by J. J. McAvoy
Every time I wanted him to let go, he held me tighter.
“I-I will stay.”
God, please help me, I thought as he kissed the side of my face, down my neck to my chest, kissing right above my heart.
I could feel him.
How hard he was getting against me.
But he stopped kissing and inhaled deeply, hovering over me. When he finally lifted his head, I found myself staring into his eyes, desperate for him. Instead, he said, “Rest, you’ve had a long day.”
“Is that all you want to do? Rest?” I asked, reaching and touching his head. Now that I had completely lost, I was just giving in.
“No,” he replied, shifting his body weight above me. “I want you naked under me. I want to be in you. I want to feel you against me and hear you moan my name. I want...to make love to you until the sun comes up, Odette.”
“Then do it.” God, I-I’m pitiful.
“The moment we get back to the palace.” He kissed my forehead before getting off me. Again, he took a deep breath and repeated the words. “Sleep. You’re going to the need the rest.”
I nodded, holding on to him.
Maybe this was a dream, and when I woke up, reality would slap me across the face again.
I held on to her, comforted by her breathing as she slept. It was clear how terrified she was. And my heart ached, knowing that choosing me was so hard for her. Us being together should be a moment of joy, yet I could sense how anxious she was.
I should let her go.
This was now so much more complicated.
There would be an uproar.
It was selfish of me to put her through this when even I wanted to run. But the moment Iskandar had told me she came to divorce me, I knew for sure, it had to be her. She had to be the one I spent the rest of my life with. Why? Because she was the only one trying to escape. It was amusing how the human brain worked. We wanted what we shouldn’t have. We wanted harder, not easier. I wanted someone true. I wanted someone to look at me and want me for me, not my title. Everyone who came before her wanted to be the wife of a prince. They all had their fairy tale made up in their minds. After my brother’s death, they all came again before his body was even buried because they wanted to be the future queen.
Noblemen, politicians, staff, and friends were all pushing women to get close to me. They thought I was still the old womanizing Prince Galahad. I had a baron who tried to introduce his daughters to me at my brother’s damn funeral. I could see the greed and the lust for more in their eyes—all of them salivating at the chance, like wolves over wounded sheep. So, I did not want to see anyone anymore. I focused on working. I buried my head, and in the process, left Odette to overthink and do what I had noticed she did best, jump to action. Run right away from me.
However, I knew she cared.
The way she fought back the tears, the way she held onto me, the way we kissed, I knew she cared more than anyone else ever had. She wanted just me and nothing else.
Finally.
So how could I just let her go?
If it were easy to find a woman like her, I would have found her long before. It was Odette. However, I could not abandon my family or the crown; all I could do was make her feel safe beside me, and I would.
I would fight to keep her this close.
Brushing the hair off her shoulder, I kissed her cheek, then rose from the bed, grabbed my phone, and stepped into the living room, closing the door behind me before I dialed.
“Yes, Adelaar,” Ambrose’s stern voice answered from the other line.
“Do you remember the profile my brother had you create last year?” I asked, walking to the windows. I could see the red roof of the palace in the early twilight hours in the distance.
“Yes, on a Ms. Odette Wyntor.”
“Do you remember what it was for?”
“I was never told what it was for, sir.”
I smirked. “Yes, but I am sure you assumed, did you not?”
“Yes.” He took a moment. “What shall be done now?”
“Now, you will have the staff prepare for her. We will arrive later this morning. I wish for her to be in the room adjacent to mine.”
“That room is meant for your fiancée, sir. Is that what she is?”
“Yes.” I smiled.
There was a long pause on the line.
“Ambrose?”
“Sir, may I speak my mind?”
The smile on my face dropped. “Of course, Ambrose.”
“Prince Arthur had many great plans for this nation. Many ideas that, well, many others did not understand or agree with. However, he had the people’s trust and acknowledgment behind him.”
“Are you saying I do not have that, Ambrose?”
“You are slowly building it, sir, that same trust and acknowledgment. People are coming to see you as the new Adelaar. Anything new may—”
“Ambrose,” I interjected, not wanting to hear anymore. “I am determined. I shall have my way in this.”
“Very well, sir. But there must be a statement,” he said, the tone in his voice changing.
“Then, there will be a statement. I will personally write it and send it to you so you may look it over.” I frowned, leaning against the window as my brother’s face came to my mind.
“Yes, sir, and when do you wish for it to be released?”
“Immediately.”
Another pause before he finally said, “Very well.”
“Ambrose.” I sighed, sincerely wishing it did not have to be this way, praying that she and I were underestimating people's true nature.
“Yes, sir?”
“Before you send out the statement, prepare for everything—the media, the leaks, the gossips, everything. There may be a need for many more statements ahead, I am sure.”
“Understood. We will prepare. But so must you, sir,” he replied.
I snickered, nodding, and let out the air in my lungs. “Do you think we shall survive it?”
“The House of Monterey always survives—somehow.”
I nodded. “We shall see you soon.”
“Very good, sir.”
Hanging up, I turned to go back to the room and found her standing there, sleepy-eyed, and in an oversized robe.
“Jesus!” I held my hand over my heart. “Odette, make a sound! You know I hate when things or people just appear behind me.”
“Fâlipüks,” she replied, calling me a scaredy-cat in Ersovian.
My mouth dropped open. I could not help but smile. “What did you just say?”
“Nothing—”
“No! That was not nothing.” I grinned, rushing over to her as she tried to escape into the bedroom. “Say it again!” I laughed, wrapping my arms around her.
“No!”
“Please?” I held on tighter.
“LäIrak meni.” Odette struggled in my arms telling me to let her go.
“You know, Ersovian?” I exclaimed. “Your accent is adorable!”
“Shut up, and let me go back to bed!” She tried to pull away.
“Say something else.”
“I will kick you!”
Grinning, I yanked at the belt of her robe.
“Gale!” she screamed.
“Odette!” I screamed back, making her throw a pillow at me.
“You are so annoying, sometimes!” she screamed in Ersovian, and each time she spoke, I laughed. She was beautiful and cute.
How fortunate could I truly be?
Scooping her into my arms, I threw us back onto the bed.
“If you came to divorce me, why did you learn my language?” I smiled, pinning her under me.
She glared. “I started learning before I decided to divorce you.”
“And your excuse for after? Or did you decide only recently?”
“I had already paid for a tutor, and it seemed like a waste to just give up—”
I kissed her lips quickly. “And now, your real reason.”
“That was my
real reason.”
“Very well, then. I will not let you out of this bed until you tell me.” I wanted her to say it. I wanted her to admit that she had learned because she knew she belonged beside me too. She knew she couldn’t let me go also.
“I learned because I hated not knowing what was said around me,” she admitted softly. “The day you left, everyone was talking, but I understood nothing.”
“So, you learned for me?”
“I learned for me,” she corrected stubbornly.
Frowning, I rolled off her and onto my side before sighing dramatically. “Is it so hard for you to inflate my ego a little bit?”
“Isn’t that what everyone else does?”
I pouted, and she rolled onto my chest, her brown eyes alive, sparkling, the smile on her face taunting. “Everyone else is not you.”
“You like me because I am different. And yet you want me to be like everyone else?”
“Well, when you put it that way,” I grumbled. “I sound like you—wanting everything and nothing at the same.”
She smacked my chest. “Hey!”
“Ah!” I pretended to wince. “You are hitting me more often than last time! This is abuse.”
Her mouth dropped open, and I could not stop myself from laughing. She tried to get off me, but I held on to her again until she finally just gave up. Somehow, we both managed to twist and turn until we ended up facing one another on top of the pillows.
“I missed you.” Even though I knew her for such a short time, I really did miss this even without realizing it. She made a face at me. “You are supposed to say you missed me back, Odette.”
“Give me a second.”
Snickering, I nodded, waiting. When she didn’t say it, I sighed dramatically.
“Fine, I missed you too.”
Why did I find her so amusing? I should have been annoyed with how reluctant she was with her feelings, but it actually made me want to pull them out of her more.
“I missed you more than I wanted to miss you,” she whispered, not looking at my eyes but at my chest.
“Good,” I whispered, lifting her chin. “Does that mean you did not cheat on me then while I was away?” I bit my lip as her face bunched up, and she lifted her hands into the small space between us. I waited for it, but she just flipped over, looking away from me.
“Me, cheat on you? I barely went on dates before you. You, on the other hand, have been photographed with so many women lately—models, actresses, some princess.”
She was so cute.
“You have been reading up on me also?” I questioned, bringing her body to mine, her back against my chest. “So, you have been learning Ersovian, and you have been keeping up with the news. Wow, you truly like me.”
“See, there is no need for me to inflate your ego—you do it by yourself,” she grumbled, pulling the sheets.
Placing my head beside hers, I took a deep breath. “Do you know what I saw whenever I was with those models or actresses or even that princess?”
“I do not want to know. Probably how beautiful—”
“Nothing,” I interrupted her.
“Sure,” she scoffed in disbelief.
“I know it is odd. But over the last few months, I have been introduced to so many people. And they all pass by in blurs. It has not been long, and yet they have all moved on from my brother. There are moments in the day where I simply pause and look around, wondering if they know I am not supposed to be here. And yet they laugh and talk and keep going as if nothing is wrong. As if we did not suffer a great loss.”
She twisted, turning back to face me, and I looked away. Not wanting her to, but just like she did that day at the airport, she held my face.
“Forgive me. I do not wish to keep bringing it up. We have reunited and should be happy—”
“You lost your brother,” she said. “You cannot just be happy going by everyone else’s time. It does not work that way.”
“As the prince, I have to be, even if I do not want to be.”
“You are not the prince to me,” she reminded me again. “We can be happy, and we can be sad. We can fight and then be happy all over again before the evening comes up. When my father passed, I would break out into tears at the most random times. Walking, singing, getting groceries. It did not matter. That was when the feelings hit, so that was when I felt them.”
I sniffed, trying to regain my composure. “So, I shall save those emotions for then? Can you handle them?”
“You won’t let me run away.” She chuckled, and so did I, placing my forehead against hers.
“I wish to stay with you here.” I felt better here with her.
“But you have to go back to the palace.”
“We do,” I replied, and when I saw the fear on her face, I hugged her. “But let us not think about that now. We still have a few hours here, to ourselves, as just Gale and Odette.”
“Odette and Gale,” she shot back.
“The one with the higher rank gets the first billing.” I snickered.
She pouted, and I smiled...truly smiled.
Truly happy for the first time in a long time.
Yes, there was no way I would give this up. Not without a fight.
Chapter 5
I watched as she tried to towel dry her thick head of curls in front of the bathroom mirror. She stood with only a giant white towel around her, and I wished it would just drop, and we could go back to bed. It was clear now that time had a bias against me. When I was in misery, time decided to move slowly. When I was in bliss, it went at lightning speed. I did not want to go back to the palace. I just wanted to stay here, away from everyone and everything. Here reminded me of Seattle, our time together before everything turned. A time when I just admired her beautiful smile and stayed captivated by her brown eyes, which seemed to shine as if they had stars in them. We had spent more time apart than we had together, and yet in a few short hours, it was as if we had picked up from where we had left off.
Being with her felt so right.
“Dammit,” she cursed more under breath as she fought her hair.
It was amusing to watch for two reasons. One, because when Odette was frustrated, she spoke and cursed to herself. And second, I was amazed by how her long curls magically shrunk, rising from the middle of her back to her shoulders and puffing out a bit from the water in the shower.
“Why? Why are you doing this to me now?” she asked her hair as if it were a person, and I just snorted, exposing myself. Her head whipped around, and I clamped my lips shut. “Are you laughing at me? This your fault!”
“Your hair is my fault?”
“Yes, you, Mr. Swoon eyes,” she snapped. “Of course, I would be all Gone With the Wind when you stare at me like that, making forget that I’m not in my home, with my shower caps or combs or even, at least, essential oils and hair moisture to prevent my hair from doing this. I just hopped into the shower, all dazed.”
I could not hold it anymore. I really couldn’t without busting a gut. I laughed so hard my eyes started watering, which Odette just made a face at, before turning around for anything in the sink to help with her current hair apocalypse. Containing myself, I walked up behind her as she gave up. Nothing I had was any use. Instead, she kept trying to brush it out of her face.
She met my eyes in the mirror, glaring for a bit before sighing. “Everyone in the world is going to see me today. I do not want to look—”
“You will look beautiful because you are beautiful,” I said, placing my hands on her shoulders. “Do not stress. You can take as much time as you need.”
“I thought you had things to do.”
“I always have something to do, but today, my biggest priority is to make sure you are safe and comfortable.” Brushing her hair way, I placed my face beside hers. “Whatever you need, someone shall get it. If you wish, we can have a whole salon come in here to help. So, take a deep breath.” I waited until she did before nodding. “Good. Now, what do you need?�
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“I have some stuff. I will be fine. I’m just panicking.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded.
“Okay. I have calls to take. If you need me, I will be in the living room.”
“Okay.” She nodded. Letting go, I moved back to the door to leave when she called out to me again, “Gale.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“What are husbands for?” I winked, and she smiled, shaking her head before facing the mirror again.
Closing the bathroom door behind me, I gave her space because it would be the last time she truly had it. Then I entered the living room where Iskandar was already inside, waiting for me.
“They know,” he said to me. “The press is already outside. We did our best to keep it a secret that you came here last night. However, it seems someone in the hotel leaked it.”
“I knew they would find out if we came here,” I replied, taking a seat at the table, flipping open the morning brief. I could see the grim look on Iskandar’s face out of the corner of my eye.
Last night was the first time he did not want to follow orders. He repeated he could bring her to the palace secretly, and there was no reason in his mind for me to come here. However, he was wrong.
“I know you would have preferred if I had brought her back to the palace last night, Iskandar.”
“It would have been easier to contain the situation.”
“She is a woman, not a situation,” I replied, signing the bottom of the page before glancing back to him. “I came here to grovel. The only way groveling works is if she is in her comfort zone, or at the very least, in a place that she considers hers and can make a choice without pressure. If you had brought her to the palace and I had begged her there, she would have gotten further upset because she did not know where she could go or how to leave. Here, if she really wanted to, she could have thrown me out.”
“Could she?”
I saw his point—who was going to force the prince to leave?
“There could have been another way.”
“There always is. But this was what felt right,” I said back to him. “And this worked. So, this is what we deal with. There is no changing it now.”
He merely nodded, and I picked up the second file. I simply loved how it did not matter where I was; these bloody things still found me. However, this time, it was not just work. It was my statement to the public.