"Aria." Henry's accent still made my name sound like music and it broke the spell.
"Please come in," I managed to say. If you don't know what to say, just be polite, I told myself.
Henry took a step across the threshold and then closed the door softly behind him. The soft click filled the air. I realized my hands were shaking.
"You forgot your mask," he said softly, holding out my silver mask in his hands. I looked from the mask to his bright blue eyes. He looked back at me with love and just enough pain to make my heart break. "I'm sorry I did this to you."
Even now, he was kind. He didn't blame me. I closed my eyes and tried to find strength. Now was the time to send him away. Now was the time to tell him that we could never be.
"I looked for you all night," he said softly, still holding the mask in his hands. "I called your boss. I called the apartment manager. I even called Gus."
I kept my eyes shut. "Henry..."
"What happened, Aria? Why did you run?" The hurt in his voice killed me.
"Oh, Henry." My shoulders slumped. "I can't be with you. You're a prince. I'm just an American girl. I'm not special."
"You are." He took a step forward. "You are so special."
"I am only a liability to you," I replied. I forced my voice to stay steady. "I'm not what you think I am?"
"You aren't perfect? Beautiful? Thoughtful? Kind? Smart?" Henry shook his head. "No."
"Henry, there are things about me, about my family that will end up hurting you." Every cell in my body ached not to say this, but I knew it had to be done. "If you are seen with me, it will hurt you. I won't do that to you."
"Aria, I don't care." His blue eyes met mine. "I'd give up my whole kingdom to be with you. I want to be your Prince Charming."
My walls keeping him out were crumbling.
"Please, I don't want to hurt you..."
Henry's hands were on my shoulders, strong and safe. He put one hand under my chin, tipping my face up to look at him. "The only way you can hurt me is to make me leave you."
A tear rolled down my cheek and he brushed it away with his thumb. His touch broke down the last of my defenses.
"How are you so charming?" I asked him.
He smiled. "I'm a prince. It's part of the job."
I chuckled softly as he leaned forward and kissed me. His lips were sweet and gentle, the kiss more for waking a sleeping beauty than for passion, yet the heat still seared straight to my soul.
He tucked his hand into my hair and our foreheads pressed together. I could feel the tension fading from his shoulders and my heart didn't hurt so much because he was near me. My hands tightened on the fabric of his shirt, afraid that he might disappear if I let him go.
"I have to tell you something," I said softly. "It's not a good thing. You might even hate me for it."
"I could never hate you," he whispered. "Never in a million years."
I took a deep breath and looked up at him. "I need to tell you about my stepmother. I need to tell you that she wants me to steal secrets and that she will use me to get to you the moment she finds out about us. And, I need to tell you just how much she can destroy me, and thus you."
"It sounds like a long story." He smiled and touched my cheek. "Come and sit with me. We'll sort this out."
I took his hand and together we sat on my small couch. With a shaky voice, I began to tell him just what kind of a mess he had gotten into by falling in love with me.
Chapter 27
I confessed everything. I confessed to taking the picture, to not telling anyone just how much trouble I was in, and to what my stepmother was expecting of me. I told him all of it without keeping anything back.
And while it felt good to tell someone, I felt miserable at the same time. I was giving him this burden in addition to the ones he already carried. If he had fallen in love with just about anyone else, there would be no trouble.
Instead, he fell in love with a girl who was going to be convicted for selling secrets because her stepmother would stop at nothing to destroy her.
"So, that's why I ran," I concluded lamely. "I panicked when you told me who you were. I'm selling your country's secrets and my stepmother will use you like she uses everyone. You'll never be safe around me."
I was sure he was going to hate me. I was sure that he was going to sigh, tell me that this was too much, and walk out the door.
Henry was silent. I could hear my neighbor's TV on a commercial and somewhere outside a car alarm went off. I didn't dare look at him. I just stared at my hands.
And then he reached for me, taking my hands in his. They were warm and strong as they wrapped around mine. There was gentleness and kindness in his touch. I looked over at him, unsure of what I would see in his face.
"It's nothing we can't face together," Henry said with a soft smile. He looked confident and unfazed by my entire story.
"Did you not hear how bad everything was that I just said?" I asked. "It's a monster."
He reached out and touched my cheek. "What kind of prince would I be if I couldn't slay the dragon for my lady love?"
"But how do we slay the dragon?" I asked him, feeling the grip of hopelessness close around me again. "She has all the cards. If I do anything, she releases the photo I took. She releases my father's photos and ruins him. She probably has evidence planted just to make sure that I really do go down with my father."
"The way to beat a dragon is to find the chink in its armor," he said slowly. His accent made him sound like a knight of old who actually might have slayed dragons at some point. He smiled slowly. "We use the dragon's greed and tools against it."
"I don't understand," I replied. "What tools? I don't have anything on her."
"Yes, you do," Henry said. I could see the wheels starting to spin in his mind, lighting up his eyes.
"Like what? The recording? I only have the one voicemail and there's not much on it," I said, shaking my head.
"You have the bugged phone. And, she thinks you have something she wants." He smiled like a cat about to catch the canary. "We should give it to her."
"What? Are you crazy? I can't give her the trade information." I stood up and started pacing the room. "You want me to go back to my office and steal it? I can't even access the data anymore and most of the files have been shredded. And another thing-"
Henry stood and caught me in the middle of the room. He put his hands on either side of my head and pulled me into a kiss. I fought him, still having more to say, but not for long. His kisses were just too good.
"There's easier ways to get me to shut up," I told him, once he released me from the kiss.
He raised his eyebrows like he didn't believe me. I sighed.
"What's your plan?" I asked, keeping my questions in check.
"She's expecting a thumb drive full of trade documents that she will then sell, correct?" He waited for me to nod. "Then that's exactly what we'll give her. Only..."
I suddenly understood what he was planning. I smacked my palm to my forehead. "Only it'll be what we want them to say."
I frowned. "But, I don't know how to make those files look real. I don't even know what to put on them. And then, who do we tell? Do we tell anyone?"
"One problem at a time," Henry replied. He kissed my cheek. "And we aren't alone in this. I am a prince after all. That does come with some resources."
"Resources?"
"You want to slay a dragon? You need knights," he said with a smile. "And I have the best technological knights around."
Chapter 28
Henry managed to keep me calm for the rest of the day and well into Monday. I canceled my appointment with the lawyer. With Henry and his team of "knights" I had more help than a single lawyer could provide.
Still, I was a nervous wreck.
Monday I went in to work, making sure to bring my bugged phone with me. I needed to finish scanning the last of the documents to make it look like I was doing exactly what Audrey expected me to do.
As soon as I walked in the front door, Gus got up and gave me a big hug.
"Are you okay?" he asked. "I know you said you were, but I'm asking again. You need anything you let me know."
"I'm okay," I promised. "Thank you for looking out for me."
"I promised your dad I would," Gus replied. "How's Henry?"
"We worked things out," I told him. "We've got a plan."
"By the way you just went pale, I don't want to know what the plan is," Gus said. "Please be careful. Your dad will come back and haunt me if I let anything happen to you."
"It should be easy," I told him. "Don't worry about me."
I just had to pretend to be a complete sell out.