My Princess (2nd Book in My Queen series)

8. Alex

"If it's any consolation, Mrs Gonzales, it isn't her fault. I took her out, and I should've made sure someone knew where we were."

"Thank you Alex, but it's not your fault. Bella, I am sick and tired of your reckless behaviour! I didn't raise you to be a wild party animal ready to throw it all away!" On instinct I stepped between them and made sure Bella was safe behind me. Mrs Gonzales paused, a thought crossing her mind.

"Go inside. We'll talk about this later," Bella's head dropped and she walked inside, with me trailing behind.

"Bella? Bella are you ok?" I placed a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off.

"Come on sweetheart, it's me." She scoffed.

"I'm going to train. Don't bother me." I didn't.

...

I walked into the gym, looking for Bella. I found her pretty easily, I just followed the grunting noise. She punched over and over at the bag, throwing in a few kicks.

I stood and watched for a minute. She was certainly strong, and she knew what she was doing. Her hair was swept up and she was in a sports bra and shorts.

I hadn't realised this before, but she had tattoos. She had three butterflies on her arm, writing on her lower back and a small, barely noticeable crescent moon on her hip. She had a rose on her hand and a dragon on her stomach.

It was hot. I was confident she had more, but something told me it wasn't going to be revealed to me anytime soon.

Then I noticed the writing on her forearm.

Still breathing;

I stopped. A semicolon tattoo meant mental health issues or even suicide. And judging by the still breathing, Bella had been through some shit.

"Bella." She stopped and looked over at me, panting.

"What?" She grabbed her bottle and took a sip.

"I'm sorry about getting you into trouble," She shrugged.

"It doesn't matter," I decided to ask about her tattoo later. She didn't trust me enough quite yet.

"Ok, just wanted to check. I'll be in my room," She nodded.

"Hang on. You wanna spar?" I shrugged.

"Why not." I stripped off my jacket and entered the ring, taking my stance.

Bella did the same, matching my position and holding her fists up. I smirked, this would be easy.

"Don't hold back," She said smugly.

"Oh sweetheart, I would never," She came at me, throwing a punch which I dodged. In being distracted by her right fist, her left swung and knocked me in the stomach.

I stumbled slightly from the force of the blow, but regained my position quickly, kicking out and making her fall. She hit that floor on her back and I took that as my opportunity to stand over her.

"Sorry princess. Maybe next time," I held out my hand for her to stand up. She grabbed it, but pulled me down to the ground instead. She flipped over and straddled my hips.