” And then he laid a kiss on her that would make anyone blush.
Eventually, he released her and untangled himself. “I have something for you.” Sliding out of bed, he grabbed something from his clothes on the dresser. “Close your eyes.”
She did as directed. A heartbeat later, the bed dipped again beside her, and his warm hands took hers. He parted her fingers, and slipped a ring on. “You can open them.”
In shock, she stared at the ring. It was an Ivy design—white gold with thin details, one of a kind. “You came prepared with a ring?” With how many times she’d turned him down, and with how badly they’d become separated, that had been a lucky shot in the dark.
“Not exactly,” he said softly. He hesitated, hurt or embarrassed. “I’ve had that with me for at least four months.”
She did the math. Her pregnancy was a week shy of four months along. “You bought this before we got pregnant?”
He averted his gaze. “Yeah. I, uh, well, I was going to ask on the special boat ride.”
Boat ride? “Oh,” she said in a barely audible whisper. He’d planned a special boat ride and dinner, one they’d had to cancel because of her maternal sickness. The one they’d canceled on the same day she broke the news to him.
“Actually, um...” He swallowed. “I first was going to ask you the night I snuck into your chambers, but then it didn’t feel right. Like it was a reward or something. ‘Congratulations... We finally slept together... Enjoy this new ring!’ And then there’s the whole what-story-do-we-tell-our-future-kids thing. I didn’t want it to be weird that we were naked when I proposed.”
She smirked. “You mean like right now, when we’re naked again, and you just slipped a ring on my finger?”
“Riiiight... I vote we omit the bedroom facts from this proposal and reunion story. This all happened at the pavilion.”
She admired her ring once more. “I agree.” It wasn’t a harmful lie.
His voice softened again. “And about what we tell him, the baby, someday... About how this all went down? I don’t want him to ever feel unwanted.”
She gazed into his warm brown eyes. No, as an adopted child, Marcus would naturally not want his child to experience that same pain of rejection. As a deceptively conceived child, she wished she’d only been an accident. “I agree. People will do the math, and stories will come out—they always do. But as far as this child will ever know, it was unplanned, but not unwanted. Never unwanted.”
He kissed her on the head, and they slipped more deeply under the covers, cuddling. She stared at her ring. It felt weird, but right.
And then something nagged at her. There was something about the looks Catrina and his parents had given them when they’d announced the pregnancy. A sharpness to the looks and questions they’d aimed at Leah about the young couple not being engaged. “Did anyone know you were planning to propose?”
“Yeah,” he confessed. “My parents, and Aunt Catrina and Uncle Stephan. Uncle Stephan helped me coordinate the staff for the boat.”
She let out a frustrated sigh. “Is that why they looked at me confused, even offended when they asked why we weren’t engaged? Because they knew it was already going to happen?”
“Um... Maybe?”
She covered her face with her hands. “And you don’t see why that made me the bad guy? Why everyone questioned if I really loved you?”
“Um...”
Turning to face him, she couldn’t hide her frustration. “Why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you pull out the ring and show me that you weren’t proposing just because I was pregnant?!”
He frowned, wearing a look of devastation. “I screwed up. But I... The way you shot me down? That destroyed me. You were adamant about the fact that you didn’t want to marry me. And with each mention of marriage, the thought disgusted you more and more. So, I stopped bringing it up. I asked family to stop asking, to stop bugging you.”
That vise that had twisted tighter with each mention, each hint...
She hadn’t appreciated the pressure. “Don’t most couples talk about engagement before it happens? How often is it actually a surprise?”
“We talked about it. I missed you like crazy, Leah. I wanted to see you more often than on the weekends. And I figured when we started to talk about ‘when’ we got married instead of ‘if’ we got married, that you might be okay with pushing up our timeline.” He quickly added, “On marriage. Not ... kids... So that sorta happened in the wrong order.”
To that, she couldn’t help but chuckle.
But she did have to sigh again. “I need you to man up, Marcus. This baby is yours, and we both need you. You can’t make me out to be the bad guy here. I’m already the bad guy in everyone’s eyes. And you can’t just disappear for weeks or months at a time because you got your feelings hurt.” She tried to be calm, remembering what Kaylah had said about Marcus’s easier childhood meaning he hadn’t been forced to grow up as fast as Leah had. Yes, she’d been as stubborn as he had been, but she’d tortured herself over it. He hadn’t seemed to realize the consequences of his mistakes.
“I’ll do better,” he promised.
After a little more time in bed, they decided to get up. It wasn’t even dinnertime, and the staff had to have informed Kaylah and Eric that Marcus was on the property...
As Leah slipped into pants, Marcus commented on her new wardrobe.
“Yeah, Kaylah helped me get some stuff that’s bigger.” Leah liked this deep purple shirt and the way it flared out a bit. “Sad to say, but the dress I wore to our first ball is definitely not going to fit me right now.”
He grinned, buttoning his pants. “No offense, but I’d rather see you wearing nothing over any of those dresses.”
“You don’t blush as much as you used to.”
His grin only widened.
“But you’re still a nerd.”
“You love it.”
She eased herself down on a chair to put her sandals on. “I do.” Admiring him as he combed his hair with his hands at the mirror, she couldn’t resist a smirk at the irony—he hadn’t been her type until she’d had no other choice than to date him. She’d never been attracted to guys like him before.
All sorted, he approached her, then knelt in front of her. “Can I see the belly?”
She lifted her shirt a bit. He gently slid his hands onto her bump, and beamed. He leaned in and kissed it ever so softly; it sent shivers up her spine, set the butterflies in her stomach loose again.
“Hey, little guy,” he said. “Sorry I was gone.” He lifted his gaze to Leah. “That won’t happen again.”
She rested her hands on his. “You think it’s a boy?”
Marcus shrugged. “Maybe because I’m used to having a brother.”
“I told Kaylah I thought it was a girl.”
“Hmm... I guess we’ll see. How does it feel? Everything’s okay?”
“Yeah.” She squeezed his hands. “I felt her move recently.”
A subtle frown played on his lips as he nodded. “I’m sorry I missed it. I’ll be around for all the other firsts.”
They discussed a couple more things about their future, but some of it needed to be done with Kaylah.
Emerging from Leah’s bedroom, they made their way to the dining room. A couple of servants busied themselves already with arranging the place settings for dinner. But ... there were only two settings.
“Is Kaylah or Eric gone for the night?” It wasn’t like they’d babysat Leah the entire time she’d been there; they still came and went on occasion...
“No,” one of the men answered. “They’re taking dinner on their balcony tonight.”
Kaylah. She’d sent for Marcus, and now they were leaving them to eat alone. She really was a matchmaker.
Leah didn’t hate the idea of time alone with Marcus, but she was also excited for the next steps. “Do you mind if they join us?” she whispered.
“That’s fine,” Marcus replied.
“Could you let them know we’d like them to join us? Assuming they want to?”
“Yes, ma’am. We’ll pass that along. Dinner will be served in about an hour.”
While there was definitely temptation to spend that next hour back in Leah’s room, Leah and Marcus decided they’d worked up enough of an appetite for now, in case Kaylah and Eric came looking for them before dinner.
Instead, they snuggled in the library, with her sitting on his lap, him nuzzling her neck.
“I want to hear all about your internship.”
Marcus explained how he’d spent the better part of the last three months—learning public policies, formal manners, how laws were handled between the elected officials and the queen and king. Politics weren’t really Leah’s cup of tea, but she listened intently.
“And ... you?” he asked, drawing a spiral on her thigh.
“Oh, ya know... The equivalent of a college dropout still... I don’t know.” Her shoulders slumped. “It feels wrong to focus so much on powers when our baby won’t have any.”
“Hmm...”
She smiled. “But I’ve been reading a lot. And I’ve even written a few books.”
He raised his eyebrows high. “What?”
“Well, it’s not like they’re novels, but more like little stories for us to read to her.” She rested a hand on her bump.
Marcus trailed kisses down her neck. “That’s brilliant. Can I see them?”
Leah cringed at the thought of anyone reading or seeing them in their current state. “Uh... Maybe down the road. They could be better. And the drawings are, well, interesting.”
After a while, they were summoned for dinner by one of the servants. The servant informed them that Kaylah and Eric would be taking dinner with them.
And now, Leah and Marcus were about to discover if they could actually make their plans work.