He ran a hand over his jaw in thought. “What I told you that night was true. I had been dealing with something unpleasant. Afterward, I think I just wanted to . . . be near you.” My pulse quickened and I waited for more. More, more, more. “Not as the king I knew you hated. But as a man you had come to like.” He shook his head and sighed. “And a man I had come to like.”
