2018, December 4th

Caines, Terres Somnia (Zoey)

“Are you people out of your bloody minds?” I knew that I was yelling, but I couldn’t help it. “I just met the lot of you two days ago, one day really,” I sucked in a deep, much needed breath, “and now you want me to marry some guy I have never even met?”

His Grace raised his hand in dismissal of me and said, “Silence! You are of the House of Arden and you will accept the prince’s hand. There will be no discussion on the matter.”

Duke Arden, however, was not accustomed to my temper.

“The hell I will! You know what? How about you keep your money and I keep my hand and we just call it even? Cool? Dandy.”

I stormed off, well aware that I was bound to get lost in the mansion and not caring at all.

The nerve of the man! I thought he might want to meet me. That after 23 years, he might like to get to know his only daughter. That maybe, just maybe, he had missed me too. I had thought wrong, and it was my own folly for having done so.

It was while I was storming down some unknown hallway that it happened. I was pulled from it and into a room that, though smaller in size, was decorated just as well as my own. Furnished in an expensive, arrogant style that seemed to pay homage to Terres Somnia’s nobility.

I guessed that this must be one of many guest rooms. While I examined the room for the person who had brought me into it, I turned too quickly, and he caught me just as I might have fallen. My eyes widened in panic as he held me, his hands on my arms.

“Shush!” he hissed in a hushed tone, covering my mouth and holding up a finger to his lips as he winked at me. That was when I heard it.

“Lady Zoey! Lady Zoey!” echoed the maids.

“You are wanted as a matter of urgency! His Majesty and His Highness will be paying us a visit soon. His Grace demands that we make you presentable for the visit. Please say if you can hear us,” said Thomas the butler, his prudent voice giving way to agitation.

It was not screaming exactly, but it wasn’t any less urgent for being said in hushed tones throughout the house.

“It would seem that you’re a wanted woman, Lady Zoey,” the handsome stranger said, removing his hand from my mouth and whispering to me as his eyes and lips neared mine.

I was a smart woman. I had and always would excel in any endeavour I took on. Unfortunately, I had never taken on dating. Despite ample interest from many suitors, I always seemed to run from the idea. No man, be he handsome or smart or funny, had ever truly managed to capture my interest. Until now.

His alluring, ocean blue, naughty eyes held mine and when I attempted to look elsewhere, I found nothing was safe. His long, sandy brown hair was brushed back neatly without a hair out of place. It made me want to make a mess of it. The way his big hands curved around my arms made me want to take a step closer, to curve the rest of him to me. Even his suit wasn’t safe. His jacket was open with the first two buttons of his shirt undone. Seeing this made me want to undo more of them, to explore, discover and for the first time in my life, I found that I wanted for breath because of a man.

But I would not remain so for long.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” I snapped, when the voices had passed.

When I took a step back, he simply took one forward. This was too much for me. All at once, my anger took hold of me and I slapped him. My jaw dropped, and it took everything in me not to apologise. Not to raise my hands and cover my face in horror. He watched a string of emotions dance all over my face for some time before he burst out laughing.

“Feisty one, aren’t you?” he quipped, his eyes drowning in mischief.

Seeing the way that he looked at me, I went back to being angry and started to storm off again.

“Wait, wait, wait!” he said, still laughing. “I was just so eager to meet you. When I heard that you were at present detained, I thought my heart would burst. I just had to come and find you.”

He practically sang the words, holding his hand to his heart in a melodramatic fashion. He jogged a little ahead of me, blocking my path.

I stopped thinking, not seeing the danger that was him. I was all anger. It didn’t matter who he was or what he wanted. I just wanted to scream, to leave.

“Get. Out. Of. My. Way!” I demanded, fiercely yanking at the doorknob.

“Where will you go? Everyone’s looking for you. The moment you step outside of this room, you will be found.”

The stranger put his thumb and index finger up to his chin and feigned concern.

His question gave me some pause. It was quite the conundrum I found myself faced with. It was only a matter of time before I was found, whether I gave herself up or not. I searched my angry brain for the way out, because I had to find the way out. I was not going to be married off, used as some sort of bargaining chip. No, they would have to find another way. I would have to too. Perhaps a part-time job or selling off all my mother’s bags and shoes. Yes, another way. Normal, everyday people did this stuff all the time and I had never been raised in a fancy mansion so as to make me feel or think of myself as but every day.

“Do you want to get out of here?” he asked, intruding on my spiralling thoughts.

This caught my attention. With a raised eyebrow, I sceptically looked at him and then at the window and right back.

“Wait here,” he nodded, as though in answer to my unasked question.

“What? Wait, where are you going?” I called after him, remembering a moment too late to be quiet.

It didn’t matter to me anyway, I told myself as I stood there frozen. That was when it happened. It was the loudest alarm I’d ever heard. It seemed sure to fill every corner of even such an estate as this one, which might have been at least half the size of Rosa.

Next came the panicking and the screaming as the maids rushed to get outside and soldiers poured into the vast mansion to make sure it was empty. The stranger burst back into the room. A hoodie pulled over his head, he grabbed my hand and said, “Time to go,” before breaking into a run with me in tow.

“What the hell is happening now?!” I yelled in frustration.

“It’s all perfectly alright. A mere ruse to get you out!” he yelled back over all the other screaming voices and the blaring alarm.

“What is it with you people?! Are none of you sane?!”

“Afraid not!” he laughed and as we rounded a corner, he pulled out his cell phone and yelled into it, “Jesse my man! Ready the car!”

My calves were to me the only thing louder than the screams of panic. We seemed to have been running for hours by the time we made it back to a car the stranger had waiting. That is to say I assumed it was his. I honestly didn’t think I could rule anything out at this point. The driver, a slim looking young man dressed in a formal black suit, got out of the car and bowed.

“Your Highness.”

I did a double take.

“Your Highness?”

My mouth dropped open.

I looked between the two men in disbelief. The prince’s crooked grin made him look even more mischievous as he bowed the most elegant bow I had ever seen in my life. “At your service, my princess.”

The driver bowed too. “My Lady.”

“Well, we’d best be off,” said the prince, taking advantage of my shock and bundling me into the backseat before jumping in right next to me. “Jesse, let’s make like the wind and be gone!”

I reacted a moment too late. When I tried to open the door, I found it locked, and the car had already started moving.

A few minutes later, Jesse was speeding rapidly to the gates of one of the biggest estates in Caines. He was sweating profusely, as though we were running from the mob.

“Your Highness?!” I spat the words out as though they were an insult, glaring at the prince.

“Please, it’s Aaron to you. I should think we might be on a first name basis. We are engaged, you know, Zo.”

Again, he winked at me in a way that was starting to annoy me. But then everything he did was starting to annoy me.

“I am not your fiancée. I will not be bullied into marrying... Well, you!”

“Okay,” he shrugged. “Unlock the doors, Jesse.”

I watched Jesse roll his eyes in the rearview mirror.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Okay? Just like that?” I breathed out heavily.

Even him agreeing with me was annoying.

“Zoey, my love, I have no need to bully any woman into doing anything. They just naturally fall for my charms,” the prince said calmly.

We were perhaps two minutes away from leaving the estate, with dozens of armed men on our heels when Bart stepped out in front of the gates.

“Oh, boy. Well, that complicates matters,” said Jesse, looking for all the world like he might beg the prince to let him stop, if he thought the prince would actually let him.

“Bart,” I said the name under my breath, not knowing whether I would be relieved to have him intercept them or if I would rather take my chances with the daring prince.

“Your Highness, please,” Jesse pleaded, so nervous that he stepped on the gas instead of slowing down.

“Is he going to pull over?!” I tapped Jesse’s shoulder, myself now getting nervous. “Why aren’t you pulling over?!”

We were rapidly closing in on him, but Bart made no effort to move, gave no indication that he would as he stood tall with his arms folded and his eyes ever calm. Too calm.

“You are just too cute!” The prince chuckled.

“What?” I said, breathless.

“Would you like Jesse to stop?” Prince Aaron asked, watching me squirm and delighting in it.

“What, what do you mean? Of course he should stop!” I said, looking at Aaron like he was a madman.

Prince Aaron inched closer, until very little separated his lips from mine. My crazed eyes became subdued, hypnotised as my heart rate climbed.

“Are you sure?” he breathed onto my lips, the words soft and velvety.

He ran a finger along my burning cheek, his eyes on my lips as he watched them part.

“If you’re found like this with me, there’ll be no discussion about it. You’ll definitely be stuck with me then. Are you really, really sure, princess?”