They The Pretty Stars (Court High 1)

I’d been stupid too, but I wouldn’t be now, and when he tipped my chin up, I let him move his lips into mine. I let him taste my tongue, and I let him fold me into his big arms. This boy was so, so dangerous for me. He was as harsh and raw as he was addictive and sometimes even cruel, but for whatever reason, I kept coming back. I kept stepping into the danger.

I kept folding into the heat.

“I don’t have a dress,” I said, pulling away a little, and we both stepped back at the sudden presence of another. Rosanna had apparently been watching us. Maybe not the whole time because, when she came into the room, she had something in her arms.

The dress was white, long, and covered in shimmering rhinestones and pearls. It was so fancy and something completely different from what I normally wore.

She smiled a little. “I snuck this into the back of your sister’s closest, hoping one day she’d wear it,” she said, bringing it over and lining it up with my body. “So how about you warm it up until she comes back?”

Twenty-Two

I wore the dress with my nose ring, and even if it was against the school’s dress code, I didn’t care tonight. That was the one little piece of me, and I was going to lean into it. It went friggin’ awesome with the dress as well as Royal’s orchid perfectly. I came downstairs completely me, my new self and my old self combined, and Royal was there to receive me at the foot of the stairs. He’d been waiting in the foyer, and looking all hot and stuff, I truly did feel like a princess. Especially with the look he gave me as I came down. He waited like Prince Charming, his large chest rising and falling like he was trying to catch his breath. Dare I say, Royal Prinze was at a loss for words.

“I love it,” he said, mentioning my nose when he tapped his. Something about that put me more on a high than I already was. He took my hand next, kissing it, and Rosanna got about a thousand pictures for my dad, who wasn’t off work yet. He normally would be, but I told him I wasn’t going to the dance, and he figured I might want the night to myself to watch TV and do girly things. He’d actually said that, my dad.

I laughed a little at the thought, posing for one last picture for Rosanna before she sent us off. She closed the door, and after, Royal took my hand.

“I have to admit just one more thing,” he said, taking me down the stairs. “I’m not technically asking you to the dance tonight… at least not alone.”

“It’s about damn time.”

The boys came out of a limo parked by the curb one by one, LJ, Jax, and Knight all in tuxes with varying fits, heights, and colors. All wore orchids matching their vests, but none wore green. That was only Royal and me.

Jax, the one who spoke, sprinted up to us, throwing an arm around Royal, which looked pretty fucking funny considering their height difference. Royal had about half a foot on him, elbowing him to let him go, and after mocking hurt on his face, Jax held an arm out to me.

“Mademoiselle,” he said, bowing. He grinned. “And might I say, you look lovely tonight. You’re totally rocking that nose jewelry.”

He said it with a wink, and I laughed. I eyed the arm he gave but, in the end, took it. “What’s going on?”

“We’re your dates,” Jax crooned, wagging his eyebrows. He placed a hand on mine. “Which I have to say is a pretty fucking big deal. We don’t take girls to dances. We dance with them, but we don’t take them. Keeps our options open, ya know?”

I chuckled, taking LJ’s arm too when he put it out. “So why the exception for me, then?”

“Because you’re not just a girl,” LJ said, smiling when the limo door opened for me. It’d been Knight to do it, his own smile light. LJ leaned in. “You’re family.”

My lips parted at that, a hand resting on my back. I didn’t have to turn to know it was Royal. He guided me inside, and his lot surrounded behind us in the back. Before we took off, Jax opened the limo top and stood out of it.

“Get us going, good sir,” Jax said to the driver, tapping the top. “We got a dance to attend.”

Showing up with not one but four dates to the Windsor Prep Academy dance would have been something, but the fact that my dates were Royal and three other boys in the Court… let’s just say we got a few eyes. A few of which were Mira and her friends. They’d been by the punch bowl with their own dates, non-Court guys surprisingly.

Maybe that had been Royal’s doing, maybe not, but for whatever reason, she wasn’t being escorted by Windsor Prep royalty tonight, I was.

“Hey, Mira,” I said, passing her on Knight’s arm at the time. She made me out to be a ho to pretty much everyone in this room, but at the moment, I didn’t care. I was sitting pretty, and she got her just desserts the second I was escorted into the room with four of Windsor Prep’s finest. I looked for Birdie while pulled onto the dance floor by Knight, but didn’t see her quite yet. I texted her on the way to the dance that I’d be coming, but I’d gotten a different reaction than what I thought I’d get after explaining who I’d be coming with.

Just be careful, her text had said, and maybe after all that went on since coming here, that made sense. These Court boys, Royal in particular, had a reputation around this place. She wanted me to watch my back, and I got that. Tonight, the boys seemed to have mine, all of them, even Knight, who hadn’t seemed to really care for me in the past. He kept silent during our dances while the other guys mingled on the floor around us, but there was something different about our previous interactions. He was there with me tonight instead of against me, and I got that from all the boys. LJ was really fun, albeit a little stiff. Dancing obviously wasn’t his forte, but Jax let loose like I’d expect only him to. All five of us did the group dance thing for the most part, the fast dances easy to do that with. We may have gone together, but we were all just here as friends, laughing and having a good time, and it was that way with all the dances with the guys.

At least all but one, of course.

Dances with Royal were different, his hands on my waist and his attention on me different. He was the one I wasn’t sure I was here with as friends, but I didn’t ask. I just enjoyed the moment, and he did too. He’d been asked to dance by several girls tonight, and even if he wasn’t in a dance with me, he turned them down. He waited for me.

“You know Paige and the rest of us always went to dances like this,” he said, pulling me close. “All of us hanging out, just being cool. It was easy.”

I held him close too, enjoying the way his hard body hit and warmed mine. He, my sister, and the others may have gone to dances together, but I was sure they weren’t quite like this. They didn’t feel like this, heaven. I think I was started to fall for this boy, hard, and that kind of scared me a little.

“You missed school,” I mentioned in passing, and he nodded, holding my hand. “You okay?”

“Just needed some time,” he said. “But that’s all over now. I’m here.”