of what it meant to be in a relationship with a prince, he was worth it. In the middle of all this mess, he made me feel normal. We spoke every day and I missed him while he was gone. I missed him a lot. Taking a deep breath, I stood up and tucked my phone in my pants. There was no going back at this point. The scariest part was that I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
Mrs. Rewell spent the majority of the rest of the week working on my lessons. By Friday I could manage most of the phrases I would need for the ceremony. There had been speculation about me and Alex, but no one brought it up. In fact, the last time I’d seen a picture of Alex in the paper, the reporter had been speculating that Alex was secretly dating Adriane again. It had hurt, but I knew better than to give it any credit. Alex had attended a charity event that Adriane had set up, but had asked me to come with him. In fact, he asked me to go to every event he attended. I was the one who kept saying no. I just wasn’t ready to deal with the media explosion that would happen when it was official. I refused to look at the papers after that and even Chadwick had stopped reading them when I was around.
When Alex came that weekend, he didn’t bring up that I had turned down his invitations. Instead we spent time in his giant tub and relaxed. Well, relaxed some. I really liked his tub and not just because of the jets, though those were nice.
“You know, when you picture having sex in a bathtub, it always seems romantic and erotic, but then when you actually attempt it, there’s nowhere to put your legs. And you slosh water over the top.” I crawled onto his lap and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“Is that so?” He ran his wet hands up over my back.
“Mmmhmm.” I tilted my head back while he trailed kisses over my collarbone and down to my breasts. “Not this one though.”
“Why is that?” His words were muffled because he was paying so much attention to my nipple.
“Because it’s so—” He gripped my thighs and lifted me so I could slide down over his thick shaft.
“So what?” His teeth caught my earlobe and tugged gently.
“Big.” I moaned as he shifted under me.
The rest of our conversation consisted of nothing more than the sound of our lovemaking. His growls of desire answered my moans of pleasure. When we finally fell over the edge, it was a blinding sensation that left me gasping.
Later that night we collapsed in his bed, the sheets tangled around our legs.
“Are you staying?” His fingers ran over the skin of my back and I sighed in contentment.
“Do you want me to?”
“Yes.” There was no hesitation to the reply.
“Then I’ll stay as long as you want.” I pressed a kiss to his jaw and snuggled closer. The nights I spent with Alex were always the best and sleep came easily. Being with him quieted my anxiety and the constant worry. I almost didn’t hear what he said next.
“Forever.” He mumbled the word against my hair. “Stay forever.”
My heart did a little dance and I smiled as I cuddled even closer to him. Alex had wiggled his way into my heart despite my best efforts, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Who would have guessed that the day he blocked my way into the library, he’d also changed the entire course of my life?
The following week was much the same. No news about Dad, but he did seem to be adjusting to the medicine. He wasn’t as grumpy and Patricia said he was finally keeping food down. Dr. Bielefeld hadn’t called me with any more information, but his assistant had sent me a package of potential treatments to look over. I also spent a lot of time with Simone. We went over cases from local families who had issues with land or tax problems, and I wrote my first check for charity after seeing a home destroyed by fire. I had folders full of notes and names. Chadwick and I spent several evenings researching computer programs that were easy and efficient to use. I needed a filing system and while I preferred to take notes by hand, I wasn’t fond of the idea of having eight hundred file cabinets.
I found that