How to Catch a Prince

by Ana Ashley

  I chuckled as Charlie went beet red.

  "Mom, Hannah had chips before dinner," Charlie said.

  "Connor had cookies for lunch," Hannah said.

  "Dad has a bag of Hershey's Kisses hidden in the garage," Connor said.

  I looked around, waiting to see who was going to tell on Caroline, but they just looked at one another and all said in unison, "Mom never does anything wrong."

  I could have cried at that moment, but I didn't have time to analyze my feelings before Caroline spoke.

  "That's right, I don't. And you're fools if you think I don't know about your dad's kiss stash."

  She passed around the various plates of food before leaning over to Martin for a kiss.

  My chest felt so tight. I had to consciously put food in my mouth, smile, and talk in the right places so it didn't look like I was just staring at the family in front of me. Which I was, because it was clear they all loved one another. For each time they teased one another, there was a story about when they did something good. My favorite was when Connor taught Charlie to swim and then the first time Charlie swam in the river without any help.

  I could have watched the scene forever, so when we finished dessert I almost felt loss for the ending of such a perfect family dinner.

  That was until Charlie gave me a heated look and whispered, "Wanna see my room?"

  16

  Charlie

  To say I'd been nervous about this family dinner was an understatement. I had been dreading Rory being there, so it had been such a relief when Hannah told me he wasn't. I was also angry with him that his apartment was suddenly ready so shortly after his plans to share my room were turned upside down.

  Had he lied about it and then backtracked when he'd realized I hadn't fallen for it?

  When I'd stopped short of going inside the house I'd grown up in, Rory had been on my mind, but there was also something else that I hadn't wanted to admit to Kris. I had never brought a boyfriend home. Hell, my parents had never even met anyone I'd dated before.

  Kris had already met them, so I wasn't worried about that. He could totally charm the pants off anyone, and I was right at the front of that line. But bringing him home, however, felt different, like we were doing something we couldn't come back from.

  Watching Kris participate in my family dinner was wonderful. If I hadn't known better, I'd have thought he'd been coming along for years. And that was something else that worried me. My family liked Kris, that much was clear. How would they react when they found out we weren't together anymore?

  By the time we got to the dessert course, I was ready to find an excuse to bolt, but then Kris decided to share my mom's homemade ice cream and pie. For each spoonful he fed me, he also took one for himself. The bobbing of his Adam's apple as he swallowed had a direct effect on how tight my jeans felt, and it wasn't because I'd eaten too much at dinner.

  When our eyes met, I tried to send him a murderous look, but instead, I was lost in his dark heated gaze. Remembering what he'd said earlier, I gathered a confidence I was sure had only grown since meeting Kris and invited him up to see my room.

  Not jumping him as soon as we walked inside the room was an exercise in self-restraint. Instead, I stood aside as he explored my bedroom, looked at the photos on the wall, and especially the numerous drawings I'd made from when I was barely old enough to hold a pencil to those I'd drawn just before I'd moved out to go to college.

  "You were adorable," he said, looking at a photo of me, Hannah, and Connor at the river. We stood in height order, Hannah and Connor with their light blonde hair on either side of me. Connor was holding up a fish he'd caught with our dad and Uncle John.

  "Strawberry Shortcake."

  "What?"

  "That's what they called me. Strawberry Shortcake, because I was the only one with my dad's red hair. I used to hate it."

  Kris sat beside me on the bed and ran his hands through my hair.

  "I love your red hair," he said. "Come here."

  He sat farther back on the bed and pulled me so I didn't have a choice but to straddle him. My arms went around his shoulders and my hands ran through his coal-black hair.

  "Kiss me, Kris."

  "You never need to ask," he said before our lips met in a frenzied kiss. He tasted of vanilla and apple, my second favorite flavor after pumpkin spice, although I wondered if every flavor from Kris's mouth would become a favorite.

  His tongue massaged mine in a slow dance that made the rest of the world vanish.

  "Charlie."

  My name sounded like a prayer coming from his mouth as his lips left a trail of soft kisses all around my neck. I pressed harder against him when he untucked my shirt, and I felt his warm hands on my skin.

  There was a new kind of desperation to do more than kiss and touch, and I knew it wasn't coming just from me.

  Fortunately, or unfortunately, a knock on the door stopped us from taking things any further.

  "Charlie, we're going over to the Falls. Are you guys coming?" Hannah said through the door.

  I smiled into Kris's mouth. "She totally knows what we're up to here, or she'd have barged in."

  Kris gave me one last kiss before he straightened my vest and shirt. "What is the Falls."

  "It's a bar. Do you want to know where Chester Falls got its name?"

  "If you're talking about real waterfalls, then I'm down for it. God knows I need cooling down," he said and fell back on the bed with a frustrated sigh.

  "We'll be down in a minute," I shouted back at my sister.

  It had been a few years since I'd last been at the Falls, but it hadn't changed one bit. It was a glorified log cabin with a bar and a bunch of high tables with stools and plenty of space for people to move and dance when they had live music bands playing.

  Ben waved at us from the bar and pointed at where Tristan was sitting. Ellie went straight to Ben while the rest of us headed to the table Tristan was saving.

  "Hey, guys, thanks for coming. Ben's been really nervous about his wedding speech, so I figured the distraction would be good," Tristan said and then looked at where Kris's hand rested on my waist.

  "Kris, can I ask you a few questions about the apartments? Just want some general feedback." Tristan asked.

  Kris whispered in my ear to not worry and then they left toward the terrace where it was considerably less noisy.

  It was just Connor, Hannah, and me at the table, so, as usual, when our parents weren’t around, they ganged up on me. I smiled at my foregone, but correct conclusion.

  "So, little brother," Connor started, "how did you bag yourself that hunk of a man?"

  "Since when do you appreciate men?"

  "Come on, Charlie, I'm into girls and even I know he's hot," Hannah said.

  I looked toward the bar to see if Ellie and Ben were any closer to coming back with drinks. I hadn't expected to be cornered by my brother and sister on my own, and so far, the topic of how I'd met Kris, surprisingly, hadn't come up.

  "What do you want to know? Boy meets boy, they like each other, they date."

  Hannah smiled and put her hand over mine. "Sorry, we didn't mean to pounce on you. It's just that we've never had a chance to meet one of your boyfriends, and now, here he is. Kris seems very nice, and I can tell he's totally smitten."

  I raised my eyebrows. "Smitten? Excuse me while I go put on my britches and saddle my horse."

  "Is that what kids are calling it these days?" Ben said, placing a few beer bottles on the table and looking all too pleased with his joke.

  I grabbed two beers and stood up. "Is the cave still there?"

  Connor winked at Hannah before nodding.

  "You better not follow us, or else." My parting words carried no weight because if there was a code of honor, we all followed it was that the cave was sacred.

  I'd promised Kris I'd show him the falls, and considering my siblings' mood this evening, it was best I kept Kris away from them.

  Kris and Tristan were on t
he way back, so I just grabbed his hand and pulled him back in the direction of the terrace.

  I hoped the path to the falls hadn't changed in the years since I was last there because I didn’t want to make a fool of myself by getting lost. Although considering present company, maybe it wouldn't be too bad.

  "Where are we going?" Kris asked.

  "Secret spot."

  The path was more overgrown than I remembered, but it was still there. Using the flashlight on my cellphone, I led us down the steps from the terrace of the bar down toward the waterfall.

  The noise of the cascading water became louder as we got closer. A few more yards and I saw the gate my brother had put up with the sign saying "private property."

  "Are we going onto someone's property?" Kris asked.

  "Nah, Connor put the gate here so people wouldn't go farther and find this place."

  I purposefully pointed the light at the ground when we entered the cave and then asked him to sit on the rock bench.

  "Close your eyes," I said and then turned the lights on. "You can open them now."

  I wasn't sure the lights would still work, but I'd guessed from Connor's smile earlier that this was a place he still came to hang out.

  "Oh my god."

  Kris's reaction as he saw the lights that reflected from the waterfall into the cave was everything. My throat felt so tight I couldn't speak, so I sat beside him on the rock.

  "What is this place?" he asked after a few minutes.

  "Chester Falls is named after these waterfalls. The fast flow of the water is the reason for the location of the Old Mill downstream and how the town started up some two hundred years ago."

  "No, Charlie," he said, pressing closer to me and looking straight into my eyes, "what is this place."

  "Oh, um, I found it with Connor when we were kids. At the time, there was this overgrown hedge a few yards into the path. We'd heard the water from the other side and decided to check it out. Eventually, we made it here and found the cave. It used to be our secret spot. At some point, we decided to bring some solar-powered lights so we could have parties here after dark, but when we saw the effect of the lights and the reflection of the water on the cave walls, we decided to keep it a secret."

  Kris stared at me, but in the dim flickering lights, I couldn't see his eyes.

  "Why did you bring me here?"

  His voice was smooth like honey, different from the husky tone I'd heard earlier in my room.

  "I…I don't know."

  Liar. I was such a liar. I'd brought him here because I was selfish and wanted another memory with Kris. Sitting on his bed and drawing us was a memory he'd helped create, but this one was all mine, and I'd cherish it forever. Even after he was gone, after I was back in Boston, I'd hold on to it. The time when we became the couple I'd seen in the drawing all those years ago.

  I was certain I'd never experience this feeling again, so I leaned farther into Kris and held on to his arms as they kept me warm.

  "I think you brought me here to make out."

  I shivered as his breath ghosted the back of my neck.

  "That can be arranged," I said.

  17

  Kris

  I felt like a jackass for deflecting the moment and suggesting we make out. Not that I didn't want to make out with Charlie. In fact, I would gladly spend the rest of my life making out with him, and I'd die a happy man even if we didn't ever take things further.

  Aleks's words were weighing on me, and if I already felt guilty for not telling Charlie who I was, now that he'd shared such an important thing with me, I felt worse.

  The coolness of the rock seeped through my clothes and reached far deeper than skin level. Charlie straddled me the same way he'd done earlier and pressed his lips to mine.

  "You know, making out requires participation from both parties, otherwise it's just creepy," he said.

  I let out a small laugh I wasn't really feeling.

  His body was warm against mine, so I pulled him closer, hiding my face between his neck and his shoulder blade.

  "Is everything okay?" he asked, a tinge of worry in his voice.

  I nodded. "Let me just hold you, okay?"

  He didn't answer, but his fingers ran through my hair, soothing me with every pass.

  "Thank you for sharing this place with me. It means so much more than you'll ever know," I said, my voice muffled against his skin.

  Charlie laughed softly, which made me look up at him. I couldn't see the pink tone of his face, but I knew it would be there from the way he was biting his lip and avoiding my eye contact.

  "The reasons for bringing you here are far more selfish than sharing my secret spot."

  "Oh really?"

  "Uh-huh."

  Charlie got up from my lap and went into a part of the cave that was in the dark. He took his cellphone out and looked for something in a box.

  "Ha. Here it is."

  "What are you looking for?"

  "Matchsticks."

  I didn't think I could be surprised by Charlie, but then again, he'd been surprising me since the moment he fell on me.

  The cave lit up one candle at a time, showing it was much deeper than I originally thought. On one side, next to the stone wall on the ground, were dozens of blankets.

  Charlie got up from tidying the blankets and turned to me. Each step in my direction was like a promise. Was this really happening?

  "I changed my mind, Kris," Charlie said. His hands came up to my chest slowly. They were warm and there was no hint of insecurity in his touch.

  "About what?"

  "I want you. Fuck complications. Fuck long distance. We're here now. I want to finish what we started in my bedroom, what we couldn’t do against the tree earlier."

  "Are you sure?"

  Charlie nodded. I ran my hands down his back and settled them on his perfect tight ass.

  "I need you to say it, baby."

  "Yes, Kris. I really, really want your big cock inside me, and I want you to fuck me so hard I won't even remember my name when it's all over." I had no idea where this dirty-mouthed, assertive version of Charlie was coming from, but it turned me right the fuck on.

  "Fuck me, Charlie."

  I expected Charlie to kiss me or at least undress me, but instead, he unbuttoned his vest and then his shirt, keeping his eyes on mine the whole time.

  He moved on to his jeans, but I couldn't just watch. I needed to touch him. I pushed his shirt and vest off and then went down on my knees. There was already a wet patch on his boxer shorts. I wondered if it was from now or earlier.

  "Touch me, Kris," he said with confidence.

  My hands covered his hard cock that was hardly being restrained by his underwear. I pressed my face to it and inhaled his musky scent. Charlie gasped but then moaned when I licked the outline of his cock and pushed his underwear down only enough to get my lips around the head.

  I sucked and licked until he started pushing farther inside my mouth. I let him go with a pop and pulled his jeans and underwear all the way down and off.

  Charlie lay down on the blankets and opened his legs like he was offering himself to me. My clothes came off so fast I was pretty sure at least one of the buttons of my shirt popped.

  "Jesus, Charlie, look at you." I traced his skin, watching as his muscles contracted in reaction to my touch, and little goose pimples followed the trail of my fingers.

  The need to be inside him and feel him around my cock as he came undone was unlike anything I'd ever felt, especially as I normally bottomed.

  Being in the cave in candlelight was like being in a magical place, something that only existed in fairytales. I almost laughed aloud. Here I was, a real-life prince, about to make love under the stars and candlelight to someone who looked at me with so much trust I felt like a king.

  "Please, Kris."

  I didn't want him to beg; he didn't need to because I was as desperate as he was. I sheathed my own aching cock with the condom and opened the
packet of lube I took out from my wallet.

  Charlie thread his slim fingers through my hair and pulled me down for a kiss. His little moaning sounds as I added one finger and then two nearly took me over the edge.

  "Fuck, Charlie, you're going to feel so good around me."

  "Then do it already. I want to come with you inside me."

  When I moved up, Charlie wrapped his legs around me. His skin was so warm against mine. I pushed in, feeling the tight ring of muscles resisting against the head of my cock before he relaxed.

  Nothing had prepared me for the tightness, heat, and excruciating pleasure of being inside Charlie. Drops of sweat ran down my back as I struggled to go slow.

  "Please, Kris."

  "Shh, I don't want to hurt you, baby," I said.

  "You won't. Just fuck me already," he demanded.

  "Who knew shy little Charlie would be so bossy in bed," I said, pulling out and pushing all the way in. He closed his eyes, but I could tell it wasn't from pain.

  The skin between us was as hot as a furnace, which was a contrast to the cool air from the waterfall and humidity I felt on my back.

  "So good, Kris. You fuck so good."

  I was getting close, so I wrapped my hand around his cock and stroked him until he screamed his release. Before he came down from the high, I increased my pace, hitting his prostate over and over again and drawing out his orgasm as I filled the condom with my own.

  Our harsh breaths mingled together in a kiss, both of us were reluctant to stop. Once I withdrew from Charlie and got rid of the condom, I pulled one of the blankets on top of us, hoping to prolong the feeling of rightness, happiness, and love that was currently running through every cell in my body.

  The following minutes were filled with unrushed kisses, hands exploring warm skin, and giggles caused by not so warm feet.

  "Hey, it's the first time we've ended up on the floor without you falling over me," I said.

  "Nope, second time." Charlie leaned over and whispered in my ear, "The first time was—" I cut him off with my mouth on his.