Royal Dynasty

Six

(Layla's POV)

Most of the world believed I was away to London. The other part of it believed I was away to Italy.

Yet, you ask where I really am?

Standing a block away from the club that my brother currently awaits. I knew he was talking to Danny, I was standing around the corner as they talked. Every word that Danny spoke was the truth no matter how much my brother and River might think it to far fetched.

That teenage girl that they both knew a few years ago was both long gone and dead.

"You're not as slick as you think." My lips curved upwards at the smooth voice that had spoken. A shiver ran up my spine at the sound and not in a bad way.

"Who said I was trying to be slick?" Slowly my eyes opened to come face to face with the man standing in front of me.

If you had asked me three ago if it was possible for River to get any more good looking, I would laughed in your face and said it's not possible.

Now the jokes on me.

In three years I hadn't let myself get to close to home.

It was never the fear of coming back home and leaving my family. I knew my family would always wait on me, they would always welcome me home with open arms no matter what I've done or been through.

River though, I was not so sure.

He had no obligation to care for me the way my family does. Frankly I was scared, scared that if he asked me to stay that I would.

Scared of the control I knew he had over me.

The thing with me and River was that I knew he would never ask me to stay. He would never get in the way of the thing he thought I wanted most.

As for me I couldn't say the same thing. I had already asked him once to come with me.

I was selfish and I fully admitted that. I wanted him with me, I wanted to show him the world that I was building away from our own home.

That's why I had made myself stay away. I couldn't do that to him, I cared to much to let myself be selfish around him. He had a life in this world just as much as I did.

Now, it was different.

I needed help and he was the only one I trusted to help me without any questions asked.

"So what is it you want?" River leaned against the same wall only a few feet away from me. That handsome grin was on his face and it felt like things instantly fell back into place with us.

It was like we hadn't just spent three years away from each other. Our dynamic was easy, it was simple and that terrified me.

After all Danny had just told him everything I had done, everything I had become. Yet here he was fully willing to listen and trust me with what I had to say.

"Who said I want anything from you?" I remarked with a smile pushing myself away from the wall.

Rivers eyes were burning through me. I could feel them take in every inch of me. I could feel him trying to soak in every detail like he didn't know if this was the only time he'd see me again for another three years.