Page 1 of Kiss of a Hellish Prince

1

The Dangers of Cardio

Ifucking knew better. That’s what pissed me off the most. I knew better. But here I was, like a moron, running from my problems.

Alone.

At night.

My feet pounded the pavement in time with the music blaring in my earbuds. Halsey's sultry voice tried, but failed, to drown out my mother’s voice that had been on repeat in my head since our fight earlier this morning.

I hadn’t even got to smell my coffee before she laid into me.

You’re wasting your life.

You need to pick a direction, any direction.

You’re twenty years old—an adult. Act like it. Take responsibility.

When I get back from this trip, you had better have already enrolled in school with a major, or else be working full-time and supporting yourself. I mean it! You have two weeks to be in school or get out of my house!

The worst part about fighting with your mother is when you know she’s right.

I would love to be able to tell myself that I was here running to clear my head and sort through my problems, and I was. I had every intention of trying to figure out a plan before my mother returned from her trip, but that wasn’t the only reason.

I was hoping to seehimagain. The man with the glowing blue eyes.

Logically, I knew his eyes didn’t actually glow; eyes don’t do that. It had to have been a trick of the light or something. The setting sun caught them just right as we locked gazes, but nothing had been the same since I saw him.

One glance at this mystery man with his long, golden-brown hair and intense eyes had stirred something so deep within me that I realized I wasn’t passionate about anything in my life. I was coasting in my education, in my job, even in my relationship.

I realized how dull my life had been.

The next day I dropped out of school and dumped my boyfriend, Cameron.

Any woman would be lucky to have Cam. He was chivalrous, a feminist, pre-med at ASU, beautiful brown eyes; hell, the man even modeled for the cover of a sweet romance novel.

That was the problem.

I grew out of sweet romance novels a long time ago, and they just didn’t excite me anymore. Especially the sex. He was gentle and loving, always so predictably dull.

I didn’t want that anymore; I wanted spontaneity, adventure, and for the love of all that was holy, I needed good sex. Hair pulling, scratching, toe curling, take me against a wall and make sure I feel it for the next week sex.

I needed a career that made me excited to get out of bed in the morning and a lover that made me just as happy to crawl back into it.

I needed excitementsomewherein my life. I needed to feel my heart race from anything other than doing laps around Roadrunner Park.

Be careful what you wish for, though, right?

A black shape darted past my face, close enough to brush the tip of my nose before I fell on my ass hard.

“FUCK!”

What the hell was that? Then I saw it; well, several of them. Bats flew over the surface of the lake, swooping down from the caves in the surrounding mountains to snatch up a few bugs for their breakfast.

Shit! I broke the first rule of running in the park. I got lost in my thoughts. I lost track of time and wasn’t aware of my surroundings. At least it was only a cute little bat that almost hit me.

My best friend's voice rang through my head.Come on, Tori; this is basic How Not to Be a Victim 101! You pay attention!

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