“What…what…”

She couldn’t find the words to ask, but he knew exactly what she was trying to say. What the hell was he doing? He had pursued her relentlessly. He watched as her face changed from a passionate glow to an angry red.

“I’m sorry,” was all he could manage to say. “I didn’t mean to…kiss you.”

“You didn’t mean to kiss me? So that was an accident?” She folded her arms in front of her, and he saw her cheeks flush with embarrassment.

“No, that’s not what I’m saying.” He walked around the room and placed his hands on his hips, closed his eyes, and held his head up to the ceiling. Why couldn’t he do or say the right things?

“I know what this is,” she replied, and he could hear the bitterness in her voice.

He could assume what was coming next, and he wasn’t prepared to hear it. “You do? Is that why you hid in your house for a week? Elena, we made love and then you disappeared.”

“Well, you disappeared first, so I simply returned the favor,” she said and pouted like a child.

“I disappeared? Oh, no, not really,” he insisted. “I went to visit my mother. I came to see you the minute I returned. Did I hurt you? I mean, because it was your first time…”

His voice trailed off when she turned away from him. “No,” she whispered. “But you know this isn’t what I wanted. And now I’m here, and just when I think I’ve completely gotten you out of my head, you kiss me, right before backing off.”

He made two strides to reach her, and he gripped her arms from behind. “I didn’t stop because I didn’t want to. Elena, you have no idea how much I want to. But…I remember the last time didn’t work out so well, and I don’t want to rush you anymore. I want you to get there in your own time.”

Her shoulders moved as she sighed deeply. “I don’t know what to do.”

He turned her around to face him. Her gaze was averted. “Will you give me another chance?”

Her head whipped up now, and she looked at him with uncertainty. “Another chance. I didn’t give you one before.”

“Yes! Yes, you know what I mean,” he said impatiently. “Why are you making this so hard?”

“I’m not making this hard. Do you think I was sitting on the farm waiting for Prince Jason, or any other prince, to sweep me off my feet? I have a life here—one I’m not willing to give up. I bet you don’t even know what that feels like—to be forced to give up something and accept something else you didn’t want in the first place.”

Jason looked at her incredulously, let her go, and started laughing boisterously and in a quite unprincely fashion. He walked away from her and stood with his fingers sinking into the back of the sofa. “Are you kidding me? Have I ever given up something I actually wanted for something I would have preferred not to have? Gee, let me think. Hmm,” he mused sarcastically. “Oh, right, how about living in this village? Do you think I want to be here? Right now, I could be on a yacht having a good old time with my friends. Instead, I’m here out of a sense of duty.”

“Is that what I am to you?” she asked stubbornly.

Jason ground his teeth and grunted. “God, you’re impossible. You are not my duty. My duty is to find a wife in the village. That’s my duty. For the sake of this village and for my kingdom.”

“You didn’t have to come here. We would have been just fine without a royal family that never cared about us.”

Her words bruised Jason, and he winced. “You really believe the Wyatts would be better than us? Please. You don’t know the pillaging, plundering kind that they really are. Once they had the kingdom, they might turn you all into slaves.”

Elena turned up her nose. “You’re only saying that because you’re jealous.”

“Of what?” he half shouted. “What we are doing might seem selfish, but it is for everyone’s good, believe that.” He turned from her and shoved his hands into his pockets and stared out the window. He was silent for a long time, and she stood behind him with nothing to do but search the room with her eyes and finding nothing interesting. “I wish I didn’t have to be here. I wish there was a different way.”

The sadness in his voice triggered a measure of sympathy in her, and she walked closer to him. “There is. You can simply choose someone else.”

Jason moved his head to the side, enough so he could see her out the corner of his eye, and he shook his head in disbelief. “That simple, huh?”

“It could be.”

“Well, it isn’t. Despite what you think, I don’t want just anyone, or I would be long gone.”

Elena was flattered he was saying all these things, but she still wasn’t certain he meant any of it.

“You’re my choice, Elena,” he said, with his back turned. When he looked at her after he heard nothing, he found she was staring at him.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that, and that maybe it was a one off thing – that maybe it was me being one of the stupid women in the village who let you have sex with them.”

“One of the… Elena, I only slept with you.”

She would have done cartwheels if he wasn’t standing in front of her, but her heart made leaps and bounds in excitement. Still, she fought against it. “So, I was the only dumb one.”

“Tell me something. Why do you think I sent you all those gifts?”

Elena was reminded why she had ventured to the cottage in the first place. “I’m glad you mentioned that.” She grabbed the box still on the steps. She tossed it at his feet. “Satin dress? Pearls? Expensive perfume? The flowers I get, but the dress? You know I’m not into all that fancy stuff. What’s a farm girl going to do with pearls?”

“Well, I was hoping she wouldn’t be a farm girl all her life.”

“This isn’t me,” she told him.

“But you’re a woman. What woman—”

“Me!” she shouted in anticipation of the rest of his statement. “I’m the kind of woman who doesn’t want jewelry and fine clothes.” She tugged at the sleeves on her jumper. “This is me.”

“No, it’s not,” Jason insisted. “I saw you in a dress once—”

“Once. And that was the second time I wore it. Are you really that clueless?”

“No,” he said, and his voice wavered as he did. “I simply thought—”

“You thought wrong.” She walked back to the door like she was ready to leave.

He rushed over and placed himself between her and the door. “That’s it? I tell you I’ve chosen you and you want to leave?”

She shrugged. “What else do you want me to do? You can’t force me to marry you. I don’t want to leave the village, so unless you plan on moving here, I don’t see how this would work.”

He saw her lips moving, but being so close to her provoked his desires, and he leaned in and kissed her.

She backed away. “Don’t,” she told him, and placed her forefinger over her lips.

Her eyes were glossy, like she was about to cry, and Jason touched her chin and tilted her face. “But I do want to kiss you, Elena. Why don’t you stop fighting me?”

“Because…”

She stood motionlessly before him, incapable of finishing her thought, and her hands fell to her side. As he observed her, he understood she wasn’t a material girl at all. He had thought she wore those clothes because she worked on the farm and it was the sensible thing to do. When he had seen her in the white dress, he was a little more convinced she would wear nice things if she had them. His mother had planted that seed firmly in his mind. But it dawned on him in that moment, as he looked from her to the boxes of unopened gifts, that she didn’t want money or material things. She had led a simple life, and she valued it.

“What do you want, Elena?”

“Nothing,” she replied and walked away from him.

“No, everybody wants something.”

She looked into his eyes, and he felt a pull in his heart. But she turned away before he could sense anything. It was as if she wanted to tell him but didn’t know how to.

“Can I see you again?”

She didn’t respond.

“We can go to the tree together,” he teased and moved closer to her. “I’m giving it back to you, but only if you share it with me.”

She smiled. “I don’t know.”

He could see the torment in her eyes and he wanted to reassure her, but he wasn’t sure of the extent of what she struggled with. “You know, you don’t have to worry about your parents if we get married. They would be taken care of.”

“I know,” she replied, but her spirit wasn’t lifted.

“Okay, let’s make a deal. I won’t send you any more gifts if you spend time with me.”

“That doesn’t sound like a fair deal. I lose.”

“You call spending time with me losing?” He grinned.

“It’s losing because I don’t get what I want out of it,” she said softly.

“Oh, so you do want something,” he surmised.

“I didn’t say that,” she defended quickly.

“Doesn’t matter if you did.” He bore down on her, his eyes playing a seductive game with hers, his body teasing her more than she would like. “You want me. Admit it.”

The fire in her eyes returned, and she pressed her hand against his chest and pushed him away. “I need to go.”

“Wait!” Jason ran after her, but there was no stopping her this time.

“This is all one big joke to you, right?”

He was at a loss for words. He didn’t understand how she came up with the things she did. He hadn’t said anything that would suggest he was playing. Granted, he hadn’t lost anything materially. Those gifts didn’t significantly injure him. But for her to think he would do all of that as simply a grand gesture or as a part of an elaborate game was beyond his understanding.

“I’m not letting you go this time,” he said as he reached for her.

“You can’t stop me. Unless you plan to make me your prisoner.” She waited for him to pull her back inside. When he didn’t, she grabbed the knob and pulled the door open. “I thought so.”

She stepped outside and made it all the way to the gate before Jason convinced himself he couldn’t let her go this time. Not when he didn’t know when he would see her again. She wasn’t sure about him, so he would prove to her he was serious. Maybe that was all he needed to do before she would be his. The thought brightened his face and gave him hope that he hadn’t come to the village in vain. He chased after her for what felt like the hundredth time.