Page 12 of The Cinderella Prince

After so much dancing and flirting in the safety of Mama Viv’s blasting music, it felt like the most natural and important end to the night. You couldn’t count the minutes down to midnight and not want the fireworks. The intimacy of floating our secrets and discovering camaraderie in one another’s sadness was only the final confirmation that I liked this human.

Cedric didn’t wait for me to speak my mind. He read it from my body, from the welling desire in my eyes, from mylips waiting to be kissed and my cheeks turning a shade redder. As he placed his hand on the back of my head, I found heaven. But even then, it was more than that. His lips pressed against mine with such thrilling heat that my body glimmered the same as the millions of lights that surrounded us.

Deep in me, some hidden, dormant volcano came to life. The meaningless hookups of my past crumbled into dust, and my blood filled with adrenaline. The urgency I experienced while our lips touched for the first time was such that I grabbed Cedric’s shirt with my fists and pulled him close, his torso pressing against mine, his midsection rubbing mine. Whatever excitement I felt his body show was the same as mine, my cock swelling nearly instantly, bulging to press harder against him.

I hadn’t realized how badly I needed to be kissed with such dedication until he showed it to me. Nobody had ever made me feel this significant, this unique, this worthy of undivided attention.

So I kissed him harder, proving to him just how welcome his advance had been.

A moan came from one of us, and I couldn’t tell for sure which one. I rose higher on my toes, evening our heights and parting my lips so that his tongue could venture playfully into my mouth. I welcomed it for that split moment when our tongues touched.

His hand ran through the hair on the back of my head, and the other one moved all the way down my back until he touched my ass. My cock throbbed hard merely for the touch of his hand on my cheek. I thrust my hips forward, rubbing myself against him and discovering onceagain just how into me he really was. His cock was as hard as mine.

Cedric gasped the instant after pulling away from me. “That was…” He heaved a breath, his face awash with lust, hope, and a touch of fear.

Thoughts filled my head, but I struggled to translate them into words. I wanted to tell him that I lived with four roommates but that they could assure all the privacy we could need. I wanted to tell him it was only a quick ride back. I wanted to ask him if he wanted to spend the night with me.

Before any of these things left my mouth, Cedric picked one of the feelings to remain on his face. Fear. Pure and chilling, fear froze his features as he stepped back again. “I…I’m sorry, Tristan.” He took another step back, shaking his head. Fear was not alone now but in the company of guilt. Was he feeling guilty for kissing me or for scaring me? “I can’t do this. I’m sorry.”

I didn’t have enough time to process the meaning of his words. In the heartbeat that followed, Cedric faced away from me and retreated from the observation deck.

Shame filled me to the brim, and on the surface, there were angry tears blurring my vision. What had just happened? What on Earth could I have done wrong?

Run after him, something told me.Run and stop him. There must be an explanation. But I refused to listen to that trickster’s voice. I wouldn’t be so pathetic and desperate to chase after a guy who kissed and ran.

Except, as I stood on the deck and the wind made my bare arms prickle, hollowness entered me. Had my hope for something happening been so great that I couldn’t feel athing in its absence? Had I been so smitten by one pretty foreigner that I couldn’t fathom not being wanted by him?

I couldn’t answer any of those questions. My mind was buzzing with alarms. So I stood still, my hand searching the guardrail to hold on to something not for the fear of falling but for the lack of anything else to do. The sense of solitude came at me like an avalanche.

CHAPTER 4

The Days That Follow

Tristan

Even as Iturned my key in the lock, I squeezed my eyes shut in mild disappointment. The thing about living with four roommates was that you never had a moment of privacy. Not even when you returned at six in the morning.

Lane poured milk over his cereal when I stepped inside and shut the door. It was a relief that he was the one making noise in the kitchen. Of all my roommates, Lane was the least likely to push his nose into my business.

“Morning,” he said over his shoulder, focused on his breakfast and not on my rumpled state. He found a spoon in the drawer and stuck it into his breakfast. “You’re up early.”

Or late, depending on how you look at it, I thought. “And you.”

Lane rolled his eyes as he turned to the round diningtable between the kitchen and the inner wall of Madison’s room. “Oakley set an alarm for half past five.”

I frowned. “What for?”

Lane lifted his broad shoulders in a deep shrug. “Beats me. All I know is he’s been snoozing it for half an hour, and I couldn’t put up with it.”

“Maybe he’s got an appointment,” I said, worried that Oakley would miss it. “Shouldn’t we wake him up?”

“I’ll bet you ten bucks he’s trying to build a new habit after some TikToker told him to,” Lane said casually.

I snorted. “If I had ten bucks to spare.”

Lane agreed with a single nod and began eating. I walked into the bathroom to wash the night off my face and hands, too tired to think clearly. Lane knew Oakley better than anyone in the apartment, even if that wasn’t something either one of them wanted. They had to share a double room, and the battle lines had been drawn on the second day of their shared lives. I expected a Peeling Palace meeting as early as tonight to discuss Oakley’s use of unreasonably early alarms.

When I finished washing up, I heard Lane’s footsteps crossing the living room outside the bathroom, and the door of his and Oakley’s room opened and shut. I slipped out of the bathroom and yearned to drag myself to my bed. If I could sleep for a week, it wouldn’t cut it. But I could settle for a lazy day in bed and drinks at Neon Nights in the evening.

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