Royally Kissed | ✓

01; the heiress

Her senses alarmed her to a rooted stance. She couldn't speak at first, much less look at him without her rationality faltering for a few seconds. Before she could stop herself, heat rose to her cheeks when the person in front of her tilted his lips into an amused smirk, missing the few other words he'd just spoken.

She shook her head to snap herself out of that little bewitching quicksand she'd sunk into. "Right, sorry, um−you were saying?"

"Oh, no," he quickly waved her off, "it's fine. I'm just trying to find room HKB dash six, second building. Think you could help me?"

Considering that she wasn't big on talking at all, she didn't exactly know how she'd managed to form a coherent response. "Sure," her voice too low but clear enough anyway, she'd hoped, given that he was too close now, as he scooted to let her look at the piece of index card he was holding. "Yeah, room HKB dash six. I'll be having my first period at the second building, so−"

She felt something weird; something like a pair of eyes−if you could actually feel it in the first place, but she had to look at it now, her heart beating right up her throat upon knowing that she had been right.

Paige blinked.

And put her hand back to her side so fast like she'd just touched an open flame. Shoegazing had always fascinated her and she thought it was necessary to look down now, if only because she couldn't meet his gaze squarely.

If she was brave enough to look back at him minutes ago, she couldn't seem to do it now. Eyes look so harmless and while hers had met his in fleeting moments, she was able to recognize that those deep set of eyes could do dangers to her heart; no matter how warm they seemed to be.

He coughed a little, and Paige tore her gaze away from her flats and instinctively looked back up at him, then chewed the insides of her cheeks. A cast of ethereal glow made its way to his face from the window behind her. His brown hair was windswept, turning several shades lighter as the sunlight hit him, a perfect match to his warm green eyes.

She didn't want to sound so cliche but she couldn't help but fantasize him in such a grand way. All the more when the light went past his broad shoulder blades, his demeanor screaming confidence.

She had never wanted to lean against someone enough. It was dreamlike.

See, he wasn't the most handsome guy she'd seen; her childhood friend was also friends with sought-after bachelors and they were incredibly breathtaking like they'd been cut out from magazines to life.

But there was something in him. Perhaps it was the appeal, the confidence without the ego, the whole aura; she couldn't exactly place a finger on it. There was only one thing she was sure of, though, a memory that would probably take her a lifetime to get over−

−that he was beautiful.

Right then and there, it dawned on her that it was going to be him. It was as if she had been lost, but now, things had come in full circle. Her soul could now rest because she felt like she was home.

But that's the beauty of young love. The lie that it would last forever.

﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

—one—

the heiress

PATIENCE WAS ALMOST a second nature to Paige but she couldn't seem to gather enough of it when it came to one particular tool. One she was childhood friends with, to her misfortune; one she called Owen Callaghan.