Page 17 of The Princes of Stone and Steel

How could this be happening to me? Climbing back onto the uncomfortable cot, which reminded me more of a low morgue table than a bed, I wrapped myself up in the blanket, unable to shake the cold which had taken root in my bones, while willing the tears not to fall. But the tears wouldn’t listen to me because they couldn’t. Because neither me nor my tears understood how I’d gotten here. What I did understand was that if I’d just listened to Aunt Cynthia, I wouldn’t be.

The door suddenly cracked open, startling me. I watched in fear, pressing my back to the wall behind my cot as the prince himself slid inside my cell and I gasped.

“Millie,” he whispered. In two steps, he dropped to his knees in front of me. “Millie, I’m so sorry.”

“What do you want from me?” Everything about this man made my heart thump wildly with warmth and excitement. And boy did I feel stupid for it. It wasn’t like my high school didn’t have hot guys. This felt different than the simplistic ‘hot guy syndrome’ that girls like me tended to fall for. This felt deeper than that. I closed my eyes, inwardly chastising myself.

Though, I couldn’t be too stupid because at the same time, my head told me to beware. He’d let Stipator punch me without punishment. Never once speaking up to defend me against his father. At least there was that.

He reached out his hand, stroking my shivering arm through the blanket. “Millie, please don’t be scared. Not of me. I’m your Steele.”

“No,” I said bitingly. “You’re His Royal Highness Aereus.”

“Out there. Only out there.” His voice, tinny at the fringes, enveloped me with a feeling of being loved. His warm breath hit my skin and fluttered strands of my hair. “In here, in private, I’m your Steele.”

I sighed and he smiled at me with those perfectly formed lips. He had a beautiful smile, a smile a girl could lose herself in, yet my brain kicked in again confusing the situation.

“I… don’t know what to think,” I admitted. “It felt like I should know you at the club. Even now I want to be scared, but I can’t. I can’t forget the warmth and happiness that fills me when I’m with you.”

Although I caught a glimpse of sadness in his eyes, his lips formed that wonderful smile once again. “We don’t have much time. Please let me hold you.”

My brain told me to get a grip, to stop this nonsense. That being here with him was too dangerous. But he felt so familiar, my heart pleaded with me not to let him go. I gave in to my heart, crawling off the cot. He moved to sit in the spot I’d just vacated, pulling me back to sit on his lap, and he held on tightly, burying his nose in the juncture of my neck and shoulder. Steele trailed his fingers lightly up and down the skin of my arm, just like he had at the club.

“Oh, Millie, how I’ve missed you. Missed holding you, kissing you, talking with you. It’s been torture not knowing how to get to you.” Again, he sounded sincere. The guy seriously needed to deal with his personality disorder, because I was getting motion sickness being jostled between the two.

“I’m sorry.”

“Shh… you have nothing to be sorry for. They kept you well hidden, off our detectors’ trail.”

He made me feel so at peace that despite my better judgement, I snuggled in closer to him. That was when Steele decided to move in to press a sweet kiss to my face. He peppered me with them as if he’d been waiting a hundred years to do this again. As Cynthia never gave affection of any kind, part of me jumped at the opportunity to receive this level of human connection. But at the same time, I really didn’t know him well enough. I wanted him to stop—and I never wanted him to stop. Though, eventually, he did stop when I grew quiet, contemplative, resting his chin on my shoulder and he breathed out long and forlorn.

“Tell me, Mils,” he said. “Do you remember anything? Anything of your past here with me?”

My pliant body went rigid as it hit me then and I pushed off him scuttling across the small room. “Your father sent you, didn’t he? He thinks I’m holding out and sent you to what? Seduce me?”

“No, Mils. Please, sit back down. He doesn’t know I’m in here. He can’t know. He can’t know what you mean to me.”

“I don’t remember what you want me to remember.”

“Not yet. Listen to your heart. You kissed me last night. You kissed me because you felt the memory of us.”

I was so confused. My head pounded. My heartbeat thudded through my injured lip. My injured lip that although he made sure to avoid while kissing me, let happen to begin with. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Please, sit. Let me hold you for a while longer.” And again, against my confusion’s better judgement, I let him pull me down onto his lap because again itfeltwrong not to. “You feel my heart—I know you do. It’s why you left the protection of your home, why you followed Korrigan to the club.”

“How do you know Korrigan?”

“She’s my sister. She’d go to that world searching for you when I couldn’t. We’ve both been searching for so long.”

“She was never my friend, then?” I felt this sudden twinge of sadness. She really seemed like a friend. “She was just your bloodhound.”

Steele squeezed me tighter, pressing his forehead against my temple. “My sister has always been your friend. And when she finally located you, I begged her to help me see you just one more time. Maybe it was selfish of me. Maybe we should have thrown my father off your scent, but, Mils, I’ve been going crazy not knowing if you were okay. How had the Papyrus been treating you?”

“That wasn’t my first kiss, was it? That’s why you looked sad.”

“Do you remember?” He sounded so hopeful. I hated to disappoint him but didn’t want to lead the beautiful man on, either.

I shook my headno.

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