Royally Kidnapped by the Prince

30

KENNEDY

Thayer was so good with people. He was natural, kind, and sensible. He never ceased to amaze me.

When I agreed to marry him, I wasn’t exactly thinking straight about the consequences. All I wanted

was to help him secure his birthright.

Again, I was selfish. Maybe because I would do anything for the people I cared about even if, in the

end, I’d be giving something—my life, my freedom, and my heart.

I put on something sexy. I didn’t know what Carlott was thinking, sending me lingeries when her brother

filled the closets with complete wardrobes.

I sighed deeply one more time before I walked out of the door. I’d been planning since this morning

after how he allowed me to walk in the seaside yesterday. The least I could do was to give him

something in return.

I also did this for myself because since he teased me in the study, I’d been aching for him. I wanted to

come, and he just took my toy. He was also right—nothing could satisfy me other than him.

I let go of a shaky breath as I stood in front of his door. “Here goes nothing.” I knocked.

“Thayer?” I bit my lip and waited. My heart pounded so hard as if this would be my first time. It was

insane how he made me feel so nervous in anticipation and crazy with needs.

The door swung open. Now I could barely hear him calling my name. The pulse was pounding in my

ear, so resounding. He was half-naked, only a towel securing around his narrow hips covering his

delicious goodness.

My lips dried as I noticed his cock. His hard. Why is he hard?

“Your Highness, what’s taking you so long?” What the actual fuck? That was a voice of a woman

coming from his room.

My gaze snapped to his face. His hair tousled. He didn’t seem to look guilty that I caught him with

another woman. My heart continued to race—this time with so much rage. I pushed the door wide.

Gasping, I froze stiff as a corpse. There were naked women in his bed and didn’t even care covering

their tits.

“Really? I thought—” I shrugged miserably and shook my head. “You’re an asshole. No. I’m stupid! I’m

stupid that I believed we had something.” I turned around and marched away.

“Kennedy, wait!”

“Go enjoy your threesome!”

“This is not what you think it is!” I heard fast footsteps following me.

Before I could reach my room, I had my arm gripped by his strong hand.

“Hear me out, please?” There was a pain in his voice, but if he really cared about me, he shouldn’t

have brought women into his room.

I faced him, pulling my arm from his grip. I looked directly into his eyes. “We haven’t even back

together, yet you already replaced me by not only a woman but two. I started to think that you are worth

giving a second chance. I had even told your family how kind and wonderful you are and that it was not

hard to like you. But you did not take my words seriously. How do you think I could trust you if you keep

on breaking it?” I looked away, afraid that he would see how he made me feel vulnerable around him.

“Kennedy.”

“Enough of this.” I shook my head. My eyes filled tears no matter how I tried to hold them back. “I can’t

do this anymore.” I rushed to my room, slamming the door in his face.

He was still knocking, calling my name, and saying how he was sorry.

Fuck him, and his sorry.

***

I fell asleep upset. My chest squeezed tightly, knowing Thayer was still sleeping with someone else,

even if I already committed to helping him save his title. How could he do this to me?

The faces of my parents appeared on the screen of the laptop. Thayer brought me one together with

the wardrobes.

“Hey, honey. How are you?” My father waved his hand. They tried to fit together on the screen, making

me laugh.

“Mom, Dad. You don’t have to kiss the camera, you know.”

“I know, but I want to see you up closed.”

I laughed even my heart was still bleeding. I tried compartmentalizing my emotions for the sake of my

parents.

“Mom, Dad, I have something to tell you. I know it sounds rush, but I’m certain that this is what I wanna

do.”

“What is it, honey?” Mom got her attention back from her phone to the laptop.

“I’m getting married.”

When I thought they would be shocked and asked me if I was pregnant, I was wrong. Or they would

start by asking who was the guy and threw me another twenty thousand questions, but it never

happened. They did not look sad either.

“Mom, Dad, did you hear me?”

“Congratulations! Yay!” Mom clasped her hands together, but I couldn’t see the shock and excitement

either.

“I’m happy for you, honey.” His smile was genuine, though, but something was still off about this.

“You’re not happy that I’m getting married? Or you think this is insane?” I paused. Then it hit me hard.

“Crap.” I covered my face with my hands. “You two don’t look so surprised. You didn’t even ask if I’m

sure about my decisions. Last Christmas, when I told you that I’m dating someone, you both asked me

twenty questions each. This time, I just dropped the shocking news, yet I heard nada! Just a

‘congratulations and yay,’” I mimicked my mother’s voice. "I should have known better."

“Honey, we’ve been waiting for your call since yesterday—”

I butted in. “Because you already knew.”

Dad nodded, and Mom shrugged. Then she giggled in front of the camera. “Tell me about him, honey.

Is he really a prince?”

“Oh, boy.” I slumped to the chair, defeated.

“Alessia Hearst, your boss came to visit us with two black SUVs parked on the street. She came and

zoomed with The Prince.”

I gasped. “Who? Prince who?”

“The father,” she seemed wasn’t sure.

“The Prince?” My eyes widened in shock. I shut my mouth close.

This was not what I expected. When I thought I was dropping the bomb on Prince Isodore, that I

agreed to marry Thayer, I was the one get played. As always, they were two steps ahead of me.

“On behalf of The Prince and Prince Thayer, Alessia came her personally to ask for your hand in

marriage. Why didn’t you tell us that you’re dating a prince? You also quit your job and are not in New

York anymore.”

Sighing, I hugged my knee. “It’s a long story.”

“Well, we have all day, honey.”

“Hey, she’s getting married. She needs a beauty rest.” Dad looked at my mom. They seemed okay with

this. Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

I wondered how Prince Isodore managed to convince them, considering my parents were protective of

me even if I was a grown-up adult.

“What else did they say?”

“Wait, you have no idea they asked for our blessings?”

“No.” I felt guilty and relieved at the same time. “I thought I would just tell you myself.”

“You’re coming home to spend Christmas, right? And bring your prince with you.”

“Of course, I’ll be there, but I’m not sure if he’s gonna come with me. He might be busy during holidays,

Dad.”

“It’s alright, but I’d love to see you, honey. How about we come and visit you?” Dad asked. I knew I

couldn’t make excuses every time I would talk to them. One day, I had to video call with them with

Thayer by my side.

“That’s actually a terrific idea.” My chest lightened up. Thank goodness, I didn’t have to convince them,

and they took it lightly.

“And honey, there’s something we need to tell you.” Oh, boy. Why did I feel that I was not going to like

this?

“Sure. What it is?”

They looked at each other before Dad cleared his throat. “They have a tradition of giving dowry to the

bride, which included the family.”

“What?” I was too shocked to realize it was my own voice shouting. “What is it they gave you? You

can’t take it, Mom, Dad. You have to return it to them. We’re not accepting a penny from him—from

them. This is not how it works for us.”

“Honey, it’s too late.” Mom looked guilty.

“No, it’s not. We’re not yet married.”

“Honey, listen to me. This is their tradition. You can’t change it since you accepted his proposal—”

“Then why I am not wearing any ring?” I raised my hand to show them my ringless finger just to prove

to them that they could return whatever Thayer’s father gave them.

“But you just said that you’re getting married.”

“It’s complicated.” My heart sunk.

“You’re not pregnant, are you?”

“No.” But we did sleep together unprotected.

“Well. He gave us a house.”

“A what? A house? No way.” I stared at the screen in disbelief. “I’m gonna talk to him. We’ll continue

this later. Bye.” I shut the laptop close. My heart was pounding so hard as I swung the door opened

only to be hit by it felt like a trunk—a hard, warm, and smelling good kind of trunk.

His strong arms securely wrapped around me in a possessive way, his hands on my back, and his

breathing on my forehead.

“Darling.”