Officer Charming and the Prince Who Wooed Him

Chapter 1 The pounding in his head grew more persistent as he fought his way through the murky darkness toward consciousness. He groaned as his eyes fluttered open and tried to focus. Light flooded in and Chad squeezed his eyes shut against the intrusion. He focused on his breathing, trying to orient himself while fighting the dizziness creeping in. He lay flat on his back, and a piercing ringing in his ears made him want to bury his head under a pillow. A large, soft, and fluffy pillow. Not this hard—whatever it was—under his head. Chad was fairly certain he was not at home in bed. He dragged his eyelids open again and fought against the nausea. When the fogginess began to clear, he found himself looking into a pair of deep chocolate brown eyes just below a furrowed brow. “He’s awake,” the owner of the brown eyes screeched as he waved around his arms like one of those puppets with the pull-strings. Chad worried Puppet-Guy would hit him with one of his fly-away arms, but when he tried to move, a tremendous pain stabbed through his own arm and he groaned. “Don’t move,” Puppet-Guy advised, leaning in close to peer into his eyes. Chad wasn’t sure he’d ever seen lashes that long. Or a nose that cute. What was that called? A button nose? Wait…when had he ever thought a nose was cute? And was that a crown perched precariously on top of the brown-eyed Puppet-Guy? He was obviously still out cold. Or delusional. Either way, he still couldn’t figure out why he was on his back. A horse neighed as it stomped a hoof, and the memory of what happened roared back to him, filling him with anger. Who the hell had let that guy on a horse? He narrowed his eyes and again tried to focus, but could see only the light dusting of freckles sprinkled across the man’s creamy white skin. s**t, did the guy have a blemish anywhere? Fuck it, he told himself. That’s not the point. This i***t is why I’m on the ground. And to think, his day had begun so normally. How could he have known he would find himself sprawled on his back in the middle of the street?