2019, March 23rd“Shouldn’t we stop this?!” Zoey asked, feeling an eerie, numbing dread come over her. “Let’s give them a few,” said Cassandra. “Boys will be boys, right? They’ll stop soon.”“I hope you’re right, My Lady,” said Bart, settling in to watch.10 minutes later…“The fight is still ongoing and both sides are starting to look trigger happy. Now can we shut this down?!” CC exclaimed. “Alright, here’s the play. Everybody does exactly what I say and hopefully we won’t lose anyone today. Now I just need to know one thing. Emily, rumour has it your father’s army never knew a better sniper than you. Is that true?”“Put a gun in my hand and we’ll find out.”Aaron and James had both been training rigorously since they were able. Aaron was faster, lighter on his feet, but James had brute strength and his time on the run on his side. Both men were getting tired, but of the two, Aaron was taking more hits than he was landing. James had a rage coursing through his veins the likes of
2019, March 1stAaron was in a world of misery. The proposal had been a disaster, ending with Zoey simply walking away without responding. He hadn’t seen her since. To make matters worse, neither of his siblings was talking to him. CC hadn’t been home since she found out how James had gotten shot and James, though he and Emily managed to patch things up and were once again engaged, was staying clear of the palace. With the impending coronation around the corner, King Henry and Duke Arden were done waiting on Zoey and Aaron. And so it was that Aaron and Zoey’s engagement party was scheduled, without them meeting or resolving anything, for the 3rd of March. The palace had spent the last two weeks preparing for it. Aaron was in two minds. Of course, he wanted her to be his wife, more than he wanted there to be oxygen in his lungs, but not like this. He didn’t want to force her. As he was wrestling with this, there was a knock on his door. “Your Highness has visitors,” came Jesse’s voi
2019, March 1stAs soon as they slipped out, Aaron planted a soft, slow, sensual kiss on Zoey’s lips. Perhaps their problem was that they’d been talking too much lately. He didn’t know if he could undo the seeds of doubt he’d sown in her heart, but he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to try. She didn’t pull away. Maybe she was just caught up in the moment, but she responded to his kiss with a longing, a need, the likes of which Aaron had never experienced before. He didn’t care if it was just her being caught up in the moment or if she would, in her next breath, say that she didn’t want to marry him. Because she had opened herself up to him in a way, she’d never done before. It was like she was handing him her heart with her lips. And try as she might, there would be no getting rid of him now. “Give me the next two days,” he whispered on her lips. “Aaron-” She wanted to say she would give him forever. If he had asked her to marry him at that moment, she would have said yes without qu
2019, March 23rd (An hour after the fight) “Ma!” James exclaimed as his mother walked into the drawing room. He went to her and hugged her. “Where have you been?! I’ve been worried!” “You worry about yourself. Look at you! What could have possessed you boys to pull a stunt like that? You need to take a shower and get these wounds treated.” “Where were you, mom?” James persisted. She was quiet for a moment, trying to tell them what she needed to say. “So I’m going to go with Aaron,” Cassandra finally announced. “The hell you are!” James exploded. She went up to Zoey and said, “Of course, what you decide to do is up to you, dear.” “What is happening right now? Mom! Cassandra Beaumont!” James called after his mom, who only proceeded upstairs anyway. Everyone’s eyes darted back and forth between James and Zoey. “No one is going anywhere with HIM! There’s no way. He’s lost it!” James declared, before stomping out the room. “Well, that went well,” said Zoey, sighing a
2019, March 23rdJames saw Zoey’s face when she saw Aaron’s beat up body. He was surprised that she was spending this time with him and not Aaron. The thought sent him into a frenzy. He was picturing it before he could stop himself. Her hands touching Aaron's chest, his abdomen, his arms, his face, everything as she tended to his wounds. All the places she had just been touching James. It was a visual he did not love and cursed his brain for creating. He had to stop thinking before he said or did something to frighten her. “Hey when I am going to see your paintings? I showed you mine. Show me yours?”“You already saw one of mine and you were super critical. I’m afraid I can’t subject myself to such negativity again,” she said, sticking her nose up in the air. “Aah, I see. So they all suck worse than kindergarten crayon drawings,” he teased. “Hey!” she laughed, holding her hand to her chest as she pretended to be offended. “You know, it’s probably not your fault. Your teacher p
2019, March 3thIt was anyone’s guess how tonight would go. Zoey had spent all of yesterday doing a bunch of girls’ stuff with CC. In other words, she’d spent the day avoiding Aaron and would likely pass today the same way. Aaron had made up his mind. If he could only get a moment to speak to Zoey, he would tell her everything. About Emily, about how long he had been struggling to get her out of his system, about how finally, finally he had done it. And now there was only Zoey. Aaron kept replaying the last time he saw her in his head. He should have stopped her, told her everything. Saying nothing would only mean losing her, anyway. When the moment of truth came, however, Zoey was nowhere to be found. “Whose brilliant idea was it for this to be a masquerade ball?!” Aaron thundered, annoyed. As he waded through the crowd, heading to the throne to ask his parents if they knew where Zoey was, he saw James enter. He watched as James made his way to Emily. Just as he was about to reach
2019, March 3thMeanwhile, as James stepped out onto the terrace, he ran into Zoey. “Shouldn’t you be in there? A pretty lady like yourself?” he asked.“Dude, don’t bother. I have a fiancé. Sort of,” she answered. It was evident that she didn’t recognize him because of the mask. He thought about taking it off, but then decided not to.“Is this sort of fiancé going to get to dance with you?”“I don’t know,” she sighed. “I see. So you have a sort of fiancé that you don’t know if you want to dance with,” he said, coming to stand next to her. “Sounds like you’re just trying to get rid of me.”“I am not! I really do have a fiancé! You may have heard of him, Prince Aaron,” she said, somewhat snobbishly. This amused him. “Oh, THE Prince Aaron, huh?”“Yeah, so you better back up, buddy!”“You know, Aaron’s not a bad guy. He’s just gotten past something and it took him a long time to do it, but he did. Because of you.”She looked at him, raising a suspicious eyebrow.“Do I know you?”He s
2019, March 24th "You were going to let her shoot me?!" James asked, shocked. "It would have been a tranq dart," Bart shrugged. "And that makes it okay?!" "Better than shooting the soon to be crown prince, who had more resources at his disposal," Bart reasoned. "Unbelievable," James replied, turning to CC. "And you were just going to let him have me shot?!" "Limited options," CC grimaced. "Em is an excellent shot. If she had shot you, you would've been fine," said Johnny. "Or maybe not, I don't know. Could've been the perfect murder. You know, didn't mean to shoot you ten times kinda thing." "Who needs an army to kill me when the people I'm sharing my house with are ready to do the job?" James mumbled. Emily had been buried in spreadsheets and paperwork all morning and had not been paying attention to them. "James, did you do business with my father?" Emily asked. "Some, here and there. Why?" he asked. "Just looking into some things. Make me a list of businesses, people tha