Married to a Prince

by Calista King

  Andreas set the plate in front of her, and Laila lifted the bun to examine it. "My favorite, a bacon and blue cheese burger. I'm going to eat this first, and then I'm going to ask you what's going on. It's not just dinner, I feel like you're up to something."

  "Eat up!" Andreas said, grinning at her.

  Laila picked up the burger and took a big bite.

  "Mmm so good," she said, taking a fry and dipping it in ketchup before shoving it in her mouth. "Thir rilly hirs tha sspa," she mumbled, with her mouth full.

  "I'm so glad you like it," Andreas said, taking the seat opposite hers.

  He dug into his meal and they ate happily in silence. Laila was the first to push away her plate after she had finished, and patted her stomach.

  "So good," she said. "Thank you Andreas."

  "You're welcome. But now it's time for dessert," he said before getting up and heading back into the kitchen.

  He came back out a while later with what looked like an empty plate. When he placed it on the table Laila could see it had only a fortune cookie on it. Laila laughed out loud at the sight.

  "This is dessert?" she asked.

  "Yes, I thought you liked fortune cookies. You're always eating mine from the Chinese take out," Andreas said innocently.

  "OK, I'm going to go with it, but are we supposed to share this one? I see you haven't brought out a plate for yourself."

  "No it's all yours," he said. "Won't you open it and read your fortune?"

  Andreas heard the tremble in his voice and held his breath as Laila reached out to grab the cookie. He had the cookie specially made with his own personalized fortune which was just four simple words: "Will you marry me?"

  He stood still as a statue, watching her intently as she broke the cookie in half and read the fortune. Andreas watched as her serene expression soon gave way to confusion, then shock, then disbelief. She finally looked up at him, a question in her eyes. Andreas knew now was the time. He got down on one knee and reached inside his pocket to pull out the little box.

  "Laila Greer, will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?"

  He popped open the box to display an 8-carat emerald surrounded by diamonds. Laila gasped when she saw the ring. He could see the tears watering her eyes and he waited with bated breath for her answer. When she still hadn't said anything, Andreas grabbed her hands in his and forced her to look into his eyes. He needed to convince her to say yes. It was as if his life depended on it, and it did.

  "Laila, I know you're scared and not sure, but I'm sure of us. I've known it from the start that you were the one for me. I promise that I will love you always and treat you with the respect and care that you deserve."

  Laila looked at him and slowly nodded her head, her eyes shining with unshed tears. "Yes, Andreas. I will marry you."

  Those simple words instantly lifted Andreas' spirits and sent him soaring to dizzying heights. He pulled her up and spun her in circles kissing the top of her head. Laila laughed against his neck, the tears streaming freely down her face.

  "You've made me so happy," he said.

  "You've made me happy too. More than I ever thought possible," she replied.

  Andreas set her back down to her feet and held her hands. "Well, get used to it," he said. "I intend to spend a lifetime making you happy."

  Laila reached up and pulled his head in for a kiss. "I love you," she whispered.

  CHAPTER 19

  Laila awoke the next morning wrapped in Andreas' arms. She stretched her arms out in front of her and a slow smile crept across her face as she looked at the new ring on her finger. Last night wasn't a dream after all, she thought. He really proposed and I said yes. Laila felt giddy with excitement and happiness. She wanted to call everyone and anyone with the news.

  "Morning, sunshine," Andreas said, kissing her bare shoulder.

  Laila turned to face him and gave him a kiss on the lips before answering. "Good morning to you. I didn't know you were up."

  "Well, you kept squirming against me..."

  "I did not squirm! I was stretching," she said.

  "All the same," he smiled lazily at her. "Why are you so bubbly this morning? You're usually more cranky at this time of the day."

  "You're really asking me that right now?" she asked raising a brow at him. "Don't you remember last night?"

  "Mmm last night," Andreas said dreamily. "Refresh my memory."

  "I'm talking about your proposal. Don't you remember asking me to marry you?"

  "Of course," he said. "I was just teasing you." Andreas smiled at her but she could see that it didn't reach his eyes.

  Laila pulled out of his embrace and narrowed her eyes at him. "What's wrong with you?" she finally asked.

  "What are you talking about?" Andreas said. "There's nothing wrong."

  "Then why are you acting all weird this morning?"

  "Laila, darling I'm not acting weird."

  "Oh, yes you are. I thought you'd be happier about things."

  Andreas threw his head back against the pillows and ran his hands over his face in frustration. Laila watched him with a sinking feeling in her stomach. Did he already have regrets? Was he looking to take back his proposal? she wondered. Laila was on the verge of slipping off her ring and handing it back to him.

  "Don't you dare," he said, watching her fiddling with her engagement ring. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but I'm not going to let you back out of our engagement."

  "You sure you're not regretting it? You just don't seem to be as thrilled as you were last night. I could understand if you had doubts. After all, we've only been dating for a few months. Maybe it's just too soon," Laila was babbling. Her fingers fidgeted with the ring on her fourth finger as she avoided making eye contact with Andreas. He placed his hands over hers and stilled her fidgeting.

  "Laila stop. Asking you to marry me was the best thing I ever did. I will never regret it and I will never regret marrying you."

  "But..." she added, looking at him expectantly.

  "How did you know there was a but?"

  "Call it a sixth sense."

  Andreas hesitated and ran his hands through his hair. Each second he remained silent felt like a lifetime to Laila. She held her breath waiting for the hammer to fall and smash all her dreams. Somehow she knew everything was too good to be true. Anytime she'd ever had anything good happen in her life, reality would come knocking down the front door and let her know that dreams were for suckers. She thought she'd learned her lesson by now, but maybe she was just a born sucker.

  "There's something I need to tell you," Andreas began. "It's about my past...or rather my background. I haven't told you before now because...well...I guess I was a little bit afraid and selfish--"

  "Oh my God Andreas, if you keep dragging this out, I'm going to go crazy. The anticipation is killing me. Please just say what you have to say," Laila cut in.

  He gave her a tight smile and cocked his head to the side. "This is going to come as a shock to you," he began. "My family is...uh...where I come from...that is to say...shit. I'm doing this all wrong," he said giving her a crooked smile.

  "Just tell me Andreas. I'm a big girl, I can handle whatever it is you say to me."

  "OK, Laila. What I want to tell you is that I'm a prince."

  "Prince? Prince of what?," she asked, rolling her eyes.

  "Prince of Castonia," he said.

  "Yeah right. You just made that up," she said.

  She gave him a playful slap on the arm and told him to stop playing around. His eyes burned with intensity as he looked at her and willed her to see the truth. The smile died on her lips as the dawning realization hit her. Andreas was not joking.

  Her mouth dropped open and her eyes popped out of her head. She couldn't speak for close to eternity. So many thoughts swirled around her head--How could Andreas be a prince? Why didn't he tell me sooner? What did this mean for us?

  "Are you being serious right now?" she asked, once she found her
voice.

  "Yes, 100 percent serious."

  "Holy shit! Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

  "I didn't know how. There was just never a good time to bring it up."

  "Never a good time?" her voice got higher and higher. "You've had plenty of chances to tell me! Like after dinner at your uncle's for example."

  Laila was getting angrier the more she thought about it.

  "I'm sorry Laila, truly I am," Andreas said. "You have to understand, it's not something that's easy for me to talk about. I didn't know how you'd react."

  "So you waited and waited until after I accepted your proposal to finally tell me. What? You didn't think you could trust me with that information? My God Andreas, didn't you think I deserved to know something like this before things got so serious?"

  "I was afraid that things would be different between us if I told you. I had enjoyed being with you so much and I didn't want to ruin it." Andreas explained. "When people find out I'm a prince their first thought is what they can get out of the relationship."

  "And you thought I'd be like that?" Laila asked angrily.

  "No...well, I didn't know. At first I thought maybe it was a possibility, but the more I got to know you, the more I realized you weren't like that. "

  "Then why wait until now to tell me?"

  "I didn't want to lose you."

  "Why would you think you would lose me if you told me who you really are?" she asked.

  Andreas closed his eyes, looking so tired and vulnerable, Laila longed to reach out and comfort him, but she held back. She needed answers from him.

  "There are some things about my past which I am not proud of. I didn't want you to judge me for it before getting to know me, the real me. "

  "Okay Andreas, no more bullshit, no more lies. I want you to lay all your cards on the table. Tell me everything about you and your past and leave nothing out. If I'm going to be marrying you, I don't want any secrets between us."

  "Are you sure you want to know?" Andreas asked, hesitantly.

  "Yes."

  Andreas took a deep breath and plunged in. He told Laila about his life growing up as a prince and second in line to the throne. He spoke about his parents and his brother Frederick, and how he had always been compared to him and found lacking. It had driven him to rebel as a teen, and he had partied his whole youth away. Laila cringed as he went into detail about some of the wilder escapades he got himself into and the steady flow of women in his life.

  "Then I met Caroline," Andreas said with trepidation. "She was...everything I thought I wanted in a woman. She was smart, had a sharp sense of humor, beautiful."

  Laila felt a pang of jealousy as Andreas talked about this woman. She watched him as he got a faraway look in his eyes remembering his past. Laila knew Caroline was the one who had caused Andreas so much pain and it made her sad and angry to watch him still suffering.

  "What happened?" she asked.

  "I was deceived. She was not the woman I thought she was. After dating for six months, I had confessed many things to her about my past. Much like I'm doing now," he said with a wry smile. "But little did I know she was storing that information away, saving emails, voice mails, text messages from me. After a while, she ran to the press with everything she had collected and--well, it caused quite a stir in my country."

  "Why would she sell you out like that?" Laila asked.

  "I have often wondered that myself. Maybe she was never interested in me and was only using me to gain fame for herself. Whatever the reason, I've stopped caring."

  "But what could she say that could be so bad? I mean a rich and handsome prince sleeping around isn't like a major news flash. I would think that's typical behavior. Not that I'm condoning it," she added.

  "For the most part you're right. A lot of it was just harmless sleeping around. There was some minor drug use too," he added sheepishly. "But there is one thing I very much regret doing that caused the biggest uproar."

  Laila waited with baited breath for Andreas to drop the bombshell she knew was coming--the reason he had been so reluctant to talk about his past and forget it rather than confront it.

  "When I was twenty five, I had an affair with the wife of a minister in our government's cabinet. The affair lasted three months and she fell in love with me. I was young and selfish at the time, only thinking of myself and my own pleasure. After a while, I became bored and dumped her. She tried to contact me, but I blew her off and refused to see her or talk to her. Later I found out she had killed herself. I never knew the reason she chose to take her life, but I can't help but think my callousness towards her had something to do with it. I have lived with that guilt and regret ever since."

  Laila was speechless. She stared at Andreas in wide eyed horror as he confessed his deepest darkest sin to her. It was more than she could bear to hear and she couldn't reconcile the cold hearted callow youth he had been to the man he was today. It seemed impossible for her to wrap her head around.

  "Once Caroline sold her information to the press, you can imagine the fall out. I was vilified by everyone I knew. My parents could hardly stand to look at me, but mostly, I couldn't bear to look at myself.

  It's one thing when you're living that life and just trying to get by day to day. The shame of what I did was easier to bury and eventually, I stopped thinking about it and focused on living in the moment. When you have it all laid out for you in black and white, a damning account of all your faults, it becomes harder to ignore. I hated the man that I had become."

  Andreas' voice shook with emotion as he spilled his heart out to Laila, but she needed to hear all of it--every dirty little secret. He didn't hold back, not anymore.

  "I began to drink more heavily. There were days I didn't even remember getting out of bed or showering. I was in a haze for a good amount of time. When I wasn't passed out from drinking, I was angry and bitter--picking fights with anyone and everyone unlucky enough to be in my presence. Eventually my family had enough of me and sent me off to a retreat to clean myself up."

  Andreas closed his eyes, afraid to look at Laila and see the condemnation in her eyes. Eventually, he braved a peek only to find her sitting stock still, staring straight ahead.

  "Please say something," Andreas said, looking at Laila with concern.

  "Oh my God. I'm gonna need a minute to process this, Andreas," she said.

  "Yes of course."

  Laila's mind was in turmoil. She had so many thoughts swirling around her head, she didn't know what to focus on. Andreas was a prince. He had slept around a lot. He'd had an affair with a married woman. She'd killed herself. Laila felt overwhelmed by everything Andreas had told her. She didn't know exactly what she was in for when she told him to tell her everything, but she never expected half of this. She almost wished she had never asked him to tell her in the first place.

  Laila chewed her bottom lip as she thought about her situation right as it stood. She was engaged to Andreas. She still loved him. Did what he just confessed change that?

  She thought for a moment about the Andreas she knew, and the sweet way he'd taken care of her and encouraged her when no one else did. No, she realized. Nothing would change how she felt about him. He was the best thing to ever happen to her.

  She looked up to find Andreas looking at her with a worried frown on his face. He looked like a child, so unsure and vulnerable that it tugged at Laila's heart. She reached out her hands and caressed his face in a soothing gesture. Andreas relaxed into her touch, closing his eyes and breathing out a visible sigh of relief.

  "Thank you for telling me all that," she said.

  "I hope I haven't scared you away," he said, looking up at her with hopeful eyes.

  "No, you'll have to try a lot harder to get rid of me," Laila smiled. Then turning serious for a moment, she stared straight into his eyes, willing him to feel the sincerity of her words. "I don't know the man you were, but the man I know--the one I fell in love with-- is a good man. I hope you know that." />
  "You make me want to be a good man," he said, leaning over and capturing her lips in a deep kiss.

  Laila gave into the sensation of the kiss and the feel of his fingers on her skin as his tongue slipped in her mouth. She wanted to feel close to Andreas and lose herself in him. There were still so many things she had to think about and consider, and she knew her life would never be the same, but for right now, all that could wait.

  ***

  "How is your family going to react to the news that we're engaged?" Laila asked.

  "I hope they'll be happy for us," he said.

  Laila pinned him with an incredulous look before rolling her eyes. "And I hope to win an Oscar, but that's not happening anytime soon, so let's be honest here. Your family's going to hate me," she stated baldly.

  "First of all, you might win an Oscar one day, so that's not very implausible at all. And secondly, my family is not going to hate you. At least some of them won't," Andreas said. "My brother Freddy will love you."

  "And your parents?"

  Andreas hesitated for a brief moment which was enough to let Laila know exactly where things stood.

  "Mmm hmm I thought so," she said.

  "But I didn't say anything."

  "Exactly. Your silence told me more than words ever could. Don't try to sugar coat it for me, Andreas. I've got to know where things really stand so I can be prepared."

  "You're right, Laila," Andreas said, "but I can assure you my parents will not hate you. They just need some time to get to know you, that's all."

  "When do you plan on telling them about us?" Laila asked.

  Andreas had wondered that himself ever since he decided to propose. He knew he had to tell his parents and brother, but was still reluctant. It wasn't because he was ashamed of Laila and afraid she'd embarrass him, but quite the opposite. He was afraid of what his family would do and if they would scare Laila away.

  It wasn't a far fetched notion that they'd try to pay her off to leave Andreas alone. They'd done it before with girls he'd dated. Those women had taken the payout, but he knew Laila wouldn't. Still, he didn't want to put her in that position and he'd be damned if he allowed his parents to insinuate that Laila was just using him for his money.