American Princess

Chapter 1

Six Years Later

"Did you figure it out yet?" I asked, hovering over his shoulder while he worked. He was currently enabling my camera, since I was anxious to check out the app the internet had blown up about earlier this summer and the smart phone Secret Service had given me was essentially a plastic brick with a flashlight.

"Someone's restless," Vic replied with a smirk as he clipped my phone's case back on with a snap. "Let's just hope Sam doesn't follow through with his latest threat when he finds out," he added before passing it back to me. Sam was the head of security, and he'd been warning Vic about making mods to our phones for a while now. Something about it being a threat to national security – which I completely understood. I just wanted to experience what everyone else was once in a while.

"He won't find out," I assured him, collapsing into the overstuffed leather futon near his desk. "And it's only Pokémon Go. I'm not creating a Tinder profile or anything."

He raised an amused eyebrow at me and I countered with my own, smirking before I turned my attention back to the game. After a few minutes spent debating on which team to choose I glanced at Vic, who was currently checking his email. "We should get secret phones," I said nonchalantly, floating an old idea.

"We can't," he replied, still tapping away at the keys. "Someone smarter than me would hack them."

"That won't happen."

He chuckled, glancing over at me. "And why's that?"

"There's no one smarter than you." There was a beat of silence and I met his gaze directly. I loved when he looked at me like that, like there was nothing else. No one else. Those eyes of his had always been intense, though. His fans on the internet said they were like fire, and I couldn't disagree. But seeing the look – this look – in person was different. Things between us had been different for a while. We'd been toeing this invisible line for a few years and now I was waiting for some sort of sign that he felt the same way. Even an actual one taped to my door would've been nice. "So when's your friend coming?" I asked, desperate to change the subject.

"Tomorrow," he said vaguely, still watching me. Full disclosure: I'd already stalked his friend from the Academy to the best of my abilities online and didn't find much, which was disappointing.

"Good. Then he can be your date."

This caught Victor off guard, like I intended. "Date?" he spluttered adorably. "For what?"

"Justice Clark's retirement party," I reminded. "You can't ditch me this time."

He smirked at that. "Studying for a final isn't ditching."

I pretended to entertain his counterargument before I shook my head. "Nope. That was still ditching. So bring your friend, it'll be great. There's supposed to be shrimp scampi and a ton of speeches. Oh, and cake of course."

"Of course." He chuckled before narrowing his eyes at me. "Wait. You just want to meet him, don't you?"

"The mysterious friend of my best friend? Of course I want to meet him. He's my competition."

His eyes were ablaze as they regarded me, his comma of a smirk releasing the butterflies in my stomach that seemed to be reserved for him. "Princess, you have no competition," he said sincerely.

He'd been calling me princess since we were thirteen. At first it had been teasing, laughter lacing the word, but at some point it had become a term of endearment. And while I wanted to take his words for what they were, I couldn't stop my mind from racing to other conclusions. Did he mean as a friend, or as something more?

"I'll be the judge of that," I said with a grin, keeping things lighthearted, moving half a step back from the line. Maybe we'd never cross it. Maybe it was all in my head anyway.

There was a knock on the open door, and we both looked over to find Shaw Anderson, one of the men on my security detail. He'd been with me since the beginning, and in all that time I'd never seen a single ash blond hair out of place. My dad had Tyler to keep him on time, and I had Shaw. "Sorry to interrupt Miss Sorenson," he said formally. "But we'll need to leave shortly for that appointment."

"Ok, thanks Shaw. I'll be right out." He nodded and I stood, slipping my phone into my pocket before I grabbed my bag.

Vic smirked. "So you finally caved on the SAT tutor, huh?"

I tossed a wide smile his way as I headed toward the door. "Well I can't get into Harvard on this smile alone."

He laughed. "Why do I feel like you of all people could find a way to do just that?"

"Don't worry, I'll share any wisdom from this prep class with you. Pass it forward and all that."

A smile graced his lips. "Trying to get my parents to love you even more?" he asked, teasing. When his voice got like that, smooth and almost musical, I wanted to kiss him.

I winked from the doorway. "That's the idea. See you tomorrow."