I feel the tears run down my cheeks as I see what Carlos has done. I close my eyes and open them again to see if I’m dreaming, because this can’t be real. It’s a dream that’s always been in my heart and one I’ve never really voiced out loud. Except to one person.

“You remembered.” I turn around to look at Carlos, who’s still standing in the doorway. It’s then I realize how disheveled he is. His pants have a small rip in them, and his shirt shows evidence of dirt down the side, which I’m sure is from running through the orchard. I haven’t seen him like this since we were young.

His face is unreadable though, and I watch him swallow hard like he’s trying to hold all his emotions back. He’s on the edge of something, but I don’t know what.

I pull my eyes from him and look back to the room that’s been transformed into a nursery. But it’s not just for one baby, it’s for multiples. And it’s not only decorated for a baby, but toddlers as well. The room is twice the size of Carlos’s own suite, which is like an entire wing of the palace. Cribs, changing tables and small beds decorate the room, surrounded by more toys than most children would know what to do with.

“You said you wanted at least four close together. And that while they were little you wanted them all to share a room so they could be as close as possible.”

“Thick as thieves,” we both say at the same time.

I smile at the memory and turn around to look back at the baby room. It’s more beautiful than any of my dreams could have conjured. It was something I’d talked to him about so long ago that I’m surprised he remembered. After I lost my parents and then my brother disappeared for a little while, I knew I wanted a family that was close. That if something ever happened to me or my husband, I’d know our kids would have each other.

“Our kids,” he whispers right next to my ear. I didn’t even hear him come up behind me. “You were talking about our kids that night. I knew when those words left your lips that I’d give you that.”

Another tear slips free, and I turn around in his arms to look up at him. His thumb brushes my cheek, and I watch a trace of insecurity cross his face. If I didn’t know him as well as I do I wouldn’t have caught it. Then his face hardens a little as if catching himself.

“This is happening,” he growls.

It sounds like thunder in his chest, low and deep. It makes my eyes widen in surprise. I’ve seen Carlos snap at people a lot of times over the years, more so since taking the throne, but never has it been directed at me.

“You will never be with my brother. I don’t give a flying fuck if I have to ban him from this country. Romy will never so much as put a finger on you. Only I deserve your touch, and that’s final.”

He picks me up by my hips suddenly and sits me on a dresser. He knocks baby toys and folded clothes off of it as thick jealousy coats the air around him. It’s then that I notice a picture on the dresser beside me. It’s of the two of us in his office. I’m lying on the floor in front of his desk reading a book, and his eyes are on me. I don’t even know when it was taken. But it’s something we’ve done a thousand times before, something I’ve always been scared of losing.

I feel his eyes on me, so I look back up at him. He towers over me as he steps between my legs. He’s so wide that it forces me to spread them farther apart. My thighs are stretched to the point that I feel the muscles on the inside complain. Jesus, he’s big like this. I don’t know how I never noticed it before, but it’s probably because we’ve never been in this position.

“Carlos.” I say his name, but it’s the only thing that I can manage before he cuts me off with a kiss.

At first I’m shocked and don’t know what to do as his lips move over mine. But after a moment my eyes fall closed and I melt into him. The feel of him is so much better than I imagined, and I savor it. It’s something that I’ve felt like I’ve wanted my whole life. A feeling of coming home washes over me, and all at once everything is right. It’s as if it’s finally as it should be in this moment and not the mess that’s been going on inside my head.

His lips are softer than I thought they would be. Then he slides his tongue into my mouth, giving me a taste of him. His flavor is like cinnamon and desire mixed together. I slide my hands up his body, wrapping them around his neck as his hands tighten on my hips in a possessive hold. The grip tells me he’s never going to let me go. He moans into my mouth, and it feels like it travels down to my core. The need to push my body into his is too strong to ignore, and I try to pull him closer. Kissing is no longer enough, and I’m becoming panicked and rushed. Years of pent-up frustration start to push forward into the kiss, and it grows intense. We’ve become ravenous, and our bodies are trying to burrow into each other so we never have to let go again.

I pull away to catch my breath, and my emotions scatter and surge. Carlos rests his forehead on mine, his breathing even heavier than my own.

“You taste sweeter than I ever imagined. All this time I wondered what you’d taste like. I should have guessed it would be cherries. You eat them by the handful.”

“It’s not like you help my addiction to them,” I tease.

For a moment we slip back into our past playfulness. Or maybe this is just us now. Maybe this is how we are when we’re together. When I belong to him and he belongs to me.

“I’ll plant another twenty cherry trees in the orchard if it pleases you.”

I smile up at him, knowing he’ll do anything I ask. But I think the last twenty he planted for me was more than enough. He leans in again, brushing his lips against mine softly.

“I didn’t know a kiss could be like that,” he says against my lips before giving me another kiss.

“I wouldn’t know. It was my first,” I sass back, my jealousy showing through. How did I ever think I could be around him with another woman?

He smiles at that. It’s full and spreads from ear to ear, showing off his perfect teeth. I want to smack him, but instead I do like I did before when he did something I didn’t like. I close the distance between us and I bite his lower lip. But it backfires because all it does is make him push further into me. The kiss turns from playful to deep, with promises of more.

I pull back, breathless once again, and try to glare at him.

“As much as I love when you talk back to me, because God knows no one else has the moxie to do it, you can cool it.” The hands on my hips pull me into his very evident erection, and he grinds it against me. “I’ve known you were mine for a long time, my Heavenly. Before I was even thinking about kissing girls. Do you think after I found you and knew what you’d become to me that I’d ever be disloyal to you?”

I know the answer to that question before he can finish it. But I let him ask it, wanting to hear it anyway. Needing to hear it after all these years of thinking he never thought of me as anything more than a little sister.

“Never,” he snaps. “Even if I couldn’t have you, which would never happen, I’d still never stray from what I feel for you. Even if you don’t return my feelings.”

There’s a trace of insecurity showing again, and I don’t know why. How could he not know what I’ve felt?

“What do you feel for me?” I push, wanting to hear it all.

“I love you, damn it.”

“I love you, too,” I tell him.

“Not like that.” He shakes his head, and I know what he means. We’ve said “I love you” to each other before, but I’m starting to think that we never knew how deeply the other really meant it. “I don’t love you like everyone thinks I should. Like you’re my little sister or best friend.”

“Hey, I better be your best friend.” I let my hands around his neck drop and slide them down his body. I grabbing ahold of his shirt in my fists, and he smiles.

“That’s just it. You’re my everything. Always have been,” he admits.

“Carlos, I’ve loved you in that way from the moment I snuck on your land and you saved me. You’ve saved me in more ways than you could have ever known. You made all the sadness I had wash away, and you filled that empty void with what life could be. When I told you all those things I wanted years ago - the babies, the marriage - I was always thinking about you. But I thought it could never be. They were dreams I had and whispered to you into the night.”

He sucks in a deep breath, absorbing my words.

“So today when you screamed that you would marry me, well, it hurt. I thought you were just doing what you always do. Protecting me. And while I love that, I don’t want you protecting me like a brother. I want you screaming that you’re marrying me because that’s what you want. That you want it so bad you can’t take it. Not that I forced you into it.”

“I’ve always planned to marry you. Been planning it for years. I just wanted to give you time. I didn’t know you wanted me in the same way. I was trying to make you fall in love with me. Make this place so perfect for you that you’d never want to leave. Never want to leave me.”

“You don’t say,” I tease, glancing around the baby room. He had done that and so much more. It was the very reason I debated marrying his brother, just so I could stay. “Why did you let me think you were looking for a wife?”

“I never did that,” he growls at me.

“When did you start growling so much?” I try to imitate his voice, but it doesn’t come out right. He barks out a laugh and shakes his head.

“Since you ran and scared the shit out of me.”

“I kinda like it. I should have growled at you when talk of wives came up.”

“I never brought it up. You did! And I always told you I wasn’t interested in them.” He moves my hips, rubbing me against him as if the thought of another woman is irritating him.

I think back to all those times and try to remember. It was always either me or his mom who would bring it up.

I lick my lips. “So all those dinners and events you had to go to - ” I fiddle with the buttons on his dress shirt. “You never messed with any of the girls? I know your mom was trying to set you up with some of them…”

“My mother only tried to set me up once, and it didn’t end well, to say the least.”

I raise my eyebrows in question, not sure if I want to hear this story.

“I told her she was standing too close to me and that her perfume was giving me a headache,” he admits, cringing.

I laugh, thinking how uncomfortable that must have been. “What did she do?”

“Stomped off or something. I don’t recall. I stopped paying attention.”

“You always pay attention.”

“You just think that because when you’re in the room, all my attention is on you,” he says, lifting me up off the dresser and carrying me from the room. I’m starting to like the way he picks me up all the time.

He drops me on his bed, and my skirt rides up.

“I thought I told you about this skirt.”

“You know I never do what you tell me.”

“Hmm. I see.” He unbuttons his shirt and drops it on the floor. “Maybe we’ll have to revisit that spanking thing.”

He lunges for me, and I scream as I try to jump away. But he’s quicker than me and has me pinned under him. There’s a moment when our laughter quiets and our smiles fade away, and then something else takes hold.

It’s a deep desire we’ve both been holding back, and suddenly there’s nothing standing in the way of it.