An American Cinderella: A Royal Love Story

by Krista Lakes

  My dad used to call me kiddo.

  “Thanks, Gus,” I said, wrapping my arms around him. “I really appreciate it.”

  “Always,” he whispered. He gave me a squeeze. “We’ll figure this out. Henry’s a good man, and if he loves you, then there’s a way. I promise there’s one.”

  I wished I could have as much faith as Gus did.

  I hugged him again. He closed the door behind him and waited until he heard the click of the lock to head back down to his car.

  I stood in the middle of my apartment, my dress dirty on the edges and my makeup smudged beyond repair. I felt empty. I had love, but I couldn’t keep it. I didn’t know what to do and I was too tired to come up with any plan.

  I slid out of the dress, carefully laying it on the couch with the shoes. Someone would be by to pick them up later. I wished I had the mask, but I’d dropped it when I ran. I ached to have something to remember the good part of the night by, but just like in life, I couldn’t keep anything I wanted.

  I didn’t want to start crying again, so I put on a comfortable holey old t-shirt and crawled into bed. I was fairly sure I would never fall asleep, but the moment my head hit the pillow, I couldn’t stop the fall into darkness.

  Chapter 26

  I woke just before dawn with a dry mouth and itchy eyes. It was never a good idea to fall asleep with a ton of makeup on and without brushing my teeth.

  I groaned and rolled out of bed. I wasn’t sure if I wanted coffee or a shower more, so I started them both. I took my coffee to the bathroom and I set my cup on the sink so I could reach out and grab a sip while still getting a shower at the same time. There were perks to having a small bathroom.

  The shower and coffee helped wake me up, but did nothing for the feeling of dark dread that hung around my head.

  Henry was a prince. A freaking prince.

  And he loved me.

  What did that mean for us? Even if I wasn’t going to be convicted of selling secrets, or my stepmother wasn’t making my life a living nightmare, what would we do? I couldn’t just move into the castle with him in Paradisa. My life was here. My dreams were here.

  I loved him, but I didn’t see how we were going to make it work. He was a prince and I was about as far from royalty as a stray cat. I knew my bloodlines had no blue in them. I was a nobody.

  I closed my eyes and let the hot water wash over me. Maybe if I stayed under the water long enough, my problems would wash away along with the soapy bubbles. Maybe I could come out and find that everything was okay.

  My skin was wrinkled and bright pink by the time I ran out of coffee and finally got the courage to leave the shower. I didn’t want to check my phone, although I knew I should. I knew I would have to talk to Henry eventually.

  I just wanted to put off breaking his heart for as long as possible.

  I put on a comfy pair of leggings and an over-sized t-shirt, leaving my hair wet around my shoulders. Then I took a deep breath and checked my phone.

  Eight missed calls.

  Three voice mails.

  Twelve text messages.

  I opened the first three text messages that weren’t Henry’s first. One was from the Senator making sure I had a nice time. The other was from Gus making sure I was still okay and to let me know Henry had called him. The last was Jaqui saying Henry was looking for me. I answered them all that I was fine and then stared at my phone for a moment.

  “Waiting won’t fix anything,” I told myself as I pressed open on Henry’s text messages first. If I didn’t listen to his voice, maybe I could get through this.

  * * *

  Aria, are you all right? Please let me see you.

  * * *

  I don’t know what happened. Please call me. I love you.

  * * *

  My eyes started to blur with tears and I had to set my phone aside. How was I going to survive this? I couldn’t even read his messages without tearing up. How the hell was I going to tell him it was over?

  Just thinking of losing him made my chest clench. I hated it.

  I left my phone on the table and went to make some food. Maybe what I needed was a full stomach. I wasn’t really hungry, but I wanted to find every way to put off reading those messages as long as possible.

  I was half way through making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when someone knocked on my door.

  I froze on the spot for a moment before tip-toeing to the peephole. I held my breath, not wanting to give away that I was home and looked out. The last person I wanted to see right now was Henry. Or my stepmother.

  Luckily, it was neither. Gunner stood outside my door, his arms crossed and face impatient.

  I let out a small sigh of relief and opened the door.

  “So you are home,” Gunner said as I pulled open the door. “I was beginning to wonder.”

  He walked inside with all the confidence of a peacock.

  “What did you do to my dress?” he asked, hurrying over to the couch and touching the dirty hem.

  “Um... it’s kind of a long story,” I replied, scratching my head.

  “I’d be interested to hear it,” a soft voice that made my heart race and freeze at the same time said from the doorway.

  I turned to see Henry standing in the door. He wore distressed jeans and a loose dress shirt. His golden-red hair was a mess and he looked exhausted. Like he’d been up all night. His blue eyes were laser focused on me.

  “Henry,” I whispered. My feet suddenly grew roots to the floor and I couldn’t move.

  Gunner turned to see who had spoken. His gray eyebrows went up into his hair.

  “Your highness,” Gunner said, turning and bowing to the prince. He knew who Henry was. I felt like an idiot. I was an idiot.

  The three of us stood without moving for a moment. My heart was racing so fast I couldn’t count the beats. I couldn’t read Henry’s expression. Was he angry? Hurt? Afraid?

  Or was I those things?

  Gunner took the dress and shoes into his arms. The blue satin and tulle poofed out everywhere, yet he still managed to look in control as he walked to the door.

  “Excuse me, your highness,” Gunner said, dipping his head. He glanced back at me and gave me a wink before disappearing out the door. At least I was off the hook about the dress.

  Henry and I both stood in silence, listening to Gunner’s footsteps fade down the hallway.

  “Aria.” Henry’s accent still made my name sound like music and it broke the spell.

  “Please come in,” I managed to say. If you don’t know what to say, just be polite, I told myself.

  Henry took a step across the threshold and then closed the door softly behind him. The soft click filled the air. I realized my hands were shaking.

  “You forgot your mask,” he said softly, holding out my silver mask in his hands. I looked from the mask to his bright blue eyes. He looked back at me with love and just enough pain to make my heart break. “I’m sorry I did this to you.”

  Even now, he was kind. He didn’t blame me. I closed my eyes and tried to find strength. Now was the time to send him away. Now was the time to tell him that we could never be.

  “I looked for you all night,” he said softly, still holding the mask in his hands. “I called your boss. I called the apartment manager. I even called Gus.”

  I kept my eyes shut. “Henry...”

  “What happened, Aria? Why did you run?” The hurt in his voice killed me.

  “Oh, Henry.” My shoulders slumped. “I can’t be with you. You’re a prince. I’m just an American girl. I’m not special.”

  “You are.” He took a step forward. “You are so special.”

  “I am only a liability to you,” I replied. I forced my voice to stay steady. “I’m not what you think I am?”

  “You aren’t perfect? Beautiful? Thoughtful? Kind? Smart?” Henry shook his head. “No.”

  “Henry, there are things about me, about my family that will end up hurting you.” Every cell in my
body ached not to say this, but I knew it had to be done. “If you are seen with me, it will hurt you. I won’t do that to you.”

  “Aria, I don’t care.” His blue eyes met mine. “I’d give up my whole kingdom to be with you. I want to be your Prince Charming.”

  My walls keeping him out were crumbling.

  “Please, I don’t want to hurt you...”

  Henry’s hands were on my shoulders, strong and safe. He put one hand under my chin, tipping my face up to look at him. “The only way you can hurt me is to make me leave you.”

  A tear rolled down my cheek and he brushed it away with his thumb. His touch broke down the last of my defenses.

  “How are you so charming?” I asked him.

  He smiled. “I’m a prince. It’s part of the job.”

  I chuckled softly as he leaned forward and kissed me. His lips were sweet and gentle, the kiss more for waking a sleeping beauty than for passion, yet the heat still seared straight to my soul.

  He tucked his hand into my hair and our foreheads pressed together. I could feel the tension fading from his shoulders and my heart didn’t hurt so much because he was near me. My hands tightened on the fabric of his shirt, afraid that he might disappear if I let him go.

  “I have to tell you something,” I said softly. “It’s not a good thing. You might even hate me for it.”

  “I could never hate you,” he whispered. “Never in a million years.”

  I took a deep breath and looked up at him. “I need to tell you about my stepmother. I need to tell you that she wants me to steal secrets and that she will use me to get to you the moment she finds out about us. And, I need to tell you just how much she can destroy me, and thus you.”

  “It sounds like a long story.” He smiled and touched my cheek. “Come and sit with me. We’ll sort this out.”

  I took his hand and together we sat on my small couch. With a shaky voice, I began to tell him just what kind of a mess he had gotten into by falling in love with me.

  Chapter 27

  I confessed everything. I confessed to taking the picture, to not telling anyone just how much trouble I was in, and to what my stepmother was expecting of me. I told him all of it without keeping anything back.

  And while it felt good to tell someone, I felt miserable at the same time. I was giving him this burden in addition to the ones he already carried. If he had fallen in love with just about anyone else, there would be no trouble.

  Instead, he fell in love with a girl who was going to be convicted for selling secrets because her stepmother would stop at nothing to destroy her.

  “So, that’s why I ran,” I concluded lamely. “I panicked when you told me who you were. I’m selling your country’s secrets and my stepmother will use you like she uses everyone. You’ll never be safe around me.”

  I was sure he was going to hate me. I was sure that he was going to sigh, tell me that this was too much, and walk out the door.

  Henry was silent. I could hear my neighbor’s TV on a commercial and somewhere outside a car alarm went off. I didn’t dare look at him. I just stared at my hands.

  And then he reached for me, taking my hands in his. They were warm and strong as they wrapped around mine. There was gentleness and kindness in his touch. I looked over at him, unsure of what I would see in his face.

  “It’s nothing we can’t face together,” Henry said with a soft smile. He looked confident and unfazed by my entire story.

  “Did you not hear how bad everything was that I just said?” I asked. “It’s a monster.”

  He reached out and touched my cheek. “What kind of prince would I be if I couldn’t slay the dragon for my lady love?”

  “But how do we slay the dragon?” I asked him, feeling the grip of hopelessness close around me again. “She has all the cards. If I do anything, she releases the photo I took. She releases my father’s photos and ruins him. She probably has evidence planted just to make sure that I really do go down with my father.”

  “The way to beat a dragon is to find the chink in its armor,” he said slowly. His accent made him sound like a knight of old who actually might have slayed dragons at some point. He smiled slowly. “We use the dragon’s greed and tools against it.”

  “I don’t understand,” I replied. “What tools? I don’t have anything on her.”

  “Yes, you do,” Henry said. I could see the wheels starting to spin in his mind, lighting up his eyes.

  “Like what? The recording? I only have the one voicemail and there’s not much on it,” I said, shaking my head.

  “You have the bugged phone. And, she thinks you have something she wants.” He smiled like a cat about to catch the canary. “We should give it to her.”

  “What? Are you crazy? I can’t give her the trade information.” I stood up and started pacing the room. “You want me to go back to my office and steal it? I can’t even access the data anymore and most of the files have been shredded. And another thing-”

  Henry stood and caught me in the middle of the room. He put his hands on either side of my head and pulled me into a kiss. I fought him, still having more to say, but not for long. His kisses were just too good.

  “There’s easier ways to get me to shut up,” I told him, once he released me from the kiss.

  He raised his eyebrows like he didn’t believe me. I sighed.

  “What’s your plan?” I asked, keeping my questions in check.

  “She’s expecting a thumb drive full of trade documents that she will then sell, correct?” He waited for me to nod. “Then that’s exactly what we’ll give her. Only...”

  I suddenly understood what he was planning. I smacked my palm to my forehead. “Only it’ll be what we want them to say.”

  I frowned. “But, I don’t know how to make those files look real. I don’t even know what to put on them. And then, who do we tell? Do we tell anyone?”

  “One problem at a time,” Henry replied. He kissed my cheek. “And we aren’t alone in this. I am a prince after all. That does come with some resources.”

  “Resources?”

  “You want to slay a dragon? You need knights,” he said with a smile. “And I have the best technological knights around.”

  Chapter 28

  Henry managed to keep me calm for the rest of the day and well into Monday. I canceled my appointment with the lawyer. With Henry and his team of “knights” I had more help than a single lawyer could provide.

  Still, I was a nervous wreck.

  Monday I went in to work, making sure to bring my bugged phone with me. I needed to finish scanning the last of the documents to make it look like I was doing exactly what Audrey expected me to do.

  As soon as I walked in the front door, Gus got up and gave me a big hug.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. “I know you said you were, but I’m asking again. You need anything you let me know.”

  “I’m okay,” I promised. “Thank you for looking out for me.”

  “I promised your dad I would,” Gus replied. “How’s Henry?”

  “We worked things out,” I told him. “We’ve got a plan.”

  “By the way you just went pale, I don’t want to know what the plan is,” Gus said. “Please be careful. Your dad will come back and haunt me if I let anything happen to you.”

  “It should be easy,” I told him. “Don’t worry about me.”

  I just had to pretend to be a complete sell out.

  Gus gave me one more hug, the look on his face saying that he didn’t quite believe I was as fine as I said I was. I did my best to put on a more confident smile. I didn’t want him worrying about me.

  I headed upstairs and went to my office, probably for the last time.

  Although, I thought that about seven years ago too.

  I’d gotten through about half of the remaining boxes when Jaqui stopped by.

  “Hey.” She smiled as she came in. “Looks like you’re almost done.”

  I nodded. “Did you hear about m
y exciting weekend?”

  “Nope. That’s why I stopped by. I want to hear how Henry liked your purple dress.” She grinned.

  Oh boy.

  “Well, I didn’t get to wear the purple dress,” I replied. “Instead, Senator Glenn supplied me with a really pretty blue one. Oh, and Henry is actually Prince Henry of Paradisa. That’s probably why he looked familiar to you.”

  Jaqui stared at me like I’d suddenly grown three heads and a green tail. “What?”

  “I wore a blue dress and Henry is actually a prince.”

  She sat down on a box of files. “I leave you alone for one weekend and you suddenly wear a senator’s dress and start dating a prince?”

  I shrugged, not quite sure what to say to that. Instead I gave her a better telling of my night at the ball and why Henry had called her the day before. She stared at me in disbelief the entire time.

  “Now you really have to get me his friend’s number,” Jaqui smiled. “I knew he was a keeper, I just didn’t know how much of one.”

  I let out a small sigh of relief that she wasn’t mad. So much had gone on this weekend, I hadn’t had a chance to call or text her.

  “After you finish, we’re going out and getting drinks and you’re telling me all the details.” Jaqui stood up from her box and shook her head. “A prince? That is so cool.”

  Henry sent me text messages every few hours to give me encouragement. I didn’t need it much at first, but as the day grew later, I became more and more nervous about meeting with my stepmother in the evening.

  I quickly worked through the last of the boxes and then cleaned up my work space. It felt almost bittersweet. My life was going to change again. I wasn’t sure how, but I hoped it was for the better. If everything went to plan, then maybe I could have a future with Henry.

  Even though I didn’t know what that would look like right now, I wanted it. I wanted to try. And it wasn’t because he was a prince. It was because I loved him. I would have wanted to try if he was just the simple businessman I had thought he was.