Page 33 of The Cinderella Prince

How long had it been since I’d first denied myself these things? I didn’t want to think. I knew the date far too well. It lived in the darkest, deepest corners of my soul, and I preferred it hidden from the light of day. No. I wasn’t going to say anything. Instead, I kissed him back and made him smile.

“You’re the best guy I’ve had in a long time,” I whispered.

It made him chuckle and kiss me harder.

I was, for a moment in time, in heaven. I couldn’t see the end of it, and even if I could, I didn’t try to.

Much later, I lay in a big, expensive bed in a rich hotel suite, staring at the silk canopy while Cedric slept on my chest. I couldn’t sleep. Nothing haunted me. In fact, it felt like when I had been a little boy waiting to go to the pool for the first time that summer. It felt like if only I wanted it hard enough, time would speed up, and tomorrow would come quicker. I couldn’t sleep because I was far too happy to be bothered by such trivial needs.

I held him closer. His head rested so softly and peacefully on my broad chest.

We might be something if stars align and fate lets us, I thought. But I knew one thing for certain: I wasn’t putting my future only in fate’s hands. I would fight for us.

CHAPTER 10

The Dressing Room

Cedric

Leavingthe bed in the morning was far harder than leaving the room and the hotel behind. It was warm in the bed. Sleeping next to Tristan, our limbs tangled and torsos pressed together, was a new luxury that I had never had before. There wasn’t a score of handlers queueing to convince Tristan never to speak of this in public. There was no agenda that would drag me away from him. It was just us, naked and drunk on the passion of the previous night.

Morning light slanted through the window and lit Tristan’s face and chest. His muscles were irresistible, so I let my fingers trail the hills and valleys of his body all the way to where a thin sheet covered his crotch. A patch of dark, trimmed hair emerged as my hand moved low, and Tristan let out an amused sigh.

“Good morning,” I said. What a wonder! I got to greet a boy in the morning and take it easy for the rest of the day.Alexander couldn’t do anything to stop me. The rules that applied only to the royal family didn’t apply to me today.

“Mm,” Tristan said, closing his hand over mine and keeping them both on the lower part of his abdomen. “Did we fall asleep naked?”

“House rules,” I said.

He chuckled and blinked himself awake. When he glanced at me, his hazel eyes were like melting chocolate and a low-burning campfire deep in the wilderness. “What am I gonna do with you?”

My eyebrows wiggled. “You’ll wait for me until I move out of here,” I said lightly, rolling onto my stomach. The sheet covered the lower part of my body, but it was so thin that there was no pretending I hadn’t woken up hard. No wonder since I’d slept next to the sexiest guy on the planet.

“Your Highness is very sure about that,” he teased.

“I am,” I replied simply. “Because after, we’re going on a date.”

“Is that so?” Tristan asked, his voice bubbly with humor.

I nodded. “I want to do normal dates. All the normal dates we can think of.”

He chuckled softly and nodded, his eyes turning a little sad. “We can do that, Cedric.”

My chest rose with a lungful of air. It carried the soft, breezy scent of Tristan’s body and an underlying note of sex that I couldn’t describe beyond that. It was like having to describe the scent of a strawberry to an alien. Sweet, delicious, rich and ripe and irresistible.

“I can show you what it’s like to be a regular old person,” Tristan said.

“I hardly believe that,” I laughed. “You’re very special, Tristan.”

He snorted, then turned to me and pressed his lips against my cheek. “Time’s running out,” he said after.

I wanted to beg for five more minutes. I wanted to be lazy with him in bed for a whole day. I wanted us to eat snacks and fuck and drink orange juice and shower together. But it wasn’t meant to be. Not today, at least.

Still, watching Tristan get out of the bed, his upper back broad, his waist narrow, his ass perfectly sculpted to make my heart stumble at every sight of it, and his legs muscled and strong, made the whole thing worth it.

He was still naked when he returned from the bathroom, his face wet, his breath minty, and his hair fixed in that effortless way he sported. I followed his example and dragged myself out of the bed, getting a mischievous slap on my ass as I passed him.

I wasn’t ready to start the day. I wasn’t ready to give up the world in which only Tristan and I existed. But then, I never would be.

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