Page 13 of The Cinderella Prince

I walked toward the hallway between my and Roman’s rooms, and my heart sank. My friend stood in the doorway of his room, arms crossed on his chest, a questioning archof his eyebrows reserved for me. “There you are. Busy night?”

“Don’t ask,” I said dismissively. “How’s your head?” The swelling had gone down significantly, but the bruise looked dark and angry.

“Aside from worrying about it, my head’s just fine. Where have you been, Tris? I’ve tried calling you ten times.” He shook his head to emphasize his frustration.

A frown creased my face as I pulled my phone out. “It’s dead,” I sighed. “I wasn’t exactly checking my phone.” Then, with a slight accusation in my tone, I said, “You were supposed to be sleeping, Rome.”

“You’re deflecting, Tris,” my friend fired back. “But it’s fine. You’re back, and you’re alright.”

“And sleepy as fuck,” I said. Roman put a hand on my shoulder firmly and gestured with his head toward my room. “Sleep well, buddy.”

“Night,” I said, fully aware that it was eight hours too late for that word. Even so, I pulled my blinds down and crashed on my bed. For all my desire to fall asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow, that was the precise moment when my eyes opened wide, and every trace of sleepiness abandoned me. My heart pounded, and bitter disappointment filled my bloodstream.

I really thought it was a good kiss, dammit.

And I really thought we had been going somewhere all night.

After Cedric left the viewing platform, I lingered for some time, unaware of how long until fewer and fewer people remained, and I knew it was time to head out. WhenI was back on the ground, I walked. I walked aimlessly, visiting Central Park at night, sitting on benches every half an hour, and wandering through the city until my feet carried me back to Hudson Burrow.

The night had replayed itself a thousand times before my eyes before I returned here. And now, it replayed itself a thousand times more. Every careless touch I’d imagined was flirtation could have scared him away. Every time our faces neared as though we might kiss by accident, I could have pushed him further away. And when the explosive cocktail of lust and curiosity led him to want to kiss me…I didn’t know where things could have gone wrong.

It was his creamy, soft skin and his impossibly blue eyes that floated before me as I gently drifted asleep.

Cedric

I turned the phone in my hands countless times before I knew I was doing it. When I looked at it, its screen was dead black. The thing emitted no signal anyone with access to sophisticated tracking software could pick up on. Or so I hoped. If they tracked me, they hadn’t taken me yet.

Truth be told, I didn’t expect the security to flock around me and kidnap me in some badass action sequence. It would be worse than that. It would be so much worse. I could see it. Alexander sitting in front of me, looking at me with those cold, pale blue eyes, his hair freshly cut asalways, his lips thin and pressed so tightly theyturned white, and his back so straight he looked uncomfortable. “Do you truly wish to be the one to break the centuries of tradition, brother? You can’t. The thing about the wheel of our fortune is that countless people you haven’t heard of have tried to break it, but the wheel simply ran over them. History doesn’t remember them. They failed their country and their family. They fell, but we still stand.”

Alexander had been raised as the Crown Prince since the moment he opened those pale blue eyes. Ever since then, he acted like he carried the future of the world on his square shoulders. In short, he was dreadful company at parties. He was also the biggest pain in my ass.

My mind wandered to Élodie. What the hell was wrong with her to play along so quietly? I could hardly scratch the surface of that mystery. Élodie de Beaumont was as closed off as a person could be. I wondered if there was anything beneath that facade of perfection. On every occasion when I’d met Élodie, she spoke of vague things nobody could disagree with; she walked perfectly, sat straight, and ate like a lady. It was maddening that her entire being was as bland as a definition of nobility.

I rubbed my face after tossing the phone on my large bed and sprawled on the mattress. This room was far better than the accommodation I had secured on my first night in New York City. A couple of streets away from the original apartment, this was a proper hotel room with a view of the Hudson River and the Hudson Burrow neighborhood. The latter I could have lived without. As it was, it was a constant reminder of the small injustice I had done and the things I couldn’t hope to reach for.

I’m sorry, Tristan, I thought, staring at the canopyabove the bed.My life’s complicated enough without roping you into the mess.Even so, Tristan refused to leave me completely. Five days after that one fiery kiss that had threatened to pull all my threads apart and I still ran my fingers over my lips thinking about it.

But what was I supposed to do? Had I let it go any further, the consequences would have been dire. I would have been a lying liar who slept with the most amazing guy while hiding the truth of my identity. Or I would have told him I was a royal on the run from his own family, which would have scared Tristan away, and I would have exposed myself to a greater risk of discovery.

Why hasn’t he found me yet?I wondered, then quickly pushed that question away.

Tristan occupied my thoughts now, so I entertained him. Beneath the two options I’d placed at the forefront of my mind, I knew there was a greater fear. It was a fear I didn’t want to poke too much, but it never lifted its claws off my heart.

I wasn’t exactly a free man. Although I had never made any promises to Élodie, our implied agreement was clear to all. We were to be married. Eventually. For now, we were to be officially engaged, and there wasn’t a better time to announce the engagement than this fall. The confidence in the monarchy has reached its lowest point in Verdumont’s history. The coming parliamentary election stirred the talks of reducing the significance of the royal family. There were candidates demanding the abolition.

But I’m not a goddamn pawn, I growled internally.

Although my new room was a suite with all the amenities I could possibly need for a short stay and enough spaceto throw a ball, it suffocated me so abruptly that I needed to get out. I needed to go outside, even at the risk of being recognized. The upside was that there really was only one royal family Americans knew much about. Few would think to look me up and match me with His Royal Highness, Prince Cedric Philippe Valois Montclair, Duke of Belleval.

Grinding my teeth, I shut the door of my apartment on my way out and descended to the ground floor. A clerk at the front desk stopped me politely as I passed.

I halted where I stood, feeling a creeping anxiety rise along my spine. Slowly, I approached the desk and greeted the man with my finest smile. “Is everything alright, Mr. Erikson?”

“Of course, Your Highness,” the man replied. Revealing myself to the hotel staff was unavoidable, but they had very strict policies on keeping their guest lists private. “It is only that you are due to check out today. I apologize if I am mistaken, but it appears as though you are perhaps staying with us a while longer.”

I’d forgotten about that. Today. Time was flying when you were on the run. “That would be correct, yes. I would very much like to stay if the room is available.”

Mr. Erikson glanced at the screen, dry-washing his hands before calming them down and holding them firmly together. “The room is available, yes. However, there is the matter of your payment. If you still insist on paying with cash, it will be necessary to settle it at your earliest convenience.”

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