The Princess Next Door

Ch 14

Shawn's P.O.V

" If you love me, then I love you too" Cara said to me as she sat next to me. What was I going to say, I knew I loved her deep down, but I never expected her to say that to me. I just blankly stared at her. I didn't know what to say, so I did the only thing I could do right now, I got up and left the room. To be honest, it was a d**k move but I was not ready for all that yet. I wanted to say it back, but I couldn't. Not in the position I was in, I would never be able to marry her, or love her the way she deserved. I wasn't royalty, I was just her bodyguard and that was it. I went into the other sitting room in the aircraft and tried to collect my thoughts. I tried not to get attached to her, but I have whether I liked it or not. Now the only thing to do was to push her away as much as it was going to kill me. Realistically, I knew that I couldn't be what she deserved.

Cara's P.O.V.

I just sat there in shock as I confessed how I felt about him and he just got up and left. No recognition of what I said or anything. I felt my chest heaving and my heart racing. Is this what it feels like when your heart breaks? I really thought we had something, but I guess it was all in my imagination. I tried to keep the tears from breaking through, but they just came streaming down my face like a waterfall. I put both my arms around me and just prayed that this flight would soon be over. I didn't want to be around Shawn right now and once I got back to my place, I would be able to have some privacy at least for a little while.

I must have fallen asleep on the couch as I felt the plane dip down ready to land. I heard the pilot announce to fasten our seatbelts, so I hurried to my seat to strap in. I saw Shawn in the corner of my eye, sitting in another seat across the plane but I chose to ignore him. If he was going to ignore my declaration of how I felt for him, then I was going to ignore him completely. We landed quickly and Shawn helped me grab my things but still stayed silent.

We got into a black SUV and were headed off towards my place.

" Your parents have arranged for you to stay in a more secure apartment complex off campus" Shawn said in the silence. I just nodded in agreement and continued to look out the window till we reached the new apartment building. It was a gated community with a waterfall in the front, with a circle drive. You had to have a code to get in and once we entered, our driver drove us around the waterfall to the right where there was a building with just four apartments. " Your's is the one on the left, I will be next door" Shawn said quietly. " Okay" is all I could muster out to say. Being this close to him, just made all my feelings worse and I felt like another breakdown was about to happen. I had to stay strong in his presence, I couldn't let him know how much his rejection affected me. We got out and got our bags out of the SUV, Shawn helped me bring my things inside. As I looked around the apartment, it was contemporary and decorated with vintage pieces. There was an old farmhouse painting that was distressed as you walked in, followed by different landscape scenery paintings throughout the rest of the apartment. Everything was stainless steel and white, it had a very clean feeling towards it. I found it already stocked with food and other things I would need, so I wouldn't be going out for that anytime soon.

I found my bedroom upstairs and Shawn followed me and put my bags down for me. " I will be next door if you need anything Princess, classes don't start till Monday so you have a few days to get acclimated" he said as he left the room and went down the stairs. As I heard the door shut, I just fell onto the bed and started sobbing uncontrollably.

Shawn's P.O.V.

I knew I messed up, big time but I didn't know how to make it up to Cara. She was cold to me the whole way to the apartment, which she had every right to be. She didn't deserve the treatment I was giving her but I didn't know how else to convey how I truly felt for her. Growing up the way I did, you were scared to love because as soon as you felt love it was crushed instantly.

Cara was betrothed to Adrian, if I fell in love with her how would that work? She wouldn't give up that kind of life for someone like me. I just shook my head at those thoughts as I got situated in my own apartment next door. It was similar to Cara's and everything was already stocked with food and necessities. I was going to have to install a security system though, but I couldn't leave Cara alone. Now that we were in a new area, I was going to have to scout it out as well. If there were any traces of the Russian mafia around here, I could not take any chances.

I called up our driver and gave him a list of everything I needed and he said he would be back shortly with all the supplies. Now the next thing I had to do was convince Cara to allow me back into her apartment to set all this stuff up. I just prayed she would allow me to do this.