Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 31279 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 156(@200wpm)___ 125(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31279 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 156(@200wpm)___ 125(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
For a moment, we breathe together, the air between us damp and warm and fiercely ours.
Then a thought hits me, and I lean back, brows lifting. “One more question.”
She tenses as if she’s bracing for a harpoon. “Okay.”
“So,” I say solemnly, “do I get, like, partial royal status now? Am I technically dating a displaced lake princess?”
Her laugh bursts out, startled and watery and gorgeous. She presses her hand over her mouth, eyes crinkling. “Absolutely not.”
“Unbelievable,” I murmur. “Save one mer-princess in distress and still no title. This is highway robbery.”
“Everett,” she says around her smile, her voice soft and aching, “you already have the only title that matters.”
My throat tightens. “Yeah? What’s that?”
“Mine.”
Fuck, this woman slays me.
I cup her face, thumbs tracing her cheeks. “And you’re mine. Ariel, your father might have followed his law, but he lost something extraordinary when he sent you away. If loving someone and saving a life is a crime, I hope I get sentenced to the same thing.”
She arches an eyebrow. “Loving someone? Aren’t you being a little presumptuous?”
I smirk. “Nope. You love me. And”—I place my index finger on her plump lips to stall her words—“I love you. With everything I am.” I catch the tear that rolls down her cheek with my thumb. “Thank you,” I say gruffly. “For choosing me.”
She sucks in a breath around my finger and mumbles, “I’ve been trying to learn how to live here. To be enough for you. Human enough. Worldly enough. Clever enough. It’s all so new and scary and wonderful and—”
I remove my finger and cut her off with a kiss. Her breath catches against my mouth, a soft, trembling sound that feels like the world exhaling. When I pull back to look at her, her eyes shimmer like they’re holding every secret of the lake. “You’re enough just as you are,” I whisper, my forehead resting against hers. “More than enough. You’re everything I didn’t know I was missing.”
She makes a sound that’s part laugh, part sob. “I love you,” she says, the words simple and shocking and so fucking right. “I thought I loved you the first time I saw you, but it’s nothing compared to how I feel about you now.”
I could tell her the precise millisecond I knew: the first sight of her in the lake, water clinging to the red ropes of her hair; or the way she touched a fern with awe like the world was new; or how her lips parted when pizza surprised her. Instead, I lean in and press my mouth to hers. “I love you. I’m yours.”
She makes a sound like something inside her unclenches, and then her mouth crashes into mine, wet and sweet. The kiss is messy, desperate, perfect.
This woman is a mystery. My favorite one. I’ve known her for days, but I’ve been waiting for her forever. If happily ever after is a place you build with your hands, this kiss is the first stone.
Ariel pulls back, and we breathe the same air for a long moment. The storm drums and the sky flashes white.
“Come with me,” I say. “We’re going to the office.”
Her eyes widen. “Now?”
I nod. “Now. I want him to hear the truth with you by my side. We face him together.”
She smiles. “Together.”
Chapter 14
Everett
When I pull into the company lot, the building looms against the sky, its glass walls slick with rain. It used to look like legacy. Tonight, it looks like a crime scene. The lobby smells of lemon polish and betrayal. The floor numbers flicker like a countdown as we take the elevator up in silence.
By the time we reach my father’s office door, the adrenaline has sharpened into something quieter—resolve. Not rage. Not grief. Purpose.
I don’t knock. I open it and walk straight in, drawing strength from Ariel’s hand clasped tightly in mine.
He’s at the window, hands tucked behind his back, surveying the empire he built on lies and greed. His eyes meet mine as he turns, then narrow on Ariel at my side.
“You,” he hisses, his lip curling in disapproval.
“Me,” she says firmly, raising her chin and holding his gaze.
I’m not sure I’ve ever been prouder.
We cross the room toward him. “I know what you’ve done.” I wave a hand around me. “How you built this company.”
“What the fuck are you talking about, boy?” he sneers.
“You threatened Ariel. Threatened the lake. You said you’d fund dumping, buy silence, sabotage cleanups if she didn’t leave me.”
His expression doesn’t change, but the air in the room does, buzzing with a dangerous energy. “That’s quite a story,” he drawls. “I trust you’ve got proof.”
“You told me yourself,” Ariel says quietly. “All the terrible things you would do if I didn’t leave. You even offered me ten thousand dollars to disappear.”
He tilts his head, his expression sardonic. “A homeless tramp and a son scorned. Very compelling witnesses.”