Chapter 25 – Desta
DESTA
We stopped at a petrol station, where he returned with breakfast for us, followed by a sporting goods store.
I didn’t get out of the car at the petrol station, and that’s no different now at the store.
Ferrin was adamant I wait for him, so I am, keeping my head down and low.
The minutes tick by, and for the second time this morning, I keep staring at my texts with my mother.
Then something hits me and hits me hard.
She sent the man for me. I already knew that, but he knew where to find me. I sit up a little straighter and glance around, but no one is looking twice at the car or me. I sink back down and return to my phone.
Me: You sent a man after me.
She replies instantly.
Mother: For him to bring you back to me. Where are you? You’re supposed to be coming to me.
I knew it. I fucking knew it!
Me: I’m not coming back, and I killed your henchman. He attacked me. I know what you did. I just don’t know why you did it.
Mother: Whatever you think you know, you’re wrong.
Me: You took me. I’m the stolen princess. Aren’t I, Mother?
She doesn’t reply for a few long, tense moments, the silence making my heart beat faster and faster, and sweat collect on the back of my neck under my hair. I quickly pleat it into a braid, but it’s no use. Finally, she puts me out of my misery.
Mother: It’s not what you think. I’m not the one who stole you.
Holy shit. She admitted it. I’m her. I’m the princess. My hands tremble as I reply.
Me: Then who is?
Mother: You were supposed to be mine. You are mine. And I won’t let anyone take you from me again.
I shake my head. I don’t understand that. Not even a little.
I see Ferrin coming out of the store, his arms loaded with bags, and I get out of the car.
He frowns when he sees me, but I take my phone and slam it down on the ground.
It makes a delightful cracking sound, and a piece of black plastic flies off.
But that’s not good enough. I jump up and down on it before I pick it up and chuck it at a lamppost. It hits it dead on, which fills me with a sense of pride, especially as it splinters into at least a dozen pieces.
Ferrin stops before me, a curious yet amused expression on his face. “Problem with your phone, princess?”
“My mother.”
That hint of a grin curves down. “What happened?”
“I told her I wasn’t coming back. That I”—I glance around to make sure we’re alone—“killed her henchman—”
“Why did you do that?”
“Because I don’t want her to know you’re with me. I told her I knew I was the stolen princess.”
He steps forward. “What did she say?”
“She didn’t say yes or no directly but essentially confirmed it when she told me she’s not the one who stole me. That I was supposed to be hers and that she won’t let anyone take me again.”
He hisses something in Danish under his breath and goes to the trunk of the car, opens it and tosses all the bags in before he slams it shut.
“Get in.”
The doors click shut, and he starts the car before he peels out of the parking lot.
“She was tracking me. She sent that guy for me. That’s how he knew where I was last night.”
“I was being tracked too,” he tells me. “They had a tracker in my bag. You went to the restaurant I was supposed to meet him at. Maybe he saw you.”
“No. She knew I wasn’t on my way to her. She had tracking on my phone somehow.”
It makes sense and fuck me for blowing that notion off because of how old her phone is.
We pull back onto the autoroute and head south, the sun high in the sky.
“She knows what my dream is. She knows I want to go to the festival.”
“We need to talk about that,” he says in a low, measured tone.
“I’m going. Fuck her.”
He smirks and reaches over to tug on the bottom of my braid that’s hanging around my waist. “Darlin’, I’m not saying we don’t go.
I’m saying we have to be strategic about it.
More than that…” He pauses and throws me a quick side-eye before returning to the road.
“Prince Rowan attends the event every year. Desta, do you want to meet him? Do you want to meet your brother?”
That chokes me up, and I look out the window, giving him the back of my head. The notion that I have a family out there. A real one. With siblings. I squeeze two fingers, holding them tight, overwrought with all of this.
“They won’t believe I’m her.”
“They will once they hear your story and see you. It’s getting to that part that may be tricky. Not to mention your mother will do everything in her power to prevent that meeting.”
I sniffle and wipe at the tears on my cheeks. “What happens if they don’t want to see me or they don’t believe I’m her or they’re horrible? What happens when I start to hope—truly allow it to take root within me—and it’s nothing as I imagined? It’s a nightmare instead of a dream.”
“What happens if you don’t take the risk despite knowing what it could turn out to be?”
“So what?” I twist back to him. “I’m suddenly going to be a princess? That feels ridiculous. I’ve spent my life living alone in a cottage. I cook and clean and garden and sew and talk to feral animals because I have no friends.”
He wraps my braid around his fist and uses it to tug me closer to him. “Life is far from a fairytale, princess, but if you’re handed the key to the palace, you use it to unlock the door. Whether you choose to stay is up to you, but if you don’t try, you’ll always wonder and regret it.”
He’s right. I know he’s right.
“You know, if this thieving stuff doesn’t work out for you, maybe you should become a therapist.”
He chokes out a laugh. “Not sure that’s the career change I’m after. And you’re dodging me. As your therapist, I don’t think that’s wise.”
I nibble on his earlobe. “I never said you’d be my therapist.”
“Princess…”
“Ugh. Can we talk about it tomorrow? I want today to be normal with no one following us or trying to kill us.”
He grins and gives my hair another tug. “That’s my plan.”
The moment we step out of the car, I can smell and feel the sea. Briny freshness mixed with a cool humidity hit me in the face and tickle the stray hairs escaping my braid. I take a deep inhale, my back and neck arching to accommodate it, my eyes closing, and a smile spreading wide across my lips.
I don’t ask why Ferrin is doing this with me.
I’m not sure I want answers. They won’t help me, but him taking me here, him buying gear so we can camp out under the stars with the waves nearby…
it’s doing things to me. Things to my mind, but worse, things to my heart.
He’s not someone I get to keep, but that doesn’t mean I’m anxious for him to go either.
That feeling grows stronger when I open my eyes and find him watching me with a look I can’t decipher on his face. It’s one that makes my stomach flutter and my skin itchy. He must see it on my face because a smile that makes those belly flutters swoop hits me, followed by a wink.
I laugh and flip him off, which makes him laugh too.
“Come here, princess. Help me carry this stuff.”
He opens the trunk and tosses a large, soft, cylindrical bag at me. I catch it and loop it under my arm before I grab another bag and my own.
“It’s this way. Be careful. The rocks are a motherfucker.”
“Meaning…”
He tosses his head back over his shoulder and catches me scrunching my nose.
“It’s an expression.”
“You realize I have mother issues right now, right?”
He holds up a hand carrying a large cloth bag. “Fine. Sorry. It’s the opposite of you.”
“What does that mean?”
He laughs. “Easy as pie when you let me between your thighs.”
I swing one of the bags and hit him in the back with it, which makes him laugh harder.
“I’m kidding. But seriously, stay behind me, and if you need a break or help, let me know.”
“I can handle it. I’m tougher than I look.”
“I know it, and I’ve seen it.”
The bastard, who is too gorgeous and irresistible for words, smacks a kiss on my cheek, then goes in front of me to make sure I don’t fall.
It’s not helping me. If anything, it’s making my problem worse.
But it’s too late now, so I’ll just push the romantic, girly notions I’ve fostered my entire life through the pages of romance books away as best I can.
Or not.
Maybe I’ll live in the romance and fantasy, and when it’s over, I’ll cry the tears of heartbreak and enjoy them because I’ll know I had something different.
I mean, I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I have to imagine this isn’t the typical thing. Killing people and going on the run and thieving and discovering you’re a stolen princess aren’t typically what you read about. At least I haven’t.
I don’t want to hold back. I don’t want to regret it, even if it hurts when it’s over.
He wasn’t kidding about the path. We’re thousands of meters above the ocean, and the way down is jagged and sharp. At first, we’re mining our way through brush and rock, but about an hour into the journey, I get my first glimpse of the water and audibly gasp.
The deep blue surface is rippled and sharp as it sparkles with a million reflective diamonds.
Ships of all sizes dot its surface, and in the distance are masses of land that shoot straight up and are capped with green.
The wind is different up here, carrying a current that matches the waves as it rolls in and crashes to the shore in a white, frothy mess a hundred meters straight below us.
“Ferrin.” I leave it there. My voice is barely a whisper, and it’s a miracle he can hear it since it’s instantly carried off on the wind that’s whipping around us.
Tears prickle my eyes, and I can’t make myself move.
A clicking sound pulls me away, and I find Ferrin holding his phone up toward me. “What was that?”
He shakes his head. “Nothing. You want more time?”
“No. I want to be in it.”
“Then let’s go.”
We don’t rush it despite the fact that I’m anxious to.
It’s slow-moving and dangerous, and I slip at least a half-dozen times as does he.
Thankfully, neither of us plummets to our deaths, but once we reach a random, ancient-appearing staircase that looks like it was an attempt to build a path up before they gave up on it, the last ten meters get easier.
We hit the coarse sand, and I kick off my shoes so I can feel it with my feet.
The swath of beach isn’t that wide and is bracketed in by more tall cliffs, but it’s deep with an almost cave-like overhang that cuts into the rock about thirty meters from the waves.
“How on earth did you find this place?”
“It was luck. I was running from the police and came down here. I hid out for three days. It was amazing.”
“Thief,” I tease.
“Princess,” he throws back at me.
“How alone are we?” I ask.
Ferrin drops our stuff near the cave and spreads his arms wide. “Do you see anyone else here?”
“Good.”
I rip off my top, followed by my shorts. I hear a sharp intake of breath behind me, and I tuck in my smile as I unhook my bra and scoot out of my panties.
“What are you doing?”
“My bathing suit is too far away.” I race toward the water only to hold up as I reach it. The waves take over and come to greet me, rushing over my feet and kicking up my legs. I shriek at the cold, but it turns into an excited squeal and laugh.
More clicks behind me, but as I turn around, all I see is Ferrin taking off his shirt.
It’s a hell of a site. One that has me turning my back on the ocean I’ve been dreaming about my entire life.
I don’t care that I’m standing here naked.
I don’t care that sunshine is all over me along with his eyes that haven’t strayed even as he strips out of his clothes.
I take a step back, then another. The water is cold but not intolerable, and with the sun heating my skin, it’s wonderfully pleasant.
“Shorts next, Ferrin,” I tell him and wave a finger at them.
“I was getting there.”
“You stopped.”
“I was admiring the view.” But his hand goes to his button and fly, and his shorts and briefs hit the sand. I lick my lips and lower myself to my knees. His eyes smolder, turning black, and he hisses something under his breath.
I shudder and shake as the water splashes over me, hitting my back and wetting my hair. But the fire in his eyes and the way his cock hardens make my clit pulse and my body heat hotter than the sun.
He strokes himself, and holy shit, that’s so fucking hot. His muscles, ink, and hard cock are the sexiest things ever. I’m drunk on him. High on all of this.
I crook a finger at him, and he smirks.
“Darlin, you sure? I’m not gentle.”
“I can take it. You’ll teach me how.”
“Am I doing all this teaching for me or for your future lovers?” he questions playfully, but there’s something else behind it. Something that lingers in his eyes.
“For you. And for me. In the books I read, it was as if the virgin magically knew everything and exactly how to please the guy. I don’t. I know I don’t. But I’m curious and excited by this, and I want to be good for you.”
He tilts his head and a crooked smirk takes over his face. “You have no clue how perfect you already are to me, do you? You could literally do nothing, lie there like a fish, and I’d still think you were the most incredible thing on the planet.”
A blush takes over, but I persist. “I want to know what it feels like to have you in my mouth.”
“What if I want to be inside of you?”
“What if I want to suck your cock first?”
He groans, his head falling back, and he curses again in a language I can’t understand. “Princess, you’re killing me.”
“Not yet. Speaking of, I want you to teach me how to shoot.” I tilt my head. “After you teach me how to suck your cock.”
“You’re a dream. You know that, don’t you? This may be yours, but I’m starting to think you’re mine.”
I shake my head. “Don’t say that to me.”
He smiles deviously. “Why not? How many thieves get to fuck a princess’s mouth?”
With that, he walks deliberately over to me, kicking sprays of water all over the place as it hits his feet and legs. In a flash, he winds my braid around his fist until he has me in a lock by the back of my hair.
“Open for me.”