Marrying the Stranger Prince ✔ (The Stranger Prince Series #1)

Chapter 13 : Throwing Everything into the Dustbin.

"Breathing is hard. When you cry, it makes you realise that breathing is hard."
- Love is the Higher Law, by David Levithan.

♚

"Stay still." She heard Christian say. She was being still. The freaking-statue-of-liberty kind of still. How still did he want her to be?

"How long?" Adela said, still politely, when she wanted to smack him in the face. It was nothing but polite with Christian. Freaking always. She wanted to call him an idiot, she wanted to throw her witty sarcasm at him, but it just wasn't her instincts. All her instincts told her was to act like a Princess. An actual one. And it was so hard acting around him when she had to drop every amazing witty comment that came in her mind.

Tsk. Such a waste of her talent it was.

Christian looked up from the painting that he was drawing, and grinned. His eyes were shinning, in a way she'd never seen them before. She hadn't known he loved to paint, and she regretted asking him about it. Because now he was painting her.

All she could see from sitting in front of him, the canvas in between them, was the movement of his muscles, as his hands furiously dabbed the brush onto the canvas.

"Almost done." He said, and she couldn't help but sigh. She wasn't sure since how long she'd been sitting like that. She rolled her eyes at the things she did for getting rid of the stupid Prince of Larcbost.

Stupid. Idiot. Suffering from short-term memory loss. IDIOT.

She wasn't even sure why she was still frustrated over it. From scared, she had come down to something uncertain. Now she felt like she wanted to strangle the fucking life out of him for forgetting it all while she had to go through the aftereffects of remembering it all. Which included acting like everything was freakingly amazingly fine!

"Done!" Christian exclaimed excitedly, standing up from his seat. He wasn't wearing his coat, instead he was wearing a loose, cozy-looking grey T-shirt. His hair was disheveled. It actually looked like he just got out of bed. He was an amazingly beautiful existence.

"Are you going to show me that?" Adela mocked, sitting back on her chair. Her muscles were stuck in one place after sitting that long, and she wanted to stretch out. But that wouldn't be noble for a princess now, would it? Christian still looked at her like she was perfect. Unearthly. Magnificent. She snorted inwardly.

"Is it alright to be nervous?" He frowned, and she noticed how his hands were covered with paint. Something about the way he was looking right now was so damn hot, she couldn't handle it.

"I'm sure you are the best at this." She smiled. He took her hand in his, and elegantly led her around so that she was standing in front of the painting. It was breathtaking, the way he had painted the shades. The way he showed the sunlight illuminating the hall. And the way he'd painted her eyes the same golden, it was terrifyingly beautiful.

"Do you like it?" He said, and he was close behind her. Though they weren't touching, she could feel him behind her.

"It is so beautiful, Christian." She breathed. Christian was still behind her, and she felt him take a step closer to her. And then his hand was on her elbow. She tried not to show any reaction, pretending like she didn't notice.