Free Highness by Latrivia Nelson

that he closed his eyes, he thought of Hope and his eyes flashed back open to remind him that he was only a house away from her.  Over the course of the night, he had committed her every feature to memory and played out every possible scenario that would cause for him to see her again.  He had to see her again.  Only, he didn’t know why…yet.  But he intended to find out why she had become the flame and he the moth.
    Maybe it was the fact that he had gone the longest he had ever gone without sex since his decision to come to the U.S.
    Maybe it was because no one knew who he was and he lacked the very attention that he had fled, along with the incessant demands of his title. 
    But maybe there was something else that niggled at him. 
    He heard his brother’s voice suddenly and remembered the conversation with Richard back at the castle.  “If a woman loves you, she loves you because you’re beautiful, royalty and/or rich.  Look anywhere in the world, you’ll get the same answer. You can’t change who you are, and even if you lied to her, you couldn’t change how you look.”
    Funny .  She didn’t know that he was rich, royal or beautiful.  And yet, she seemed to like him. 
    Sitting up in the small queen sized bed, he finally pushed the covers off his naked body and stood up.  The moonlight from outside illuminated his room and all six-feet of his muscular frame.  Another thought crossed his mind, but this time it was sexual in nature.  He imagined what she might feel like in bed with him, naked and sweating under the moon, wrapped in his embrace while he kissed each and every inch of her beautiful body. 
    That thought sent him over the edge and forced him to fight a growing erection.  The last thing that he needed was that, less he find himself in the bathroom with a bottle of lube and his phone properly placed on Pornhub.com. 
    Slipping on a pair of pajama bottoms, he walked down the hall in the darkness, past the cameras installed by MI6 to watch their every move, to Geoff’s bedroom and found him up looking at his tablet.
    “You can’t sleep either?” Michael asked, glad that he was not alone.
    “It’s morning at home. I’m watching the news from London,” Geoff answered, not bothering to look up.  “Why are you up?  Please don’t tell me that you’d like to go to Wal-Mart again.  I can only stomach that place once a day.”
    Michael scratched the back of his neck.  “I’m thinking about a girl.”
    Geoff paused.  Putting down his tablet, he huffed. “Who is she?”
    “The neighbor,” Michael answered, leaning against the door.  A brow rose. “She’s funny.”
    “The senior citizen?” Geoff was extremely disappointed.  He was hoping to get some rest on this remarkably boring adventure, but he knew that look in Michael, when he saw it. 
    “No, she’s not a senior citizen.  From the looks of her, we’re very near in age,” Michael answered.  He shrugged reluctantly. “But she is blind.”
    Geoff huffed in relief. “Thank God.”
    Shock overwhelmed Michael. “What?  That’s a horrible thing to say.”
    A yawn escaped the large, brooding man.  “If she’s blind, it means that she can’t see you, and if she can’t see you then she can’t blow your cover.”  Geoff picked his tablet back up and continued watching the live stream. And she can’t ruin our plans , he said to himself inwardly. 
    “Hope.”  Michael said her name with complete reverence.
    “Excuse me,” Geoff said. 
    Michael wiggled his nose.  “Her name…it’s Hope.”  Her face flashed in his memory again.  “She’s Black,” he said as an afterthought.  “She’s a beautiful, exotic woman.”
    Geoff was not surprised.  Michael had always been attracted to women who hailed from exotic locales or had exotic looks.  Still he corrected his friend.  “African-American.  They don’t like to be called black anymore in this country.  You should probably get that right before you