Keep You Forever ✓ | AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE AS A PAPERBACK/EBOOK! [Sample]

11 | promises

We hike back to the main road in silence. Something has changed. Something feels different. And I don't like it. I want to talk to him again—I want him to smile at me the same way he did a few minutes ago, but it doesn't happen.

It's then that I realise what's happening to me. I can't stop thinking about him, and we've been together for two hours. If two freaking hours with him can make me delirious, I'm not sure what spending a day with him might be like.

It might result in oblivion.

There's something about Asher. Definitely something. Something in the way he touches me, in the way he looks at me, in the way he talks to me. Something different, something new.

Something good.

When we reach the deserted road still acting like we don't know each other, Asher points towards a gleaming Audi in the distance and says, "The car is here. Let me, uh, drive you home."

"When did that get here?" I squint, because I clearly remember that luxury vehicle not being parked in that spot when we first began the climb.

"There are a few perks to being a Prince," he chuckles behind me, like it isn't his surname but rather a royal title. I mock-groan at his cockiness and he exhales distractedly, then fixes sight at me after what feels like eternity. I bite my lower lip and Asher hesitates. He decides not to say what he wanted to after all, and instead he goes with, "Come on, Lissa."

Liss-uh. No one pronounces my name like that.

Except this stupid, stupid boy.

Asher buckles himself in the driver's seat and grips the steering wheel, his eyes staring right ahead. I sit back in the passenger seat, resting my head against the window, still thinking about only him. Ugh, me.

Why can't I think about anything else but this boy? What the hell is wrong with me? I used to be sane.

Then it hits me. Two hours ago, I was stuck inside my room, thinking about my crumbling family life and moping about my parents' possible divorce. Now, two hours later, I'm happy, and I'm with the boy who has made me happy.

Feeling like this about him is not my fault.

It's his.

"Thank you, Asher," I whisper as Asher takes a right turn, and a small smile spreads across his lips when he hears me.

"Thank you," he replies, meeting my grateful eyes slowly. Something is seriously wrong with my mind.

And my heart.

"Thank me? Why?" I ask him, because I have done practically nothing except being a sloppy tag-along (whom he had to carry in his arms up a tall hill) all night. Why, then, would he be thankful to me?

Virtually, I don't think I deserve anything more than "get out of my car right now".

"It was fun seeing the town through your eyes," Asher mutters back, his tone so enticing it alone makes my skin explode in sparkles. I blush, though I'm really not a blusher. Somehow, this boy has the power to make me blush like nobody has ever done.

My camera...oh, no.

I didn't take any pictures of Asher on the hill.

Never mind.

I don't need a scenic hill in the background to photograph Asher. I can take a picture of him right now. In this moment. When he's simply looking at me with those tousled brown curls falling in his eyes. All I want is to be able to capture him. Place or time doesn't matter.

Also, this person has a frustrating way of looking good in every situation.

I whip out my camera without a warning to Asher, snapping a picture of him just like that. Instead of being extremely offended by my idiocy, Asher laughs aloud and shakes his head. He shakes his head at me a lot. Maybe he can't make sense of anything I do.

Before I even know it—and a hundred pictures of Asher's face later—we're parked outside my aunt and uncle's house. Before I know it, the best night I've had in so long has come to an end.

Asher realises it too, I'm a hundred percent sure, because his expression hardens, and suddenly he's the boy from the hallway again. "Go home, Lissa."

His mood shifts so quickly, I can't seem to keep up. I don't want to soil his mood further, which I'm bound to do if I stay near him for another moment, so I decide to leave.

"Bye," I say, ready to step out of the car, but Asher whispers my name ever-so-softly, and I'm forced to pause and turn back around.

"Lissa?"

"Yeah?"

"I'll see you," he pronounces, smiling again. I just blink like an idiot and peer into his eyes.

Then, when I'm fully assured that he's telling the truth, I walk out of the car with a smile. Over my shoulder, I say, "I know."