Page 140 of I Was Always Yours (RCA: Royal Crown Academy)

“You lead with love, always.”

So that’s what I’m going to do.

“Yes,” I breathe, my heart rate picking up as his hand slides under the left panel of my dress to cup my breast.

“Thank fuck.”

He takes my hand and, with a quick wave and grin to our friends watching us from the VIP area, he takes me to the coat room. He hands the attendant a few bills in exchange for his silence and privacy and then proceeds to fuck me against the wall.

When the clock strikes midnight, we’re back on the dancefloor and he’s kissing me hungrily, whispering in my ear that this is the year I’m going to be his wife.

When the clock strikes one, the seven of us go to a twenty four seven dinner where we order pancakes and waffles and bacon and eat together, laughing until the sun comes up.

And I start to let myself believe that, maybe this is all going to work out in the end.

Chapter 41

Phoenix

Blowing off the meeting with Bachmann was objectively a terrible idea, but one that couldn’t be helped. Seeing Six and telling her I didn’t want our arrangement to end that night couldn’t wait.

It’d taken putting one foot on the ground in Geneva to realize I’d made a mistake. I’d assumed I could just walk away as planned, but my thoughts had been consumed by her since the moment I’d left.

Wanting to text her to make sure she ate dinner and didn’t skip that meal in her excitement for tonight. Wanting to ask her for a picture in her green dress.

Wanting to call her just to hear her voice.

Those five days at her house had changed things. She’d only just started letting me kiss her and I wasn’t ready to give that, or her, up.

I knew I had to eventually, but I’d rationalized that it didn’t need to be now. The plan was still underway with Bachmann and the wedding was months away.

We could continue for a couple more months, or until one of us decided they were done, and call it quits then.

Seeing her across the club with a shocked and hopeful expression on her face had almost undone me. There were too many people, too big a crowd and getting to her had felt like it’d taken hours.

My eyes hadn’t left her, I don’t think I’d even blinked for fear that I would lose sight of her if I did, and when my arms had closed around her and she’d laughed breathily in my ear, it’d felt like coming home.Or at least what I imagined coming home felt like — like warmth and safety and a near overdose of dopamine.

In the first days of the new year, nothing changes and everything changes. Our engagement is announced and makes the news around the world.

We become the talk of the school and Six, who had previously been relegated to near anonymity at RCA before this year, is suddenly thrust into the spotlight.

She welcomes the change with equal parts bewilderment and disinterest, longing for days where she could walk down the halls without people who’d ignored her for years approaching her to extend overt offers of friendship.

Now, wherever we go and whatever we do, we always have curious eyes on us. They watch for any morsel of gossip like vultures around a carcass, trying to work out if I’m a willing participant in this or not.

We haven’t spent as much time together in the week since the news was announced as I’d like. I'd almost immediately had to travel with my father to Korea for business, leaving Six behind.

Going from basically living together to seeing each other only a couple of times since the new year had been harder than I’d like to admit and I was looking forward to being with her again, words I thought I’d never say two months ago.

***

I landed thirty minutes ago and am in the car on my way back to Aubonne when my phone dings.

Six:I’m at your place, waiting for you

Six:It’s crazy here

Six:Can’t wait to see you <3

---