by Anna Santos
“You two are freaking adorable. Now, let’s get you dressed,” Camille urged Aria.
Aria’s cheeks turned red out of embarrassment. It made me rethink my decision on whether Camille should stay or not. I didn’t want Aria to feel uncomfortable, but, at the same time, Aria’s blushing meant that she liked me.
“Cedric isn’t planning to kill Philippe again, is he?” Aria inquired.
It was endearing that she cared so much about me.
“Cedric has a lot more on his mind than killing Philippe. Also, it would upset you. He doesn’t want that. At least, it wouldn’t be wise of him to do that.”
“So…Cedric wants Aria to join him in a party…” I mumbled.
I didn’t need to be a genius to understand his intentions. He wanted to win her back. He didn’t accept the break up as well as Aria thought.
Maybe I am being paranoid.
I was unwilling to give up on her again. It didn’t matter where she wanted to live or what she wanted to do with her life, I would go anywhere for her. I wasn’t leaving her side. Playing king in this city was no longer appealing. Some royal sabbatical vacations were a good idea if there was such a thing. I could leave Sean in charge and go to the United States to be with Aria.
Why not? I have all the time in the world and the only time worth living is the one where she exists on Earth.
Camille explained, “Actually, it isn’t Cedric’s party. It’s Charlotte’s. But you are invited, of course. I’m inviting you. It’s Cedric’s palace, and all angels are invited.”
“But I won’t be an angel for much longer. Won’t people comment?”
“They will do it regardless,” Camille said. I had to agree with that. “Plus, who cares? It’s your life, and you don’t have to give anyone the satisfaction of explaining your choices.”
“I don’t like drama.”
“Yes, well, drama is what makes life less boring,” Camille said with a wicked smile. “It’s one-time opportunity to see one of your favorite artists. You don’t want to miss that, do you?”
Aria’s interest was piqued. “Who?”
“You will see.”
“Are there famous supernatural people in the world?” Aria questioned.
“Well, yes, but this one is human.”
“Camille, do I really have to attend a party where Cedric and Charlotte are? Isn’t he going to date her once we break our bond? Or is he dating her already?”
“I don’t know.” Camille shrugged. “I don’t care. I’m doing what he asked. Josephine also asked me to convince Philippe to come. She said it’s important and that she wants to see him for the last time.”
“What do you mean for the last time?” I asked. Jo said she was leaving, but she wasn’t usually that dramatic.
“She’s going to do something important. I don’t know what it is. Still, she wants you upstairs, and Cedric wants Aria. Therefore, you are going. No more complaining.”
“You are kind of bossy, aren’t you?” I asked, staring at the blonde angel.
“And you are stubborn, aren’t you?”
I didn’t even bother to answer her.
She argued, “Are you truly going to lose the chance of going to a party with Aria and dancing with her?”
She had a point there. However, being at a party filled with angels and werewolves was not my idea of fun. Not like I was going to let Aria go alone and let Cedric use his charm on her to make her change her mind about leaving him.
“Won’t Cedric be mad if I go with Philippe as my date?” Aria questioned.
“He’s taking Josephine. Besides, you broke up. I don’t think he has the right to be mad, do you?” Camille asked nonchalantly.
Aria frowned as much as I.
Jo was going with Cedric. They had left the other night together. She had confessed to having a crush on him. I didn’t have time to further elaborate on my thoughts.
“Are you jealous?” Camille asked.
I looked at Aria with curiosity.
“Not really. Should I be?”
I liked her answer. I liked it so much that I felt the urge to grab her and kiss her until she lost her breath. I could do that another time when the snooping blonde angel wasn’t around. Besides, I told Aria I wouldn’t pressure her.
“Do you still want to go?” Aria asked me.
“If you go, I go,” I answered her. “I won’t leave your side, honey.”
“It will be fun,” Camille declared to encourage her.
Aria shrugged and climbed back up the stairs. She didn’t seem convinced, though.
“What should I wear?” she asked, turning around to stare at Camille who smiled widely. She had achieved her purpose. We were going to the party. I could only hope that Camille didn’t have other intentions and was pretending to accept me in Aria’s life.
“Something gorgeous, of course. My dress is blue with a skirt made of blue and white feathers. It’s stunning. I’ll pop in and out after we choose you a dress to wear. I have to get dressed, too, so I’ll get my things from home.”
“So, you are wearing a feather dress to match your wings. Is that a dressing code of some sort?” Aria joked.
Camille rolled her eyes. “Joke all you want. My dress is beautiful.”
“I bet it is,” Aria said, grinning. “I’m guessing that if you are wearing blue, I can’t wear the same color.”
“It’s not carved in stone, but yes. Don’t forget, you have plenty of gorgeous dresses. I’ll help you choose,” she said, teleporting to the top of the stairs and waiting for Aria to arrive. She looked at me. “Go get dressed.”
Camille liked to boss people around. Of course, I needed to put on a tuxedo to attend the party with Aria. She didn’t need to state the obvious. Then, I realized that we were going out on a date. Our first date since she broke up with Cedric. I could come up with better places to go out with Aria than Cedric’s party.
“You will take longer than me, so I have time,” I said, smirking.
She smiled, unaffected.
When I realized it, Aria was staring at me.
“See you in a bit,” I told her.
Aria smiled timidly before going to her room. She was as reluctant as I to attend the party. If Camille wasn’t there, I would reassure her that she had nothing to fear. But I wouldn’t force her to do something she didn’t want. I wasn’t going to let her be alone. No one would dare to mistreat her with me by her side.
Jo wasn’t a bad person. She wouldn’t go with Cedric to a party to hurt Aria’s feelings. Yet I was uncomfortable about Cedric and her going to a party as a couple. Jo’s heart was easily broken. She was more sensitive than she let show. If Cedric harmed my master’s heart, I was going to punch him in his angelic face. And if Cedric did something to hurt Aria’s feelings, I was going to make his life miserable.
I was overthinking it. Cedric just wanted to make Aria jealous. Jo was tagging along, choosing to help an angel over her best friend. That wasn’t nice.
Attending that party was a risk. Aria could go back to Cedric. Panic took over me. I felt the darkness clouding my happiness. I hadn’t felt so happy for a long, long time. I guess I was doomed to stay alone forever. No matter what I did or what I was, the women I loved always chose someone else to give their hearts to, or leave me.
It was unfair to compare Aria to Sophie. Aria had a kind heart, and I was the one who rejected her in the first place. I was competing against an angel prince for her love.
Why would she choose me?
“Philippe, Philippe,” Aria’s voice woke me up. I focused on her face in front of me. My mind was spacing out, and I had no idea how long she had been there. “What’s wrong?”
Frowning, I asked, “What are you doing here? Weren’t you going to get dressed?”
“Yes, but Camille went home to get her stuff, and I…” She bit her lip nervously.
“You can tell me whatever you want Aria. Don’t be shy.”
“Why were you so preoccupied?�
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“I…was overthinking things. Why did you come back downstairs?”
“I… What do you think about red?” She changed the subject.
“Do you like red?” I asked her back.
“I love it.”
“Then wear it. I’m sure that whatever you put on, it will be fine.”
“Do you want to help me choose? I have five red dresses.”
I smirked. “That’s a lot of dresses to choose from.”
“I don’t want you to dislike the dress.”
“Is that what’s worrying you?” I asked, knowing that her insecurity was partially my fault.
“When I came downstairs, it wasn’t. But now, it crossed my mind. I came here to see you and wanted to…”
“Yes?” I waited for her to tell me what was worrying her.
“It felt lonely upstairs when Camille left,” she whispered, her cheeks turning red.
My heart raced with her words. Before I could say anything to her about that, she hugged me and nestled her face against my chest.
“I don’t know what is wrong with me. Sometimes, I want to smack you and other times I can’t stay away from you.”
That was an unexpected confession. I folded my arms around her and kissed the top of her head. “That’s okay, sometimes I want to smack myself, too.”
She laughed. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For being so clingy.”
It was my turn to chuckle at how adorable she sounded. “Honey, if you think you are being clingy, then I must warn you that I’m ten times worse. Maybe a hundred times worse. I go totally insane when I’m not near you. I would follow you everywhere if you let me.”
“I have to get dressed. You can’t follow me there while I’m changing,” she said, leaning back.
I smiled at her and brushed her cheek with my thumb. “How do you want me to help you choose the dress, then?”
“I wanted to know if I wasn’t overdoing it by dressing in red for an angel party because of the all-white stuff around the angels’ myths and purity and… I don’t know.”
“You worry about the strangest things. I don’t think angels will mind if you wear red to their party. It’s only a color.”
“Okay. Red it is. The other thing that I wanted to tell you…”
“Yes?”
“I’m hungry. We’ve slept the entire day.”
“I’ll make you breakfast. What do you want to eat?”
“I don’t mind drinking coffee and eating a toast. Nothing fancy, okay?”
“Like crepes and Eggs Benedict?”
“Yes.”
“I can make a toast look fancy,” I teased her.
She rolled her eyes, and I kissed her. I caught her off guard. Aria pulled back instinctively. After a second, she sighed against my lips. I rejoiced when she gave in and relaxed inside my embrace.
The kiss wasn’t rushed. I didn’t want to scare her away. I took possession of her lips, slowly, carefully enough to be aware of her reactions and her heartbeat. Mine was skyrocketing while backflipping. Her hands roamed my face while her lips replied to mine. Before I lost control and took her to my bedroom, I fled from her mouth and steadied my breathing against her neck.
“I’ll cook you breakfast while you get ready. I’ll probably make more, so Camille doesn’t eat all of your food.”
She chuckled and stroked my hair. “I better get back to my room, before Camille arrives and catches us downstairs.”
“Aria,” I called without letting her leave my arms. I wasn’t going to tell her that there was nothing wrong about us kissing, and Camille wasn’t going to lecture her about it. I wasn’t sure about what was crossing her mind. Aria had to feel comfortable about us at her own pace. Before I could say how nice it was to have her with me, she kissed me briefly on the lips.
“We’ll talk when we get back from the party. If you are willing to let me go back home and…be my boyfriend, then we’ll talk. Okay?”
I nodded, speechless, anxious and, at the same time, hopeful. She had said boyfriend. I wasn’t imagining things, was I?
“I’ve been feeling claustrophobic. Going back there makes me experience that all over again. I don’t think the others know that Cedric and I broke up. It will be an awkward situation. I’m also concerned about how Cedric will react to seeing you. I’ve never had an ex-boyfriend before.”
“Calm down,” I urged her, massaging her back to soothe her insecurities. “Everything will be all right. I’ll be there with you. I won’t leave your side.”
“Is it bad that I don’t feel guilty for leaving him? I kind of feel relieved. I should feel bad, shouldn’t I?”
“I think he put too much pressure on you. After what you’ve told me, it seems to me that he was a bit of a control freak. I don’t want to say bad things about him… I’m in no position to claim to be better than him. But if you let me, Aria, I’ll try to be a better person, a better man, and I’ll do everything I can to make you happy.”
“Philippe, this isn’t a competition about who will do more for me.”
“I know. I just…wanted you to know that…”
“I know,” she whispered, her eyes reflecting mine.
I hugged her tight, lifting her from the floor.
She gasped and giggled when I licked her ear.
“I can’t leave you two alone for ten minutes without finding you grabbing each other,” Camille complained from the top of the stairs with her arms crossed. “Aria, you should be showering.”
“We were just talking,” I told her before she acted like Aria’s mom again.
“You can talk all you want at the party. Now, I need to get your mate dressed.”
My mate. That sounded perfect. Therefore, I wasn’t going to annoy the blonde anymore.
I put Aria on the floor and kissed her cheek. “I’ll make you breakfast. Go to your bedroom.”
Aria nodded and ran up the stairs to get ready. I watched her leave, a bit less worried about us, and a lot more enthralled by her. Losing her would be like losing my soul a second time. I needed and wanted her in my life. If Cedric was planning to win her back, he was going to have to fight for it.
Chapter TWELVE
PHILIPPE
I had never been to Cedric’s palace before. I had never been to another realm for that matter. We needed to fly or teleport to go there. Camille was the one who took us upstairs. She was kind to Aria, so I tolerated the blonde a lot more. Aria needed good and understanding friends.
Aria’s happy expression was all I wanted. My heart hurt when she was sad and burned when we were apart. I was becoming addicted to her. I had to touch her all the time and couldn’t stop staring at her.
“Isn’t it amazing how huge this is?” Aria asked me.
I had my arm around her waist, walking next to her and following Camille down the vast corridors of the palace. We had skipped formalities and, instead of the main entrance, we had entered through the back door. It was fine by me. Aria didn’t seem thrilled about greeting the princess.
“It’s still a bit far,” Camille warned, walking rather fast in her high-heeled shoes. “We can’t teleport in the lower floors because of the security measures for the party and the dungeons. That’s why the ceilings are so big. Most of the angels just fly around to get to the other sections,” she clarified. “Jacob is waiting for us. I’m so late! He must be really upset with me.”
“I’m sorry, it’s my fault,” Aria apologized.
“Don’t stress about it. Too bad you can’t fly,” she added, looking behind her to see Aria’s reaction.
Aria stumbled into me.
“I’m just messing with you. I wouldn’t want us to ruin our hairstyles. It took me long enough to do them.”
“You are really good at it,” Aria said, touching her hair.
“You look fine,” I whispered in her ear, noticing how her skin reacted to my voice.
She smelled and looked amazing and was looking
extra gorgeous tonight. Camille coiffed her hair beautifully into an updo just like a beauty queen. Aria’s makeup was soft and highlighted her dreamy chocolate brown eyes and plump cherry lips. She had a doll face and looked elegant in her princess red silky dress.
The red color had been a concern to Aria. Before we left, she had asked me multiple times if red was a good choice and if the dress looked good on her. It made her look older and sexier. I like her angelic vibe, nevertheless. She had a lot of time to grow up, look older, and become the beautiful woman that she was supposed to be.
“Just fine?” she questioned.
I smirked at her words. “I was talking about the hair. You look…sexy,” I added huskily into her ear, noticing how her cheeks turned red. I would never get enough of the way she reacted to me and how modest she was.
“Oh relax! The dress is fine. Angels tend to be a lot more extravagant when they attend parties like this one. Some will even have blue hair as if they are part of some Comic-Con convention. It’s great fun,” Camille said. “Your mate looks pleased with your choice of wardrobe, and you love that dress. Relax and enjoy the party.”
Aria stared at me, and I smiled at her.
“I’m very pleased,” I confirmed.
Her face lit with a smile. I controlled myself not to kiss her and smear her lipstick. The worst part about a woman wearing makeup was that she complained about ruining it when kissing. There was also the part where we would get lipstick transference. Instead, I placed a kiss on the crook of her glorious neck. She shivered, and I closed my eyes for some seconds, high on her scent.
“I see Jacob,” Camille squealed happily as if she had spent days without seeing her husband.
Looking ahead, I saw him heading our way to meet Camille halfway.
“What took you so long, baby?” Jacob asked, receiving her into his arms and kissing her lips. He looked worried.
“I couldn’t teleport us here, and we took a shortcut to avoid the line to greet the princess.”
“You should have gotten here earlier. The Queen has been acting like a Mad Hatter while looking for you.”
“Why? My work is done.”
