Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
Julian
I recognized the fear in Wynn’s eyes; it was an emotion I was quite intimate with. I saw it in every one of my victims at the realization of their imminent death. However, I didn’t want to kill Wynn. I wanted to keep him alive for as long as I lived.
The four of us entered the dining hall, and I knew I had to smooth things over with Wynn, but since Hannah and Mark were near, I decided to wait.
All through lunch his friends laughed, smiled, and complimented the entire estate. I asked them questions, which they gladly answered. Wynn was noticeably silent.
“Hey, you okay?” Hannah scrutinized Wynn.
He nodded. “Yeah, just got a lot on my mind.” His gaze shifted to me briefly, then returned to his plate.
I didn’t like that he feared me, hated that he looked away, despised that I could feel him pulling away.
“I’m sure you do, but with Prince Julian’s and the king’s help, I’m sure this will all be put to bed soon.” Mark grinned and went back to his roast beef.
“Yeah.” Wynn’s voice was low, and he was only picking at his food.
“Mark and I were going to go walk in the garden outside, if that’s all right?” Hannah regarded me.
“Of course.”
“Wynn, wanna come with us?”
I interrupted before he could answer. “The attorneys will be here very soon and will need to speak with him.”
Hannah made a face. “Poo, okay, we’ll hang later then.” She reached out and squeezed his hand. “Don’t worry, everything is going to work out.”
Wynn didn’t say anything and a few minutes later, it was just the two of us again.
“I scared you.”
His brown eyes darted to mine. “You know you did.”
“I apologize. I have a tendency to come on strong sometimes.”
He snorted. “Julian, you’re telling me I’m going to marry you, that I have to move my whole life here, and I have no say in anything. That goes way beyond ‘coming on strong.’ ”
“There’s no way I can live in the States.” Surely, he understood that.
“Uh, I figured. Okay, for some reason you’re not getting how off-putting you’re making all of this.
I’m sure you’re used to getting whatever you want as a prince, but you can’t own people.
You’re turning an amazing time into a nightmare right now.
I know I didn’t kill the governor, and the truth will come out.
I don’t need you to jump in and lock me in a tower and make it sound like the greatest thing ever. ”
“I don’t want to lock you away. Wynn, I want to show you off to everyone.”
He sighed. “I’m sorry, Julian, I can’t.”
“Two days.”
He cocked his head. “Huh?”
“Give me two days to prove to you that I am worthy of you. That you could love me, and that marrying me isn’t the nightmare you think it is.”
“Julian, I—”
“Please.”
“Two days?”
I stood and moved to the seat closer to him—he’d chosen to sit away from me and while I hated that, I understood that his fear was dictating his actions.
“I want to keep you, and maybe after those two days, you’ll want to keep me too.”
Wynn’s brow crinkled. “The first thing you need to do is stop taking away my choices. If I agree to two days and decide to leave once the time is up, you have to let me.”
There was no way I could allow that to happen, but he would definitely run if I said that. “Okay.”
He glanced out the window, no doubt wondering if the choice he was about to make was the right one.
“Two days.”
I lifted his hand and pressed a kiss to his palm. “Thank you.”
He didn’t eat anything else, and I made a mental note to ask the staff to push dinner up. He’d be hungry soon.
“So, want to show me around? I haven’t seen a whole lot of this place.”
His hand in mine, we left the dining hall, and I gave him a tour until Brantly announced that the attorneys had arrived.
It was going to be a long day and while I knew they were going to have paper work they’d want Wynn to sign agreeing to marriage, I was going to make sure he got his forty-eight hours. He would be signing, though.
We were halfway through everything when Hannah and Mark returned. Mark sat beside Wynn on the other side; Hannah grabbed one of the papers and started reading.
“Pardon?” Louis glared at her.
“Sorry, these are Hannah and Mark, my friends. They’re just invested in my well-being is all.” Wynn snatched the paper out of her hand and handed it back.
“What’s this?” Mark narrowed his eyes on one document. “A prenuptial agreement?” His gaze sliced from Wynn to me. “Are you forcing him to marry you, and that’s how you’ll help him?”
“Mark.” Wynn sighed. “It’s not what you think.”
“Oh?” He slapped the papers on the table. “Enlighten me.”
“Wynn?” Hannah was now reading them.
“You’re coming into this meeting in the middle. There are a lot of things in play.” I tried to calm down. I knew Wynn’s friends meant a lot to him, but they were disrupting everything.
“And where does marriage fall in this?” Mark sneered. “Because from where I’m standing, it looks like coercion.”
Okay, fair, it absolutely was in a way, But Wynn would love this life, me, all of it. I just had to convince him.
“Mark, listen to me.” Wynn got his attention. “We are discussing all options here and that was one of them, but I didn’t agree. As you can see, literally nothing has been signed. Louis is explaining all the avenues to me.”
“You didn’t kill anyone, Wynn. Your alibi is strong, and there’s no evidence. This seems like overkill to me.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and counted to ten. “Wynn and I will speak about this privately.”
“I think we’ll be speaking to Wynn privately as well,” Mark snapped.
Wynn slapped his hand on the table. “What I want right now is to be alone. You are all talking like I’m not here.
Mark, I’m going to listen to every option, no matter how ridiculous it sounds, because I am not going to go to prison for something I haven’t done.
” He pointed at his friend when he opened his mouth to speak.
“And you know innocent people are doing time.”
“I’m sorry.” He held up his hands. “You’re right.”
“Now, I’m going upstairs. There’s a large Jacuzzi calling my name. Julian said dinner would be at six, so nobody bother me before then.”
With that he left, and I stared at him until he was out of sight.
“If you’ll excuse me. Louis, I’ll call you.” I moved swiftly to my office and away from Hannah and Mark.
On my desk was a note from Edward. It simply read: We need to talk.
He’d been out getting information on Ridgeway while I was at the castle with Wynn and his friends. Seemed he found something, and I was sure it wasn’t anything good.