Flames of Auriel (A Caeles Adventure Book 1) by Erin Bedford

coming back with tousled hair and clothes with a satisfied grin on his face. The prince’s actions only left the princess seething and searching for ways to plot her revenge. If they did not find something to distract the princess soon they were going to have another Celestial War right there in the drawing room.
    Alice finished penning her note to King Brom and turned to her waiting messenger. “This is for the king’s eyes only. Understand?”
    “Yes, madam.”
    “Good, then be quick about it.” As the door closed behind him, she let out a plea to Auriel, begging him to urge the king to grant her request.
    ***
    Zoe pulled the brush through her hair with a jerk of her hand and grimaced when it caught on a tangle. Since the ball she had been in a perpetual bad mood and today’s events had done nothing to soothe it. Asher and she had gotten into it again.
    It started with her catching him cheating at cards and ended with a crude offer from him to personally pull the stick out of her ass, which then landed him with her handprint decorating his face. The shocked expression on his face had almost made up for him stomping out of the drawing room, declaring he would be back in a few days. Zoe, fuming from the fight, had been surprised when Bryce stood up to follow his prince. He had paused at the door and pleaded to her to find someone else to take her frustrations out on before she did not have a prince to marry.
    Zoe threw her brush down at the thought. She climbed into her bed for the night and gesturing for the maids to put out the lights in the room. She knew she was being unreasonable, but she could not seem to get a grip on her anger when they were in the same room. When she saw him all she could see was the sweat trickling down his back and the forceful movements of his hips; it caused her to feel an odd heat in the bottom of her stomach and ended with her lashing out at him.
    She had only been lying in bed for a few minutes when she heard the door to her room creak open. She grabbed the dagger she kept under her pillow and slipped out of the bed. Zoe had just crept around her room to sneak up behind the intruder when a distinct male voice cried out and crashed to the floor. She pounced on the intruder, pressing the dagger to his throat.
    “Wait! Wait! Zoe, it’s me, Garrett!” Zoe loosened her grip on him and squinted her eyes to see the trespasser in the dim moonlight coming through the window. Her eyes brightened as she made out her blonde childhood friend lying beneath her. The princess threw the dagger away and launched herself onto him in renewed vigor.
    “Zo, I can’t breathe!”
    She stood up from the floor laughing and helped him to stand. Garrett Fairemane had been her playmate, dueling partner and, as they grew older and more curious, kissing partner. She had not seen him since his father, the Marquee of Aurelius, had sent him to be his older brother’s squire a few years earlier.
    “What are you doing here?” She took a seat on the sofa and lit a candle revealing the overturned table Garrett had tripped over.
    Garrett took a seat next to her, his blue eyes taking in the form of his friend. “Well, from what I can tell your nurse wrote to your father, saying you needed a little back up,” He paused eyeing his friend’s face, “and maybe a little bit of a distraction?”
    She quirked her eyebrow at his words, “Distraction, huh? I don’t think fighting in the mud with you is what Alice had in mind.”
    “That was completely your fault. I didn’t make you lose your footing.”
    Zoe laughed, “But it was your fault for pushing me back in. My ears are still burning from the lecture Alice gave me.”
    They both chuckled at the memory. Garrett threw a muscular arm around her shoulders and twirled one of her curls in his fingers. Zoe looked down at his hand and back to his face, confused.
    “You know, you’ve really become quite a looker since I saw you last.” He leaned his mouth down to hers