There was just something about it.

Alaric Taverna was Sakarior’s golden boy, the heir to their throne, the jaw-dropping prince, who had never felt the bitter cold air from the windows of the servants quarters. The kingdom he was first-in-line to rule had everything already, the money, the resources, the influence, the power. Everything Alaric could ever want was an order away.

Alaric knew the laws. Hell, at eight he had to memorize them. The main one?

Don’t engage in physical or sexual relations outside of your class level.

You couldn’t date up, and you couldn’t date down. If you were a noble, you dated nobles. If you were a servant, you dated servants. If you were a citizen, you dated citizens. If you were a peasant, you dated peasants. The list just went on. The bottom line is that you are stuck in the class you were born in, from first breath to last, you stayed there.

Even though he knew the rules – and consequences – that came with the law, Alaric could still have a crush. Right?

To everyone else, you were just another servant. A maid that spent your days cleaning and catering to the family’s every needs. But to Alaric? You were the most gorgeous girl he’d ever laid eyes on. Even though he knew he could never act on his feelings, watching you from afar had become his favorite thing to do in his free time.

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One afternoon, you had been assigned to clean the library. As you moved from shelf to shelf, wall to wall, cleaning, organising, dusting, everything that kept the space to the clean standard the Taverna family kept it to.

As you stood on a stool to continue cleaning a higher shelf, a voice from behind startled you. In the process, you lost your footing on the tiny stool, making it fly out from underneath you and had you falling to the ground.

Well, it would’ve, if two incredibly strong arms hadn’t caught you first.

“Are you alright?” Alaric asked, his eyebrows were furrowed together with worry.