Chapter 23:

I woke up a little before 7 the next morning, I looked over art Corey; he was laying face down on the covers.

The strange thing was he was fully dressed and I remember him getting undressed before he got in bed last night.

"Corey," I said lightly shaking his shoulder.

His head turned and he looked at me through half open eyes. "What time is it?" He asked.

"Almost 7." I replied.

His eyes widened, "Shit, I must've fallen asleep." he muttered to himself.

He looked at me and smiled. "Hello."

I breathed a laugh. "Hi..."

"Um, so...I have something to show you." He said.

He sat up and showed me his arm, much to my surprise there was a tattoo of my name on his arm.

The black letters stood out against his practically pale white skin.

"Uh wow, I'm assuming you got this last night." I sad.

He nodded. "I was talking to Drake about the other day and he said he knew someone that could do it so...yeah, surprise."

I laughed slightly. "Okay...well that was very sweet of you but does this mean I have to get a tattoo of your name now?"

He chuckled. "No, of course not."

"Good, because I have a fear of needles." I said.

"Really?" He asked.

I nodded.

School dragged on forever, I think I was more anxious to leave than Corey was...maybe not that much.

But Corey and I got detention for talking in class so that just made the day even longer.

We walked through the now empty parking lot of the school to the sleek black car that was waiting in the very back of the parking lot.

I was dressed in skin-tight jeans, a black T-shirt that had a yellow Batman sign on it and my holy black scuffed-up combat boots.

My fingers were festooned in ring, my brown eyes ringed in eyeliner and my wavy black hair flowing past my shoulders with a somewhat messy look because I forgot to brush it today.

Mu usually pallid cheeks seemed to always have a pink blush on them the past few days.

I normally rarely ever blushed but that seemed to be one of the many affects that Corey had on me, his constant attention and affection caused my cheeks to now be permanently pink.

Corey was walking beside me, his hand securely wrapped around mine.

He was wearing gray jeans that had a studded belt looped through them and a T-shirt with the slogan of an old rock band that he was very fond of.

He really wasn't up-to-date on music seeing as he'd been a slave there's really not much time to listen to music.

His choice of bands consisted of; the Kinks, Misfits, the Beatles, Cheap trick and onto The Clash, Ramones and so on.

He'd been thrilled when he found out I had most of the CD's from those artists.

We spent hours talking about music the other day.

I'd learned that Corey knew how to play the guitar, he can play both electric and acoustic but he prefers acoustic.

I'd made him promise to play for me sometime.

"Hey Arabelle?" Corey said.

I looked over at him. "Yeah?"

"How come you don't have bodyguards? I thought all royals did."

"Oh, well I did but I complained to my Dad about them until he got sick of it and he got rid of them. That's kind of why he wanted me to get a slave; for protection." I responded.

He nodded. "So what did you do until you got me?"

I shrugged. "I had pepper spray. Which I usually never had with me so that wouldn't have done any good...but I'm a fast runner...well actually no I'm not. And I probably would have ended up tripping so...

oh but I do have a pocket knife." I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small black knife and flipped open with ease.

(Took lot's of practice to flip it open that easily. I ended up cutting myself several times.)

Corey started laughing.

What's so funny?

We reached the car and I got in the passenger side, Corey slid in the driver's seat.

"Why are you laughing at me?" I asked.

He stopped laughing and looked at me. He shook his head. "No reason just...I love you."

Okay then...

"I love you more." I muttered, looking out the window.

I didn't think he heard me because I said very quietly.

"What did you just say?" He asked.

I looked back at him. "Umm...I said I love you...more."

"I can't believe you just said that to me."

I shrugged. "It's true." I mumbled, not really intending for him to hear.

He stared at me in shock.

So he did hear me.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" He asked.

"Um...no?" It sounded more like a question than a statement.

"You have to be insane to possibly think that you love me more than I love you." He said.

I just looked at him without saying anything.

"I obviously haven't made it clear how much I love you." He stated.

"You have...I'm just saying I love you more." I said.

"If you knew how much I love you, you wouldn't be saying that."

"Are you going to start driving anytime soon? It's almost dark." I said.

He yanked the keys out of the ignition and stuffed them in his pocket.

He looked at me with a smirk. "The car doesn't move until you admit that I love you more." He siad.

I sighed. "That's never going to happen."

"Well then I guess we'll be spending the night in the parking lot."

Is he serious?