after an attempt on the king's life, a bodyguard is placed to protect him and who if not the best in her field: Rose Rhodes.
And who knows maybe the king with his charm is gonna to warm Rose's cold heart.
"I think I could really use a hug, right now," I tell Lilibeth when I see her walk to us. She runs to me and takes me in her arms. "You were amazing out there," Aaron says while hugging the two of us. "Oh come on, without me?" I heard Ronan says and then all the six of us embraced together. But my phone ruins everything. We all try to ignore the ring but it doesn't stop so I need to take it. Oh, it's Katie. "Is everything okay?" I ask because she usually doesn't call me if not in our weekly chat. "The sister I have never had? How dare you cheat on us," she says in her hard tone. "How do you know what she said? Are you spying on me, you creep?" I ask just to feel a hand touching my shoulder. Aaron. "Who is this creep?" he tilts his head, looking at me a bit cautiously. "Oh, just my dumb friend, don't mind her. Other than the fact that you're ruining Lilibeth's day but you're also making such a scene that even Aaron," I stop taking a breath "The king himself is actually pretty frustrated about it." I sigh. She's doing this because of jealousy? She should know that just because I have other friends that don't mean that I don't care about her. "Oh, I'm sorry..." her voice breaks. I think I went a little bit too far. "Listen, it's not a problem at all and if you want to invite your friend to our dinner tonight, we don't see the problem," Aaron offers. "Oh, it would be lovely, when?" Katie asks. "I give you the information later, bye." And I end the call. I glance at Aaron "There was no need to invite her because now Libby is probably coming too and it should be a family dinner." He shakes his head "They're your family right?" I nod "I don't want to cause any problem." He gives me a half smile as he moves in towards me. "If you only knew what you do to me, you knew you were already causing problems." "What? I said or did something wrong? It's because I said you're not as charming as Nikolai? He doesn't even exist, how the hell could I know if he's- " "Today you're the annoying one," he rubs his eyes, tired "Just shut up and invite them." Lilibeth smiles at him whispering something that makes his cheeks flame and Ronan laughing joins her. "You coming?" I hear Noah asks. "In a minute."
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"Rose!!" a familiar voice calls and I look at my two pretty best friends as they walk toward me. Libby hugs me tight while Katie looks at me a little bit shy because of today. "Oh come on, hug me before I change my mind," I tell her and she does what I said to her. "This place is... Wow," Libby exclaims with her head up looking at the ceiling while Katie laughs at her expression. I missed them, not that it's new but having them here reminds me that more. "Look at these two beautiful women," Aaron says greeting them "Rose, you should really take them more often here, it would be a pleasure." He had to be always like this, doesn't he? Libby starts blushing and becomes even redder when Aaron smiles. I get that he's hot but have some decency. "I'm Katie and she's Libby, you look even hotter than on television, your highness," my blonde friend says smiling without even a little bit of shyness. At that Aaron sniff, a laugh, and I roll my eyes annoyed. "You two should stop, you're making his ego even bigger than before," I shake my head while he laughs. "Do you have a reason to be so damn annoying?" I frown over at him. "I'm the king, do I need a reason?" he replies with a smirk. I glance at him and... Wow. He's beautiful. It hits me in my chest and spreads through me. It's like I'd never properly looked at him 'til then. He leans closer to me to whisper in my ear "I'm so beautiful you're drooling too with your mouth open." My friends look at him like he's god. It's so frustrating. He's beautiful and so? He's so beautiful that I want to paint him. He's so gorgeous that I can't look at him for more than a second and he should really be exposed in a museum. But beauty isn't everything. Well.. he's also sweet, kind, and always so generous. God, today I can't find a flaw.
"Shall we?" he asks offering me his hand that I accept while I watch my friends still speechless follow us.
"There are too many forks which one should I use?" Libby asks watching me with her mouth open. "Whatever you want," Lilibeth answers for me while I sit next to her and next to Aaron. Noah decides to take a seat close to my shy friend that ignores him when he tries to talk to her. It's totally weird, Libby is shy but she never did anything like this. "Omg, Noah how are you?" Katie asks sitting next to him, leaving Charlie to sit next to her. "Fine, thank u, Kat." Do they know each other? "Oh he was the boy next door to Libby, don't you remember?" Katie reminds my friend while she tries to ignore us. What is wrong with her? Aaron looks at me asking questions that I can't give an answer to because I don't know anything anymore. I feel so distant from their life and I bet they think the same.
"And now we don't have a desert but my sister's favorite plats: tacos," Aaron announces smiling. Lilibeth's face lights up and immediately starts eating without caring about anything else. I swear she's so cute.
"You're really a good chef after all," I say watching Aaron look at her sister and not eating.
"I told you, still waiting to kick your ass at painting," he reminds me smirking.
"You wish, Nikolai." At that, he laughs and I think that it's becoming my favorite sound. I want to memorize it and listen to it every day.
"Always so honest, my Zoya."
My Zoya.
I could listen to him giving me nicknames forever and I wouldn't get bored.
"A toast to me and my brilliant brain," Lilibeth says suddenly and we all raise our glasses to celebrate her.
"And some important news," she adds "I'm going to study in Paris. It's an incredible and amazing occasion for me, I'm still going to miss all of you especially Rose whom I just got to know and I really wanted to have more memories with. My annoying brother, that crybaby of Charlie, that troublemaker of Noah, and certainly I'm not going to miss that arrogant of Ronan because he's coming with me," Aaron growls a little bit irritated. I just know that he's going to call her every time he has some free time, poor Lilibeth. "We're both going to study fashion at the same university and Aaron just be happy for me, leave him alone," she adds seeing Aaron muttering "touch her and I kill you" to Ronan. "I'm going to miss you, Roro." And tears start coming from my face. I swear, I'm such a mess when it comes to these people.
"Oi, it's all right," Aaron says wiping my tears with his thumb "We're going to visit her so much that she's going to get sick of us and nothing will change."
"I'm so sorry, I'm acting like a child."
"No worries, just the idea of my sister away from me, it's killing me, tearing me apart but I'm just going to let her do what she loves. Even if that means that she's staying with that punk." He eyes Ronan that smiles innocently when we all know he's everything but innocent. I'm so afraid of losing this. This new family. People always start to get tired of me and leave me alone and I'm still not used to it. I fake that I love being alone and that I don't need anyone but I do. And maybe while Lilibeth is out she realizes that she doesn't need me at all and that she's happier with her new friends. And at this moment I look at Katie that today was so worried about being replaced and I'm only understanding it now. I'm such a mess and they still love me. Sometimes it's incredible how we can't stop caring about people even when they hurt us.
