Chained Princess

Chapter 21: Two Wishes

A A R O N ' S P. O. V

Familiar swirls of black lined his forearms. I had always found his tattoo fascinating, some days I spent hours memorising the contours of them, the craftsmanship, the art that Aaron had chosen to decorate his body with.

I frowned, my fingers stilling over his thudding heartbeat. "This one is new." The scripture was obviously Greek, but the words unfamiliar.

I barely knew any Greek which was something I wished to change for Anastasia. I wanted her to grow up learning all about her different heritages, just as I had.

Aaron tilted his head to the side, eyes turning rapidly dark as he took in the sight of my body, bare from the waist up. "The one over my heart?"

I nodded softly, watching as a smile cracked onto his face. "It means Princess, because you were the only woman to have ever captured my heart." He pecked my lips, and I could nothing but blink up at him, stunned.

"But I...I thought that you hated me after I left? I can't believe that you..."

"I could never hate you Princess. Not whilst you're five million miles away, not if you've left me, or broken my heart, or if we're seventy years old and you stole the last doughnut. You're my person. You're the reason I'm me."

Kissing away the droplets of tears that had trailed down my cheeks, I felt his hand press over my heart. I copied him, placing mine over his.

"I will always love you Kiara Romano. That my promise to you, Princess." I felt it then. A tug, that pull on the chain that tied us together.

"I love you Aaron. You're my person too." He pressed a plethora of kisses over my knuckles, dusting them with his light touch.

"Come here," He growled, yanking me closer to his naked body. I squealed, laughing as I attempted to pull away, only to be roped back in. "What about you?"

"What about me?" He nudged his nose against my neck.

"Are you going to get any tattoos? I promise to hold your hand." Contrary to popular beliefs, I had none. That was one thing my mother would have killed me for.

"I don't plan on it, but I might. One day? Who knows?" Our future was undecided for now and for some reason that filled me with hope.

Without Aaron, everything seemed clouded and dark. There wasn't that potential life with him, there wasn't the family I had always envisioned and now I had that back. Even better, I had him back.

"What about you? You going to get anymore?"

"I'll get one for Anastasia of course. Maybe a rose or something with her name wrapped around it. I already have one for Caitlin see." He pointed at the tiny Cat figurine that marked his arm in pure black. It was hidden among a crowd of other tattoos so it was barely visible, but there.

I giggled. "She convinced you to get a cat tattoo?"

He mocked offence. "Hey! I managed to talk her down from a Garfield tattoo plastered over my chest. It's small but she knows it's there, and that's all that matters."

"You're so good with her. You're so good with Anastasia. The best brother," I pecked his lips. "The best father." Then the silence lingered on as I debated asking the question that had burning in my mind.

"What is it?" It was crazy how this man could almost read my mind.

"Do you want more kids? I mean, not now, but in the future. You've changed your opinion on loving me, I believe on marrying me, so...kids?"

He brushed back my s*x crazed hair, the faintest of smile ghosting over his lips. "I do want to marry you, I want to be able to call you my wife some day. Kids...I love Anastasia and I love being a father. One day, I think I'll want more, just not right now. I like our family how it is."

"Me too." I grinned, snuggling into his chest.

Then it hit me. "Oh shit."

"What?" Aaron shot up, quickly assessing the room. I tugged him back down instantly.

"There's no-one here, it's just, we didn't use protection and I'm not on the pill anymore."

"Fuck." He swore. Then turned to me with a grim expression. "Princess, I'm sorry I just forget."

"Hey, it's fine. I'll go to the pharmacy in the morning. It's just that, we need to be more careful now if we don't want another baby so soon. I definitely don't plan on getting pregnant until I'm hopefully married."

"I want that too, and I'll buy a pack of jumbo condoms tomorrow." He wiggled his eyebrows mischievously and winked. "Trust me, we'll be needing them."

I attempted to swat his chest, but he pinned my arms over my head, kissing my lips as I laughed hard against his mouth.

Quickly, my laughter turned into moaning as he grinded slowly, awakening the s****l beast inside of me that could only ever be sated fully by Aaron Black.

***

~ One month later

"Happy birthday bunny," My sleeping beauty awoke from her glorious nap, her arms stretching wide, as Aaron put his arms out for her to clamber into.

She fell against his chest almost immediately, curling her body into his. I leaned back against the doorway, watching as he swayed her back and forth, peppering her head with a dusting of feathery kisses.

"I can't believe she's two." I jumped slightly at my mum's voice. She smiled, leaning opposite me, and watching the same interaction as I was. "It's weird isn't. You think you couldn't fall more in love and then you see the love of your life holding your child. It was the same with your father, you know? I could never tear my eyes off him."

"He's been so perfect. So kind, so gentle, so sweet. I feel so guilty, not just for leaving, but for denying him more of this." She clasped her hand onto my shoulder.

"Darling, you can't change the past, so there's no point in dwelling on it. The only thing you can do is look to the future," I watched as she gestured to Aaron and Anastasia. "There it is honey, and it's not going anywhere."

"I think someone's ready for presents." Aaron grinned, nuzzling his nose against Anastasia's. She beamed up at him in response.

"Mama, pressi!" Laughing, we all made our way downstairs, and I felt my heart smile as Anastasia's eyes grew wide at the mountain of presents that her uncles had built up into a tower.

"Happy birthday!" Everyone cheered. An array of balloons and streamers suddenly came flying our way. I left Aaron to show off our sleeping beauty to family and friends who had gathered for the small party.

My mother was the one who put it together since it was Anastasia's first birthday in New York. All my stuff had been arrived from Italy yesterday, kindly shipped by Alessi, who even sent a tiny stuffed elephant for Anastasia.

Everything felt so much more real now. Before it was almost like I was floating, high on happiness and a drama free life. Now, slowly I was coming down, and I could only hope the fall wasn't too big.

"Hey! What's wrong?" Sometimes I hated how my best friend knew everything about me from one look.

"Nothing." She gave me that awful glare that somehow managed to wrangle the truth out of me. I sighed. "I'm just a little overwhelmed. A few months ago, the prospect of this happening wasn't even in the cards and now I have Aaron, my family, Anastasia. It just all seems too good to be true."

"Because bad things normally happen to you?"

"Because anything good is normally short lasting." She nodded towards Anastasia, who was smiling so hard I was afraid her face might break.

"She's the most purest thing in your life, the best thing and she's still here and she's still happy. You did that Kiara. No-one else, you. You'll always have her, no matter what."

"When did you get so wise?" I remarked. She shrugged and then smirked.

"I guess marriage has made me wise, but don't worry I still plan to get rock hard drunk on our girl's night outs." I laughed, and took the champagne flute she offered me.

Presents were slowly being dished out and as official mother of the birthday girl, I was ushered straight to the front.

"This is from Uncle Kieron, Stasia." She babbled his name incoherently, whilst ripping through the thin packaging. A robotic dog started barking and flipping over, as she pressed the buttons on the remote.

"Wow baby, it's a doggie. What do you say?"

"Fanks." The room laughed. We were still trying to pronounce that word properly.

There was over sixty presents, half from Aaron alone who defended himself by saying he had two birthdays to make up for. That broke my heart and mended it all at the same time.

As the cake was brought out, and everyone sing a quiet happy birthday, I met Aaron's eyes. He was staring intently at the two of us, as I held Anastasia tightly in my arms.

His smile was small but genuine, and I realised that I hadn't once seen the smile leave his face at all today. The guilt sliced through me as we made our wished, as Anastasia blew out her two candles and as the room erupted into celebration.

"Caitlin, could you help Stasia eat her cake?" She nodded eagerly, mouth stuffed with cake, and patted the seat next to her. I settled Stasia down and went in search for my boyfriend, who'd gone missing after we cut the cake.

Boyfriend. God, I don't think I'll ever get used to that word.

"Aaron." I called out, as I found him leaning back against the stone wall. He was peering out at the vast gardens that fell behind my childhood home. The same swing tire that my brothers used to push me on, still hung from the same oak tree. "Baby, what are you doing out here it's freezing?"

He didn't respond, instead he simply gave me his hand. Hesitantly, I took it, gasping as he swiftly pulled me in. "Aaron...what...what's wrong?"

I could see it in his eyes, the trouble, the panic. "I just...I'm so happy Princess." I frowned in confusion.

"Me too." He nodded, sighed and then tilted his head sidewards to stare out at the sky.

"I feel guilty that I wasn't there, that I let missed her birthday." No, no, no. I had caused this, I had burdened him with these demons.

"Aaron that it's not your fault, it's mine." I urged, but he shushed me.

"Princess, I hurt you. I hurt you so much that you couldn't trust me anymore. Don't blame yourself when I would have done the exact same thing in your position." He paused for a moment, letting silence linger between us.

"I've been so selfish Princess. I made two wishes when Anastasia blew out her candles, not one."

I clung onto the lapels of his jacket as a rush of cold wind hit us both. "What were they?"

"One, that I could turn back time. Make everything right again, fix my mistakes." That could never happen, he knew that, I did, which meant that there was something more.

Something within his second wish that could change our lives. "And the second?"

"That you'll move in with me." My heart skipped a beat and then stilled inside my chest.

"What?"

"That was my wish, that you'll move in with me, so that I could spend the next however many years we have together making it up to you. Because I love you, and I love our daughter and I love the family that we're building together. I want to wake up to every morning Princess, and fall asleep besides you every night. So, what do you say?"

I stared at this man, this beautiful heavenly man, and found myself dreaming up this perfect life. One where we make pancakes as a family, we take Caitlin and Stasia shopping, we come back and eat dinner as a family, then at night, when it's just us, he makes love to me. Sweet delicate love because we have forever.

"Yes. Yes, I'll move in with you." His face lift up bright enough to light the sky and he picked me up, setting me on the ledge of the wall so he could kiss me slowly.

"I promise to make this work Princess." He murmured, sinking his cold fingers into my waist. For once, I found myself not doubting him. I found myself trusting him and that reassurance was everything I ever needed.

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A/N: Thoughts on them moving in together??

Who's your favourite character so far??

What do you think will happen next?