Royal Maid’s Awakening - Chapter 4

Lukas still couldn’t believe the change in Hannah. She was a woman now. Undisputably. The last time he’d seen her, on a rare visit back to Santanger,she’d been coltish, even still at eighteen. Not fully grown into her…curves. He felt a bit stupid, but since when did she possess breasts and hips and that waist that looked like the width of his hand?

Her face had lost its childishness too, revealing high cheekbones and a delicate jaw. Straight nose. Had her mouth always been so…provocatively lush?

But one thing hadn’t changed, those huge expressive dark brown eyes and long luxurious lashes. She’d always looked at him in a way that made him feel somehow…restless. As if she could see right into him, right down deep to where his darkness was buried. The darkness of pain and grief and anger and loss.

She’d been achingly familiar to him, and yet a stranger. One that had caused his pulse to trip when he’d first caught a glimpse of her on the edge of the room. Not appropriate. Hannah was like family to him, since her family had taken him in all those years ago.

And yet, as she’d reminded him six years ago, I’m not your sister.

He’d been visiting Santanger, briefly. It had been six years since Danielo’s death, six years since Lukas had left and forged another path, and yet it had felt as raw and painful as if it had just happened, mocking his hopes that perhaps time would have dulled the pain.

It had been Hannah’s eighteenth birthday when she’d told him that she loved him. Her eyes had shone with such fervour. Gold and brown. There’d been something so innocent and trusting in her expression and it had chafed painfully against the ever-present grief and guilt he’d felt—still felt—over her brother’s death. Even though, rationally, he knew that there was little he could have done to prevent Danielo’s death.

Lukas knew he’d avoided returning to Santanger in the last six years largely because of Hannah’s emotional outburst and the sense of being a coward had just added on top of the layers of guilt and grief.

He’d never been able to get Hannah’s face out of his head. Her declaration of love. But now she was different, of course she no longer harboured those feelings. She must have a boyfriend, she might even be engaged.

So why was it that that thought didn’t bring Lukas a sense of relief, but instead something dark and complicated. Worse, a sense of…possession? He tensed inwardly, rejecting the incendiary thought. He couldn’t possibly—

‘Lukas? Are we boring you?’

Lukas blinked. The room he was in came back into focus. The King’s advisors were looking at him across a wide table. Sunlight was streaming in through open French doors. The breeze was warm, fragrant with scents of the sea and native flowers. The scents of his youth, before tragedy had blighted everything. And yet it still called to him, making him yearn for something he couldn’t even articulate. Forgiveness. Peace.

Lukas cursed his wayward mind and focused on King Aristedes, a tall, handsome man who was standing with his hands behind his back near the doors. Long legs planted wide. They had a little history, because Lukas’s father had worked for a time as an economic advisor to the previous King, Aristedes’s father. After the tragic car accident that had killed Lukas’s entire family, the King had offered personal condolences and had attended the funeral, with his son, the then Crown Prince, Aristedes. Lukas had never forgotten that kind acknowledgement from the royal family.

Lukas shook his head. ‘No, not at all, Your Highness. I’m just a little…distracted to be home again after six years.’

The King smiled. ‘What took you so long?’

A pair of expressive dark brown eyes came into Lukas’s head. He pushed the image aside. Feeling restless, he stood too, moving to stand near the King. ‘Work, sir, building my business in America.’

The King said, , ‘I’ve been following your progress for some time now, and I think you’re perfectly positioned to consider opening a European hub, specificially in Santanger. We would do our utmost to smooth your path back home.’

Back home. Santanger had stopped feeling like home when his family had died. And then, just a few years later, his best friend.

Lukas knew that this opportunity would be a dream come true to many expats, but his reasons for leaving Santanger in the first place still felt all too real. And after meeting Hannah again last night…Lukas knew that his future did not lie in Santanger, no matter how much the King might like it to.

Still, he had come to listen and he would do the King the courtesy of hearing him out. But within a couple of days, he would be gone again. Back to his life across a vast ocean, putting as much space between him and his demons as he possibly could.