Eva sat her wine glass down and took a bite of chili, trying to hide the disappointment on her face. How was she supposed to be just his friend after that amazing kiss they shared at their wedding? Maybe it hadn't meant anything to him, but to her it had meant a lot. Plus she had built up a little crush on him over the past few days and gotten so used to the idea of him being her husband. Thinking of him as just a friend now was going to be strange.

"So I had an idea for us to get to know each other better so we can become friends," he said, taking another bite. "It's a game they had us play at Eaton on the first day to break the ice and get to know everybody since we would all be living together. It was just like our situation. We were being forced to live with strangers."

"Ok. How does it go?" she asked.

He walked inside and grabbed two notebooks and two pens and handed her one of each. "So each of us writes down a list of all the things we want to know about the other person. All the questions you come up with for the other person you also have to answer about yourself."

"Okay," Eva nodded, feeling a little nervous and silly. She had no idea what to ask him about himself. She barely knew the guy. She took the notebook and pen from him and watched him start writing right away but she was still thinking.

Finally a few things came to her and she started writing down questions while she continued eating her food. A few minutes later she was finished and said, "Okay I'll start. What's your biggest fear?"

He thought for a second and looked down, pushing the chili around his bowl with his spoon, before lifting his head and looking across the table at her. "When I become King I'm afraid people will say I'm not as good of a King as my Dad was. I'm going to have a whole country of people counting on me and I'm afraid of making the wrong decisions and having the people hate me."

Eva sat there, looking down at her food and she said, "Yeah. That's understandable. Being a King is a lot of pressure. She thought for a second and said, "My biggest fear is that I'll get to the end of my life and feel like I didn't get to do or experience the things I wanted to. I don't want to feel like I missed out."

"What kind of things?" Paulo asked.

She sat up straight and said, "There are SO many things I've never experienced; going to school, making new friends my own age, what it feels like to be a normal person that can walk down the street without security guards, skydiving, surfing, going on a date," she said quietly, looking down at her food.

Paulo asked, "You've never been on a date before?"

She lifted her head and looked across the table at him. "No," she said, letting out an exhale. "My Dad never let me date. He said there was no point because I was going to have an arranged marriage anyway and he wanted to make sure I stayed a virgin until my wedding night. He said when you have an arranged marriage that's extremely important."

Paulo took a bite of his chili and studied Eva's face and she wondered what he was thinking.

"Wow. So you've never gotten to date in your entire life and then when you finally get a husband he doesn't want to sleep with you on your wedding night and then you find out he has feelings for someone else and wants to be friends?" He shook his head and said, "Damn. Now I feel like a total asshole."

She couldn't help but smile as she said, "Because you are one," with a lighthearted laugh.

He smiled too and said, "Yeah. I guess I am."

He reached over and picked up his notebook and said, "Ok. My turn. If you hadn't been born a Princess, what would you have wanted to be?"

She thought about it and said, "That's a hard one because there are so many things I love to do but if I absolutely had to pick just one it would be something political, like a trade negotiator or a translator. I already know yours. Rosalie said you wanted to be a competitive swimmer."

"Nah," he scoffed. "She was trying to convince me I wanted to be one when we were kids, but I never really liked it. I would've actually wanted to be an actor. I was always really good in our theater productions at boarding school and one of my best mates became an actor and does movies now in America. Obviously I didn't have that option," he said sadly, shrugging his shoulders.

Eva looked across the table at him, thinking. "I think you would've made a good actor. You would've been one of those heart throbs that have flocks of screaming female fans stalking him," she laughed.

"You think so?" he asked with a smile.

"Yeah," she nodded, taking a bite of her chili.

Paulo took another bite of his food, saying "Okay. Your turn."

She looked down at her paper, taking a sip of her wine before saying, "Ok. This is my last question. What's your biggest regret?"

"You go first, because I just took a bite of steak. I need a minute to chew," he told her, with his mouth full, making her laugh.

She didn't even have to think about that one. She looked directly at him and said, "My biggest regret is being born a princess."

They both sat there in silence for a second as he finally swallowed his food before he finally asked, "Why?"

She took a breath in and let it out as she swirled the wine around in her glass and then sipped it. "Because all of those things I listed off earlier that I've never gotten to experience are because I was born a princess. I've always felt like a prisoner. There were a few times growing up I seriously thought about running away. I wanted my freedom so bad."

Just saying it out loud, hit her with more emotion than she was expecting and she bit into her bottom lip as it started to tremble and her eyes burned.

As she breathed in, the air got caught in her throat and she sniffled, blinking away the tears.

"I'm sorry," she said, wiping them away. "I didn't mean to get all emotional right now," she told him, fanning her eyes and trying to compose herself. "Okay," she said with an exhale. "What about you? What's your biggest regret?"

He looked at his wine glass, getting a far off look on his face like he was in deep thought.

"That I was the one that lived," he said so softly that she almost didn't hear him.

"What?" she asked. "What do you mean?"

He sat there in silence for a second before lifting his eyes and looking at her before saying, "I used to have a little brother. He was only a year younger than me."

Eva's eyes widened in surprise. "What? I didn't know you had a brother."

"Yeah, my family doesn't like to talk about it," he said with an exhale. "His name was Francisco but I always called him Frank as a joke. When I was eight and he was seven we were in the woods behind the castle playing and all of a sudden Francisco started throwing up. Then he started having trouble walking and even standing up. I helped him back to the castle and my Mom called a doctor right away. He said he had a really high fever and they took him to the hospital to get checked out. They hooked all kinds of tubes up to him and I'll never forget sitting next to his hospital bed, holding his hand and begging him not to die."

Her heart ached for him. "What happened?" she asked softly.

"He had bacterial meningitis and it was making his brain swell. They did everything they could but they couldn't save him," he said sadly, looking down at his wine glass with that far off look in his eyes again.

Seeing the pain and hurt in his eyes pulled at her heart strings and she said quietly, "I'm so sorry Paulo," reaching over and laying her hand on his.

He lifted his head and said, "It should've been me that died that day, not him. Francisco was a good kid. He was so smart and funny and everyone loved him. He always listened and did what he was supposed to do. I was the one that was a screw up, the one that always got in trouble and couldn't follow the rules. It should've been me," he said, hanging his head and shaking it slowly.

They sat there in silence and she wasn't sure what to say or do to make him feel better.

He finally cleared his throat and stood up, saying, "It's been a long day. I think I'm ready for bed."

He grabbed the plates and wine glasses and carried them inside while she sat there watching him go.

When she finally went in the house she heard the shower going so she changed into a black silk nightgown and slipped under the covers. He came out a few minutes later in just a pair of boxers, drying his hair off with a towel. He climbed into bed and they laid there in silence for a minute.

Finally he whispered in the dark room, "So you said earlier you never got to date and you're still a virgin. Have you ever done anything with a guy?"

"Well I mean, I've kissed a guy, hugged, cuddled, held hands, but that's it. Nothing else."

There was silence between them for a few more seconds before he said softly, "I'm sorry you spent all those years saving yourself for someone special and then got stuck having to marry an asshole like me."

She gave him a weak smile, barely being able to see the outline of his facial features from the moonlight coming in through the window. "Oh you're not that bad. For being stuck marrying a stranger my parents picked out, I think I got lucky. It could've been a lot worse."

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I've treated you like shit Eva and I've been an immature, asshole. What I said the other day when I was fighting with my parents, about having to be drunk to sleep with you, I saw the look on your face and I know it hurt your feelings and I'm sorry. It wasn't anything to do with you. I was really pissed off at them for forcing me into a marriage they knew I didn't want. They've been controlling everything I do my entire life and I couldn't just sit there and take it anymore without speaking up"

He took a deep breath in and let it out before saying, "I was in a really bad mood but I shouldn't have taken it out on you and said what I said. I'm sorry."

Hearing him apologize took her by surprise and made her smile slightly. "Thank you," she whispered. She laid there, closing her eyes and finally after what seemed like forever she drifted off to sleep.