Chapter 20Ethan
Chapter 20
Ethan
Amy being a princess is the last thing I ever expected. It’s true she’d glossed over parts of her life and kept others entirely to herself. But a bona fide princess, with a long name and parents who are the King and Queen of a small European country?
Nope. I did not see that coming.
But as I look into her beautiful big brown eyes, I see nothing but truth.
It’s the same truth that's been there all along, just wearing a tiara I didn’t expect.
My mind may be scrambling to make sense of her words, but my heart is steady. Amy’s true identity makes no difference to the way I feel about her.
She's chewing on her lip, her brows knitted together. “Say something, Mav. Please. I know you probably hate me, and I wouldn't blame you at all if you did. But I hope you don't because I never meant to hurt you. You must believe me. I was pretending to be someone else so I could live a different life for a while, and then I met you and you helped me with that awful Greg and offered me a place to stay and, really, you're the kindest, sweetest, most generous man I've met in my whole life, and I?—”
Before I even properly know what I'm doing, I collect her in my arms and hold her close against me. With my heart banging like a shutter in the wind, I gaze down at her, fighting the urge to just kiss her, and kiss her good.
But I can’t do that. Not until I tell her my truth. Not until she knows everything she needs to know.
“Does this mean you forgive me?” she whispers, gazing up at me, and I can see tears pooling in her eyes in the glow of the streetlights.
“Forgive you? There's nothing to forgive.”
She swallows. “But I lied to you about who I am.”
I press a kiss to her forehead, my own guilt twisting in my belly. “I need to tell you something myself.”
“You’re a secret American prince?” She chokes out a laugh.
“Walk with me?”
She nods, and I take her hand in mine, leading her toward the lake, down the stone steps, and onto the beach. The moon is streaked with clouds, trying its best to shine, casting a strip of light across the still water. Somehow, the scene is lit like a movie set, and once again I’m struck by how this place is the perfect romantic backdrop.
Now, it’s my turn to tell her who I am. My turn to come clean.
She’s opened up to me about who she is, and that had to have been super hard for her. And it’s a doozy. This woman I met purely by chance, has run away from her life to be here in this town, with me.
Yeah, I know. She’s not with me . But I know I want her to be, even if it’s only for the next couple weeks. Even if that’s all we have.
“Look!” says Amy—I mean Princess Amelia. And no, I’m nowhere near used to that yet.
I follow her line of sight to see our footsteps in the sand glowing, like someone sprinkled glitter in the indentations of our footsteps.
“I think I read about this,” I say, leaping on the reprieve from having to deliver my own confession. “It's this totally cool natural phenomenon about the Lac des Rêves.”
“That’s right. The lake has bioluminescent organisms in the water and sand that glow when disturbed. That's why you can see our footsteps. Isn’t it magical?”
“It is, if you think stepping on bug larvae is magical,” I joke.
She makes a face. “We just stepped in bug larvae? The poor bugs!”
That is so Amy. I mean Amelia. Princess Amelia. Gah .
“I prefer to think of it as fairy dust.”
I smile at her. “Yeah. Me too.”
There’s a sudden high-pitched screeching noise that pierces the serenity , that has us pressing our hands over our ears.
“What’s that noise?” she yells.
“I have no idea!” I reply, and just as suddenly as it began, the noise stops.
I look around, searching for the source. But all I can see is the darkness of the lake, punctuated only by the full moon’s reflection, streetlights running along the shore, and the glow of the town.
“Maybe it's the bugs?”
“Do you really think bugs can make a noise that loud?” I ask.
“You've obviously not been to the Amazon.”
“Of course I haven't been to the Amazon,” I reply on a laugh. “We really do lead different lives, don't we?”
“I imagine there are more similarities than differences.”
We share a smile.
“Yeah. I bet so, too.”
We walk hand in hand along the beach, and I try to work out how to tell her that she’s not the only one who’s been less than fully honest here.
“Now that I know you’re a princess, it explains so much. Why you’re so accomplished with some things and seem to know nothing about others at the same time, like how you tried slicing bread with a weird mallet karate chop!”
“That was embarrassing.”
“It's because you’ve never sliced bread in your life, right?” I ask and she nods.
She counts them off on her fingers. “Never sliced bread. Never made coffee. Never worked in an actual job. Never done anything regular people do every day.”
“Your rules make sense now, too. Princesses probably aren't allowed to climb trees or serve people or stand to eat at a kitchen counter.”
“I’ve been breaking rules all over the place and marking them off in my journal as I do,” she says, and I can see the pride written across her face.
The signs may all have been there, but how could I have guessed? It’s not exactly every day you meet a woman by chance while escaping paparazzi, and she turns out to be royalty.
“What do I call you now? Your Majesty?”
She laughs. “No. Definitely not. Officially, I’m ‘Your Royal Highness’ or ‘ma’am,’ but Ami will do nicely.”
“Ami,” I say. “Not too different from Amy.”
“Exactly.”
I know it’s my turn to come clean.
I take a deep breath and begin my confession. “You’re not the only one hiding something. I’ve wanted to tell you for a while now, but … well, the truth is I chickened out.”
“What is it?” she asks, her voice shaky. “Please don't tell me you're a con man like Greg and you want me to invest in something. I couldn't bear it.”
“I'm not a con man like Greg. You have my word on that.”
“What have you been hiding?” The worry in her eyes is clear to see, and I know I just need to come out and say it.
“I'm not Maverick Mitchell. I made the name up. I’m Ethan Roberts. I'm an actor on a Netflix show back in the States. I came here to get away from all the publicity and craziness that my life has become over the last few years, and I pretended to be someone else to get that.”
She blinks at me, those kissable lips of hers forming an “o” shape. “Ethan Roberts? That's your real name?”
“It is.”
“And you’re an actor?”
“Yup.”
She takes a step back from me. “Does that mean you've been acting this whole time?”
“No! No. I promise you. It isn't like that.”
“But why did you need to pretend you were someone else with me? I have no idea who Ethan Roberts is. Well, I do now, but I wouldn't have known you when we met.”
“I know it looks horrible, but I didn't know who to trust. That day we met in Tleurbonne, I was being chased by paparazzi. They had already published a picture of me having breakfast at a café in the city, so I knew they were hot on my heels. That's why I dived into the costume store that day.”
She blinks at me. “That's why I dived into that costume shop.”
“Wait, what?”
“I thought they were onto me, the princess who had escaped the palace. I thought my cover was blown and that my image would be splashed all over the media, and then my parents would realize I hadn't gone on a silent meditation retreat in India with my cousin, and I'd be wheeled back to the palace and be thrown in the metaphorical dungeon. Quite possibly the literal one, too.”
“That’s a lot to take in.”
“Welcome to my life.”
“But they were chasing me. I'm sure they were.”
She pulls her lips into a hint of a smile, shrugging her shoulders. “Maybe they were after both of us.”
She could be right. “Maybe. Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you who I really was. The closer we've got the more it's played on my mind, and I’ve wanted to tell you.”
“Me too,” she admits.
I shake my head. “I can't believe we were both pretending to be other people. What are the odds?”
“Not high, I'm sure.”
The atmosphere around us has shifted, and here we stand, two people exposed. Vulnerable. Sharing our truth.
“Wait. Are you telling me that you genuinely thought your family would buy that you were on a silent meditation retreat?” I ask.
“Why not? I can be silent if I want to be.” Her eyes flash, and we both laugh, any lingering tension between us evaporating into the night air.
“That's why you wore your goth costume out of the store that day,” I say as everything begins to fall into place. “There was no children's party.”
“Why would I go dressed as a goth to a children's party?”
“You had to be scarier than a clown.”
“Clowns aren't scary. At least they're not where I come from.”
“You obviously haven’t seen the Stephen King movie, It .”
“Is it a romcom?”
“Horror.”
“Well then clearly I haven't seen it, Mav.” She catches herself. “I mean Ethan.”
“I guess it's gonna take some time to get used to.” I add, “Ami.” I feel the shape of her name on my lips. “That’s a nice name, and it’s a whole lot easier for me to get my head around than Princess Amelia Astro Christine something.”
“Astrid Kristiana Eugenie,” she corrects.
“Hey, give a guy a break. That's a lot of names to get used to in one hit.”
“You know you can just call me Ami. In private, that is. To the rest of the world, I still need to be Amy.”
I like the idea of having a name for her that only I get to use.
“Ami,” I repeat, looking into her eyes. I feel as though I’m really seeing her for the first time. The world around us blurs as I gaze at this stunning woman with me here on this magical beach, under the moonlight.
There's something both terrifying and freeing about this moment. Our masks are gone. With her, I’m not hiding anymore. The tension in my shoulders I’ve been carrying around for weeks, even months, eases. I feel a sense of peace. Of warmth.
Of acceptance.
She's gazing back at me, not as Princess Amelia, not as Amy, but just as herself—Ami, the woman who climbs trees when she thinks no one can see her breaking the rules.
“All this time, we were both hiding. And somehow—" My eyes drop briefly to her full lips before I find her gaze again, so certain about what I want. “Somehow I found you anyway.”
“We found each other,” she says. She swallows, her breath ragged.
I move a little closer, giving her every chance to step away if this isn't what she wants. I hesitate before I gently brush a strand of hair from her face, my fingertips grazing her skin.
She sucks in a breath and the air between us suddenly thickens.
I cup her face in my hands and lean in, my eyes not leaving hers until our lips graze, the slightest touch sending a bolt of electricity through me so strong, it leaves me breathless.
I pull back and search her face. I need a clear sign that she wants this as much as I do. That she feels this thing between us that keeps growing and growing. This thing I didn’t ask for. This thing I never expected to feel.
This thing I want more than anything.
“Ami, I want you to know that you're everything I could possibly want, and so much more. We might have been pretending to be other people, but I know the essence of you, of who you are, and I'm yours if you want me. Body and soul.”
The corners of her full mouth lift into a smile that lights up her whole face. “Kiss me again, Ethan Roberts,” she instructs.
And it turns out, when it comes to a royal command, I am not a man who needs to be told twice.
And this time there's nothing tentative in our kiss. This time, I pull her against me, wrapping my arms around her, feeling her soft curves meld against me, breathing in her intoxicating scent. She’s taking short, shallow breaths, and as I tangle my fingers up in her hair, I crash my lips against hers greedily, full of the intensity of the desire I feel for her, claiming her as mine.
She responds by tightly clasping the collar of my polo shirt, kissing me long and hard and deep, so I'm in no doubt whatsoever how much she wants me.
How much she needs me.
And the kiss? Let’s just say it’s better than perfect. I never want it to stop. I want to get lost in her, right here on the shore of this lake, with our fairy dust footprints and our confessions.
“As Maverick and Amy we were friends, and now that we are Ethan and Ami?—”
“We’re so much more than that,” I finish for her.
We share a smile, and my heart feels as though it could double in size for this incredible woman in my arms, this woman who likes me and accepts me for who I am.
So what if she's really a princess, I'm an actor, and we’re both escaping our regular lives? What we have is real. We’re two souls who have found each other, connected in the most beautiful and pure way, with no hidden agendas, no feelings based on our positions in the world.
We’re just two people, falling for one another by this perfectly magical lake of dreams.