Cindersmellya: A Dark Comedy Fairytale Romance

by Alexis Angel

  In the early morning light that’s now streaming in, I can see a gorgeous courtyard off the bedroom, just through a set of double doors. It looks private, so I push open the doors and walk outside.

  I stroll around, barely noticing the gorgeous flowers and topiaries because thoughts of last night are mingling with the growing nagging feeling over being hidden away by Derek.

  The night was so perfect. Derek said he loves me. I mean, he went to so much trouble to find me. Right? That is what the ball was all about. I’m pretty sure. But now that I think more about it, he never said anything about marrying me, even though that was supposedly the reason for the ball—to find his future wife.

  If that’s supposed to be me, why does he want us to hide away? Wouldn’t he have made some announcement or something at the ball? Or told somebody something?

  I’m only getting more confused the more I think about it. Just as I’m about to head toward a bench to sit down, some woman I’ve never seen before appears out of nowhere and stars walking along beside me.

  I blink in surprise. I thought this was a private courtyard. “Who are you?”

  She almost sneers at me, like I should know or something. “What’s more important here is who you are. Or rather, who you aren’t.”

  “Excuse me?”

  She laughs, but it sounds like pure evil to me. “I know you think that you’ve scored yourself a prince, but let me assure you, whatever happened between you two is nothing. You hear me? Nothing.”

  Anger surges in my chest, and I can’t help snapping at her. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.” And she doesn’t. She doesn’t know the first thing about Derek and I.

  “Oh, believe me. I know.” She flashes a smile that’s just as wicked as that laugh. “I’ve known Derek my entire life. In fact, we’re supposed to be married. It’s what his father wants. What would be best for the kingdom.”

  “What about what Derek wants?” I bite out.

  She shakes her head, giving me a pitying look like I’m too stupid to understand. “What happened with you and the prince is just one last fling before he realizes where he belongs. With me.”

  I can’t help laughing at this. “You have no idea what happened between us,” I repeat.

  “That’s where you’re wrong. I’ve seen this before. Here’s the thing.” She sets her hand on my arm, and I want to shake her off because her touch gives me chills. “You’re just a commoner. An easy fuck. He’ll forget you and move on. Sooner than you think. And then he’ll come back to me. Where he belongs. You’ll be just another one of his dirty little secrets.”

  Her words hit me right where they do the most damage, echoing all the things I was worried about to begin with. Why is he hiding me away? Why doesn’t he want anyone to find me? And why didn’t he say anything about our future?

  He told me he loves me, and it felt real. Everything with him has felt real from that very first night at the club. But what if I’ve read too much into all of it? The things the girl at the bar said yesterday come back to me then, too. How it would be ridiculous to think that a prince would actually marry a commoner.

  Suddenly, I feel sick. It’s too much to take. I need time to think, to process all this. To figure out what’s real and what’s not.

  “Excuse me,” I mumble, pushing past this vile woman, saying the first thing that comes to mind to get me away from her as quickly as possible. “I have to be at work soon. First day and they have me going on stage.”

  I race to the gates and find my way out of the palace. I need to get away from all of this and figure out for myself if all of this with Derek is what I think it is.

  Or if I’ve been fooling myself all along.

  22

  Derek

  A smile breaks over my face as the sound of birds outside wake me up, the early morning light streaming in through the windows of the guest house, pricking at my eyes from behind my lids. I stretch, my body and mind feeling more at ease than they have in days. Finally, I have Ella.

  I roll to the side and reach out to pull her back to me, but all I feel are empty sheets. Cracking open one eye, I squint into the bright light, and then jerk up to a sitting position when I see the empty bed.

  “Ella?” I call out.

  No answer. Where could she be? A frown tugs at my lips, my eyebrows drawing together. She must've just gone to the restroom or something. My gaze lands on the cracked double doors, and I relax. She must've gone for a stroll in the courtyard.

  Just as I start to climb from the bed, the door swings open, and a teasing grin starts to spread. “Get back in this bed and warm me up, baby.”

  “Gladly,” a sickly sweet voice says, causing my blood to turn to ice in my veins as I pull the sheet back up to my waist.

  Fucking Melissa.

  She saunters right on in the room and climbs right the fuck into my bed.

  “What the fuck are you doing in here?” I rage, my face twisting in anger as I point to the door. “Get out of my bed and get the fuck out of my home.”

  She shrugs, not paying any attention to the warning tone in my voice as she scoots closer to me, her hands coming dangerously close to my chest as her eyes drop to my cock that’s already at full mast in anticipation of thinking it would be Ella walking through that door. Not this psychopath.

  “Really, Derek,” she says in disgust. “You’d rather fuck her than have me? Come on, let’s be real. You know you want me.”

  I scoff. “No, I fucking don’t, Melissa. It’s Ella I love. And you need to go. Right the fuck now.” I’m barely able to contain my rage, my body shaking with frustration.

  She laughs, that same grating sound that drives me insane. “If you’re worried about that tart you were slumming with finding me in your bed, don’t even bother. She already left.” She scoots closer. “It’s just you and I now. Forever.”

  I stare at her in horror. She’s crazy. Like, really and truly deranged. I can see it in her eyes.

  “What the fuck, Melissa? You know we have no future. No forever. I don’t know how to make this any clearer to you.” I slide away from her in the bed, reaching down to the floor to find my boxer briefs. My hand searches blindly while I keep my eyes on her, afraid to glance away because she might jump me when I’m not looking. Finally, I find them and put them on awkwardly under the covers. At least my boner has deflated. This bat-shit loon took care of that in a hurry.

  A flicker of that crazy flashes in her eyes, an unhealthy obsession I had no idea was this serious until right this minute. Jumping from the bed, I hold my hands out, palms facing her in what I hope is a placating gesture. She keeps slithering my way, though, until she’s on her knees at the edge of the bed, looking at me with wild eyes.

  “Look, Melissa. I told you. I love Ella. I’m going to marry her. So do us both a favor and leave before I call security.”

  Her eyes flash with satisfaction. “And I told you. She left.”

  I was too distracted by her nutty forever comments to register when she said it the first time. “What do you mean, she left?” I ask slowly.

  “Come on, Derek, what did you expect?” she scoffs. “That you were really going to pick up some stripper off the street and make her your princess? This isn’t a fucking movie where the prince rescues the hooker with the heart of gold.”

  I grit my teeth at her insinuation that Ella is nothing more than that because she is so much more. But I don’t say anything, knowing I need the information that Melissa certainly has.

  “Yes, Derek,” she says slyly, a contemptuous grin plastered on her face, “I know she’s a stripper. As soon as I saw her with you last night, hiding out behind that column and then sneaking off, I did my homework. I did some digging.”

  She looks like the fucking cat that ate the canary, but I just shrug. “So what?”

  It’s not like it matters anymore. She’s here with me in St. Albans. That part of her life is over and she’s going to be my princess. As soon as fucking Melissa tell
s me where the fuck she went.

  “Oh, Derek,” she laughs. “You have no idea. I called in some favors with a contact at Royal Intelligence. They told me she was an exclusive VIP stripper in New York. You think that’s going to go over well with your father?”

  I don’t say anything. Probably not, but like I fucking care. She’s the one I’m marrying. My father can suck it up and deal.

  Melissa climbs from the bed and walks toward me, getting way too close for comfort. I back up.

  “None of this shit matters, Melissa. Just fucking tell me where she went. And then get the fuck out.”

  Her face hardens, that madness peeking through again. She really has no idea why I’ve never been interested in her? She’s the worst of them all. All the women who just want a piece of me and my kingdom, and she’s the worst.

  “You want to know where she is?” Her face shifts again, just as quickly, full of fake sympathy this time, leaving me struggling to keep up with all her many personalities. But nothing prepares me for what she says next.

  “Looks like you can take the girl out of the strip club, but you can’t take the stripper out of the girl. She was a stripper in Manhattan, and guess what? She’s a stripper here now, too! Snuck out of your room to go find her next guy to trick.”

  I’m staggered, my heart tightening in my chest like it’s being crushed in a fist. She wouldn’t leave me and go back to that, would she? Not when we have our future together.

  But if Melissa found out all this other stuff from Royal Intelligence, and it’s true, what’s to say this isn’t true as well?

  Melissa slinks out of the room, apparently finished with what she came for, but I don’t pay attention as I sink to the bed again, my head in my hands. She left. And I have no idea what the fuck I should do about it.

  23

  Ella

  I writhe and gyrate, my body moving to the flow of the music, just like I’ve always done. The only difference this time is my heart isn’t in it. I don’t know if it ever will be again.

  After I left Derek’s palace two days ago after talking to that woman, I wandered around St. Albans in a daze, trying to process everything that happened. I had no idea what to believe. But the more I thought about it, the harder it was to convince myself that what Derek and I had was special. How could it be? He’s a prince. I’m a stripper. I should've known all along.

  But I went and fell in love. And now all I’ve got to show for it is a broken heart.

  I continue running my hands all over my body, peeling my clothes off as I hustle for tips. It’s what I know best. It’s my talent. All the girls in this club are constantly giving me side-eye. I know they hate me.

  I mean, I showed up at the Lusty Lady out of nowhere yesterday and was hired on the spot. I immediately started getting all the best customers, all the tips. I can’t help it. I’m a VIP world-class stripper.

  They can hate me if they want. It doesn’t matter. Nothing really matters now that I don’t have Derek. I’m just going to keep doing what I do best. I’ll dance here for a while until I recoup the money I spent coming here to find Derek. I don’t want to spend another penny of my hard-earned savings now. I’ll keep dancing, then maybe I’ll travel the world. See everything there is out there. I can dance anywhere. Pay my way by taking jobs at the world’s most elite strip clubs.

  Maybe that will help me find some kind of happiness again. Even though right now, I don’t feel like anything will fix the way my heart feels.

  The song ends and I go offstage, taking my stack of bills with me back to the dressing room. It’s only a matter of time before I start getting requests for private dances tonight from the men who just watched me onstage.

  I toss my money in my locker and sit down in front of the mirror to touch up my makeup and hair.

  When I’m done, I lean forward, resting my chin in my hands.

  “What’s up with you?” one of the girls asks. I can’t tell if she really wants to know, or if she’s just being a jealous bitch. It’s hard to care.

  I shrug. “Just trying to get my head in the game.”

  She snorts. “Shouldn’t be all that hard considering you’ve raked in all the money tonight. And last night.”

  I hear the bitterness in her voice. Yep, she doesn’t like me.

  “Where did you even come from, anyway?”

  I sigh. “Doesn’t matter. And don’t worry. I won’t be here long. Just long enough to get enough money to move on to the next place.”

  She seems to consider that, then smiles. “Well good. I guess I can be your friend then if you aren’t going to take all the good clients forever.”

  “Friend?” I arch an eyebrow.

  “You look like you could use a friend. Want to talk about it?” Her eyes are full of sincerity now that she knows I’m not as big of a threat as she thought.

  “I did something stupid.”

  She just waits while I think back over everything that happened. Then I sum it up in four words.

  “I fell in love.”

  Her eyes go big, like she gets it. “With a client?”

  I nod miserably, telling her about that night in Manhattan when Derek came in, about how we fucked, how I felt a connection with him like nothing I ever felt before. Then how I got fired and came to find him. I leave out the fact that the guy was actually the Crown Prince of St. Albans, not sure how she’d feel about that.

  “Wow,” she breathes, then opens her mouth to say something else when we’re interrupted by a commotion coming from the girls outside the dressing room. Their voices are chattering away excitedly, but I can’t make out what they’re saying. The girl I’m talking to—whose name I didn’t even catch—stands up and peeks out the door, then looks back at me excitedly.

  “Hang on, I’ve got to see what this is about.”

  She slips out the door, but I don’t follow her. I can’t find it in me to care. I just want to be done with this night so I can go back to my hotel and wallow in my misery, feeling sorry for myself.

  The DJ’s voice filters in over the speakers, telling all the strippers in the club to line up on stage.

  What the fuck?

  All the strippers on stage? Like we’re in a fucking pageant or something. I wonder if they’ll notice if I don’t go. Maybe I can get away with hiding out back here since I’m new. I’ll play dumb.

  That’s exactly what I’m doing when my new friend pokes her head back in the dressing room. I can hear the commotion backstage getting even louder, but it’s so chaotic that I have no idea what they’re talking about. All I know is that there’s some vibe of excited energy rolling through them all.

  “Ella, you want to get out here.” Her eyes are glowing.

  I wrinkle my nose. “Do I have to?”

  She nods eagerly. “All strippers on stage. Right now. No exceptions.”

  I sigh and push away from my stool. “I really don’t want to.”

  “I think you might change your mind in just a minute.” She grabs my hand and pulls me out the door and toward the line forming just offstage.

  I take a spot at the end of the line as she goes and peeks through the curtains. When she comes back, her face is flushed.

  “I had to see for myself,” she breathes. “Ella, you aren’t going to fucking believe what’s going on.”

  24

  Derek

  It didn’t take me long after Melissa left for me to figure out what happened. I should've seen through her immediately. But once I realized she was pulling her tricks on both Ella and I, I jumped into action.

  And that’s exactly where I’ve been for the last two days. In the middle of the action at every strip club in the entire kingdom. Melissa wasn’t lying about the fact that Ella went back to stripping. But I finally forced her to admit what she said to Ella to send her running.

  I gathered my royal retinue together, forming a plan to seek out all the strippers in the entire kingdom. We’ve been to every single club with one goal in mind. To find
Ella.

  I knew right away that she might be in disguise like she was that first night we met, wearing a wig or hiding herself. But I have a plan. It’s foolproof.

  As I walk into the Lusty Lady, I pull Ella’s thong from my pocket and lift it to my nose yet again, taking a deep whiff. Her scent—the same one I got very reacquainted with two nights ago—fills my nose, giving me the feeling of both comfort and longing. I need to sink my tongue back inside that delicious pussy again, and I won’t stop until I make it happen.

  She has to be here. She wasn’t at any of the other clubs we’ve been to, and this is the last one in the kingdom.

  The first club we went to was quite an experience, everyone shocked into silence when I told them what I wanted. I guess my request was a bit different.

  But having all the strippers line up to let me smell their thongs is the only way to know for sure if it’s her if she’s in disguise.

  Yeah, I know. Tell me about it. It’s like some crazy fetish.

  But fuck. I have to find her, and she might not reveal herself to me any other way. I know that scent. I’ll recognize her instantly.

  The first line of girls had no idea what to expect, and I guess I didn’t either. I started to wonder what I’d gotten myself into when the first ass in my face came with some equipment that Ella is definitely not packing. Then there was the woman who couldn’t keep herself still for long enough for me to get close, those round globes jiggling in my face as she shook with excitement. I finally had to have her take of her thong and just let me smell that. Of course, it wasn’t Ella.

  As I make my way toward the front of the Lusty Lady, Travers goes to speak with the owner, telling him what we want. They never say no and never comment on what they really think about this fucked up search. I mean, I’m the fucking prince.