Cinder Royal
A Fairytale Retelling
Mila Crawford
Cinder Royal: A Fairytale Retelling
By Mila Crawford
Web: www.MilaCrawford.com
Email: [email protected]
Copyright © August 2018 by Mila Crawford
First E-book Publication: August 2018
Cover Artist: Popkitty
Editing: K. Alexander
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: The unauthorized reproduction, transmission, or distribution of any part of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
This literary work is fiction. Any name, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental. Please respect the author and do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials that would violate the author’s rights.
Contents
Newsletter
Cinder Royal
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Epilogue One
Epilogue Two
Epilogue Three
I. Excerpt: Stoking Her Fire
Stoking Her Fire
Prologue
Newsletter
About the Author
Newsletter
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I was royalty, a prince. I was expected to act a certain way, do certain things. But I wanted something more out of life.
I wanted love.
Then fate threw me a curve ball in the form of a gorgeous commoner, someone I shouldn’t marry because of how different our lives were, but she was the only woman I’d ever wanted.
From the moment I saw Cindy I knew she was the one.
My wife.
My queen.
The woman I’d give my virginity to.
She didn’t see herself as worthy.
But Cindy was everything I’d ever wanted and more.
It was time I showed her that it didn’t matter where we were in life … to me she was all I needed.
To me she was Cinderella.
Warning: This is a sugary sweet fairytale retelling with dual virgins who only want each other, and a happily ever after that is sure to give you a toothache.
1
Cindy
I grew up on fairytales. My mother loved telling me about damsels in distress and the handsome princes who would come rescue them from their tortured lives, allowing them to live happily ever after. I think it was the way my mom escaped. She always believed that some prince would come and change our circumstances.
That was never the case.
I never reminded her that it was a so-called prince who put her in the situation she was in.
Debbie Richards was a seventeen-year-old girl who fell for the charms of a slick businessman who was fifteen years her senior with a family of his own. Little did Debbie know that a year later she would be an unwed teen mother and her so-called Prince Charming would abandon her and her newborn daughter.
But despite all of that, my mother did her very best and tried her hardest. She was a good mom. She always made sure I had what I needed and I didn’t worry about my next meal or the roof over my head. At eighteen she put all of herself into raising and supporting me. After my father disappeared she never dated again but she never once stopped hoping that a fairytale would find me somehow.
But because of my creation and my childhood, I’d become jaded. It made me run far and fast from men. And now at twenty-three I’d never dated, never given myself over to a man. I was too afraid. I was a girl who believed that the only Prince Charming that existed was the one found in books.
So I worked hard, kept my head down and focused in the hopes that I would get my degree, and then I would be out of this town and living my dreams.
Unlike my mother, I never wanted a husband, a large house with a picket fence, or the family that went along with it. I wanted to travel, see the world. I wanted security, and I wanted to know I was always safe because I took the measures to make my life great. My father had taught me that men were not to be trusted.
And what a shame that was.
I didn’t believe in fairytales. I believed in hard work and my own drive to succeed.
She worked herself to the bone so I would always have a good Christmas and get the birthday presents I wanted. She would never go out or do anything, but instead sacrificed her own needs. That is why, when I turned sixteen, I started working for Elegant Catering. The job was nothing more than a glorified servant for arrogant rich people. But it paid my bills and kept me comfortable.
Their clients were celebrities and dignitaries. I was treated poorly by the management, two arrogant women—Eliza and Rebecca—who thought they were God’s gift to humanity. However, for what I made, and until I found something better, I dealt with it.
Sacrifice. That’s what I had to do to survive.
* * *
“Cindy, you need to come in tomorrow. We just got notice of a very high-profile client wanting our assistance. We don’t know any more details than that, but we need you here as an extra set of hands.”
I exhaled slowly, keeping my control at Eliza’s high-pitched voice.
“You won’t be dealing with them of course, because they need the best, but we need you to serve at the party and train the new people, so having you there to take down notes is essential. We need you there to handle each and every specification.” Eliza’s nasal voice cackled through the phone. Between her and Rebecca, she was my least favorite. She treated everyone like garbage and believed herself to be above it all.
“Eliza, I booked those days off months ago.” She knew I had exams and how important they were to me, but like always, she didn’t care. It was always about what Eliza wanted.
“Let me put it this way, Cindy: If you aren't there, you’re fired.”
Disbelief and anger filled me. “You know I need this job. You would really do that?”
“I run a business. It’s about what I need, and if my employees can’t meet my expectations...”
I could feel the blood vibrating through my body. I wanted to tell Eliza where to go, but this job helped my mother, and it helped pay for my school. If I didn’t have this job, it might take me a long time to find another good-paying one. And I couldn't risk being unemployed indefinitely.
“You going to be here or not?”
“Fine, Eliza, I’ll be there.”
“Good.”
With that, she hung up, leaving me feeling defeated … as usual.
2
Alex
Alexander Charming.
Prince.
Next in line for the throne.
Future king.
Prince Charming.
Those were my titles, and it wasn’t lost on me the fact that the last one was ironic and hilarious all in the same breath.
I sat in the boardroom, leaning back against the leather chair as I listened to Robert Towers, the royal family’s charity organizer and event planner, go over our yearly philanthropy work.
“Alexander, this year we’re having a charity event in memory of the queen, your mother. We’d like you at the head of it all, helping to organize and add any details to your specifications.”
At the me
ntion of my mother my heart started beating faster and sadness took over. It had been two years since she’d passed away, the cancer taking over her body and slowly sucking the life from her.
When she passed, it was almost a relief. Her suffering was no more, her pain gone.
“We figured it would be good for you, maybe therapeutic. I also think if anybody were to lead, it would and should be you.”
“I think that’s a great idea. I’d love to lead it.” I kept my composure even though grief tried to take me over. I wouldn’t want anyone else to do this aside from me. I straightened from the leather chair and placed my hands on top of the glass desk, staring at Robert as he smiled sympathetically at me.
“We have a meeting with a local catering organization to start. We thought you could go over the menu, focusing on what your mother enjoyed?”
I nodded, swallowing past the lump in my throat.
“The catering company is small and right in the city center. I think it would be good for the community to be involved. It’s why we thought going with someone local would be a good fit.”
“Yes, I agree,” I said.
“We’ve drafted up a temporary menu, one we’d like you to go over and add or get rid of items as you see fit.”
I took the proposed menu and scanned it. It was all my mother’s favorite foods. “It’s perfect, Robert. It really is.”
Robert smiled and nodded. “We think raising money for childhood cancer is something that the queen would have loved. She was passionate about children and being their advocate. Unless you have other thoughts?”
“No,” I said and shook my head. “My mother would’ve liked raising money to help children. In fact, you know she worked tirelessly with the children’s hospitals.”
“Yes, our thoughts as well.” Robert picked up a file and leafed through it. “Although I will be there to assist, you’ll be in control.”
“Sounds perfect. Thank you for setting this up. I know she’d be very pleased with it all.”
Robert smiled and nodded once more before leaving me alone in the room. I stood and made my way over to the window, staring down at the gardens. The palace was set higher than the town below, which gave a beautiful view of the grounds.
I lifted my hand and rubbed the center of my chest, my heart aching after the mention of my mother.
She had passed away before she could see me get married, before she could watch her grandchildren grow. Although marrying within royalty was typical, she’d always told me to marry for love, that nothing else mattered if you couldn’t be with the one you truly wanted.
And so I’d kept to myself, well before she’d passed, never finding “the one.” But I was getting older, wanted a wife, a family. And because I’d kept to myself that meant I hadn’t been with a woman.
In any sense of the word.
At twenty-five I was a royal virgin.
But I wasn’t ashamed, wasn’t embarrassed. I was proud I’d waited for the one.
She was out there and I’d find her.
I’d make her mine, my wife, the mother of my children … my queen.
3
Cindy
Between my classes and the catering job, I felt myself beginning to get drained. There was never time for me to just unwind. Today, I was supposed to go to the venue and make sure everything was ready for Saturday. I didn’t really know who this event was for, but whoever it was, I knew they were someone very important with bucketloads of money. At least the ticket sales all went to charity, so whoever this was for wasn’t a bastard.
I got to the venue, walked in, and Eliza was already demanding and yelling at all staff.
“Oh, Cindy, thank God you’re here. Everyone is absolutely useless. I’m going to need you to take charge of the kitchen and the cleaning right away.” She waved her hand all around. “Look at these glasses. They seem to think this is clean.” She picked up one of the champagne flutes, as if to drive her point home.
It looked fine.
“You see these spots?” She held up the flute. I didn’t understand how she could be so intense about something so minimal. She treated everyone, including me, like a servant. Always demanding, always needing from others. No matter how flawlessly we completed an action, it was still not good enough.
But she paid my bills so I had no choice but to cater to her whims.
“No problem, Eliza. I’ll make sure it’s perfect for Saturday.” I smiled meekly and wandered back to the kitchen. There was a hell of a lot I wanted to say to her, things that would never reach the light of day.
“As you can see, all your mother’s favorite foods are being prepared.” The voice was low, proper.
I rounded the corner and stopped when I saw a group of expensively dressed men and women congregated in the kitchen.
“Everything will be perfect. Have no worries.”
“I don’t.” That voice, so deep, so familiar. “I have no worries everything will be perfect.”
I knew that voice, had heard it plenty of times on the radio, on TV.
His Royal Highness.
Alex Charming.
The people parted and I saw him. My heart was racing, the adrenaline pumping through my veins. He stood with the chef, going through the menu for the event.
Cassandra Charming, Alex’s mother, was my mother’s idol. She’d caught the eye of the king, the first commoner to be married into the monarchy. Sweet, caring, and kind, Cassandra was down to earth and didn’t let the crown go to her head, so to speak.
To my mother, Cassandra was proof that fairytales and finding Prince Charming—literally and figuratively—do exist. Cassandra Charming was a humanitarian, a philanthropist and a saint. She was one of the kindest, humblest and most sincere women to have ever graced this planet. And when she passed away it cut everyone deeply, even commoners like myself.
Then there was her son, Alex Charming. He wasn’t like any man, rich or poor, that I had ever met. He was literally a novel idea of a prince. He was noble, kind, generous, and for lack of better judgment, he was the only man I’d ever fantasized about.
In reality, girls like me were invisible to men like him.
He was unattainable for a commoner like myself. He was the most eligible bachelor in the world and beautiful women were all vying to get his attention. I would be lucky if he even looked at me when I took his drink order.
“Cindy, you better not mess this party up,” Eliza hissed from behind me, her voice laced with ice. I glanced over and saw her attention focused on Alex. I quickly averted my gaze to the ground when he cut a glance in my direction. My cheeks felt like they were on fire, and I had no doubts I was red as a tomato.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take charge and make sure everything is as it should be.”
“Eliza, have you met Alex yet?” Thomas Heritage, the owner of the company, said with a booming voice as he stood proudly beside Prince Charming.
“I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.” Eliza’s voice was thick like molasses as she batted her eyes and brought her perfectly manicured hands up to shake his. I felt a pang of jealousy, this misplaced feeling for a man I didn't know aside from what the tabloids reported.
I needed to remember my place, who I was.
I was just the help.
4
Alex
“It’s such a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness,” the Barbie doll slurred, her voice sounding several octaves higher than normal. I’d never understood why these women thought high-pitched madness in their voice would attract a man.
As she went on and on about the event, how happy she was I was here, kissing my ass as if that would bring us closer together, I couldn't help but notice the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. She wouldn’t look at me, and instead kept her gaze trained on the floor. But before she averted her attention, I’d noticed her eyes--gorgeous, beautiful blue eyes that had my heart racing. Her full, dark lashes were spread along the tops of her cheeks, crescent shapes that had my lips tin
gling. I wanted to kiss every single one of them.
The pout of her naturally ruby red lips beckoned me, had my blood pumping, my desire climbing higher. I’d never felt this way, never had this reaction to anyone in my life. I was instantly addicted.
My attraction to her stunned me. I’d always known I would wait for the one woman who was meant to be mine..
I felt the most urgent need to know this girl, not just in a primal way but to know her. I wanted to know her hopes and dreams, who she was, where she came from.
“I’m just so happy to finally meet you.” The one who called herself Eliza was uncomfortably close to me.
“It’s nice to meet you.” I grabbed her cold hand, and I would have sworn by her face by that one touch that I’d put a ring on her finger and promised to make her my queen.
I turned to the shy, detached beautiful girl. I couldn’t help it. She drew me in. I’d be damned if I didn’t make her at least say two words to me.
She slowly lifted her head, maybe sensing my intense stare on her, and I realized I’d gotten lost in those blue depths once again. They were stunning. Right then and there, I knew.
This beautiful girl was meant to be mine.
“And you are?” I asked her, but Eliza was the one to interject.
“Oh, that’s Cindy. She’s just one of the staff members. I’ll make sure she doesn’t get in the way.” This Eliza was certainly a piece of work.
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