An American Cinderella: A Royal Love Story

by Krista Lakes

  “My mother does,” he said with a smile. “And she’s the one that matters.”

  “I care more that you like me.” I looked up into his mask, seeing only his beautiful blue eyes.

  He stopped the dance.

  “Very much, Aria.” He reached out and smoothed a loose strand of hair back behind my ear. “Very much.”

  My heart and stomach did happy flips that had me grinning from ear to ear. Even though I knew he liked me, I loved hearing it.

  He glanced around the room and I could see his two brothers and mother having a conversation. From the way they kept glancing in our direction, but pointedly trying not to make eye contact with Henry or me, I assumed it was about the two of us.

  “Come with me,” Henry said. “Let’s find somewhere a little more private.”

  I grinned as he grabbed my hand and together we escaped the room full of watching eyes.

  Chapter 24

  We ran through the halls of the club, giggling and laughing as we went. My skirt flew behind me as I followed Henry up a flight of stairs.

  He checked down the long hallway and, seeing it empty, turned and put his hand to the side of my neck and pressed me against the wall for a kiss. My body melted into his, his hands hot on my skin. His face was smooth with a recent shave. He smelled like clean soap and something masculine and musky.

  I couldn’t get enough. I loved the way his hands felt on me. I loved the way the uniform fit his broad shoulders and trim waist as he kept me close to him. I loved being pressed into the wall and caught in his arms.

  I couldn’t stop kissing him. He was the breath in my lungs and the song in my heart.

  He paused, his smile lighting up the dark hallway.

  “How did I get so lucky?” he asked, pressing a soft kiss to my jaw. He reached up and carefully took my mask from my face.

  “I’m the lucky one,” I replied. I took the mask from his face, revealing his bright smile. “Did you see my hot date?”

  The door to the hallway opened and party guests stepped out. Henry took a polite step back, giving the illusion that we were simply standing in the hallway chatting. Breathless and flushed, but simply standing.

  The couple looked at us, their eyes going wide for a moment before security came into the hallway. Men in black suits escorted the guests back out.

  “Will you come with me? There’s a garden on the roof,” Henry said, taking my hand.

  “Of course.” I smiled at him but looked down the hallway. Why didn’t security have us leave the hallway as well? I thought. Maybe they just didn’t see us.

  Henry took my hand and led me up to the top of the building. It was quiet here. Only the faintest whispers of the party downstairs filtered out. We stepped out a heavy metallic door and out into the moonlit night.

  The garden was still just beginning to grow. Bulb flowers of tulips and daffodils filled the pots with color, but the summer depth of growth hadn’t yet taken over. The ground was fresh with newly planted seedlings. The scent of fresh dirt and sunshine still filled the rooftop even as the moon shone down on us.

  I shivered, the night air cold on my bare shoulders with only the sunshine scent but not the heat.

  “Here,” Henry said, slipping off his dress coat and draping it over me. The jacket held his warmth like a gentle caress. I tucked my chin into the jacket as I drew it around me, breathing in the scent of him.

  I looked over at him. The moonlight shone off his beautiful golden-red hair and made his eyes sparkle. Without his coat, he wore a military style dress shirt and I could see the hint of muscles through it. He was so damn handsome it made my heart hurt just to look at him.

  So, I kissed him. Despite the fact that I had kissed him so many times, it still made my heart flutter like the first time. How did he make me feel this way just by being near me?

  I sighed with contentment, my hands on his chest, our faces still sharing breaths.

  “I love you,” he whispered.

  I looked up to see his eyes smiling at me in the moonlight. My world spun around him. This beautiful man loved me.

  I kissed him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders and laughing with pure joy. I kissed him once more and smiled.

  “I love you, too.” The words felt right. They were easy to say because I knew they were true. I loved him with my whole heart. I felt more like myself when I was with him than I did when I was alone.

  I kissed him again for the sheer joy of kissing him. He loved me.

  We moved to a bench so we could sit. He wrapped his arm around me, his warm body pressed into mine. I leaned my head against his shoulder and looked out at the city. The lights glimmered and gleamed in the darkness. Occasionally I could hear the sounds of the party below us, but as far as I was concerned, the only people in the entire world in this moment were on this rooftop.

  “Can it always be like this?” I asked. “I feel like I’m in a fairy tale.”

  Henry stiffened slightly. He took my hand and then a deep breath.

  “Do you remember the story of why we throw this ball?” he asked.

  “It was for the Peasant Queen,” I replied. “To sneak her into society.”

  He nodded, then opened his mouth and shut it.

  “What is it?” I asked, shifting on the bench to look at him. He looked at me surprised. “You obviously have something you want to say. So say it.”

  “This was so much easier in my head,” he mumbled. He ran a hand through his hair, before reaching out and touching my cheek. “I love you.”

  “You already said that,” I teased gently.

  “I know. I just want you to hear it again before I tell you my connection to the Peasant Queen.”

  I tipped my head to the side. “What do you mean?”

  “Aria, I haven’t been entirely truthful with you.” He drew in another deep breath. “I’m not a businessman. Not the way you think.” He took both my hands in his. His eyes were earnest in the moonlight. “I’m not who you think I am.”

  My heart beat out of control. I almost didn’t want to know what he was going to say next, but I knew I had to find out. It was like watching a train crash. I couldn’t stop it, but I couldn’t look away either.

  “Who are you?” I asked with trepidation.

  “I am Prince Henry Aster of Paradisa. I am the second in line to the Paradisian throne.” His hands tightened on mine. “And I am the man who loves you.”

  I shook my head, not quite understanding. “No. You are a rugby player named Henry Prescott... I saw the search results.”

  “Henry Prescott is the name I use for travel and sports. It’s a way for me to travel under the radar for safety reasons,” he explained. His eyes never left my face. “It’s not my real name.”

  I stood up, dropping his hands. I was having a hard time believing this was real.

  “You can’t be serious,” I said, beginning to pace the small garden. I stopped and looked at him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because you didn’t know. Because you didn’t look at me like a prince. You looked at me like a man.” His voice cracked and he swallowed. “My entire life, I have been treated differently. I have lived a life of responsibility, duty, and privilege. When you are with me, for the first time in my life, I’m not Prince Henry. I’m just Henry. I get to be me.”

  My hands were shaking. Henry was a prince? A prince of Paradisa?

  “It was selfish of me not to tell you. I thought for sure you would confront me with it every day, but instead you just became more wonderful. You were a piece of goodness in the world that I never thought I would ever have,” he explained. “I never thought I would find someone who loved me for me and not my title.”

  I suddenly felt hot.

  Bits and pieces started to fall into place. It suddenly made sense. Henry’s stories of the kitchen without a parent. He would have been in the castle kitchens with a chef. Andre and Valentina weren’t Henry’s friends. They were his bodyguards. That’s why they came
to the rugby game and were so protective of him. That’s why I thought I saw Andre walking outside various places before Henry arrived there. It was why Henry wore a hat everywhere. Why everyone was looking at us in the ballroom. It all made so much more sense now.

  “Please say something, Aria,” Henry begged. He stood, his hands outstretched to me. “Say anything.”

  Time froze. It was probably just my brain trying to process a million things all at once, but for a space of a breath, I had complete clarity.

  I was an idiot.

  I was in love with the prince of Paradisa.

  I would ruin him.

  My stepmother was attempting to sell his trade secrets. As I had nothing to give her, she was going to ruin me. We’d been seen by enough people at this party that it would be all over the news. I would bring ruin down upon him.

  Then, if I somehow managed to find a way to not have my name in the papers, my stepmother would use me to gather more information. I was dating the prince of a wealthy country. There would be no end to her torment.

  When I thought he was a simple businessman, this wouldn’t have been a problem, or at least not an insurmountable one.

  But the Prince?

  I looked up at him, standing there with moonlight in his hair and hope in his eyes.

  I couldn’t do this to him. I wouldn’t do this to him.

  And then my moment of clarity ended and the world crashed around my shoulders. Suddenly, I could hear nothing but the traffic below and the hum of the heating and cooling system. I couldn’t hear myself think.

  Panic set it.

  “I...”

  I looked at him and I panicked at what I would do to him.

  And so I ran.

  I dropped his coat from my shoulders and I bolted out the door and down the stairs. I managed to press my mask to my face as the sound of music came around me. It wasn’t much, but maybe it would keep my wretched secrets from hurting him. I ran through the party, my dress streaming out behind me.

  I managed not to trip. I managed to make it all the way out to the red carpet before realizing I didn’t have a way home. My hand holding the mask to my face fell to my side. Panic still had my heart pounding and the lacing on the dress made it hard to breath.

  “Aria!” I heard Henry’s voice behind me, but I didn’t stop.

  More voices called out behind me. I dropped the mask without thinking and took off into the street.

  Chapter 25

  I ran through the streets of downtown Washington DC ducking cars and twisting between buildings. My beautiful blue dress trailed out behind me like a flag. Tears streamed down my face and I could barely see.

  How in the world had my wonderful night ended up like this?

  How was Henry a freaking prince?

  He loved me and I had to run from him. I had to protect him from me and what my stepmother was forcing me to do. I would ruin him.

  I ducked around into an alley to try and catch my breath. It had been a few minutes since I’d last heard anyone call my name. I didn’t want Henry to chase me. I would only end up hurting him if he did.

  I leaned against a brick wall, my chest heaving and hurting. I just wanted to go home and hide. I wished I had never met Henry, because then I wouldn’t have this hurt in my chest. I wouldn’t put him at risk that way. If he had never run into me, I wouldn’t have to worry about him. The last thing I wanted was to hurt him, but I seemed destined to.

  My feet hurt. Running in heels was not an easy thing to do, and definitely not good for the bones in my feet. Now that I had stopped, everything hurt. My dress was too tight, my shoes too tall, and my heart too heavy.

  I pulled out my phone to call myself a cab, except I found that my phone was dead. The downside to a cheap phone was that the battery was terrible. I had no way to call for help.

  I started to laugh, mostly because I didn’t want to cry anymore. The only way for my night to get worse was for it to start raining.

  Immediately upon thinking that, I glanced up at the sky not wanting to jinx myself. Luckily, the skies remained full of stars rather than clouds. I wasn’t that unlucky just yet. Still, I didn’t want to risk more bad luck, so I needed to get home soon.

  I wiped at my face, trying to pull myself together before moving out of the alley. If I could find a cab, I could get home. I wasn’t sure that going home was the best place for me, but I didn’t have anywhere else to go.

  I straightened up and put on my best “big girl” face. I just had to be strong until I got home and had the door locked behind me. I stepped out of the alley and realized that I had run nearly all the way to my office.

  I started walking, thinking that if nothing else, I could clean up there and get my act together. Plus, I knew all the buses and trains to get home from there.

  I walked along the sidewalk in my beautiful gown, trying to ignore the stares. I knew it wasn’t every day that a woman in a blue ball gown walked the streets of downtown. Someone snapped my picture, but I did my best not to turn and look. I just kept walking like it was normal to wear floor-length satin and tulle in the city.

  I will admit I nearly jogged the last little bit to the heavy wooden door. I knew that I would be safe if I could just get in there. I could use the phone and maybe see if Jaqui had left a spare outfit at the office. I knew I at least had a jacket in the building, which would be better than nothing.

  The warmth of the building after the cold spring evening was like a comforting hug. I sagged against the inside of the door, taking a deep breath. I was safe here.

  “Aria? Is that you?” Gus’s deep voice surprised me from behind the desk. I startled back up to standing.

  “Gus? What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “Just finishing up my overtime shift,” he explained. “What are you doing here? Are you okay?”

  My lower lip trembled and my “big girl” face cracked. I shook my head, my throat too full of tears to say a word.

  Gus was at my side in a heartbeat, pulling me into a bear hug. I cried into his chest, my shoulders shaking. He simply held me, letting me cry it out into him.

  “I’m okay now,” I whispered after a few minutes. I didn’t pull my head back from his chest and he didn’t make me move.

  “Tell me what happened,” Gus said. “And then I’ll go murder him.”

  I shook my head. “No, no murder. He’s a prince.”

  “I’m sure he’s a great guy, but I won’t stand for him making you cry like this,” Gus replied, his voice firm. “I promised your father that I would take care of you like one of my own daughters, and nobody hurts my daughters.”

  I loved the protective edge to his voice and the fact he considered me one of his own. It was nice to have someone want to protect me from the world, even if it was the world that needed protecting from me.

  “No, that’s not it.” I pulled back so I could look at him. “Henry really is a prince. He’s the second in line to the crown of Paradisa. I just found out.”

  “Oh.” Gus’s eyes widened and he tipped his head. “That explains why he had clearance to come visit you up in the building. I just thought he knew somebody.” He frowned and focused on me again. “If he’s a prince, why are you crying?”

  “I can’t be with him or I’ll ruin him.” I let out a shaky sigh. “You know what my stepmother will do.”

  I didn’t have to say more than that. Gus knew the power my stepmother wielded. He knew the kind of person she was. He knew that she would use me every which way if I had any connection to the prince. He didn’t even need to know that she was using me now.

  Gus’s eyes narrowed and he let out a string of curses calling my stepmother every name in the book. In all the years I had known him, I had never heard him use any kind of language. He was always a big teddy-bear to me. To hear him call my stepmother words that would get an NC-17 rating was like seeing a children’s TV character pop out of costume.

  But, it fit with how I felt. It was a while before he sto
pped.

  “I’m so sorry, Aria,” he said after he had finished, pulling me into a hug. “You don’t deserve this.”

  “What am I going to do?” I asked, leaning into his strength once more. “I don’t want to hurt him.”

  Gus took a deep breath in. “What do you think you should do?”

  “I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you,” I said into his chest. “You’re supposed to be older and wiser.”

  Gus chuckled, but didn’t say anything for a moment.

  “I love him, Gus,” I said softly. “That’s why I don’t want to hurt him.”

  He sighed. “You’re exhausted and it’s the middle of the night. Let me take you home,” he said. “We’ll come up with something tomorrow when our brains are fresh.”

  I nodded weakly. I’d spent the last few weeks trying to come up with “something.” Somehow I doubted one more night was going to help.

  “You look beautiful, by the way,” he told me, releasing me from the hug. A fatherly smile filled his face. “Your dad would say the same thing. Absolutely gorgeous.”

  I smiled at him. When Gus said it, it felt true. It came from a father, so I trusted that was what my dad would think as well.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’ve had a long night. My replacement is just clocking in. We can leave as soon as he’s ready.”

  I nodded. He went back to the security desk and reached over to his chair to grab his jacket. It was a nice heavy wool coat that he draped over my shoulders. I reached up and tucked it around my chin. I suddenly felt exhausted.

  It was only a few moments before the replacement night guard came and took over for Gus. Together, we walked to his car and he made sure I buckled my seat belt before he started the engine. Old jazz songs filled the interior of the car as he drove me home.

  Gus made sure to walk me all the way up to my door.

  “You go straight to bed, young lady,” he said as I opened my door. I saw him do a security sweep of the place with his eyes. “I’ll call you in the morning and check in on you, but if you need anything, anything at all, you call me. I’m here for you, kiddo.”