The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy
Chapter 0423

He turns to stare at me, his mouth open a little bit, completely shocked.

I grimace a little at his reaction, not really knowing what to do. "Do you...do you like it?"

"Ariel," he breathes, turning his face reverently back to the device and to the DVD collection. "I...I love it." Then he gasps a little, his eyes lighting on something, and quick as a flash he reaches into the box and pulls out a set of dvds. "How do you work it?" he murmurs, pulling open the case and glancing at between the device and me.

I laugh, and then show him, and he nods eagerly, listening and loading one of the DVD's, starting to press play.

"Jacks," I say, shaking my head and laughing, putting my hand on his arm. "It's late - I can show you all of this in the morning -"

"No," he murmurs, reaching out to put the DVD player flat on the bed as the first episode starts up. "I want... is it okay?" he whispers, looking over at me. "Are you tired? I know it's late, but I want to watch one. With you."

A slow smile stretches across my face as I look at my big tough mate. "It's not too late. That's perfect."

We take a minute to get settled - to put the rest of the DVD's in a safe spot on the floor - though I see Jackson glance at them as he puts them down, clearly desperate to look through them and see what he's got.

But he brings his attention back to me as I settle warm against him. Jackson again wraps his arms around me, and I tug Tiger down to hold in my lap as we focus on the screen, quietly watching the drama unfold.

"That's Raquel," Jackson murmurs, pointing at the screen and telling me information that I already know - that I've known for years, frankly, because we've all seen Besties a thousand times. "She was supposed to get married but...she didn't." "Sounds familiar," I say, my voice dry.

Jackson smirks at me but then turns his attention back to the screen. "And that's Russ," he whispers, like it's a great secret, pointing again when the dark-haired actor comes on the screen. "He's Raquel's mate, but she doesn't know it yet. No one does."

I hum interestedly and settle against Jackson's chest, inhaling a deep and contented breath, thinking about how lucky I am to be perfectly happy for the second time tonight.

But just as I'm sinking into the show, getting lost again into the storyline, Jackson reaches out and presses the pause button.

"Ariel," he says, and I turn my face up to him, confused. I find his steady sapphire eyes looking at me intently as he reaches out and cups my face in his gigantic palm, holding it like a treasure. "This was the most...wonderful day. I could never have imagined it - that it could be so...nice, to just sit around with people. And play, and eat, and talk. Thank you, so much, for letting me have this with you. For sharing your family with me."

"Your family too now, Jackson," I whisper, reaching up and cupping his own face in my much smaller hand. "Forever. We get to do this every year."

"Forever," he murmurs, smiling at me softly, turning the word over in his mouth like he's trying it out for the first time, seeing how it tastes. And then he smiles, like he likes it.

I push myself up a then, bringing my face close to his and pressing a soft kiss to his mouth. And he returns it willingly, almost reverently, but I pull away after a moment and smile, settling back against him.

Because we don't need to push it any further tonight. We have time.

So much time. Forever.

Feeling precisely the same, Jackson reaches out and presses play on the DVD player again, turning the show back on. Quite quiet, quite calm, we watch it together in perfect contentment.