Chapter 24 – Bellamy #2
“You’re sure about this?” I question, my brows scrunched as I search his handsome face for doubt. He twirls my hair around and around his finger.
“I’ve thought of little else since our weekend away last week.
Phaedra’s words this morning about breaking the curse threw me over the edge.
I can’t have my daughter thinking so much about that.
Worrying so much about that. It’s not good for her, and it’s my fault she’s like this.
I have to change that for her. For all the children, even if it makes me scared or uneasy.
That’s what a good king and a good father would do.
Besides, Rowan seems to think us falling in love is a curse breaker. ”
I roll my eyes at that. “He doesn’t believe in the curse.”
He tugs on my hair. “Neither do you, but you told Phaedra just this morning you were going to break it with her. I know she’s afraid of it. I know it plagues her terribly. Rowan thinks when I make you my queen, that will seal the deal.”
Now I choke. On absolutely nothing. “Your queen?” I wheeze, falling back against the steering wheel and accidentally turning on the sound system with my back.
Opera blasts through the speakers, and Sebastian shifts me on his lap in the small space and turns it off, all the while giving me an amused, indulgent look.
“What did you think telling the world we were together meant? Did you think I was just going to toss out the bomb that I’m in love with the nanny and leave it at that? No. That’s not how this works in my position. It’s marriage or bust with me, baby.”
“Wait!” I hold up my hand. “Are you…are you fucking proposing to me?”
For the first time since I met him, I think he looks a bit nervous. “Well, not exactly. I wanted to feel you out a bit first.”
“That’s not how it’s done,” I snap indignantly, slapping at his shoulder.
He laughs, catching my hand and kissing my knuckles. Over my ring finger, damn him. “How is it done, then?”
“Don’t you watch movies or read books or live in the world?”
“Not in a while, no.”
“Kings,” I mutter sarcastically, rolling my eyes, but I divert the conversation away from that because it’s a bit too much of a mindfuck for me to handle right now.
My heart is stumbling around in my chest like a blind, drunk fool, and it’s already too much of a mess as it is.
“You can’t just make a nanny your queen. ”
“Why not? You just said it, I’m the king. Who’s to tell me whom I can make my queen and whom I can’t?”
“Sebastian!”
“Bellamy,” he mocks.
“This isn’t funny.”
He’s giving me a sexy, crooked grin, his eyes sparkling with mirth. “Actually, it is a bit. And you’re not saying no.”
“I thought you said you weren’t proposing.”
“Would you say yes if I did?”
“No!”
“No?”
“Well, um, I… Ah!” My hands fly through the air. “I can’t do this right now. I can’t think about this right now.”
“Fine.” He rubs my shoulders and up and down my upper arms, trying to calm me down. “Maybe this was a bit much to dump on you after the day you’ve had. How about you consider the notion of marrying me, and I’ll ponder the proper way to propose, and we’ll table all this for now.”
“Yes. Good. That.”
“I’d still like to tell the children we’re together.”
“We can do that.” Then something hits me. “Wait, are you talking about all this because Rowan thinks marrying me will break the curse?”
“Rowan thinks us loving each other will break the curse. He believes that’s the difference.
I understand that you’re young, much younger than I am, but I’ve waited all my life to find you.
Even when it was a path I never knew I wanted.
When you find the person you’re meant to be with forever, you want forever to start as quickly as it can, and you don’t want to wait anymore.
I want to have babies with you and have you as the stepmother to my children.
I want you beside me in family portraits and I want the world to know and acknowledge you as my queen.
I want a life with you, Bellamy. A future no one can strike at. ”
All I can do after that speech is kiss him.
Because I want that, too. And I’ve spent too many hours convincing myself that this wasn’t ever going to be anything more than it is as a way to protect myself.
Only that was impossible and absurd. There was no protection from this man.
He blew in like a storm, unearthing me from the ground I never felt settled in.
He’s replanted me in his world, embedded my roots so deep there is no other place for me than with him.
After kissing and snuggling for a bit longer, we drive the rest of the way home.
And when we arrive, Sebastian is already a man on a mission.
No shocker there. The man does not understand patience or finesse.
He’s a club you over the head until you submit sort of man, and this situation is proving no different.
He takes my hand and drags me through the palace until we locate the children, who have been playing in the library with Althea and Emily.
“Now?” I hiss at him.
He gives me a side-eye. “I told you I was done waiting.”
He gets on all fours and crawls over to where they’re playing tea party and dinosaurs on a blanket.
Taking Zayer in his hands, he drops him on his lap and scoots Phaedra and Sabrina closer.
They’re giving him curious looks, sensing something is up.
Especially as he reaches his hand out for me and drags me down onto the blanket with them.
“We’ll give you some alone time,” Althea says, and she and Emily leave us.
“What’s wrong, Papa?” Phaedra asks.
Sebastian smiles, running his fingers along her blonde hair. “Nothing is wrong, sweetheart. Actually, everything is wonderful. Bellamy and I have something to tell you. Something we hope you’ll find just as wonderful as we do.”
“What?” Sabrina asks, scrambling herself onto my lap and bouncing as she always does.
Sebastian looks at me, and even though my heart is pounding out of my chest, I give him a solid nod. He turns back to the children and with a smile tells them, “Since Bellamy came to us, she’s become an essential part of us. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Essential?”
“Important,” he corrects when Sabrina scrunches her nose, not understanding the word.
“Yes. Are you leaving? Because that’s not wonderful,” Phaedra says, her eyes instantly glassing over.
“No, honey. She’s not leaving. In fact, what I wanted to tell you is that she’s not just an important part of us. She’s an important part of me. Someone I love. Do you understand?”
“You love her the way you loved Mama?” Phaedra questions with those big green eyes on him.
Oh hell.
He holds her close, shifting Zayer so he can look at each of them in turn.
“Different, honey. I loved Mama in a very special way, and no one will ever replace her in our hearts. Ever. I’m hoping Bellamy can become something new for us.
Something special. I’m hoping one day we can all become a new family. With her as my queen.”
Way to drop that bomb. Again, no subtlety with this guy.
I turn about a thousand shades of red. Half of that is holy shit this man wants to make me a QUEEN.
Half of that is fear. Zayer is indifferent.
I doubt he registered much. He’s too busy sucking on his fingers and looking at his dinosaur toy to care about anything we’re saying.
Sabrina and Phaedra are quiet. They look at me and at Sebastian and at me again.
Then they look at each other, having a silent conversation as if this is a conference and they need to agree. And then it’s all smiles.
“Yes,” Phaedra answers for them both. The queen-to-be is all business now. “We’re cool with that.”
I choke out a laugh and so does Sebastian.
“Cool with that? Where did you hear that?”
Phaedra shrugs. “YouTube.” As if the answer should have been obvious.
Sebastian murmurs what I know to be a curse in Latin under his breath. “I’m not even going to address that right now. But you’re okay with this? With me and Bellamy as a couple?”
“Will you kiss her?” Sabrina bounces some more, enthused by this idea. “That’s what all the kings do to break the curse.”
And again, shit.
“I think my love for Bellamy already broke our curse, and if it hasn’t yet, making her my queen will,” he says glibly, and fuck. Just fuck. Talk about a burden to bear.
It’s risky. All of it. Being his queen will take my small, simple life and change everything.
Then there’s the dark part. What if Rowan is wrong and this curse is not meant to be broken? What if I’m wrong and the curse is real? What if this family isn’t out of danger and more is yet to come for them? For all of us?