Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) - Rose B. Mashal Page 0,129

don’t blame you for wanting to leave.”

His reply, though reassuring, made a new thought occur to me. Now that he knew I’d wanted to leave all along, and had sworn that he wouldn’t have made me stay had he known I didn’t like it here...would he send me back to the States now?

The answer to that was obviously ‘yes’ and just realizing it made my stomach twist in a unpleasant way. Of course he would send me back now. He said he would’ve come up with something else had he known I wasn’t okay with staying here.

Oddly, I found that I wasn’t that attached to the thought of leaving the palace anymore, and that perplexing thought was more confusing than anything else. But then I got even more confused when I started wondering how long it would take him to come up with something to let me leave, without making anything look suspicious to others about my departure. I found a part of me wishing it would take him long enough for me to be able to gather my thoughts together. After all, why would he want me here if his sister was finally safe, as well as her reputation?

My stomach twisted again.

“Wait,” I said when he was getting up, stopping him once again. When he looked at me, waiting to hear what I wanted to say, I didn’t really know how to say it.

A moment or two passed before I found the will to tell him, “That kiss I gave you before I left? It was real.” For some reason, I begged with everything in me for him to believe me. Even if I wasn’t able to believe what I was saying myself, or found it hard to admit it, I still wanted him to believe me.

The prince kept his eyes locked with mine for a few seconds before his lips drew a soft smile and then he leaned down and pressed those beautiful lips of his to my forehead, kissing it softly before pulling back the slightest to look closely into my eyes.

“I know that very well,” he whispered. “Sleep now, My Princess.”

At that moment, I found that of all the words he’d used before; ‘My’ was the best word he’d ever chosen to put prior my title.

The smile I had on my lips as I fell asleep was still present when I woke up a few hours later.

Light was still shining from outside the window, telling me that I hadn’t slept that long, but I didn’t feel the need to go back to sleep. I sat up on the bed and looked around, finding the room to be completely empty.

I stretched in bed, rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, then called, “Mona!”

Less than a minute later, she was knocking and then opening the door.

“Good afternoon, Princess,” she smiled. “Can I get you anything?”

“Where’s the prince?” I asked, covering my mouth with the back of my hand as I yawned.

“He’s in the living room, Princess,” she answered. “I’ll go call him if you wish.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I’ll do it in a few minutes,” I told her and she smiled. “I’ll use the bathroom and freshen up a bit. Could you please bring me one of those beautiful dresses I saw in the closet?”

“Yes, of course,” she said, “Right away.” She disappeared into the closet and I got off the bed and went into the bathroom, doing my thing. Mona helped me into a dress similar to the ones I’d worn the past few days, but this one had a ridiculously big sweetheart neckline that showed a heck of lot of cleavage. It fitted above the waist, and the rest was a loose, silky, floor-length skirt covered with another layer of chiffon, colored the same shade of mauve as the rest of the dress. It had wide sleeves that gave the whole dress an even more elegant look to it. I liked it a lot.

Mona brushed my hair for me as we made small talk about the incense she was going to use for the day. I couldn’t tell what most of the scents she named were, so I asked her to stick with what she’d used the past two days.

She then told me that food would be ready soon and I thanked her before she left the room, closing the door behind her.

I checked myself in the mirror, being very aware that that dress definitely made my breasts look bigger. My diamond cross necklace just looked perfect