Finding Chris Evans: The Royal Edition by Jennifer Chance Page B

know what I had.”
    “I haven’t done a very good job of that, I’m afraid,” Cristopoulis said. Was it her imagination, or had he moved closer? His eyes shifted to meet her gaze. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you who I really am, LeeAnn.”
    “Oh, it’s—”
    “No.” He lifted a hand to wave off her reply. “It’s not fine, or all right, or whatever other excuse you were going to make on my behalf. I’m used to doing stupid things, then letting tempers cool while everything gets sorted out, but that doesn’t mean I should have kept the truth from you. You deserved better.”
    She wrinkled her brow at him, unused to accepting apologies. “You came to my inn for privacy, Cris. I can understand that, especially after I read those internet stories you left for me. You were raked over the coals pretty hard. I would’ve needed downtime too, without nosy people in my business.”
    “Yes,” he grimaced. “But that changed when I asked to learn everything about you. Here I posed all these questions, but held back the truth about me. That isn’t honorable, and I’m sorry for the pain I caused you.”
    “You didn’t cause me any pain.” LeeAnn’s heart shimmied a bit as Cristopoulis stepped up onto the back porch though, still wrung out from her crying jag. “I get emotional sometimes over dumb things. It’s okay.”
    “I’d like to make it up to you,” he said, and the intensity in his eyes made her more nervous, not less. Her natural self-protection surged to the fore, and she lifted her hands to ward him off.
    “That’s not necessary,” she said, hoping he couldn’t hear the tremor in her voice. “Last night was…a great memory. We can keep it that way.”
    Her words sounded right—logical. Sane, certainly, at least to her. But Cristopoulis kept coming toward her, stopping only when he was a few feet away.
    “I don’t want to keep it a memory, if it’s all the same to you.” He drew in a deep breath. “I want you to come to Garronia.”
    “Garronia!” LeeAnn blurted. That , she hadn’t expected. “I have an inn to run. I’m afraid the job isn’t one that allows for much in the way of vacations.”
    “And if it wasn’t your job?” He took another step toward her. “This morning Jake couldn’t stop talking about your inn, said he hadn’t been here for years. He said the work you’ve done to build the place is remarkable.”
    Despite herself, LeeAnn felt a flush of pride. “Well, it’s a remarkable place.”
    “Then why not sell it to him?”
    “Cris, he’s not serious when he says such things. I told you that.”
    “But if he was?” He stepped forward again, and lifted his hand to brush away a lock of hair that had escaped from LeeAnn’s top knot. “You said yourself your lease paperwork is due. Why couldn’t you sell this place instead of remaining here for another five years?”
    “Because I have responsibilities.”
    “You have dreams too,” Cristopoulis said. “Dreams that deserve a chance to be explored.” He gestured to the now-empty pond. “If suddenly you could fly away, as easily as the swans do when the time is right, would you want to?”
    LeeAnn blinked at him, his words striking a chord deep within her, and the answering keening note of hope seemed to fill her whole mind.
    Would she leave this place, if suddenly there was money and the freedom to spread her wings and fly? Would she give herself the permission to explore the world the way she always thought she might, before her dad fell ill and her plans suddenly turned back on themselves? She’d thought of the possibility before, but now, with Cristopoulis in front of her, it had never seemed more reasonable. Less like a pipe dream, and more like the most natural thing in the world.
    But could she do it?
    She stared at Cris’s earnest face, his eyes trained on hers, his mouth set into a determined line. His hands half-raised as if she was a foal about to bolt—or a woman so unsure of what her