When vengeance strikes in the form of a bullet out for the princess's blood, Princess Aleia VonAuclair must flee the heart of her country in order to protect the people she loves and take back the pieces of her soul she'd lost to the girl she once l...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
*Warning: This chapter contains explicit sexual content. Readers' discretion is advised.*
"Edrian, I'm going to fall!"
Edrian chuckled from behind me, his hands covering my eyes as he slowly led me from the car to wherever his surprise getaway location was. I braced my arms out to my sides and took each step like it was my last, because it quite literally felt like my last. With my injured leg and the slippery slope of the ground we were walking on, I highly doubted walking blind was a good idea.
But Edrian insisted he wouldn't let me fall and I, the smitten idiot, couldn't say no.
"It's just a few more steps," he said, a smile to his voice.
I puffed out a breath but didn't argue as he guided me down a winding path of smooth gravel and crunching leaves beneath my feet. Edrian tugged me to stop then, and I held my breath as he let his arms fall back to his sides.
An onslaught of light jarred the backs of my eyelids, and I blinked rapidly as I peeked my eyes open.
A two-story cozy-looking cabin, with wooden logged walls and a wraparound elm porch sat idle front and center, a rocking chair and potted plants lining the front door. Towering trees loomed over the distance, spilling their evergreen moss and leaves onto the spring dusted ground, and to the right, a little ways behind the cabin, a cabana, with white walls and overhanging shades winked at me.
"Edrian..." I breathed. " This place is beautiful. Whose place is this?"
Edrian placed a hand at my lower back and nudged me towards the cabin. "I bought the place with my first pay check with the agency. I needed a place I could go to when I wanted to get away. Get my shit together. Nobody knows about this place. Not even my mom."
Warmth filled my veins and I teased, "You must really love me then, to show me your secret hideout."
Edrian gave me a crooked grin, all boyish and charming and I wished we could stay here forever if it meant he'd always have his guard down. "Baby, love doesn't even cut it."
I laughed. "That's super cheesy."
"You know you like cheesy."
My heart swelled in my chest. "I do."
Edrian chuckled and reached into his back pocket before pulling out a key to unlock the door. He twisted the doorknob and pushed it open, letting me step through the threshold first. I paused a step in, my heart swelling in my chest and clogging my throat.
Something about the space screamed Edrian, like the walls and furniture knew of the man who occupied the house, but what stole my very breath away, what made everything around me fade into the distance until it was a mere echo, was the stars on ceiling and the twinkle lights dangling on all the walls of the main area.
