To Love a Prince by Nana Malone

Author:Nana Malone [Malone, Nana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sankofa Girl
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Tristan…

Ariel was quiet. As the waves crashed up on the beach and the sand slid between our toes, making them as smooth as fine dust and slightly gritty, she said nothing.

The cabana had been our silent beacon after leaving Sebastian's office. Neither one of us had spoken until we'd taken the gates out to the gardens, and then to the entryway down to that long tunnel of stairs.

And still, we said nothing. The sun gleamed on the horizon, bright, lighting the ocean an iridescent azure blue that looked like something out of a fairy tale. If I believed in fairy tales, I'd imagine Ariel out on the rocks, singing that song to me that was surprisingly catchy from The Little Mermaid. But this wasn't a movie. This wasn't a fantasy. This was reality. And I had just told her the secret I'd been hiding for most of my life, the secret that had kept us from being together. The reason I had never felt good enough for her. And still, she stayed silent.

We walked about a mile along the beach, not touching, not speaking in a pseudo-comfortable and companionable silence. I finally stopped. The moment I halted, she turned to face me.

"Jesus Christ, just say something. Anything. If you don't want me now, I get it. Hell, I don't want to be me. And I wish I had told you. I do. I'm sorry I lied by omission. It's a lot to process. It's a lot to tell someone and I—"

She put her hands on my chest. "I'm sorry."

My brows drew down and I searched her face. "What?"

"I'm sorry. I should have listened more and spoken less. I have been pushing you for weeks since I first saw you to tell me what you were hiding, pushing you to tell me your secret, pushing you to disclose something you might not have been ready to share, and I'm ashamed. I'm sorry. I'm horrified and disgusted with both myself and with Ashton."

That was not how I expected this to go. "I don't understand."

"You have been through this horrible trauma, and here I have been just digging away at you."

"You're sorry?"

She nodded slowly. "Yeah."

I shook my head. "No." I took her hands off of my chest, though I missed their warmth, and held them in mine. "You don't have anything to be sorry about. You were the first person in my life to really teach me about love. Maybe that's why I have been clinging on to that version of you. Because that was the first time I felt like someone saw me. Someone who didn't know that I was so fucked up, but still seemed to see who I really wanted to be. I wanted to be that person for you."

"You didn’t need to pretend or try. I loved you easily."

I dragged in a deep breath. "Yeah, I guess I'm not so easy to love now."

She frowned and held on tighter to my hands. "You’re just as easy to love. Yes, it's crazy, and we don't know each other like we did then.

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