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)
So much time has passed and so much has been lost. I look down at her body and marvel at the pleasure it has brought me in the last twenty-four hours. She’s a siren even in her sleep.
“You’re staring at me,” she murmurs but doesn’t open her eyes.
“Yes, we will need to get up soon.”
She stretches, causing the sheet to slip from her breasts. I can’t help growing hard. However, we do need to go. Those pictures will be in every paper in London. I need to get Cinder back to Verlez before she sees the headlines.
I’m not a fool to think that someone won’t put two and two together. London will know that the princess has returned. The Heathworth crown has been surrounded by generations of controversy. It didn’t start with Cinder.
Having something new to talk about concerning the royal family is like catnip. I won’t allow them to place that pressure on her. Her life has been hard enough as it is.
“Hey, where did you go?” she asks, pulling me from my thoughts. She reaches to touch my jaw.
The simple gesture tugs at something within. I look into her eyes and more questions surface. Whether I found Cinder or another bride, I never once thought that I would have love in my marriage.
Yet as I look at her, I wonder if I could have more. A marriage of more than duty. I wrap an arm around her and drag her closer to me.
“I want to show you more of Verlez when we get back. I think you will be surprised by what you find there. It’s not all hills and valleys. I’ve done my best to push my parents to modernize,” I reply.
Her eyes light up with a glow that’s so alluring. “I think I would like that.”
“Good.”
“But first, I would like it if you would answer my question from earlier. I get the feeling you’ve been hurt before. What happened?”
I search her face as the question chafes as much as it did the first time. Yes, I want her to get to know me, but it seems she keeps going for the jugular. I don’t want to lie to her. To tell the truth, is to tell her story.
I brush a lock of hair from her face. “The ball to find me a bride is sort of my mother and father’s last resort. I was once engaged.” I pause and rub the back of my neck.
“What happened? Did you run off to New York to be an entitled playboy?” she teases.
I scoff. Someone ran off, but it wasn’t me. I push back those angry thoughts.
“In my world, you don’t have to be born to be promised to wed. My fiancée was chosen when I was five and she was still in the womb.”
“Oh,” Cinder says and furrows her brows.
“Story has it her mother decided to take her and run off to America.”
“Really? I’m so sorry.”
“As a boy, I didn’t understand what was going on. I remember there being a stir in the castle and upset voices. One minute I was at my betrothed’s christening, and the next, she, her mother and father were nowhere to be found.”
“It wasn’t until I was older and I started to hear the whispers and understood the trips to the States that I grasped what had happened and the shame that came with it—”
“But you were a boy. She was a baby. Why should you be ashamed?”
I look into her searching eyes. What she says is logical. I know it is, but I’ve never been able to accept that reasoning.
“I’m a prince, next in line for the throne. Why would a mother not want her daughter to marry me? What was so wrong with me?”
The words come out angrier than I mean for them to. Cinder leans in to kiss my lips. When her eyes meet mine again there’s an understanding in her gaze.
“I think I get it. I was upset with my dad when he first remarried. I felt like I wasn’t enough. As I got older I realized he did it for me. So I’d have a mother. Maybe this family had a reason. Something that had nothing to do with you,” she says softly.
As I get lost in her gaze I allow her words to sink in. For as long as I can remember, I’ve blamed Princess Beverly. I’ve always felt robbed by the princess and whatever scandal she had going on.
“I guess I am a bit entitled when you put it that way,” I murmur. “I always thought it was about me. I never thought the real reason could’ve been about something or someone else.”
I sound like a chastised child to my own ears. Honestly, it’s my father who has held the most resentment of this. I only follow in his ire. This union meant a lot to him.