LITTLE PRINCESS THAT GOT AWAY

NOAH'S POV

My phone buzzed at noon.

I was in the middle of a call with the Milan team when Matteo set a note face-down on my desk. That only ever meant one thing: it was very urgent, and very important.

I wrapped up the call in under two minutes and flipped the paper over.

Subject: Sighting confirmed. JFK arrivals. 11:47 AM.

There was a photograph attached.

I stared at it for a long time.

43 months.

Four years of dead ends, redirected trails, and an investigation team that cost me more than most people earned in a lifetime.

And there she was, walking through JFK airport like she had never been gone. As if she hadn't completely vanished the morning after I left to get her breakfast.

Twenty minutes. That was all I was gone.

I had only left for twenty minutes to run down to that little bakery near the university. She always loved their pastries, and I wanted to bring her something to comfort her after the intense, breathless night we had just shared.

That morning, I had even dismissed my security detail. I knew my little princess wouldn't be comfortable with a crowd of bodyguards standing outside the door. I could already picture how red her face would get when I walked back in, and the thought had made me smile.

But I returned to an empty suite.

No note. No warning. Nothing.

I remember the sharp hit of regret for not leaving a guard behind.

At the time, I thought she had just gone out. I thought I would go find her, and she would be overwhelmed by everything happening between us. I had no idea it would be the last time I ever saw her.

Until now.

My men dug up what they could afterward. Her father had cut her off. There had been some massive blowout with her stepsister involving Jamie—that motherfucker.

I always had my suspicions about that bastard, but I never imagined he was preparing to dump Aria for her stepsister. I had no idea what kind of idiot could look at a treasure, a precious pearl like Aria, and choose something worthless instead.

I had been glad he messed up. I thought it meant I could finally step in, that maybe Aria would finally give me the time of day.

But the possibility that she left because she still wanted Jamie was the one thought I spent four years refusing to entertain.

She had come to me herself. She showed up at my door, and then she disappeared.

I refused to believe she had just used me as a fucking rebound, I wouldn't allow it.

I had spent four years wanting an explanation.

☆~☆

I couldn't get away from my afternoon meeting as fast as I wanted. It dragged on for another thirty minutes. We were planning to branch out to Paris, so my team was updating me on a trending brand over there called Aureline.

Honestly, I didn't give a fuck about any of it. My mind was entirely occupied by thoughts of Aria.

I had replayed our night together more times than I cared to admit. The way she had looked up at me, begging me with that sultry, seductive voice to take her. How she had cried out when I first claimed her.

She had been so tight, so breathtakingly responsive.

The realization had hit me right after—it had been her first time.

Despite everything, despite Jamie and however long they had been together, she had held that part of herself back. She had saved it. I didn't care how Jamie had managed to endure waiting, but I was damn glad she gave it to me.

"Reschedule the two o'clock," I told Jane as I grabbed my jacket. "Whoever it is, I don't care. I have somewhere important to be right now."

Falcon had her last confirmed location, and I wasn't wasting another hour in a meeting room when she was somewhere in this city.

"But sir, she is here already!" Jane replied, her voice frantic. "She is waiting inside the—"

"Did I stutter?" I looked back at her.

She pressed her lips together and shut up.

"I don't give a fuck where she is," I muttered, heading for the door. "The meeting has to be rescheduled. Tell Matteo to meet me downstairs immediately."

I turned and walked toward the executive elevators.

Then, a voice came from behind me.

"Mr. Kings."

I froze on the spot.

Not because of the words, but the voice. There was only one person in the world who spoke like that.

"It is quite something, you know," the voice continued, dripping with cool sarcasm. "A person waits for you for more than an hour, and you still choose to walk in the other direction."

I turned around slowly.

And there she was.

Fuck.

I had the photograph from this morning, blurry and taken from a distance, and I thought it was enough to prepare me. It wasn't even close.

She was standing in the doorway of the meeting room. Her arms were folded tightly over her chest, her chin lifted high. My little princess was furious.

She was wearing a simple corporate dress, but instead of her usual purple, it was black. The fabric clung to her curves, looking far more dangerous than professional.

It snatched her at the waist and hit just above the knee. Her hips curved out exactly the way I remembered. Her waist dipped in. Her chest...

I forced my eyes up to her face.

Her face.

She was more beautiful than I remembered, that made every other woman feel like a rough draft.

She hadn't aged a single day.

Her skin was still flawless. Her dark, wavy hair hung loose past her shoulders, and she was staring at me with those dark eyes that made my chest tighten.

"Aria." Her name left my mouth quieter than I meant it to. "What... what are you doing here?"

A quick flicker of emotion crossed her face.

"She is the person you were meeting with, boss," Jane said quietly from somewhere behind me.

I didn't look at Jane. I couldn't look away from Aria.

As the shock began to clear, a cold realization settled in.

This could be a setup. Whoever had arranged this meeting request knew exactly what they were doing when they put her name on my schedule. The idea that she was here because someone calculated that I wouldn't be able to say no to her face made my blood boil.

"Are you here because they think I will agree to their demands?" I heard myself ask, my voice hardening. "Is that why they sent you to me?"

She held my stare. Her voice was razor-sharp, cutting straight through the tension in the room.

"No, Noah," she said. "I am here for my son."

What the fuck! She is married?