“Not at the beginning. I think we’ve been through too much to start all over again. And besides,” he stepped close, his warm breath fanning against my lips, “I like to kiss you too much to start anywhere before that.”
The wings of a thousand bats fluttered in my belly. I brushed my knuckles over the scruff on his jaw and smiled. “Then do it already.”
His warm lips met mine, and the most delicious rumble sounded in his chest as he pulled me tightly against him.
I pushed him away for a moment. Goddess, he’s handsome, and I missed him so much, but this is crazy! What do his parents think? Did he give up the crown for me?
He groaned. “You’re thinking. I hate it when you think.”
He claimed my lips again and I melted into him, pulling away only to issue a single warning. “We’re talking about this later.”
Phillip shook his head, but agreed to my terms with a wide smile that vanished when I ran away. He chased me to the bedroom where we collapsed onto the bed in a fit of laughter, and there we kissed for hours, making up for so much lost time. But to our hearts, no time had passed at all, and I wondered if he might have really loved me all along. Maybe Aura didn’t influence him much, after all.
Only time would tell.
Our story began in the strangest way imaginable, but on the day he came back to me, our ending looked bright and beautiful.
Hope blossomed in my chest. With every kiss, every touch, every sound we made together, my heart sang out that this was what she’d wanted and needed for so long.
I needed his love. And he needed mine.
He was my prince. My heart.
And I was his faery princess.
SAVAGE BEAUTY PLAYLIST
Falling – The Civil Wars Every Rose Has Its Thorn – Poison I Put a Spell on You – Annie Lennox Meet me on the Equinox – Death Cab for Cutie Witchcraft – Frank Sinatra Dark Horse (feat. Juicy J) – Katy Perry Only Happy When it Rains – Garbage Away from the Sun – 3 Doors Down Going Under – Evanescence Bad at Love – Halsey Moonlight Sonata – Vladimir Ashkenazy Kiss from a Rose – Seal Jet Black Heart – 5 Seconds of Summer Iris – Goo Goo Dolls Black Hole Sun – Soundgarden My Happy Ending – Avril Lavigne What About Us – Pink Here Without You – 3 Doors Down Witchy Woman – Eagles
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I’m blessed to have some very magical people in my life.
To my hubby and our kids, thank you for being so supportive, even when I had to work late into the night.
To my mom, thanks for always helping me with the plots to my stories. And my dad for always listening to my nerdiness.
Thanks to all my family and friends who ask about and support my dream.
To my beta-readers: Cristie Alleman, Amber Garcia and Nichole Greene, thank you for helping make the story better.
Thanks to Stacy Sanford. She always makes my books shine and she’s pretty much like an editing fairy godmother.
Thanks to Melissa Stevens, who drew the cover and interior illustrations. Thank you for slaying the imagery for this book.
To Emily Cyr, who named Ember! Thank you, lady!
Thanks to my amazing reader group, The Bond-tourage, who keep me excited about writing!
The world is a better place because we can lose ourselves in our imaginations for a little bit. Thanks to every reader who picks this, or any of my books up and gets lost. I appreciate you so much.
And, most of all, thanks to God for his many blessings in my life.