He'd gone beyond his player ways for her.
She'd grown beyond her traumatic past for him.
Together, their love was beyond.
Until one fatal accident.
__________
When she loses the love of her life in a car crash, Althea has nothing left in California...
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*ALTHEA'S POV*
October 21, 2023.
In all of this, he had been exceptionally silent, at least until I met his blazing gaze, and he uttered one word, low enough to be drowned under the excited shouts around yet raspy enough to make my knees weak,
"Croak."
Inside my chest, it echoed like the slamming of a trapdoor shutting on me. Except it was my own trap I'd fallen into, and while my heart banged out against my ribcage, I didn't have walls closing in on me, but the twinkle of his green eyes above and the kids' expectant ones around. All unbudging.
I had no way out of this kiss. Only one small kiss. One tiny brush of lips. One millisecond, faster than a breath I couldn't find as I inhaled deeply. One minuscule flicker of touch, and the prince would be saved and the kids happy.
Their chants were already quietening as my shaky hand reached for Asher's cheek, though not the pounding inside my chest.
Only one small kiss. I tried to fight the rush spreading faster and faster in my legs to run away. One tiny brush of these rosy lips he slowly wetted. One millisecond that my heart skipped as I closed my eyes and leaned in.
Yet when my mouth met with the soft roughness of his lips, the minuscule flicker of touch felt like so much more, hundreds and hundreds of sparks, heightened by the number of days, hours, seconds... since the last time our lips had grazed. Enough to light a fire and ring all my warnings as I quickly pulled away before I could get burned.
The sparks didn't die out, however, swirling and seeping through every part of me like... the magic of the prince's curse being broken.
The picture of the frog turning into his original form through a cloud of glitters was the closest image I could come up with. Or the charm of a good luck kiss that had been left hanging for three years, seven months, and twelve days, and with it, something aligned again. Though not his lips when my eyes finally fluttered open.
Maybe there needed more sparks for this. The strain at the left corner of his mouth was pulling on all my being to find out, my gaze sliding away only to meet an even stronger tug in the intensity of his wide eyes.
I knew this smoldering look beyond the surprise too well, the dizzying jade shades flickering all over my face and reversing time for an instant.
We could have surely traveled far if a voice hadn't interrupted our stare, bringing us back to reality.
