by Karr, Kim
My lungs start to ache with every breath I take because he’s leaning closer and closer. “I love you, too.” He kisses the bandage on my forehead. “I love each and every part of you.” He kisses my nose. “I could be a million miles away on an ocean in an unknown part of the world, and you’d be the one I needed to find my way home to.” His luscious lips hover of mine.
Closing the last few inches between us, I kiss him, soft and gentle and with everything I am, and then I put my hands on his face. “Stop, please stop. You’re making what I have to do too hard.”
Because now I know I can’t have him.
Can’t take away who he is—his dominance—for my own benefit. I love him too much to do that.
He pulls back and stares at me with eyes that shimmer bluer than any ocean. “That’s just it, Tori. I won’t stop. Not ever.”
My name on his lips is the sweetest thing. I ache just hearing it. He’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a man, but I can’t give him what he needs and I won’t take anything from him because of it. “Adrien, I’m so sorry. I had no idea you wouldn’t be able to assume the role of King. I shouldn’t have asked you to marry me without having done my due diligence. I can’t ask you to be something you’re not, so I’m going to have to let you go.”
Shaking his head, he looks at me with the fire of a dragon in his eyes. “You aren’t going to push me away. I could have lost you last night and you should know, I’m not willing to ever lose you, especially over a title.”
Sadness billows through me in gentle waves, soft nudges of reality prodding I can’t swim away from. Holding his gaze with all the strength and courage I can muster, I know I have to do this, and I try not to let my tears fall.
Princesses don’t cry.
“My entire life I’ve been told the way I’m supposed to act, what I’m supposed to say, how I’m supposed to behave. But when I’m with you, I can just be me. You opened up something inside me that made me realize I don’t have to be the expected. I can be me. Whatever me is. And I owe you everything for that.”
Princesses don’t admit weakness.
The prick of wetness in my eyes is too much to hold back as every single feeling that I have for him ignites into flames inside me when the first tear falls. “Adrien, I have to set you free. I can’t ask you to be something you don’t want to be. Not when you made me who I am.” My voice breaks as I speak.
Suddenly, his stormier-than-ever blue eyes narrow on me and his Adam’s apple grows prominent. I trail it as he swallows hard and watch his eyes turn into hard bolts of blue lightning. “That’s not happening, Princess.” His voice is gruff, deeper than usual.
Emotion burns in my own eyes, and I bite my bottom lip, uncertain of what to say to make him understand this is for the best.
He glares at me without question. “We are going to get married,” he tells me, and then lowers himself to one knee, producing a small box from his pocket.
This is not the way I saw us going.
My heart starts thumping. I feel like something is happening. Something I can’t push away. A love too strong. Too forceful. Too passionate to even try to deny.
A prickle of nervousness tightens every inch of my body as I scoot even closer to the edge of the bed.
“I wanted to do this on the dock yesterday,” he says gruffly. “But then we were met by your entourage.” His eyes are on me, all blue, and all him. They run up and down my body and suddenly my toes are tingling when a small smile appears. “So, although this isn’t the place I had in mind or the circumstances, it seems the best time.”
He opens the box and I gasp as I stare down at a gorgeous diamond and sapphire ring.
My hand goes to my collarbone. “It’s just like my necklace.”
“I bought it at the same time I bought that.”
“But that was so many weeks ago.”
Gently, he takes my left hand in his. “Will you marry me, Princess Victoria? Have my children and live with me for the rest of your life? I promise you no one will ever love you more than me.” The ring wobbles and goes blurry as he slides it onto my finger.
It sparkles and dazzles me with all its brilliance, just like he has from the moment I laid eyes on him and for all the time I spent talking myself out of being with him, I can’t turn away. He wants me and I want him. Circumstances be damned. “Yes. Oh yes, Prince Adrien! I’ll marry you. I love you so much it hurts.”
He flashes me that heart-stopping smile and pushes to his feet. Then he leans down, gathering me carefully in his arms and lifting me. I wrap my legs around him and kiss him, my heart melting.
“I love you too, Tori. Don’t ever doubt that. This isn’t going to be easy but being with you is what I want. No matter what.”
Reaching for his cheek with my left hand, the ring sparkles like a bright light on my finger. A lighthouse leading the way. “I will find a way for us to rule together. I don’t care how long it takes or what I have to do to change things, I will make it happen.”
He leans back and his gaze wavers on me. “You look beautiful.”
My skin prickles with tiny goose bumps and things are happening to me that can only be explained as a chemical reaction. I cover my face and laugh. “You absolutely do not mean that.”
“I do. I do mean it.” When he sets me back on the bed, I force myself to drop my hands. He bends and I lean back, my palms on the mattress. The entire time he’s still staring at me. Staring at me like he always has but different at the same time. There’s something deeper, darker, more involved in his gaze.
Running his thumb along my jaw, he says, “We need to be careful.” He takes my fingers within one warm hand and tugs my arm up from my side.
Watching his fingers lace through mine as he holds my hand between us, at the level of our hearts, I ask, “What on earth do you mean?”
His lips tilt downward into a frown, and there’s something in his eyes that frightens me.
A ball of shooting arrows is in my stomach as I look up at him. “Tell me.”
His textured voice suddenly sounds so severe. “Truman thinks King Rutherford might be trying to kill him and I.”
I blow out an unsteady breath. “What? Why?”
Hardened resolve tightens his features. “I’ll tell you everything, but first, I have to know, that SUV that hit you, was it chasing you?”
“No,” I drop my gaze. “To be honest, the accident was my fault. With the rain, I couldn’t control the automobile, and when the SUV tried to pass me, it made me nervous, and I did everything wrong. I never should have been behind the wheel. I’m not competent enough to drive.”
He slides his hands to my shoulders and looks at my face. “I think that vehicle was following me.”
“Adrien, no,” I gasp, suddenly glad I got into an accident because I might have saved his life.
With a nod, he starts pacing the room. “Rutherford did something when we were younger that Truman and I know about…”
After telling me things I find detestable for any person, yet a Royal, to do, I get to my feet and take Adrien’s face in my hands. “What are we going to do about this?”
“How do you feel about going back to blonde?”
Confusion has me creasing my brow.
He clears my daze quickly. “I think it’s time we go back to Alexandria and announce our engagement.”
“The media will be all over us when we do.”
“Good. For once I won’t mind it. Being in the spotlight is just what we need to bide time with Rutherford. He won’t make a move in public. It’s too risky.”
With my heart pounding, I wind my arms around his neck. “We have to be careful,” I tell him and place slow, anxious kisses up his thick neck.
If he’s ready to go public, then so am I.
PRICELESS
When we arrive back at the estate, Adrien and I update the girls on everything, and they both nearly burst our eardrums when they scream bloody murder.
“You’re getting ma
rried!” they both cheer, as if that hadn’t been the plan all along.
“I told you he had that look in his eye,” Ava says to Rachel, who rolls her own eyes.
“Tell me everything,” Ava goes on. “Where? When? And most importantly who do you want to wear?”
Rachel shakes off her glee, and although it’s late and she’s in her pajamas, she reaches for her iPad on the coffee table in front of her as if she’s ready to take notes.
“Ladies,” I cajole, “There’s something I need to discuss first.”
“What is it?” Rachel asks.
A deep sadness strikes me at having to leave Newport and Ava behind but it is time I get back to reality and to my country. “It’s time for us to return to Alexandria.”
“When?”
I look up at the blue-eyed Royal beside me. He twists his lip when he says, “This Sunday.”
“That’s three days from now. So soon?”
He nods and I turn my attention back to Rachel. “The day after tomorrow you can announce our engagement and our return, and then you can arrange for Alexandria’s plane to come and pick us up.”
Her eyes go wide. “Are you sure? You’ll be swarmed with reporters before we get on the plane.”
Not telling them about King Rutherford is a necessity, so I know she won’t really understand but will do what I ask anyway. “Yes, it’s time the world knows where I’ve been,” is all I say.
“Very well.”
“Thank you, both,” I tell them. “And we’ll talk more tomorrow, but I’m exhausted and going to go to bed now.”
There’s a heavy sadness that sets upon the three of us as we hug goodnight. This summer I found something I never had—the sincerest friendships, and I will treasure the memory always.
I can say with most certainty, this time I’ve spent in Newport gave me something any amount of money could never buy.
Friendship.
And it is priceless.
SILENCE IS GOLDEN
The Eastwood Examiner
News
SO QUICKLY
By Dominick Wilfork
Our Washed Up Royal, Prince Adrien Laurent, is out of hot water. The charges that Prince Rainer brought against him have been dropped. No word as to why.
My guess is that someone paid someone off but it looks like we’ll never know because Prince Rainer has gone to India for self-reflection after his ordeal.
Namaste.
BLONDES HAVE FUN, TOO
The sun rises high as we set sail. It’s our last day of anonymity and we’re spending it at sea.
Tomorrow, Adrien and Truman are flying to Eastwood and then he’ll meet me in Alexandria the day after that.
Time alone after discovering things aren’t going to proceed as we thought is what we need. Also, finding much of it in the upcoming months will be difficult, which is why Adrien insisted William remain on the dock with his small speed boat just in case and promised not to go too far.
In my little white bikini with a Brazilian bottom Ava had flown in from France, I assume the wheel.
I have my newly blonde locks hidden beneath a scarf and the silk flaps in the breeze.
Adrien hoists the mainsail in his sailing uniform of khaki cargo shorts and a white polo. He has swim trunks on board in case we decide to take a dip. The wind flaps and pushes the fabric of his shirt so deliciously against the planes of his chest I would have thought it was orchestrated for my viewing pleasure.
Inhaling a deep breath, I scan the horizon and take note of the bridge that brought me here, the lighthouse that guides the way, and the shore where all the gilded Mansions preside. The little town of Newport is most definitely a jewel in the Atlantic.
While I steer the boat into the wind, Adrien launches the canvas up the sail track and I listen to the sound of the mainsail cracking and flogging in pleasure.
With the forty-four feet of yacht now heading downwind, we sail across the water as if it’s a sheet of glass.
Twisting around when I hear Adrien come up one of the dual set of stairs, my heart leaps at the sight. He’s barefoot, his muscular legs tanned, and he’s pulling his shirt off. I watch as he tosses it onto the teak deck so carefree-like.
The sun glistens across his smooth skin and I find myself putting my hand to my stomach. Seeing his bare chest still gives me butterflies.
When he flops down on the white leather bench and grins at me, I go weak at the knees. “What are you doing?”
“Taking in the view.”
I glance forward quickly to make sure things are okay and then back over my shoulder. “But from there I’m blocking your view,” I tell him.
“Not of your ass,” he tells me, and I find myself blushing from head to toe and I turn back and let him have his view. Back in Alexandria I won’t be able to wear anything like this.
An hour later, the wind shifts and I alter our course. Adrien gets up and reaches for two bottles of water. Handing me one that he’s cracked open, he leans down in front of me when he does, blocking my view of the horizon. “You okay?” he asks.
After taking a sip, I set the bottle in the cupholder and say, “Oh, yes, perfectly fine.”
“You seem somewhere else.”
I shake my head. “I’m right here.”
Going behind me, he undoes one of the lines to raise the mizzen sail. “Isn’t this great?”
All I can do is nod, because yes, it is great, and today is our last day like this, which makes me very sad.
Back in position, he tucks a piece of stray blonde back into place. “I can’t decide if I prefer the dark or the light,” he muses, as if my sudden change of hair color amuses him.
“Well, you know what they say—blondes are more fun,” I tease, since I didn’t really have a choice in the matter.
“I’ll let you know, soon,” he whispers in my ear.
A shiver runs down my spine at the promise in his words. “Do you think we’ll be able to do much sailing in Alexandria?” I ask him.
Placing both of his hands over both of mine, he speaks directly in my ear. “I think we can do anything we want. The Vespa Isles is a sparkling wanderlust, so I think we’ll be able sail as often as time and weather permits. I’ll arrange for one of my yachts to be brought over and we’ll have Rachel schedule it in.”
I lean back against him and breathe in the air and then turn my head to his. His mouth opens under my lips and when he slides his warm, wet tongue inside me, a thousand tiny flutters of pleasure race to every single one of my nerve endings.
Both of us breathless, we break away and he takes the wheel in one hand and palms my bum with the other as he draws me to his side. “No matter where we are, Tori, we’ll be together. Let’s not lose sight of that, okay?
“I never want to,” I tell him. Ever.
“Then we won’t.”
When we reach the small cove we are headed for, Adrian leaves me at the helm as he uses the mainsail to change course and bring the boat to a complete stop.
Once I know the boat is secure, I flop on the white leather bench he had been on and look up at him. Trying not to lick my lips, I watch the way his back muscles ripple when he tosses the anchor over the side and then patiently waits for it to reach bottom before cleating the rope.
It’s just him and me on the sea and I feel especially lucky he has decided to stay with me even though his title will not change.
Taking off my sunglasses, I close my eyes and relish the few remaining hours we have left before the shit hits the fan, as Ava put it.
A shadow seems to be blocking me from the warm rays of the sun and I look up to see Adrien gazing down at me with a grin on his face.
I shade my eyes and smile back. “Hey, do you want to go for a swim or have lunch first?”
He removes his Raybans and I watch as his smile fades into something sensual and dark. A pool of yearning swirls in my belly when I notice the shifting blues in his eyes. “Neither. I have something better in mind.”
My nipples pucker and stab the light fabric of my bikini like blades. “Really, were you thinking cards, perhaps,” I flirt.
He shakes his head and even in the sunlight I can see his pupils turn dark as night.
“Sunbathing on the bow?” I muse.
Another shake of the head.
I sit up, and with this new found bravery he’s instilled in me, I tug on the string of my bikini top. “No? What a pity. I was hoping to get a more even tan.”
In less than a second, his fingers curve underneath my small breast and he thumbs over my hard tip. “Don’t be a tease.”
All this man has to do is touch me and my body takes off like a rocket. My nipple puckers under his touch as a delicious thrill coils in my belly, spreading lower to the juncture of my thighs, making my sex pulse and ache. “Oh, I’m not teasing,” I tell him, arching my body against his.
Even through the fabric of his shorts, I can feel his erection jutting up like a flagpole. “Good,” he says as he ducks his head and his teeth graze my nipple, toying, teasing, and then he sucks hard, tugging on it with those lips that drive me wild. “Because naughty blondes get spanked.”
Oh, my, why do I find the idea so thrilling? I put my hands on his shoulders. “Adrien,” I whisper, and my breath hiccupping erratically and the sun suddenly seeming way too hot. “I really need you.”
“Wonder how fast I can make you come,” he murmurs, lapping his tongue around my other nipple.
There a few boats a good distance from us but still, they could see us if they have binoculars. My fingers slide up into his unruly hair. “Let’s go below. I don’t want fast today.”
When he looks up with that messy, dark look that sends my pulse racing, I curl my fingers into the silky mass of his beautiful hair. “You’re wish is my command, Sweet Thing.”
“Oh, like a genie in a bottle,” I giggle.
His laugh is husky. “Come on,” he says, taking my hand and leading me through the galley kitchen and into the small cabin where the walls are on both sides of the mattress and a window high enough above to give us the privacy we need.