He needs a place to live, she needs a baby daddy. Pietro Santangelo and Marguerite White are students at prestigious Columbia University in New York City. She is a fun-loving, free spirit who finds herself in a bit of a familial bind, he is an exchange student with a chronic case of poverty. They concoct a plan that they think will work, not realizing how much changes with two simple words... Pete merely looked at her and opened a box of books. He took some out and began placing them on the shelves, bending and stretching at his task. He had a nice back, broad shoulders and muscles that could be seen clearly under his light blue T-shirt. Daisy watched for a minute, fascinated. "Like what you see?" he asked without turning around. She jumped at the sound of his voice. "Well, you're the only thing in the room that's moving, you know?" she said by way of explanation. He turned around to look at her, books in either hand, a small grin on his face. "Of course, what was I thinking?" he asked rhetorically. "And look. We're both adults here, hm?" He looked carefully at her. "The couch we just brought up here cost fifty dollars at the second-hand store, and has to be at least thirty years old. I don't want to sleep on it, and I don't think you're going to want to sleep on it, either." She shook her head. "So the bed is nice and big," he continued. "I think we can manage, don't you? We can share the bed." He watched her for her reaction. "I give you my word this is not going to be a problem for me. At all. Is this going to be a problem for you?" She looked at him. "Really? At all?" She recovered from the unintentional meaning of his words quickly. "No, it won't be a problem for me, either," she said firmly. "We can share the bed." Content warning: This story contains mature sexual content, and themes of premarital sex and sexual assault.

I've always been a different kind of girl. That girl whose best friends were books but never kids her age, and who was too smart for her own sake but who would never let some step on her. My father is a dreamer, someone who aims too high and I love him very dearly, but sometimes he gets himself in problems... and drags me along the way. I lost my mother when I was barely a teenager but she taught me many things. She always called me her little beauty, saying I was the most beautiful girl she had ever seen, telling me how much I reminded her of that princess in The Beauty and The Beast. Her favourite fairy tale yet my least favourite one. I never thought I was going to have to deal with a beast, a total jerk for my father's sake. Karma got me because here I am, in the middle of a pretty similar situation to my least favourite fairy tale. But I'm not only the beauty to this beast, I'm more than that. I'm brave, I'm bold... I'm Belle. -:-:- BOOK #3 in the Aware Princess Series flower: Amaryllis, it symbolises "pride."