Read Online Sorrows of Adoration by Kimberly Chapman - Free Book Online

are. You amaze me.”
    “Stop, please.” His
words were kind, but they cut my heart like a cruel blade, for I
knew that despite his good intentions, I would not be allowed to
love him as I already did.
    “No,” he said again,
loudly this time, with a force behind it. “I will not stop. I adore
you. Please, don’t push me away.” With that he embraced me, and
though I wanted to back away, I found myself allowing him to hold
me as a fresh batch of tears poured forth from my eyes.
    “But it can’t be,” I
said. I felt so stupid and pathetic to weep so, but I could not
seem to stop. Never before had I felt so weak, but then, never
before had anything moved me the way this man did. “Why are you
breaking my heart? Why do you insist on pretending that you could
have feelings for me that could last, when we both know full well
that the Prince cannot love a peasant?”
    “Under what law?” he
asked, pulling back to look at me again.
    “The law that makes you
the heir to the throne, and makes any woman that you—” I could not
finish. I dared not say the words, lest I reveal the future of
which I had indulged myself to imagine the night before.
    His expression
lightened as he understood me. “Any woman that I marry must
eventually be Queen?” I lowered my face quickly, ashamed that I had
implied such a thing. But he would have none of it and tipped my
chin up. I tried to avoid his eyes but became locked in his gaze.
His expression was of tender concern. “Aenna, is that what these
tears and this anger is about? That you worry that I could not feel
affection for you because I must marry a woman worthy of being
Queen?” I said nothing, too ashamed and hurt to speak. “Is that why
you’re so upset?” he asked tenderly.
    I closed my eyes,
overpowered by the intensity of his look. “Forgive me, Your
Highness, I didn’t mean to sound presumptuous,” I whispered, my
throat locked. I tried to gulp the lump away but gave up and
whispered again, very quietly, as if it made my thoughts less
shameful. “When you kissed me last night, I foolishly allowed
myself to dream of a future with you. Now that I know you are not
Jarik, who I already felt so far beneath, but in fact the Prince
himself, I know I am unworthy of such a future, and my foolishness
leaves me broken-hearted and ashamed.”
    “Oh, sweet Aenna,” he
said softly as he pulled me back into a tight embrace. My head was
on his shoulder, and as the night before, he cupped it tenderly.
“You are worthy,” he said intently, kissing my forehead after he
spoke. “You are more worthy than any woman alive. I would not have
allowed myself to develop this adoration for you otherwise. People
cannot travel together as we have these past days without having an
idea of what the other is truly like. There has been no time for
pretence, no energy to spare for silly charades or games of
courtship. And you have demonstrated yourself to be brave, strong,
even fearless. Never once have I seen you shy away from danger. You
have not asked for help—indeed, you have offered your assistance.
You gave up your entire life to alert me to a danger, though you
did not even know me. You have shown dedication to your kingdom and
to me, both as a Prince and a man with whom you travelled. If these
things do not make you worthy of respect and affection, I cannot
imagine what would.”
    He lifted my face with
both hands and brushed away my tears with his thumbs. Then he
kissed me, not with the jubilance that he had the night before, but
with a deliberate and intense passion. I could not help but return
it, loving him already as I did. When he embraced me again my tears
continued to flow, but I didn’t know what to feel. I was
unconvinced of my alleged worthiness and certainly doubted it would
be believed by anyone else. But I was also filled with relief that
it seemed he had not been manipulating me intentionally, and deep
inside me lurked the desperate hope that he spoke the