by Anna Santos
“Philippe wasn’t with me. He just let us inside his nightclub and went to work.”
“So how did you end up at his house?”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s your fault, actually.”
“How was that my fault?”
She stepped forward and pointed a finger at my chest. “You’re selfish and inconsiderate. You never let me have fun. I’m eighteen years old. I’m not a damn nun! Also, you aren’t the boss of me. You’re my boyfriend and, as far as I know, that doesn’t give you the right to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do. If anything, I obey my parents. You’re not my parent. And my parents were with me. We were having fun until you ruined it by sending me an ultimatum to come home.”
I stepped back as she kept digging her finger into my chest with every accusation. “And you didn’t come.”
She glared at me and clenched her hands into fists. Then she turned her back on me. “There’s a difference between asking someone to do something and ordering them to do it. I don’t like the fact that you think you can order me to do whatever you want.”
I put my hands on her shoulders. “I’m the prince, Aria. You’re one of my angels now.”
She shrugged my hands away. “I’m not one of your angels. I’m supposed to be your soulmate, and you clearly don’t understand the difference!”
I stared at her in silence, trying to figure out what she intended to imply with her words. She was the one who didn’t understand what was at stake. It was probably my fault. I should have explained to her how things worked and what was expected from her. My mind was a mess. I was so absorbed in all the drama and confusion happening around us that I had forgotten to make sure Aria understood what it meant to be my mate and future queen. However, she was acting like I wasn’t entitled to be mad at her for partying and bonding with Philippe. He wanted her back. He was doing everything to repair their bond. Why can’t she see why I’m mad?
“Do you have any idea what is expected of me and of my mate? Disobeying my orders will send the wrong message to my royal subjects. Questioning my orders and spending a night out partying with the vampires isn’t really good publicity for me or for you. Other families will judge us and question our mission. They could break alliances and provoke unrest among the ranks of my soldiers.”
Aria sighed, probably bored by my explanation since she glared at me sideways. “So it’s always my fault. I’m irresponsible and immature because I want to have fun and live my life like any other teenager my age? That’s just great! And to think that I’ve wasted my time studying, so I could have good grades instead of going out partying and getting drunk. I get out once in my miserable life, and I’m now irresponsible and a slut.”
“I don’t appreciate the sarcasm,” I said, an edge of warning to my tone. She was manipulating my words to excuse being angry with me.
“I don’t appreciate you treating me as if I’m five years old!”
“Okay, you’re mad. I get that. What do you want me to do about it? Do you want me to apologize to you?”
“No,” she whispered as she looked away. “It wouldn’t be from the heart. You don’t understand what you’ve done wrong.”
I was getting dizzy with the constant accusations. “Aria, I’m trying to understand!” I reached out and grabbed her arms, making her look at me.
Her voice came out shattered as she lifted her face. “I’m tired of arguing with you. I’m tired of being the one to have to explain everything to you.”
My hand had a will of its own as it shifted the messy hair away from her doll-like face. “Do you think I like arguing with you? Do you think I’m proud of what I did?”
“I don’t know! Do you? Are you?”
“I don’t. I…wasn’t in control. I know that it’s not an excuse. I shouldn’t have talked to you like that. I shouldn’t have raised my voice. I didn’t want to seem inconsiderate.”
“I’m tired.” She pushed my hand away, rejecting my touch.
I guessed I deserved that since I had avoided her touch previously in my bedroom.
“Aria, I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Well, you failed miserably then.”
“What can I do to make up for it?”
“Give me some time.”
I was not expecting that answer. “I don’t understand.” It was sort of a dumb statement. I was hoping it didn’t mean what I thought it meant.
“I’m leaving.”
Her words froze me and made my stomach hurt. “What?”
“I want to go home.”
I swallowed nervously. “This is your home now.” I lifted her hand and held it between mine. She tried to pull it away, but I didn’t let her.
She turned her face away.
“We just…had a bit of a fight. That’s not an excuse for you to leave me.”
“You were rude and you don’t understand my needs.”
“I can…” I stopped what I was saying as a dark thought clouded my mind. “Are you leaving me to go back to Philippe?”
Glaring, she protested, “No, of course not!”
I felt stupid for asking, but if she had said yes, it would have ripped my heart apart.
“You always think the worst. That’s why I want to leave. I need to think about what I want, and you need to work harder if you truly want me.”
“Aria,” I called her softly and lowered my face to hers as a shade of red painted her cheeks. My hand circled her waist, and she stiffened. She seemed scared of me. “Come on, baby. I’m trying to make you understand that I want you. Can I move closer?”
She shook her head.
“Why not?”
“You’re trying to convince me to stay. But, this time, it won’t work. You can’t kiss this away.”
“I…” I straightened up to prove her wrong. I wasn’t planning to convince her of anything. “Where will you go?”
“My uncle’s house.”
“Gabby lives there. I don’t want you near her.”
Pushing me away, she freed herself from my hold. “You have no right to say whom I can or cannot spend time with. She’s my cousin. I’ll see her as often as I want.”
“That’s not what I meant.” If this weren’t such a serious matter, I could almost smile at her for being so cute when arguing with me. “I don’t trust her. She could tell Philippe you’re there and he…”
“Can you stop being paranoid about what Philippe will or won’t do? This is about me, not about you or Philippe. I want to have time to myself. I want to do the things I like. The things I came here to do.”
“But you can still do that living here,” I reasoned.
“Apparently, I can’t.”
“Of course you can. Aria, you’re an angel. You have all the powers that angels have. You can teleport. Honey, you can go wherever you want whenever you want. Can’t you understand that?”
“I can’t do that.” She pouted as she folded her arms.
“Not yet. But Camille can teach you how. I can teach you, too, even if I’m not good at teaching people how to use their powers. I’m better at teaching them how to fight.”
Aria kept biting her lip as her gaze aimed at the landscape around us.
I let her think about what she really wanted. But I wasn’t going to let her run away from what we had. The mere thought of it made my heart shatter. “I don’t want to be away from you. I want you here with me.”
“You never do what I want,” she complained in her girly voice.
I smiled and got closer, leaning my head towards her to smell her hair. She didn’t move. I whispered near her ear, placing my arms around her waist and pulling her closer against my chest. “I’ll do anything you want. Just ask me.” I heard her heart rate increase. “I promise you. I’ll do anything you want. Do you want to go to the Louvre?” She shook her head, and I caressed her neck with my nose. “Do you want to see the Eifel Tower? We can teleport there right now. We don’t even need to wait in line. I can show you Paris from the top of th
e tower.”
“I’m afraid of heights,” she whispered, clasping her hand to my arm.
I stepped back and sat with her on my lap. “Right, we still have to fix that. Then I can show you Notre Dame or…I can take you to the Champs-Elysées. Would you like that?”
She curled up in my lap, ticklish as my lips feathered kisses on her skin. Her warmth and giggles aroused me.
“Or my bedroom. I can show you my bedroom.”
“Cedric, stop,” she complained, trying to escape my mouth, which was kissing her neck. She wasn’t fighting to get away from my hold. She was ticklish, and I loved that about her. My hands caressed her back and my mouth nibbled on her shoulders, turning her laughter into sighs. She loved when I kissed her there. When her body fully relaxed, I kissed her cheeks and her red lips. She let me kiss her and explore her mouth. Before I could realize what I was doing, she was lacing my torso with her legs, and we were kissing deeply and breathlessly.
“I’ve missed you,” I whispered, high on lust and love. “I’m sorry. I promise I’ll be better.”
“You’re just saying that to make me stay.” She stopped kissing me and held my face between her hands.
“I’m not. I didn’t know that I was neglecting to make you happy. I…don’t have an excuse for that. I’ve been alone for so long! I had no one besides my people to care about. I may have neglected you because of my duties, but I thought you would understand. I forgot that you were human and you don’t fully understand what’s expected from you. I’ll make sure I give you the proper attention from now on. I won’t put my needs above yours.” I grabbed her hand and kissed her palm. “Aria, I want to know you. I want to know what you love—besides me, of course.”
Frowning, she said, “Cocky much?”
I chuckled and held her face. Calming down, I asked her, “What do you want to do today, other than leave me?”
“Does that mean I can’t leave if I want?”
“Do you really want to or were you just upset and that was how you determined to punish me?” I wanted to know her reasons and make her comprehend that I didn’t want her to leave.
She pursed her lips. “I was upset. I still am.”
I kissed her adorable pouting mouth, making her embrace me around the neck and moan. I got awfully proud whenever she would stay like that in my arms. I liked how she reacted to me and I enjoyed how my body reacted to hers.
“Don’t be. It breaks my heart to know that.”
“How did you expect me not to be? You were so cold to me, Cedric!”
“I’m sorry. I…was afraid of losing you. I love you. Aria.” I put my hands on her face to make her look into my eyes. I wanted her to understand that I wasn’t lying or saying that to make her stay. “You are the most important thing to me. I’m afraid of losing you. I’m afraid that something will happen to you because you’re my mate. Many would use you to make me suffer, and I’m not talking about Philippe. There are many more who would do anything to hurt me. I don’t want you to leave. I don’t. I’m not going to say that the idea of letting you leave my house makes me happy. However, if that’s what you truly want… If you need some time…I won’t force you to stay here. I’ll assign an army to guard you, but you can leave.”
“I’m strong now. You don’t need to be afraid. I can take care of myself.”
“You are strong, but you don’t know how to use your powers. You’re afraid of flying. You are just one person and there’s only so much an angel can do alone against an army.”
“And you say you aren’t paranoid.”
She said that with a glint of amusement, making me smile and caress her hair. I kissed her forehead and held her tighter. I needed to feel her close to calm myself down.
“There are a lot of things I need to tell you. I need to open up and let you in. We should talk more.”
“We talk plenty,” she mumbled, caressing my back. “But we need to talk more about ourselves than about others. I want to know what you like and I want you to know what I like. I want to go out with you. I want…to go to the movies, or go for a walk in a park and spend the day watching the flowers and trees. I want you to show me the things you love.”
Her words were sweetly spoken and they warmed my heart. “Please don’t leave, Aria. I don’t want to be alone again.” It felt as if I was begging. I was exposing my fears of being alone to her. Holding her tighter, I wanted her to stay in my arms forever. When we were close, loneliness hurt less.
She was silent for far too long with her head on my shoulder while caressing my hair. I let her relax and think about what she wanted to do. I was hoping that she had reconsidered and that she was going to stay.
“Are you regretting being bonded to me?” she asked.
I couldn’t be more caught off-guard by her question. “Why would you ask me something like that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you wanted someone older, a bit more mature than me. I know that I’m just a child and, for all intents and purposes, a commoner. I wasn’t raised to be a princess or a queen.”
“I like you the way you are. Even when you argue with me and threaten to leave me,” I joked.
Raising her head, she rolled her eyes. I was smiling, but I became serious when I asked her, “Are you going to give me a second chance?”
She looked at my chest while scratching my shoulder with her nail. Her hesitation to answer made my heart beat fast.
“I may stay if you’ll be nicer to me and…”
“And?” I asked hopefully.
“And we go watch a movie, eat popcorn, and then get ice cream. I’m dying for some ice cream,” she said. “What’s the point of having a boyfriend if I can’t do what I always dreamed about doing with one?”
Smiling, I nodded at her simple requests. “We can do that.”
“Can you teach me how to teleport?”
“Whatever you want,” I agreed, glad to see her happy again. Thinking about it, I was an idiot for letting Philippe get on my nerves.
She held me tighter. I winced because it hurt, even though I was trying to be brave about it.
She released me from her hug. “What’s wrong?”
“It hurts… I’m a bit sore from the fight,” I explained, ashamed at confessing that the stupid vamp was able to inflict pain on me. “We don’t heal as fast as vampires do. It’s nothing important.” I tried to clarify that when her face became pale and her eyes filled with water. “What’s wrong, Aria?” I didn’t want her to cry.
“Was it me who hurt you?”
“Of course not, darling. It was Philippe. Your powers didn’t touch me—they just nullified mine. Don’t cry. I’ll heal. I’ll go to the infirmary and a healing angel will fix me. And we can still go out. This doesn’t stop me from wanting to spend time with you now. I can heal later.”
“I can heal you,” she whispered, clearing her eyes as she tried to swallow her tears.
“I don’t think kisses can fix this, baby.”
She snorted and I laughed, amused.
“I’m a Red Angel. I have more than one power. Didn’t you know?”
“Yes, but who told you?”
“My other self,” she explained. “So do you want my help or not?”
“Is your other power healing?”
She nodded.
It was a really nice power to have. I liked being a warrior. Angel princes normally were; however, having a healing ability could be a plus. “Are you sure you can use it?”
“Trust me,” she said, putting her hand on my shoulder and closing her eyes. “This may take a while. I’m not entirely sure how it’s activated. So bear with me.”
“Take as much time as you need,” I whispered, putting my hands on her hips and staring at her cleavage. I shouted with pain when she slapped me on my aching shoulder.
“Stop staring at my breasts!”
I laughed, looking at her face. She had one eye open and the other closed. Before she could say anything else, I kissed her and made her
forget what she was going to complain about.
“I’ve missed you,” I told her.
“I’ve missed you, too.”
“I’m sorry. I promise I’ll be better. Please tell me that you aren’t going to leave me.”
“I won’t.”
I smiled, pleased. The next thing she knew, we were teleporting out of there and landing on my bed. She opened her eyes and took in where we were.
“I think you can heal me better here,” I said, smiling wickedly and taking off my shirt.
She didn’t smile. After seeing my bruises, her eyes clouded with tears once again.
“It’s nothing. Just relax, okay?”
She nodded, but I knew she wasn’t convinced by my words. It was a good sign that she didn’t want me hurt. I couldn’t stand the idea of her hurting, either. If someone hurt Aria, I’d go crazy. I could be a bit paranoid, but I didn’t want anything to happen to her. I didn’t want to lose someone I loved again because I wasn’t strong enough to protect her.
Aria kneeled on the bed and stared at me attentively. “What do you want me to do?”
“You need to place your open hand on my bruise and concentrate your power to heal me,” I explained, holding her hand and putting it on me really carefully.
She let me do it, then closed her eyes and concentrated. I focused on her pretty face. She was gorgeous. I didn’t have time to think about anything else as her hand glowed and, before I could blink, a warm wave of light washed over me and healed me completely. She didn’t need to touch anywhere else to heal me; she was so powerful that one touch healed my whole body.
She opened her eyes. “Did it work?”
“The bruises are gone,” I answered, showing her. “Now…there’s just one thing that hurts here. Can you kiss it to stop the pain?” I asked, pointing to my neck.
She smiled and nodded.
“And then here,” I said, pointing to my cheek.
She laughed, amused.
“Do you have anything that hurts?” I asked, every single naughty intention behind my words deliberate.
“I don’t think so,” she whispered with a pensive expression.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe I should check for myself,” I said, grabbing her and tickling her.
