Twisted Games (Twisted, #2)

by Ana Huang

Clean versus bloodstained. Innocence versus darkness. Two worlds that were never meant to touch.

The first was to protect Bridget. The second was to resist her.

When he was near, I was safe.

“There’s no such thing as just a story. Every story is important. Including yours.” Especially yours.

I know exactly what I’m doing.” I held my breath. “The question is, do you?”

He wanted me. I knew he did.

She deserved the world.

Rhys must’ve finished packing for me.

Whatever it was, I’d deal with it. I just wanted to see her again.

Being by her side without actually being with her would be a special form of torture, but it was better than not being near her at all. The past six weeks were evidence of that.

God, I’d missed her laugh. I’d missed everything about her.

Our eyes met, and the breath stole from my lungs.

“We go wherever you go,” Rhys said. “I keep you safe. The end.”

That’s my girl.

“You don’t need a crown to be queen, Princess.”

“I was always meant to find my way to you.”

Bridget wasn’t beautiful and nothing else. She was everything. Warmth, strength, compassion, humor. I saw it in the way she laughed, in her empathy as she listened to people’s problems and her composure as they railed to her about everything they thought was wrong with the country.

“How was your day, sweetheart?”

“I missed you.”

“It’s unbelievable how much our parents shape our lives,” Bridget said. “With their choices, their memories, their legacies.”

There were very few things in the world I couldn’t withstand, but Bridget crying was one of them.

“I miss you too, Princess.”

Everything with Bridget felt right.

Bridget was mine.

“I don’t need a happily ever after. I need to be by your side. I need you happy and healthy and safe. Goddammit, Bridget, I need you. In any way I can have you.”

“You asked me if I’d ever been in love. I said no.” He pressed a soft kiss to my mouth. “Ask me again, Princess.”

If anyone hurt my princess in any way—physically, mentally, or emotionally—there would be hell to pay.

I might not know what love was, but I knew I was in love with Bridget von Ascheberg, to the point where even I—the man who was so good at denying himself anything good in life—couldn’t deny it.

“I’m not leaving you. If you’re in Eldorra, I’m in Eldorra. If you’re in Antarctica, the Sahara, or the middle of the fucking ocean, I’m there. I’m as much yours as you are mine, Princess, and a law isn’t keeping me away. I don’t care what a piece of paper says. I’ll burn down the entire fucking Parliament if I have to.”

“If we do it, we do it together. You and me against the world, Princess.”

Bridget was, after all, my greatest risk and my greatest reward.

“I’m right here. I’m not leaving.”

every thought melted away except for the bliss of his touch and the fullness in my heart.

Rhys and I hadn’t officially celebrated yesterday’s victory yet, but as he kissed me, I realized we didn’t need champagne and fireworks. We’d always been best when it was just us, no pomp and circumstance required, and the best celebration was being together

And I realized…it’s not that I didn’t believe in love before. It’s that I was saving it all for you.”

I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve her, but she was here, she was mine, and I was never letting her go.

“You and me.”

We always end up where we’re meant to be.

“You’ll always be my princess.”

Did I get angry, frustrated, and stressed? Yes. But so did a lot of people.

No matter how terrible of a day I had, I could go home to someone I loved who loved me back, and that made all the difference.

“But someone once told me we always end up where we’re meant to be, and this is where I’m meant to be. With you.”