“You need to get your head on straight. Get it together. Like you don’t already have enough problems to deal with.” Dalton said. “This one is off limits, Lennox. You know I care about you. I also care about her and Theo. Nothing good can come from this.”
“You think I want this?” he hissed. “This is the last thing I ever wanted.”
“I get it…believe me. I know what it’s like to want something you can’t have.” Dalton exhaled, a sadness in his declaration. I wondered if he was talking about Eloise. There was more between them than simply him guarding her. “But she’s not yours, and she won’t ever be. You need to come to terms with that now. Because I will take you off her security. She comes first. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Do you?”
“Yes! And her protection has always come first. I resent you even questioning that.” Ire bounded from him. “This was a slip. A mistake. She was almost killed. Things get jumbled in situations like that. It will never happen again.”
“Make sure it doesn’t. She will soon be more than a girlfriend. She’ll be a princess. I need to trust you understand she is completely forbidden. This has no good ending for you. If even a hint of this gets out and with your situation and past…”
“I. Get. It.” Lennox seethed through his teeth.
There were a few beats of silence.
“Have you gotten checked out yet? That cut looks bad.”
“I’m fine. Not the first bombing I’ve gone through.”
“If you need to go talk to someone…”
“I said I’m fine.”
“Okay,” Dalton replied, not sounding like he believed him. “Theo wanted me here, anyway. I’ll watch her. Why don’t you take a walk?”
Lennox started to speak.
“That isn’t an option,” Dalton sternly cut in. “Take a walk. Go see her. Get your priorities and head on straight.”
See her?
Lennox sighed, muttering under his breath. “Call me if anything changes.”
“Yeah.”
“Even if they find a scratch they didn’t see before.”
“I get it. Now, go.”
Lennox grunted under his breath, his shoes hitting the tile, slowly fading away.
Slip. Mistake. Stabs of rejection and hurt twisted in my chest, squeezing my lids together. Did I regret kissing him now we were out and back in the real world? I wanted to. I mean, I really, really wanted to. Guilt consumed me, but I couldn’t deny if the situation happened all over again, I would do it again. I hoped my feelings would change once we were out, but like most truths, once this came to light, it wouldn’t go away.
I had feelings for Lennox, feelings that couldn’t be brushed aside.
I loved Theo, but something had woken up inside me, and I didn’t think I could go back. As if I lived years in that storage closet, I came out a different person, realizing my feelings for Theo might not be enough.
What I had to give up might be too steep a price for me.
“Spencer!” My name was howled through the evening like a war chant, lodging fear deep into my chest. The house PR gave me talking points, encouraging me to speak to the press and show how amazing and strong I was.
I felt anything but.
Weak and shaky, my legs wobbled on the heels Heidi had brought me to wear, rubbing against the torn skin on the pads of my feet. The PR team had sent a whole outfit for me to wear leaving the hospital, so I would look put together for the cameras crowding the other side of the street, snapping and taping my every move.
Dalton took one look at me and got me into the car instead, leaving Heidi bubbling with irritation on the sidelines to deal with the paparazzi.
“Thank you,” I whispered when he got me settled in, his empathic coffee brown eyes finding mine.
“You don’t need to deal with that. What you’ve been through…you need to be home and feel safe. Plus, he’d kill me if I let any of those bloodsuckers get near you. He told me to bring straight home.”
“Who’d kill you? Theo?”
“No.” Dalton looked away. “Not Theo.”
“Oh.”
I didn’t ask where Lennox went, but I was constantly looking for him, wanting to see him, which was exactly why I didn’t ask. Dalton was right, this had no good ending. For either of us.
On the entire drive home, cars and motorcycles chased us, trying to get pictures of me, hounding the car until we pulled into the private drive, the pursuit over.
Theo ran down the steps the moment Dalton opened the car door, helping me out of the SUV.
“I am so glad you are all right.” Theo’s arms wrapped tightly around me. “I was going crazy here, not able to get to you.” He clutched my face, tipping it back. I cringed as his palms rubbed at my tender flesh. The blast had caused a burn over my skin, which was really starting to register. “You know I wanted to be there, right? But protocol—”
I was starting to hate that word. “I understand.” I nodded, taking his hands off my face and stepping back.
“You don’t know scared I was, knowing you were back there when the bomb went off. The thought of anything happening to you…” He drew me back in, crushing me to his chest, his lips brushing my hair. “I love you so much, Spencer.”
My stomach burned at his declaration. I thought seeing him would make me feel better. Set everything right in my head. My heart.
Back to normal.
Back in love.
I knew we needed to talk, but right then, the demand to close my eyes and sleep for days took over everything. The trauma my body had gone through had really set in, the adrenaline wearing off. My bones ached, my head throbbed, my skin burned, and my muscles screamed in agony.
The doctor released me with heavy painkillers and his personal number to call him if I started feeling worse. He wanted to keep me overnight, but Heidi said the palace wanted me home. Their personal doctor would be on call for me.
I wanted to go home. But to my home. To my family.
“I need to call my parents.” I broke away from Theo again, everything hurting where he touched, and headed up the stairs. He clutched my elbow, walking close to me, making me itchy and claustrophobic.
“I had my assistant call them, keeping them up to date. They wanted to drive down immediately, but we convinced them you were being properly looked after and there was no point. They will see you tomorrow anyway.”
Tomorrow?
“Spencer!” Eloise cried the moment we entered the palace, her body colliding with mine. “Oh my god, we were so worried. Are you okay?”
Flinching at her touch, she instantly stepped back. “Oh, sorry.”
“Are you in pain?” Theo reached for my hand.
“Of course she is, wanker,” Eloise chided him. “She was almost blown up.”
“Nice, El. Thought we weren’t going to mention that.”
“Like she’s not aware she was in a bombing?”
“No,” he yipped at her. “That she was almost killed.”
They bickered, and I strolled right by them, heading up the stairs and down the hall toward my room.
“Spencer!” Theo called after me.