I went into the living room to join Kai and Andre. Aretta was still not down. Man, having a baby seemed stressful just being with them for about an hour. I wasn’t certain if I wanted a baby or not. I couldn’t imagine having to feed another mouth that wasn’t mine, be sleep deprived and always on alert. My brain could never. I’d probably pass out on the street due to stress. “What are you asking him now, Andre?” I sat on the armchair next to Kai’s. “Just getting to know him.” He looked at Kai. “Right?” “Of course.” I narrowed my eyes at Kai. “You’re lying.” “No, I’m not.” “Your shaky pupils tell a different story.” “Leave the guy alone, Elena.” Andre crossed his legs. “We were talking about you?” “What about me?” “Just curious about stuff.” He drummed his thigh. “Stuff between us guys.” I rolled my eyes. “Mm-hmm.” Andre suddenly became serious. “Before I get to ask.” His gaze was on Kai. “Do you two live together?” “Yes.” Kai answered. Andre shut his eyes and mumbled somethi
When we arrived at the end of the jetty, I was in awe. Before me was the Baltic Sea, frozen and beautiful. I was extremely tempted to slide on the ice, but I knew better than to do such a thing. I averted my eyes to Kai to see if he was enjoying the view just as much as I was. He was. He may not have been the one I initially wanted to be here with, but standing here now, I realized no other person could make my visit to Estonia more special.“It’s beautiful.” He whispered, but I heard.He peeled his eyes away from the fantasy-like scene and to my face. “Ready to see if that legend is true?”I nodded, stepping closer to him. He gently held my face in one hand and lowered his head a little while the other hand wrapped around my waist, pulling me in. Our bodies pressed together heatedly against one another as our lips fell sleepily together. In that passionate moment my soul was opened, his breath warmed my body and nothing existed aside us. There was something about the way
It had been three days since we returned to Ordene, and everything was going just great. Kai and I were happy together, spending long nights in each other’s arms and just doing things that brought smiles to our faces. It felt good to be back, even though I missed my brother. Fortunately, Alistair and Annalise were still locked, which was a colossal relief to me because, no matter how much safety I felt, there was a part of me that always thought something could go wrong. It bothered me. However, seeing how things were now, I pushed the thought aside. Everything was and would remain fine. As I prepared for my meet up with Quinn, someone knocked on the door. It definitely had to be Talia. Kai wouldn’t knock on the door for any reason. Also, he wasn’t home. He’d left in the early hours of the day, saying he had a lot of work to take care of. I wasn’t even sure he’d come home early. “Come in.” I said, bringing down the eyeliner. Talia came into the room, holding a glass of water. “Are
After Quinn’s passing, I was a lot more motivated to work because staying at home only gave room for more depressing thoughts. I had no clue where to look, but one thing was certain. I couldn’t go back to my previous work. Not because of Ryder this time. Miss Miller was just difficult to work with, and I wasn’t looking forward to being an errand girl. I picked up a newspaper from the center table and went through. There was nothing much. Just boring talks with Ryder on almost every page. However, I stopped flipping when an article about Quinn caught my eyes. POPULAR CANADIAN PHOTOGRAPHER, QUINN FALLON, HAS PASSED AWAY. Although I knew the circumstances of her death, I went on to read the article. It was reported that Quinn Fallon died after getting hit by a hit-and-run driver in the afternoon of December 14th in front of a café. People who were in the café at the time of the accident said she had left the café after meeting up with someone. I stopped reading. My heart became heavy
It was an autumn wedding in the late afternoon. The area faced the breathtaking sunset on the Oahu beach. At the end of each seated aisle, cherry blossom scented candles hung from tree branches.Spread down the aisle were white leaves that were slightly moist so they wouldn’t crack when you stepped on them. There was a small group of close family and friends dressed in beach attire for comfort. On either side of the aisle, they sat in white chairs set up for them on the sand. In the dressing room where the soon-to-be wife of King Ryder sat, getting ready for the day she had dreamed of for years, was her older sister, Annalise and her bridesmaids which comprised King Ryder’s younger sister, Mirabel, and her friends. Isabella wasn’t one to keep friends as she saw Annalise as her best friend. Outside the dressing room were men, armed to the teeth, ready to give their lives to save Isabella if need be. Ryder had made sure she was safe. “Isa, you need to breathe. Can’t you do that for me
RYDER’S POINT OF VIEWDevastation.Pain.Anger.Sadness.I felt them all as I watched nurses put my Isa in the morgue, alongside other dead people. How could she leave me after the vows we had said? She said she would be by my side for better for worse, in sickness and in health. What went wrong? Why did she leave so soon?“Ryder?” Mirabel hugged me. “Please, come eat something. You look as though you’re going to faint.”I gently pushed her away from me. “Eat? My wife is in there and she hasn’t eaten. I’m sure she didn’t eat before the wedding because she was nervous.”“Please, Ryder.”“Drop it, Mira.” I sounded harsher than intended. With everything that was happening, I felt as if I was slowly losing myself.“I’m sorry.” She walked away, her head down.This was hard. Losing someone dear to you on the day that was supposed to be your happiest day. The day you show your love to the world, the day you promise to love one person for the rest of your life. Where did it all go wrong?“Sir
We were back home in Ordene and it was heartbreaking. It was heartbreaking because when I left the kingdom; I left with Isabella by my side and coming back home; she was in a coffin. My men were carrying the coffin into the car from the plane as we were going to bury her today. Just like everyone else, I was dressed in a black attire.I pulled my lower lip in between my teeth when I heard the click of a camera. Fucking reporters. How much it pained me it wasn’t pictures of Isa and me returning from our wedding and being newlyweds, but pictures of her coffin. How much it hurts knowing she wanted to have our honeymoon. It pained me to know it would never happen.“What happened to the Kings’ bride?” “How did it happen?”“Where is she?”“Who is in the coffin?”“Who attacked?”These questions were being asked by reporters, and I only wish I knew the answer to how it happened. As much as I wanted to let the people know what really happened, I couldn’t. I couldn’t bring myself
*Crash*The car crashed into mine, sending me forward. I hit my head on the steering wheel and Theo hit his on the dashboard. When I lifted my head up, I realized I had a cut on the side of my head and Theo had a bruise on his. I carefully got out of the car after checking to see if Theo had been seriously hurt. Thankfully, he was fine."Who the hell is that?" I asked no one in particular as I got out of the car.The driver of the car had also gotten down. A woman."Oh, my goodness." She ran a hand through her black hair, walking in my direction. "I'm so sorry." She stopped just a few feet from me. "Are you badly hurt? I can take you to the hospital if you want."Theo pulled out his gun and pointed it at the woman. "Back the hell up, woman."She raised her hands up in surrender and did as he instructed. "No need to get all serious." She looked away from Theo and toward me. "You're King Ryder, aren't you?"I didn't speak a word, just accessing her to see if she had weapons on her."Do
After Quinn’s passing, I was a lot more motivated to work because staying at home only gave room for more depressing thoughts. I had no clue where to look, but one thing was certain. I couldn’t go back to my previous work. Not because of Ryder this time. Miss Miller was just difficult to work with, and I wasn’t looking forward to being an errand girl. I picked up a newspaper from the center table and went through. There was nothing much. Just boring talks with Ryder on almost every page. However, I stopped flipping when an article about Quinn caught my eyes. POPULAR CANADIAN PHOTOGRAPHER, QUINN FALLON, HAS PASSED AWAY. Although I knew the circumstances of her death, I went on to read the article. It was reported that Quinn Fallon died after getting hit by a hit-and-run driver in the afternoon of December 14th in front of a café. People who were in the café at the time of the accident said she had left the café after meeting up with someone. I stopped reading. My heart became heavy
It had been three days since we returned to Ordene, and everything was going just great. Kai and I were happy together, spending long nights in each other’s arms and just doing things that brought smiles to our faces. It felt good to be back, even though I missed my brother. Fortunately, Alistair and Annalise were still locked, which was a colossal relief to me because, no matter how much safety I felt, there was a part of me that always thought something could go wrong. It bothered me. However, seeing how things were now, I pushed the thought aside. Everything was and would remain fine. As I prepared for my meet up with Quinn, someone knocked on the door. It definitely had to be Talia. Kai wouldn’t knock on the door for any reason. Also, he wasn’t home. He’d left in the early hours of the day, saying he had a lot of work to take care of. I wasn’t even sure he’d come home early. “Come in.” I said, bringing down the eyeliner. Talia came into the room, holding a glass of water. “Are
When we arrived at the end of the jetty, I was in awe. Before me was the Baltic Sea, frozen and beautiful. I was extremely tempted to slide on the ice, but I knew better than to do such a thing. I averted my eyes to Kai to see if he was enjoying the view just as much as I was. He was. He may not have been the one I initially wanted to be here with, but standing here now, I realized no other person could make my visit to Estonia more special.“It’s beautiful.” He whispered, but I heard.He peeled his eyes away from the fantasy-like scene and to my face. “Ready to see if that legend is true?”I nodded, stepping closer to him. He gently held my face in one hand and lowered his head a little while the other hand wrapped around my waist, pulling me in. Our bodies pressed together heatedly against one another as our lips fell sleepily together. In that passionate moment my soul was opened, his breath warmed my body and nothing existed aside us. There was something about the way
I went into the living room to join Kai and Andre. Aretta was still not down. Man, having a baby seemed stressful just being with them for about an hour. I wasn’t certain if I wanted a baby or not. I couldn’t imagine having to feed another mouth that wasn’t mine, be sleep deprived and always on alert. My brain could never. I’d probably pass out on the street due to stress. “What are you asking him now, Andre?” I sat on the armchair next to Kai’s. “Just getting to know him.” He looked at Kai. “Right?” “Of course.” I narrowed my eyes at Kai. “You’re lying.” “No, I’m not.” “Your shaky pupils tell a different story.” “Leave the guy alone, Elena.” Andre crossed his legs. “We were talking about you?” “What about me?” “Just curious about stuff.” He drummed his thigh. “Stuff between us guys.” I rolled my eyes. “Mm-hmm.” Andre suddenly became serious. “Before I get to ask.” His gaze was on Kai. “Do you two live together?” “Yes.” Kai answered. Andre shut his eyes and mumbled somethi
When I tell you Jay squished me in a tight hug when I told him about what happened with Andre, it’s no joke. He wouldn’t stop telling me how proud of me he was. He really was a ‘family sticks together’ kind of guy. Even when I told them about me and Kai going over to his place for dinner, he was ecstatic. It made me happy.It was 6.30p.m, and I had just received a text from Andre, which had his home’s address. I was almost done getting ready. I wore a velvet zipper front long sleeve skinny jumpsuit, black heels and a black purse. I did my brows, then put on mascara and a red lipstick. The last thing was spraying perfume. Very important.“You look so fine.” Arianna said, looking at me like a proud mom would. “So damn fine.”“Thank you.” I sucked in a deep breath. “I’m nervous.”“About what?”“The whole dinner thing. I just hope it doesn’t go downhill.”“You worry too much.” She held my arms. “Don’t stress. It’ll make you old.”I was definitely the luckiest person in the world. There wa
I waited in the car for several minutes, waiting for Arianna to come out of the pub with either good or bad news. The bad news being he rejected the gifts. Fortunately, she came out empty-handed, wearing a bright smile. When she got into the car, she still hadn’t stopped smiling.“What got you smiling like that?”“Your brother is such a sweet person.” She said. “And good-looking, too. If he wasn’t married and if I wasn’t with Jay, I’d shoot my shots because damn!” she slapped her thigh. “That man is damn fine. His wife is extremely lucky.”It made me happy to hear her say such positive things about Andre.“Did he say anything?”“He said he was thankful and if it was possible, he’d like to meet up.”My eyebrows shot up. “Really? He really said that?”“Yeah. Do you want to go in?”“I want to, badly, but I’m afraid he’ll judge me.”“Dude, what the fuck is wrong with you? That man doesn’t seem like he could harm a fly. Why would he judge you?”I said nothing. Maybe if I had a
I dragged my feet along the street, still not wearing my coat. It was dark out and the cold air nipped at my skin, but I wouldn’t give in. I liked the feeling of numbness it gave me. I lifted my head when colorful lights flickered on the snowy floor.A nightclub.Just what I needed to get my mind off things. I was going to party like it was my last night on Earth. Anything to get my mind away from the harshness called reality. I entered the club after being checked by security outside.As soon as I stepped foot into the club, beats revved up my soul. Bodies rubbed against each other’s, sweats mixed and joy flowed in the air faster than a virus ever could. Every soul here was invited to become one, and the loudspeaker was the commander. A commander I was ready to follow for the next few hours.I made a beeline for the bar, ordered three shots of vodka and downed all immediately. It burned my throat as it went down. I didn’t care. It was exactly what I needed.I slammed the
CHAPTER 46ELENA’S POINT OF VIEW The flight to Estonia was the craziest, most mind-blowing flight of my life, with Kai confessing his feelings and opening up to me about his ex. To top it all off, Ricky cried in front of me and, to be honest, it was surprising. I never imagined I’d see him cry. Kai could not understand why he was crying. I couldn’t, too. It wasn’t as if she broke up with him. She only moved to Spain because of her academics.Ricky had said. “You don’t understand. Kayleigh is gorgeous. She’s everything. Elegant, beautiful, and caring. Guys are going to try and get her.”I still didn’t see his reason. All he needed to do was trust her.Kai then suggested. “You can move to Spain if it bothers you so much.”“I can’t leave my business here and besides, my siblings need me here.” He’d said.In the end, we let him cry his heart out while we comforted him.After about three hours of fun and crazy, the jet landed. A car was already waiting for us. Jay took the whee
Arianna and I were having a wonderful time until Kai knocked on the door. I rushed to the mirror to wipe off the ridiculous makeup on my face. Arianna was trying to do the joker’s makeup on me. It was awful on me. “Kai,” she blocked the entrance of the room with her body. “What’s up?” He craned his neck. “Where is she?” I hurriedly wiped off the makeup. At this point, I looked as if a rainbow puked on my face. “Where is who?” I heard him sigh before moving Arianna to the side. On instinct, I covered my face with my hands, creating a little space for me to see. “What’s with you?” he asked, coming closer. “Nothing.” “Then look at me.” “I am looking at you.” He put both hands on his waist, head leaned to the side. “I want to see your face.” “No. Arianna did this awful joker makeup on my face. I’m a mess right now.” “I hear Jay calling me,” Arianna smiled sheepishly. “Coming babe.” She stepped out of the room and shut the door. Little shit. Kai stepped even closer to me. “I w