~Louis~
The man who the tabloids had accused Malia of cheating on Louis with was standing in his way, and although he knew there was no way she could cheat on him if they weren't really together, seeing him in her home made him feel a flash of something he hadn't felt in a long time: jealousy.
He had been invited in for tea while the other gentleman had seemed like he was just leaving, something that needed to happen soon otherwise Louis could feel the anger needing to come out and find an outlet to attach itself to...preferably the new guy's face.
"Goodbye, Daniel."
Malia's voice was harsh and that almost made Louis smile but he reminded himself to remember his manners in front of her family.
The new guy was roughly the same height as Louis although Louis had roughly a half inch on him. He seemed like he was trying to be threatening, a permanent scowl etched onto his face that looked like it had seen better days but he could tell why Malia had been with him once upon a time, and it was clear that it had been a few years since those pictures had been taken with them together that were plastered all over the internet.
He wondered why someone would go to so much trouble to paint Malia in a bad light for having an ex boyfriend, as lots of people had exes they had to deal with, but finding their old relationship pictures and posting them as if they were still together was a bit...strange to say the least.
The man brushed past Louis and turned to head out the door, but not before saying something to Malia that sounded a lot like a threat.
"I'll leave now, but this isn't the end. This is not the way we say goodbye forever."
"I thought I already said goodbye to you forever at your funeral, I much prefer that parting to this one."
Louis' head was spinning with unanswered questions just begging to be asked, but the way her aunt was holding onto her and the amount of tears still falling from Malia's eyes told him that he had better wait a while before asking.
As soon as the door was shut, more like slammed, behind them, Louis decided to try and brighten the mood.
"So, how about that tea everyone?"
He'd made her grandmother smile at least.
"My God, who knew adopting a teenager would be this stressful. Marissa, you and your sister didn't have this many gentleman callers before did you?"
He saw Malia crack a smile and that was enough to make Louis feel certain that it was alright to joke around with her again, but the sight of her tears made him want to unravel in the very spot that he stood.
He wanted to turn around out the door and follow that bloke and punch him to the ground for making her cry, but he knew he didn't have the full story and would probably just cause more trouble than anything if he did something like that.
"I-I'm sure you have a lot of questions.." Malia started, but couldn't seem to get the words out of her mouth fast enough.
"Yes, quite a few actually, but they can wait until we've had that tea, right?"
Her grandmother's eyes softened in relief and Malia even relaxed at his words and although he felt rage coiling up inside with the thought of what that man could have done to her, but he pulled it all up and shoved it to the back corners of his mind, for Malia's sake. That didn't mean he'd ever forget.
The anguished look on her face was enough to make him realize that he couldn't ever do anything to hurt her, no matter what the cost would be. He refused to be the cause of any tears spilling their way down her perfect porcelain skin on her face.
He followed her grandparents and aunt into the dining area, admiring the interior design as it reminded him of a comforting home, not too clean and impersonal like the royal palace was, at least in the living quarters.
The rest of the palace was full of mystique and grandeur, alive with the pomp and circumstance that came with the royal family.
It had taken him a moment to realize Malia hadn't followed the rest of her family into the sitting room off the kitchen, where they were already gathering their fine china to serve their tea.
"Where's your guard? I'd figure after the events today they'd want to keep you on a...short leash."
He chuckled at that, wondering if she thought he had a secret service like detail, like the president of her country back home did.
"He's outside hanging around the yard, he doesn't have to be glued to my side every second of the day. I told him to wait outside for a bit."
Her cheeks grew pink and he wondered what he'd said to make her blush.
"Oh, so it's not like in those action movies where he's like a trained assassin?"
"No, he could kill a man in ten different ways with just his thumbs, but that's why he can stray from my side a little bit."
Her eyes grew wide and he felt the laughter booming from his chest.
"I'm only kidding...slightly. He is a very trained guard."
Her eyebrows raised in half fear and fascination and he could tell there was more she wanted to say.
The air between them felt charged with a promise not yet spoken aloud, a temptation that he wanted to reach out and grab.
He wanted nothing more than to tuck her long dark tendrils of hair behind her ear and kiss her with a passion that he knew she felt for him as well.
But he couldn't...she had clearly shown that she wasn't interested in him more than once, and he'd almost chased her off for good by confronting her that day in Wilmington, demanding to know what her angle was.
He had always been guarded, and he needed to know if she was just trying to play him like the other girls had been. At that point, she had only been a mere fascination to him, someone who broke the mold and was different.
But then he slowly started to learn her secrets and grow closer to her, and that fascination then turned into...longing? Or maybe it was intrigue.
He knew one thing for sure, now that he knew her and some of her secrets...he never wanted to not know her. He had to be near her, had to be in her life somehow.
At that time when he had been so terrible to her he only wanted a rise out of her and then for her to prove that she was the same typical person that only wanted to be with him for the sake of his title or to 'expose' him like one other girl had. She'd been enrolled as a student when she was really an interning journalist at the most popular gossip magazine in the country to try and get closer to him.
He figured the school had more rigorous background checks than that, but the truth was that anyone could skip past the defenses and after that scandal his father had almost withdrawn him from school completely to be tutored at home but he had pleaded and begged to not let that happen.
His social life was one of the things that kept his life interesting and filled with something at least resembling fun whereas private tutoring at home would be more drab than his royal lessons.
Malia's voice brought him back to the scene in front of him and realized he'd been inching closer and closer to her, his face mere centimeters away from her.
She was looking up at him expectantly through her thick dark lashes, as if she'd said something and was waiting for him to respond.
"What?"
She cracked a small smile, the corners of her eyes slanting as she did so.
"I asked you if you meant to kiss me here, with all my family in the next room..."
Oh. Oh.
He cracked a smirk then and decided to play it off as if he had done it all on purpose.
"Why, Lady Spencer, was that you coming onto me?"
Her cheeks grew the most adorable shade of pink and he couldn't wait until he could make them do it again.
"No...you were the one leaning into me..."
He made her flustered, that much he knew. He wondered just how affected by him she was, and that made him want to try something out.
He leaned impossibly close, close enough to scent the jasmine and vanilla notes of her perfume lifting from her skin and finding their way to his nose, making him almost forget what he was about to do and just kiss her already, but he refrained, wanting to know where he stood first.
His breath washed over her ear.
"Is this too close for your family?"
His arms trailed up her side and she stiffened, and he wondered if it was out of fear of what he was doing or if she was enjoying herself more than she let on.
He heard her gulp, and smiled a bit more, knowing he was affecting her just as much as she was affecting him.
"Louis..."
His name on her lips was like a symphony of instruments playing a beautiful melody. It was almost his undoing.
His lips brushed her ear and he heard her take in a deep breath of air and she put her arms up to his chest, sending more waves of desire coursing through him.
He wondered what actually kissing her would do to him, if this was just what the teasing felt like.
"Maybe you should stop before-"
She was cut off by the sound of a voice clearing and her very stern looking grandfather. He was a Duke or Earl of somewhere, he couldn't remember in that moment, and he was tapping his foot impatiently.
"Malia, the tea is getting cold..."
Louis heard the impatience in his voice and almost laughed aloud at them getting busted by her family not once but twice, remembering how her aunt had caught them in a compromising position in their kitchen before.
Louis leaned closer and whispered in her ear, "We'll pick this up later," and by the visible lust apparent in her eyes he knew that she was just as attracted to him as he was to her, but he wondered briefly if desire was enough to keep her close to him, or if she was as deeply connected to him as he was to her.
For Louis, Malia would be it for him, and the thought both terrified him and excited him in the exact same breath.
*****
Author's note:
Told you there'd be romance!!
Things are just heating up!!
What do you think will happen next?
What do you WANT to happen next??
Are you enjoying the book so far?? Let me know your thoughts!
Until next time my lovely readers,
Kristen :)