The Dark Nights of Winter

Chapter 5 - Alex

Noelle had fallen asleep within ten minutes of watching the movie I had put on. It was some soppy romance thing that I had only really selected for her benefit. By the time her breathing had settled into a smooth rhythm, I couldn’t take my eyes off her, anyway. Her back was towards me, with her head nestled against the crook of my arm, but as she fell asleep, her head fell to the side and gave me the perfect view of her. There was something about her that was simply angelic.

I regretted the anger I had showed when I had come back. It wasn’t intentional. I just blamed myself for that creep getting anywhere near her. Alice had tried to tell me it wasn’t my fault, but if Noelle had never met me, she would never have been on the radar of someone like f*****g Jimmy. He was relentless. Anything it took to get a photograph worth flogging to the newspapers. I had thought Alice was slightly insane when she had asked for my number while we had been alone in the bakery. For a second, I had thought she was coming on to me. It wouldn’t have been the first time. Not that I was beating them off with a stick. It wasn’t until I had seen her and Noelle together afterwards that I had realised it wasn’t anything like that. She had just seen trouble on the horizon, which should have been my job.

When she had messaged me and told me what had happened, she was detailed about it. Going as far as telling me that she had insisted Noelle head up to the flat out of the way of danger. It was a good job she had because if she hadn’t, I would have marched out of Downing Street on the spot and headed back to Noelle.

I might have decided to abdicate and leave Aggnova, but there was one last thing I wanted to accomplish for my people and for my father. The trade deal we had been trying and failing to arrange. I had been trying to get in the same room as the minister I needed for months, but William had come through and put some discrete pressure on the government to finally put an appointment on the books. That appointment wasn’t supposed to be for another two weeks, but with everything that had happened, I had put a call into them to bring the appointment forward. I had expected them to say no, but when they didn’t, I had little choice but to leave Noelle with her friends and jump on the opportunity.

Alice had told me when I got back that Noelle had been a little shaken by the incident, something she had failed to mention in her messages. Still, it hadn’t really registered until I had seen her reaction to my words. She seemed to shrink before my eyes, filling me with even more regret and guilt. So, despite being desperate to get my hands on her, I had to resist the urge. She needed space. She needed peace. I already knew we were facing a war. There would be plenty of people who wouldn’t be happy about my decision. I had already received a letter to that effect, not that it was clear who had sent it. It was a simple enough message. Telling me that giving the crown to my cousin was a mistake. The problem was that I already knew the letter was right. It was a mistake for my country, but not for Noelle and for the first time in my life, the crown wasn’t my top priority.

I didn’t know if it was the way I had been raised, my childhood, or my father’s words before he had died, but something told me that the crown couldn’t and shouldn’t ever be my primary love. There had to be room for others. If there wasn’t, I would end up dying alone and full of regrets, just like my father. I might have been there by his side in his final moments, but we were little more than strangers. Katie had been very vocal about the concept that I was only chasing Noelle across the continent because my father had just died. She thought it was all just a reaction to his death. It was the first time since we met that we had actually argued.

Instead of watching her sleep, we should have been discussing the next steps. I still needed to head back to Aggnova to wrap everything up. I knew she wouldn’t be expecting it. There was very little chance she would be able to come back with me and the idea of leaving her alone was hell, especially after her run in with Jimmy. I was going to have some serious words with him the next time he showed his face. Fantasies of ramming his camera down his smart, arsed mouth had been running through my mind regularly. I had even considered getting one of my bodyguards to make him magically disappear. There wasn’t likely to be anyone who would miss a scumbag like him.

I gave into the impulse to sweep Noelle’s hair away from her eyes, but the movement seemed to make her stir slightly. I held my breath and waited for her to settle again. Just after I started to relax again, my phone let out a shrill ring. I reached for it quickly, clipping it with the edge of my hand and sending it careening off the side table and across the floor. “f**k!” There was nothing I could do about it. Looking down at Noelle, I realised it was too late, anyway.

Her long lashes framed her almond-shaped eyes as she looked up at me with confusion. The sight of her looking up at me like that, with her eyes watery and still full of slumber, it made me shift uncomfortably against the sudden erection digging into my leg. “What time is it?”

I checked my watch. “Six.” She started sitting up, and I used the opportunity to scramble to my feet and retrieve my phone from the floor. I spotted the contact calling instantly and declined the call, even though it was possibly the worst person to ignore a call from. “Sorry.” I looked down at my phone again as it started ringing again. Cancelling the call again. I muted it quickly before it could ring again and pocketed it. I knew Noelle would insist on me taking the call, which was the last thing I wanted to do.

“It’s fine. If I slept much longer, I wouldn’t be sleeping tonight.”

“Like I said, maybe it’s best you go back to sleep.” I couldn’t help myself, but I was surprised by just how flushed Noelle’s cheeks were in response to my comment. I couldn’t stop the soppy ass smile on my face. She had a unique ability to keep surprising me. I couldn’t stop myself from hooking my arm around her waist as she walked past me to head into the kitchen. The gasp that escaped that perfect, feathery soft mouth of hers forced me to move fast and absorb the sound against my lips. Wondering if she knew the effect she was having on me, the effect she always had on me.