Princess

Bonus Scene

Happy New Year, my loves! I hope this year brings you everything you wish for & all the best book boyfriends.

For a New Years present, a bonus Damon & Ariadne scene won the poll on my Instagram (megreads99) so here it is.

This scene is in the past, when everyone was much younger, but Damon was just as in love with Ariadne as always. She, on the other hand, continues to pay the future mob boss very little attention while somehow simultaneously driving him absolutely insane.

So from my boy obsessed pretty boy & his sassy, smart princess... enjoy.

~

Damon

Christian laughed when he opened the door.

"I don't even think you visit me this much," he chuckled, crossing his arms on his chest and leaning against the door.

I rolled my eyes. "Because I don't like you that much," I lied.

He clucked his tongue. "That's how you want to talk to me when you're trying to get into my house?"

"If you won't let me in, someone else will." I didn't even know why I rang the doorbell. I normally waltzed in like I knew the place. Christian was like my brother. He never minded and he never would.

"Oh?" His eyes sparkled with a challenge. "Like Ariadne?"

My jaw tightened as I looked away. Triumph rang through his laugh, but Christian didn't say anything. It was a well known fact that I was infatuated with his little sister, though I didn't think Christian really understood the extent of my... feelings for Ariadne.

She confused me. She frustrated me. She was the only fucking thing I wanted. Anyway. I wasn't here to see her today, given she wouldn't grant me the time of day even if I asked her on my knees with my palms pressed together. She didn't like me, she never really spoke to me, and she probably would always be that way seeing as I gave her the same treatment I gave everyone–silence. It wasn't like I would know what to say around her anyway.

I was here to see little Bella Ryder, who for some reason, had weaseled her way into my heart and was quite possibly my favorite thing in the entire world. With blonde hair and blue eyes, she was going to be a heartbreaker some day. But for now, she was an adorable little thing who I wanted to protect from everything bad. I was inexplicably drawn to her and wanted to be around her brightness and glimmering perfection all the time.

"I brought back-up," I said easily, in about as unbothered of a tone as I could muster.

Christian raised a brow, an intrigued look on his aristocratic face but his eyes brightened when they turned to the person running up to the door with a huge smile on her face.

"Hi cuore mio." She smiled at him, holding a batch of freshly baked peach cobbler–Christian's favorite dessert–in her hands. It was a testament to how well I knew my oldest friend, because if there was anything this cold-hearted bastard would soften around, it was my little sister. Robyn blew some hair out of her face and held it up to him. "Guess what I made."

"Nicely done," Christian murmured under his breath to me, and I tipped an imaginary hat his direction. He dipped lower to wrap my sister into his arms for a hug. "Hi, baby."

Excellent. I slipped past him and into his house, the one I was very familiar with, though Christian and Ariadne always preferred to come to my house instead, seeing as they repulsed their father. Moving through the rooms with ease, I walked all the way to the nursery where I found Bella sitting on the floor. Pink rugs, curtains, and chandeliers hung everywhere and anywhere they could put glitter, the Ryders ensured they did.