Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) - Rose B. Mashal Page 0,130

with anything I wore. Smiling, I went to the secret door into the living room and opened it, stepping inside.

The prince was sitting in the same armchair he’d been sitting in earlier, his head leaning back as he breathed evenly with his eyes closed, seeming to have slept while sitting there.

He looked...adorable, a term that I was pretty sure this powerful man in front of me wouldn’t like to hear me saying out loud about his looks.

I found myself smiling sweetly as I studied his beautiful face. His jaw was simply perfect, and his cheekbones still called to me to touch them, kiss them even. They just looked so soft and...touchable.

On his lap lay a few papers that had things on them I couldn’t understand, scripts and patterns I didn’t know what they meant. I briefly wondered if he was writing in his diary or something, but they were papers, not a notebook. The blue ink pen was still in his hand, his knuckles had a light shade of blue bruises on them and I wanted to kiss it away.

I reached to take the pen from his hand, but just an inch before my hand touched the pen, the prince’s hand caught mine and he grabbed it hard, holding it in place. I yelped when his grip on it tightened, as he jerked his body up in a split second to stand fully on his feet.

His already wide eyes, that were staring at my equally wide ones, grew even larger when he realized it was me he was holding by the hand. He let out a word that sounded like a curse before he instantly loosened his grip on my hand, but didn’t completely let it go.

“Princess!” he said, taking my hand and bringing it to his mouth to kiss the back of it. “I’m sorry.” He kissed the inside of it, “I’m so sorry,” before rubbing my wrist where he had gripped.

My shock was replaced with the warmth that his kiss sent straight to my heart, and the calmness that washed over my every sense. I smiled at him, reassuring him that I was fine. “I’m sorry I startled you,” I apologized with a soft voice.

“No, it’s okay, I don’t know how that happened,” he said, cracking his neck on both sides.

I smiled. “You’re human; humans tend to sleep every now and then, you know?”

His smile was kind when he returned mine, and then he brought the back of my hand to his lips and kissed it again, rubbing it one more time before letting it go. He got down on one knee and collected the papers off of the floor, then went to do the same thing he’d done to the papers when he taught me about the secret passageways: burn them in a trash can.

When he was done, he said, “I wonder what time it is.” I replied that it was almost three, for it was two-thirty before I came into the living room.

“You should get some sleep,” I told him.

“No, it’s a good thing you woke me up, I should pray before I miss it,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ll be right back.” I nodded, smiling, wondering if he’d noticed my dress or was going to comment on it–something in me wanted to hear a compliment from him, which was so unlike me. It was never something I’d wanted. I knew I was beautiful, and I never fished for compliments from anyone to prove to myself that I really was–but it was different with him.

Sighing, I went to the window and gazed out of it, my thoughts worrying me a bit. I wanted to follow the prince and watch him while he prayed–because I liked doing that so much–but I stopped myself. Something was changing inside of me, my feelings and...my views.

It was like I wanted him to stay close, very close. I didn’t want him to be in one room while I was in the other–a fact that I was a little bit aware of even before I’d tried to escape. Even then, I’d known that I was keeping the pain I was feeling, at the thought of never seeing him again, blocked away until I got back home where I could think clearly, and cry freely.

It was like I wanted him to always look at me that way he looked at me: kindly, smiling, and even admiring, as I liked to think. Because when his eyes held other emotions than