Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 44113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 221(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 221(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
No more tiptoeing around.
No more lies, and no more bullshit. This was my life, after all, and Faith was my wife. And really, that’s all that mattered. The hell with worrying about what her parents would say. The hell with the Royal Courts, and all the blatant lies they were going to try and push through as evidence.
To hell with all of it.
They could take my crown. They could take whatever they wanted, because all I wanted was her. She was my kingdom. She was my crown.
She was my everything.
…And it was time to tell the fucking world.
Chapter 18
Faith
“I’m so happy for you!”
I wrapped my arms around Callie, squeezing her tight before I pulled back to grin at her.
“You’re married!”
“I know!”
And she was, as of five minutes before. The ceremony had been small — just her, King Hayden, King Sven and me as witnesses, and Hayden’s family priest. Small, but one of the sweetest things I’d ever seen. This was the wedding Callie deserved. Not chained to King Milton to pay off some debts. No, Hayden was the man she deserved.
They’d looked the odds in the face and said “yes” anyways. They’d said screw it to whatever people would say, and there was something about that that resonated inside of me.
I mean, if they could get married on Callie’s own very much publicized wedding and run off together….what the hell was stopping me from telling the world about Cole? I wasn’t ashamed, and I wasn’t confused by it. Not anymore. Not after I’d seen past the tabloid stories surrounding him to the real man underneath. We’d stripped away the assumptions around each other, until it was just the two of us.
And that’s all I needed.
“You be good to her,” I muttered in Hayden’s ear as I gave him a hug. He chuckled, pulling away to grin at me.
“Always.”
Things were going to move fast. After the wedding, Hayden pulled Callie away somewhere — and I was not about to ask where a newlywed couple were about to sneak off to. King Sven slipped away too, and then so did I. Something fierce burned in me as I skipped down the halls of the palace back to the main ballroom. Maybe it was having just seen one of my best friends marry a man she loved.
But maybe, probably, I was because I’d just admitted something to myself: I loved him. Crazy, silly, insane love. And I didn’t care what—
“Hey!”
I gasped as I rounded the corner of the hall and plowed right into him. Cole’s arm’s wrapped around me, catching me before I tumbled back, and pulling me into his embrace.
“I could get used to greetings like this,” he murmured, pulling me close. I bit my lip, looking up into his beautiful, fierce eyes.
“Hi.”
“How’d it go?”
“Well, they’re married!” I shrugged, grinning at him. “Guess things are about to get pretty interesting around this place.”
“You better believe it,” he murmured, pulling me tight. “I want you.”
I blinked, half-smiling at the declaration. “Yeah, I think I got that.”
But Cole just shook his head slowly, looking right into my eyes.
“No, angel, I mean I want you. I want every part of you, and every piece of your heart. Not in a joking way, not in a ‘get drunk and get accidentally married’ way. I mean I want you for real.” He took a deep breath.
“I want you for always, Princess.”
Our lips crashed together fiercely, the two of us tumbling into each other right there in the hallway. Two hearts beating as one. Two parts forming a whole, until I didn’t think I could imagine a world where I didn’t have him.
“Come with me.”
I gasped as he suddenly slid his hand into mine, turned and started pulling me down the hallway.
“Wait, where are we going?”
“No more secrets,” he turned and said quietly. “No more shadows. I’m telling the whole damn world about the Princess I love.”
My heart sang, and as I slipped back into his arms, I leaned up to kiss him softly.
“You in?” he murmured.
“In telling the world?” I blinked, biting my lip as I looked up into his face and nodded.
Cole beamed. “Then lets go tell the world. Let the tabloid assholes write about this.”
“What is the meaning of this?”
My father’s voice was cold, his face livid as he glared at Cole. We’d found my parents out on the ballroom terrace.
“Mom, Dad—”
“What is this man doing here, Faith?!”
I looked at my parents. I turned to look up at Cole. I took a deep breath.
This was it. Cole squeezed my hand, and suddenly, any doubts, any fear, and any hesitations melted away as I turned back to face my parents unblinking.
“He’s here because he’s my husband.”
The whole terrace went pin drop silent and still. My father’s brow furrowed, his eyes darting quickly to Cole, then back to me, and then back to Cole. My mother’s jaw slowly dropped.