~Louis~
That kiss had been...wow. He hadn't expected it to come out of nowhere like it did, but he was more than glad that he'd taken the opportunity to finally show her where he stood.
And it seemed like he knew where she stood as well, especially after her reaction to it.
The entire school day, he thought she'd been avoiding him because she didn't want to be involved with him any longer, so of course he had to confront her and get to the bottom of it, but the words she'd spoken had struck him to his core.
He felt so stupid for not realizing it first. Of course she would have relationship and commitment issues if every man she'd ever loved had either left her or hurt her. She must have had a very skewed idea of what a relationship really was, and he knew he was going to have his work cut out for him in changing her mind, but he didn't care.
After that kiss, he knew that she was his, body and soul. But he was hers as well, their connection to each other something he'd never dreamed he could ever feel with another person.
Walking her to her next class, hand in hand, he felt his chest lighten and an easy smile found its way to his face.
With her beside him, the atmosphere was brighter, the scent of adolescent hormones and desperate perfume that usually permeated the air seemed to fall away, as did the usually dark and dreary halls that made him long to have a class outside.
But in that moment with her, walking together proudly displaying their connection to one another, he felt content for the first time in a very long time, and he wasn't about to let anything ruin that, or anyone.
"Thanks for walking me to my class," she started, a small blush appearing on her cheeks.
"It would be better if I was in it with you. At least we have one together towards the end of the day," he said, leaning close to her and pushing a strand of stray dark hair behind her ear.
It made her shiver, and he couldn't help the smile that stretched his features because of it.
The smile that, once he peeked into the classroom to check for his cousin Henry, completely disappeared when his eyes landed on one person in particular that had no business in his school, his only sanctuary.
Standing there at the back of the classroom where all of the royal guards usually silently watched over the classes was the man Louis had run into the night before at Malia's home, the man that she said she had said goodbye to at his funeral, whatever that had meant.
He wasn't worried about him at that moment though, because before he could figure out what was happening, Malia had slipped her hand out of his own and marched through the doors up to the man in question who stood at just about the same height as he, which was well above six feet, drew her hand back slapped him across his face in front of the entire class.
~Malia~
I had regretted it before my palm ever connected with his face. It was like I was a different person, someone possessed by anger and pain and pure unbridled rage...
Daniel had invaded my home, and then my school. In my eyes, he didn't deserve to be spared my justice for what he'd done to not only me, but to his entire family.
Dressed in an all black tee shirt and black dress pants, he looked just like the rest of the royal guards that were stationed with every royal, especially Louis, at the school: ever present but inconspicuous, as if they were trying to be invisible to everyone but the enemy.
I didn't understand why he would still even be in England, when his family must have seen the news where their son was alive and kicking, instead of blown up in pieces halfway across the world like they'd thought for years.
I did regret the slap at first, but thinking of his sweet mother and her soft brown eyes as they'd shed tear after countless tear at his visitation, his funeral, and then the gravesite, not to mention the multiple other times I'd seen her since his 'death', I couldn't bring myself to feel even a tiny ounce of remorse for what I'd done.
It was like all of the happy and content feelings from my kiss with Louis were replaced with a shock as soon as my eyes found him in my classroom at the very back, standing behind Henry's desk, who didn't look all that happy to see me either.
I wondered briefly if he had something to do with Daniel being there, but then shook the thought away, knowing that that was just my paranoia creeping in again.
The entire class were wide eyed and went as silent as I had ever heard them, and even the teacher who looked like she could have bench pressed the weight of half the entire class at once, looked...scared?
I didn't know what to do next, so when my eyes met Daniel's in a fit of defiance and anger, I faltered.
Sorrow filled his jaded eyes, and I felt that pesky regret again. What had he said the night before, that he was forced to fake his own death, or he would have died for real? I wondered if he was actually telling the truth...
But since his fake death was out in the open, he didn't have any reason to still be in England...right?
"I...I guess I deserved that. I didn't realize you'd be in any of his classes. I'm sorry, I'll excuse myself," Daniel started, casting a glance at Henry and then I put two and two together.
"Don't bother, I was just leaving."
I stormed past Henry's desk giving him my best death glare while he simply smiled at me and gave me a mocking wave with his fingers and I was finally alone in the hallway where I could collect my thoughts.
"Malia..."
Nope. Not alone.
I turned slowly and saw Louis approaching me with his hands up like he was trying to come up to a dangerous and wounded animal, and the sight made me crack a smile.
God he was so gorgeous, even dressed in the same attire as everyone else in the school, his body and those eyes and that hair...they all made him stand out. He didn't need the royal title to be different, he was intriguing by himself without it.
Laughter bubbled up in my chest at the sight of him trying to appear calm, which made him think I was making fun of him probably and then a scowl appeared on that gorgeous face.
"I'm sorry, its just that you're acting like I'm some kind of danger to you."
"Well, you are, and you should know that by now."
My eyebrows furrowed with the double meaning of his words. I was dangerous to him?
"Why did you just slap him like that? And what did you mean last night when you said that you had already told him goodbye at his funeral?"
I brought a hand to my face in fatigue and another to my ribs, wishing they hadn't chosen that time to start throbbing like crazy.
"Not here. How do you feel about skipping?"
Then the easy smirk was back, replacing the scowl that I hated to see on him.
"Why, Princess, that's my specialty. But you're going to tell me everything, right?"
"I will if you will. I know you know more about that gang leader than you were letting on when you told me about him earlier."
He looked like a little kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar when I mentioned that I knew he had lied to me.
"That was more for my safety than yours, trust me. I've had a lot of people try to get close to me for information, only to capture my heart and then treat it like nothing more than a liability."
Ouch. That didn't do much for my ego to know that he thought I was just some con artist after royal secrets.
I stepped closer to him, the scent of his pine and amber cologne clogging my senses.
"What made you decide I was worth it then? That I wasn't some fake?"
He reached out to pull me to him between the marginal space left between us and a small smile crossed his features, a genuine one, not mocking or teasing.
"If I'm being honest with myself, I knew even when I withheld information from you, I was just too scared to admit to myself that you were the real thing."
Breath flushed out of my lungs in a flurry and my heart did a weird somersault thing that should have sent me running for the hills.
I had allowed my heart to be crushed one too many times by men who couldn't have cared less about me, but for some reason, Louis felt different.
I could tell that he didn't want to hurt me, and that was a welcome change to the men in my past, that was for sure.
"Come on, let's go forget about all of that drama and I'll go tell you all my secrets," I told him, pulling him impossibly close for a chaste kiss on the lips that had me smiling through the whole thing.
Just as we were exiting the building hand in hand I noticed Gordon following us out, the ever present shadow, and I wondered if he had witnessed our kiss, the slap, and then the other kiss.
He reminded me of a silent James Bond type, and had a tattoo of a horse with a skull head peeking through the fabric of his black short sleeve shirt on his shoulder.
He ushered us into a smaller version of Louis' signature black limousine and I suddenly remembered the research I'd done on the King's Horses gang and their leader's symbol: a horse with a skull head.
*******
Author's Note:
Dun dunndunnnn!
And so the plot thickens! Or does it??
What did you think of this chapter?
What do you think will happen next?
What do you WANT to happen next??
Any theories on who the leader is/who is involved?
Theories on Malia's real father?? ;)
Until next time my lovely readers,
Kristen :)