Page 62 of Hero's Prize

Colton grinned. “Yep. The Prince family helped found the town a few generations ago. There are ten brothers in total. The Princes of Fairytale.”

“It sounds like an enchanting place to hang out.” She waggled her eyebrows at her pun. “Are we stopping here?”

“Nope.”

“Aw, man. I’m disappointed.” She craned her neck to look out the window as they passed out the other side of the little town. It truly wasn’t very big.

“How about if we come back another time?”

“Deal. But if we’re not stopping here, then where are we going now?”

“To a cabin in the wilderness.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “You do know we have those just outside of Oak Creek, right? In our billion acres of wilderness surrounding the town?”

She giggled as he poked her in her ribs. “You just wait, smartass. You tell me if it’s worth it when we get to our destination.”

She knew it would be even if he was taking her to the most unremarkable place in the country. They were together, they were laughing, and Colton, despite not having gotten much sleep, seemed relaxed and nowhere near any sort of panic attack.

So, whatever cabin it was, she was sure it would be great.

About twenty minutes outside of Fairytale, he pulled off on a side road and then parked his truck in what seemed like the middleof nowhere. “We need to walk from here. But not too far, so don’t worry.”

He grabbed a small bag from the truck and held it up. “A change of clothes for both of us.”

“I don’t guess you have a picnic basket in there also?” She didn’t necessarily like highlighting that she needed food, but she wasn’t one of the size-zero models he’d been known to date in the past. She was already a little hungry.

“There will be some stuff in the cabin.”

She was careful to keep her face neutral, but she grimaced internally. She’d been raised in Oak Creek, so she had spent a little bit of time in various hunter’s cabins as a kid. Yes, they tended to have some canned goods and emergency rations. They weren’t very tasty, but they would suffice. Or hell, it wouldn’t kill her to fast for a day.

They walked for about twenty minutes and finally came up to the cabin.

Yep. There were definitely cabins just like this scattered all around Oak Creek. But she wasn’t about to say that to Colton.

But evidently, she didn’t have to. “Oh, ye of little faith.”

But his eyes were bright as he punched in a code on the cabin door, and it opened. The fact that there was a code on the door should’ve clued her in, but she was still expecting the sparse provisions of a normal hunter’s cabin as she walked inside.

She could not have been more wrong.

When Colton flipped on the light, Ella’s jaw dropped in amazement. The inside of the cabin was small but beautifully styled. There was a decent-sized kitchen area, along with a couch, side table, and a large fireplace, then a very comfy-looking king-sized bed on the other side of the room.

But the most impressive fixture was the steaming hot spring nestled in the corner, inside the actual cabin.

“Oh my gosh.” She couldn’t stop spinning slowly in circles and taking it all in. “Wait. How is there electricity here?”

“A mix of solar plus clever usage of the spring that also flows out back. And the spring is also a natural heat system.”

“It’s magical.” There was no other word for it.

“The Prince family built a very simple cabin around a hot spring decades ago and then have been steadily improving it for years. I try to come here as often as I can.”

“I can see why. It’s beautiful and so romantic.”

This was where he brought his women. It had to be. She closed her eyes and pushed away the thought. Even if this was where he brought women, she wasn’t going to let that ruin the time they had together in this magical place.

“Hey.” She opened her eyes as his fingers traced up her arms that she had crossed over her chest. “What just happened?”

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