Chapter 28 Chapter twenty eight
DEV
The media response was immediate and brutal.
By Sunday afternoon, every major outlet had coverage. Not just about the lawsuit or Aanya's refusal of the palace deal, but about us. About the photo from Brockwell Park. About speculation that we were romantically involved. About whether I had manipulated her, seduced her, used her to advance my research agenda.
Daily Mail: "Disgraced Princess and Her Activist Lover: Did Dev Marchetti Seduce Aanya Into Betraying Her Family?"
The Sun: "Princess Aanya's Secret Romance: Inside Her Relationship With the Man Who Destroyed Her Life"
Telegraph: "Questions About Judgment: Former Princess Romantically Linked to Researcher at Center of Defamation Suit"
Even the Guardian, which had published my original research, ran a piece questioning whether our relationship compromised the integrity of the legal case.
I was sitting in Sarah Chen's office Monday morning, reading through the coverage on my phone while Aanya sat across from me doing the same. We had not discussed the speculation. Had not addressed what was happening between us beyond the hand-holding yesterday and my admission that I thought I could love her.
The air between us felt charged with everything unsaid.
"This is going to be a problem," Sarah said, looking at her own screen. "Crown Estate's legal team will absolutely use this. They will argue that you were romantically involved before the forum, that Dr. Marchetti influenced your statements, that your judgment was compromised by personal feelings rather than factual assessment."
"We were not romantically involved before the forum," Aanya said. "We had met once, for thirty seconds, at a gala. That was the extent of our interaction."
"That will not matter to them. They have the photograph from the park. They have witness statements that you kept his waistcoat after the gala. They will construct a narrative of romantic manipulation regardless of the facts."
"So what do we do?" I asked.
"You need to decide what your actual relationship status is and be prepared to testify about it under oath. Are you together? Are you dating? Are you just colleagues fighting this lawsuit? Because whatever you say now, you will be held to in deposition and potentially in court."
Aanya looked at me. I looked back. The question hung between us, unanswered.
"We have not discussed that yet," Aanya said finally.
"Then you need to discuss it. Soon. Because Crown Estate will absolutely ask, and you need to have consistent answers." Sarah closed her laptop. "I will give you the room. Take thirty minutes. Figure out what you are to each other. Then we need to move forward with legal strategy."
She left, closing the door behind her.
The silence was deafening.
Aanya stood, walked to the window, looked out at South London spread below us. I stayed in my chair, watching her, trying to find words for what I was feeling.
"This is complicated," she said finally, not turning around.
"Yes."
"Twenty-four hours ago we were fighting in a pub. You were telling me I did not belong in your world. Now we are supposed to define our relationship for legal testimony."
"I know."
"And I have no idea what I am supposed to say. That we are together? We have not even kissed. We have known each other for ten days, most of which were spent in crisis. We have had one actual conversation that did not involve institutional collapse or legal catastrophe. I do not know if what we are feeling is real or just adrenaline and circumstance and two people clinging to each other in the middle of chaos."
She turned to face me, and the vulnerability in her expression made my chest tight.
"Do you want it to be real?" I asked quietly.
"I do not know. Part of me does. Part of me is terrified. I have lost everything in the past week. My title, my family, my entire identity. The only constant has been you. But I do not know if I am drawn to you because of who you are or because you represent the choice I made. Does that make sense?"
"Yes. And I have the same question. Are my feelings for you real or are they just gratitude that you validated my research and stood with me when you could have chosen safety?"
"So we are both uncertain."
"We are both uncertain about the why. But I am certain about the what." I stood, crossed to where she was standing by the window. Close enough to touch, but I kept my hands at my sides. "I want you, Aanya. I want to know what this could be if we had time and space and normal circumstances. I want to see if what I feel when you are near me is real or just crisis bonding. But I cannot figure that out if we do not actually try."
"Try meaning what? Date? While fighting a two-million-pound lawsuit? While the media accuses you of manipulating me and Crown Estate builds a case that our relationship proves I was compromised?"
"Yes. All of that. I know the timing is terrible. I know this complicates everything. But Aanya, I have spent the past week trying not to feel what I feel when I look at you. Trying to convince myself it is not real. Trying to push you away because the alternative was too terrifying. And I am done pretending. I want to see where this goes. If you want the same thing."
She was quiet for a long moment, studying my face.
"What do you feel when you look at me?" she asked softly.
The question caught me off guard. "What?"
"You said you feel something when you look at me. What is it?"
I thought about how to put it into words. "I feel like I am seeing something real for the first time in a very long time. Like the performance everyone else does has fallen away and you are just yourself. Uncertain and scared and brave and furious and determined. I feel like I want to know every part of you. The parts you show the world and the parts you hide. I feel like I could stand here talking to you for hours and not get bored. And I feel terrified that you will realize you made a mistake and leave and I will be left having fallen for someone I never really had."
"You are falling for me?"
"I thought I made that clear yesterday when I told you I could love you."
"You said you thought you could love me. That is different from falling for me."
"Fair point. Yes. I am falling for you. Present tense. Actively happening. Probably have been since the forum when you ripped up those papers on stage and I realized you were the real thing." I took a breath. "Your turn. What do you feel when you look at me?"
She bit her lower lip, a gesture I was beginning to recognize as what she did when she was uncertain. The movement drew my attention to her mouth, and I had to force myself to look back at her eyes.
"I feel safe," she said. "Which is absurd because you are the least safe option available. You represent everything that is difficult about the choice I made. But when you are near me, I feel less afraid. Like I can actually do this. Build a life outside the palace. Survive the lawsuit. Figure out who I am without the title. And I feel seen. Like you actually look at me instead of at what I represent. And I feel this pull toward you that I do not entirely understand but cannot seem to ignore."
"Pull toward me how?"
"Like I want to be closer to you. Physically. Like when you were sitting outside Priya's building in the rain all night, part of me wanted to go down and sit with you. Like when you took my hand yesterday at the legal clinic, I did not want you to let go. Like right now, standing this close to you, I am thinking about things I should not be thinking about given that we are supposed to be defining our relationship for legal purposes."
My pulse was racing. "What things?"
"Things like whether you are going to kiss me or if I am going to have to kiss you. Things like what your hands would feel like if they were on me instead of carefully kept at your sides. Things like whether this feeling I have when you look at me like that is what people mean when they talk about chemistry."
The air between us felt electric. Every nerve in my body was aware of how close she was. How easy it would be to close the distance. How much I wanted to.
"What am I looking at you like?" I asked, my voice rougher than I intended.
"Like you are trying very hard not to do something you want to do very badly."
"That is accurate."
"Why are you not doing it?"
"Because thirty minutes ago I was the person who attacked you in a pub for not understanding my world. Because I do not want you to think I am taking advantage of the fact that you are vulnerable and uncertain and facing bankruptcy. Because once I start, I am not sure I will be able to stop. And because Sarah Chen will be back in twenty minutes and I would like to have an answer for her that does not involve admitting I was so distracted by wanting to kiss you that we did not actually resolve the relationship question."
Aanya smiled slightly, and the expression transformed her face. "Those are all very reasonable concerns."
"Thank you."
"Which is why I am going to resolve the relationship question right now, so that when Sarah comes back we have an answer, and then you can stop being reasonable." She took a breath. "Yes. I want to try this. I want to see what we could be if we let ourselves. I know the timing is terrible. I know this will complicate the lawsuit. I know we should probably wait until our lives are more stable. But I do not want to wait. I want to know what it feels like to kiss you. I want to know if this thing between us is real or just circumstance. I want to take the risk."
"You are sure?"
"I am sure that I am tired of being afraid. I am sure that I have already lost everything I thought I needed to survive and discovered I am still here. I am sure that you make me feel like I can actually build something instead of just surviving the loss of what I had. And I am sure that if you do not kiss me in the next thirty seconds I am going to lose my nerve and start overthinking this."
I closed the distance between us.
My hands came up to frame her face, thumbs brushing along her jawline. She tilted her head back slightly, eyes locked on mine. Her hands found my waist, fingers curling into my shirt.
"This is a terrible idea," I
said, even as I leaned closer.
"Probably," she agreed, her breath warm against my mouth. "Kiss me anyway."
I kissed her.