I mean to shower, really I do, but instead Grayson hops over the back of the couch and before I know it he’s grabbed me and flopped me over onto him. We stay there in silence for a long time, and I’m just reveling in being here, with him.

Okay, and a little bit in the memory of Livia being dragged away by the palace guard. I liked that too.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he murmurs after a long time.

We’re half-sitting, half-lying, and we both got the rest of our clothes off so we’re completely naked.

“Tell you what?”

“About your stepmother.”

He’s stroking my hair softly, and I stare at the ceiling, trying to put it into words.

“I just wanted to escape for a night,” I finally say. “I didn’t want to be some damsel in need of rescue. I wanted to have fun and not worry about her at all for a little while.”

“I’d have helped you sooner,” he says.

“I didn’t know,” I say, turning my face into his chest. “I thought that you said that stuff to all the girls, so...”

I trail off, not really sure what to say. He just keeps stroking my hair.

“That’s over now,” he says, his voice deep and sincere. “I haven’t even thought about another girl in a month. Not since the day I saw you at the diner.”

I blink, drumming my fingers against his chest.

Tell him, I think. Tell him you’re probably pregnant and see if he still says this romantic stuff then.

“The day you wanted me to blow you in the bathroom?” I tease.

Grayson chuckles.

“If you want to know the truth, I think that would have ended with you on the counter and my tongue in your pussy,” he says. “Even that day I could just tell you were fucking delicious, and hung over or not, I thought about my head between your thighs for hours.”

My entire body blushes.

“Actually, can I ask you something?” he asks.

“What?”

He doesn’t answer right away, just gets off the couch and rummages through a drawer for a moment. When he walks back, he’s got something behind his back.

I frown.

And then Grayson gets down on one knee, both of us completely stark naked, and my mouth drops open.

“Ella Tremaine, I loved you from the second I saw you in that diner, and I’ve been trying to find you ever since,” he says, pulling out a ring box from behind his back and opening it. “Will you marry me?”

I can’t breathe. I can’t move. I can’t think anything except oh no, oh no over and over, because he doesn’t know, and now I have to tell him.

“Ella?” he says softly, after a long pause.

I swallow hard.

“I have to tell you something first,” I whisper, and Grayson frowns slightly.

“What?”

I close my eyes.

“I think I’m pregnant,” I say in a rush. “My period’s late, and everything makes me nauseous, so if that’s not part of the deal then you can rethink or something because I know this is really sudden and unexpected, and—”

His hand caresses my cheek, and my eyes fly open.

Grayson’s just staring at me, his eyes deep and serious, and I stop talking.

“Ella, are you serious?” he whispers.

I just nod, tears springing into my eyes.

He looks at me for another long, long moment.

And then he starts smiling.

“That’s amazing,” he says. “Are you sure? We have to make sure, we have to get you to the doctor and run tests and make sure that everything’s okay. If that bitch Livia did something to you to hurt this baby, I swear I’ll have her put to death.”

I start laughing. I’m relieved and amazed, because I didn’t think he’d be excited.

“I haven’t even taken a pregnancy test yet,” I say.

He’s on his knees in front of the couch, and he grabs my thighs and pulls me forward until I’m practically lying in front of him.

Then he kisses my belly, right below my belly button.

“Hey,” he says softly. “I’m your daddy. And I’m gonna marry your mom, and we’re gonna live happily ever after.”

He kisses my belly again, then looks up at me.

“If she agrees to it, anyway,” he says, smiling and taking my hand.

“I agree,” I say softly.

Grayson’s still grinning, and he takes the ring from the box and slides it onto my ring finger.

“It fits perfectly,” he says, and then there’s a salacious sparkle in his eyes.

“It does.”

“You know what else fits perfectly?” he asks, and kisses the inside of one thigh.

Heat bolts through me again, and I run my fingers through his hair.

“I think so, but we should try it just to make sure,” I say.

* * *

“I now pronounce you,” the priest says solemnly. “Husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

The entire throne room erupts into a cheer, thousands of voices all screaming at once, but they’re drowned out by Grayson kissing me as my husband for the very first time.

He does it gently, tenderly. The perfect in-front-of-a-huge-audience first kiss.

But I know what’s coming later. I know what he promised me last night as he slid into me as deep as he could, my knees over his shoulders, and my mind just about melted on the spot.

Tasteful kisses are for show. What happens in private is harder, rougher, and makes me come my brains out.

I’m practically in a trance as we walk back down the aisle, my enormous skirt swaying with every step. I can’t believe we got married after the textbook definition of a whirlwind romance. I can’t believe I’m a princess now, or that I’m growing our baby inside me.

It all seems so surreal, but then I look over at Grayson, he smiles down at me, and just like that, I’m sure.