Emilie of the Royal Heart

Chapter 46: The Prince Explicitly Doesn't Want to Hear It

 "I... can't believe you said that," Emilie faltered, holding his gaze.

"I thought..." Aurora swallowed hard and dropped his hands from her. He tore his eyes from her and said, "I thought it might be upsetting to you. I'm not sure why I-"

"No," she gasped, taking hold of his hands, "I meant I can't believe you said that. Back on the Southern Tour, you could barely even tell me that you cared for me at all."

His mouth twitched into a smile and he peeked back at her, "you have loosened my tongue."

"Well, your tongue desperately needed to be loosened, so I make no apologies," she replied, suddenly shrinking under his gaze and pulling her hands back to herself. She started to trail her finger through the wrecked stacks of papers behind her. Her cheeks and her neck were burning and her stomach was bubbling over.

"Emilie," Aurora prompted softly, but she was a little too out of sorts to look at him or say anything, but she really didn't want to get off of his desk or out from under his gaze. She stayed silent, but he started in a concerned tone, "Emilie..."

She didn't answer. She couldn't! She pretended like she couldn't hear him. No one had ever told her they were in love with her before. What were you supposed to say? Naturally, "I love you, too" was the ideal response, but Emilie didn't know what it felt like to be in love and she thought that maybe she loved Aurora, but somehow, "I probably love you, too" didn't seem like an appropriate thing to say. And she wanted to let him know that she felt incredibly flattered and filled with happiness to hear him say it, but "thank you" felt like a poor rejection and she couldn't come up with anything else on the spot.

Suddenly, Aurora gave a laugh. She snapped her gaze back to him. He leaned in and asked, "is this your first time that someone tells you they're in love with you?"

"It... might... be..." Emilie begrudgingly declared, trying to hide her face again.

Truth be told, she was hiding her face because she was struggling not to grin like a fool. If Aurora saw her with such a thrilled face, he might assume she was sure she was in love with him too. And she kind of was. But this didn't seem like a "kind of" moment.

"Aha!" he laughed louder, placing his hands on either side of her on the desk as he leaned in to her, "I have finally caught you on equal footing. See who cannot meet whose eyes any longer."

"I don't know what you're celebrating," Emilie puffed out in a half-chortle she was trying to stifle. He craned his neck out to follow her head as she ducked it away from him with quivering lips, "I haven't -I haven't said anything to make you so jovial or victorious."

"Well, you've never done this before so I've clearly beat the others to the finish line."

"That might be considered a bad thing."

He reached out and guided Emilie's face back to him with the tips of his fingers on her jaw. Aurora brushed his thumb along her cheek and he muttered quietly, "but you don't think it's a bad thing."

"How c-could you t-tell?" Emilie sputtered even as her lips pulled back from her teeth. In the past, she had been a decent liar. What was happening to her?

"This may be my first time in love, but you are beyond obvious right now," he swept the backs of his fingers over her temple and into her hair.

"Am I?" she huffed, squinting at him, "am I beyond obvious? If you are so good at reading me, then what am I thinking in this moment?"

Aurora watched for only a second before saying, "I'm not sure what it is exactly but it is certainly filthy."

"Respectfully -shut up, your highness," Emilie growled before she rose to her feet, threw her arms around him, and urgently crashed her lips into his.