Steel Princess (Royal Elite 2)

“Why do you not want me to love you?” I whisper.

“Loving me is a one-way road, sweetheart. You can never go back. You can never fall out of love or any of that shit. It’s permanent and it’s for life.”

For some reason, those words don’t scare me as they should. It’s almost as if I want all that with him.

“Promise you won’t go back,” he wraps his hand around my neck, stroking my pulse point.

“I promise.”

He presses his lips to mine.

His kiss tastes of sweet, bitter surrender, of pain, and of desperation.

I want all of that. As long as he offers it, I’ll take it.

Loving Aiden didn’t start now. It started at that moment I found him in the basement.

It was put on pause for eight years and resumed when I first saw him at RES. He gripped me from first sight.

Although I hated him during the past two years, I was always aware of him. Of his dark gaze.

Of his silent madness.

It was only at the beginning of this year that the awareness morphed into something more.

The first droplets of rain hit my nose.

I step back, giggling. “Let’s go back.”

“I’m good right here.” He starts to kiss me again.

I stop him with a hand to his chest. “I’ll let you do anything you want inside.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Anything?”

I nod.

“You shouldn’t give me the anything option. Now, you’re well and truly fucked, sweetheart.”

Maybe that’s exactly why I told him he can do anything.

A burst of excitement shoots through me at the thought of what he’ll do.

I take his hand in mine and we run to the house. We go through the back entrance, laughing.

In fact, I’m the only one laughing. Aiden watches me with that intensity.

That intensity used to suffocate me, but right now? Right now, it warms my heart and makes me all fuzzy inside.

Aiden lunges at me when a rustle comes from the lounge area.

Both our attentions turn towards the sound.

Aiden and I freeze at the sight of the two people sitting on the sofa.

Jonathan and Silver.

Jonathan smiles at us, but it’s downright cruel.