Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91049 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91049 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Although I want to bask in the sight, I know a look that he has that’s even more beautiful. I cover his length with my mouth and silence his laugh. He looks at me with heated eyes.
Yes, I love that look. Priceless indeed. You can’t put a price on happily ever after. I sure couldn’t ask for a better ending.
His Cinder
His Cinder
Preface
In The Moment
Princeton
I stand in my New York City apartment feeling hollow as always. Something is missing that I’ve yet to find. Story of my life.
“Your mother called. Your eight a.m. has been moved up,” Williams, my adviser, says into the phone at my ear.
I groan. I want to go to that meeting like I want a hole in my head. I’ve avoided this long enough. I bare my teeth as I look out my apartment window at the view of the city.
“Tell me why the fuck I’m doing this again?”
All civilities went out the window years ago. I’m the damaged, rogue prince in the eyes of my people. We’ve all learned to accept it.
“Your Highness, you have to find a bride,” he replies. He pauses. “Can I be frank?”
I blow out a breath and shrug as if he can see me. “You can be whoever you want.”
“Ah, yes, funny,” he says dryly. We’ve had this relationship for as long as I can remember. Williams is like an uncle to me. He knows me well. I trust his words.
“You’ve searched long enough. I think it’s time you try to move on. You’ve become bitter over something that’s out of your control.”
“You’re allowed to move past this. Some things are allowed to be out of your control. There’s no law that says you have to find her,” he says. “Besides, you never know what you might find.”
“They owe me an explanation. This isn’t about her. It’s about why. I want to know why.”
I clench my teeth. This has been a sore topic for me for longer than I’d like to admit. I unclench my jaw and the fist at my side.
“If that were the case you wouldn’t have an objection to finding a bride, now would you?”
I clench my teeth again. I don’t want to look at what he’s suggesting. My reluctance has nothing to do with the past. I don’t like being forced into anything and that’s what my parents are doing.
That’s why I’m against this ball and all it represents. However, I know my duties and I know that it’s time to find a bride. This will also quiet the rumors and flapping lips.
I turn and walk to the full-length mirror propped against the wall. I stop in front of it and stare at the nude man before me. I’m bare to myself and can ask the hard questions as I look into my own eyes.
“I’ll call you back.”
I toss the phone onto the side table and give myself a quick once-over. Have I grown to be a bitter man? Perhaps.
Women fall at my feet, but none of them add up enough to soothe the hit to my ego. A hit that was dealt before I grew my first pubic hair.
“There’s too much pussy out there for you to be hung up on this,” I say to myself.
Although, I know this has nothing to do with pussy. It’s rooted deeper than some ass. All of this has shaped me.
America has become as much a home to me as my true home because of the past. A past that has been out of my hands.
Yet I wish to understand that past and quest to do so. I lock eyes with my reflection. Wise men say you don’t return to the past and you don’t pant for the future. You live in the present and relish in the moment.
“It’s time to live in the moment, Princeton.”
CHAPTER 1
Not So Charming
Princeton
Something is fishy around here. I can be an asshole, but these people are making me look like a saint. I have no idea why my mother insisted on going with this event planning company. Apparently, they’re all the rave.
Having this ball is ridiculous to begin with. Now, I have to sit here with these unprepared snobs. I’m getting more pissed by the second.
It’s as if they never looked at the details of our event and not one of them had a hand in putting together this half-assed proposal. I narrow my eyes on the two sisters who run the company as they lock heads together and hiss at each other.
“Ow!” The one with the blonde, fake hair and tight pink sheath dress whines, drawing my attention solely to her.
She reaches under the table to rub at her leg, a pout on her pink-painted lips. I roll my eyes, my impatience rising. This is all a waste of my valuable time.
“Princeton, I can assure you that we have this event under control. Our assistant will be in shortly with the right file so we can resolve all of your questions,” Bianca Estevez, the owner of Beauty for Ashes Event Planning and mother of the two sitting at her side, informs me as if we’re old friends.