Lio and I had prepared for many of the questions we expected her to ask once we made our announcement. He squeezed my hand before answering.
“Felix and I would love to consider having children one day, but we are both still young. In the meantime, my sister and her husband announced a couple of months ago they’re expecting twins. I would love to see one of Henriette’s children in line for the throne, especially if I’m around to show them all the tricks of the trade before then. In the meantime, according to Hen, the babies are actively competing to see who gets to come into the world first.”
Valerie chuckled before turning to face the camera. “We’re going to take a short break, but we’ll be back with more questions for King Lior and King Consort Felix here at Gadleigh Castle. In the meantime, I hope to convince them to share a snapshot from their wedding day. Stay tuned.”
When the cameras were off, Valerie and the crew scrambled to congratulate us on our big news before setting up for the next segment.
Lio turned and nuzzled into my neck before whispering in my ear. “Tell me something, anything, to get the image of you across that end table last night out of my mind. All I could see when I looked past Valerie during that segment was your gorgeous—”
“Zzzt!” I blurted before he could continue that description. “You’re wearing a microphone, dumbass.”
My face felt like it was on fire. The night before, he’d rimmed the hell out of me while I lay bent over that table begging for it. He’d said all kinds of dirty things about my ass when he was licking and sucking it, and now I wasn’t going to be able to get the memory out of my head either. Bastard.
His deep, warm laughter vibrated through his chest where it leaned against my side. “I took the microphone off, baby. Even unplugged yours from the battery pack too. I’ve heard too many horror stories to get fooled by a hot mic.”
At least my heart rate could come down from the stratosphere.
“Regardless, please save it for later. Now I’m not going to be able to think of anything else for the rest of the day,” I grumbled.
“Good,” he said with evil eyes. “Then you’ll be primed and ready for what I have planned later, dear husband.”
I couldn’t help but shudder from the top of my head down to the tips of my toes.
I wanted it to be later right now.
Epilogue Continued
Lio
Later that night, after stuffing his bright pink hat on his head, I blindfolded Felix and led him out to the dovecote. Arthur had helped me get everything ready for the surprise even though he’d griped the entire time about always being the bridesmaid and never the bride.
Thankfully, this time I’d thought to have our royal guard plan ahead and set up a small security van nearby so they could keep an eye on the dovecote from the comfort of a heated vehicle. The other benefit to the plan was soundproofing. They wouldn’t be able to hear us from inside the van. Not that we had much privacy left from our personal guards… but still.
Once we approached the dovecote and stepped over the threshold, I pulled off his blindfold.
“Oh my god,” he breathed. “Oh my god.”
The entire circular space was filled with candles. A fire blazed in the large stone fireplace at one end, and a four-poster bed stood right in front of it, made with the finest royal linens from the castle. To one side was a picnic table covered in white cloth and laid out with all sorts of Felix’s favorite treats.
He turned to me and hopped into my arms, squeezing me around the neck with his arms and around the waist with his legs.
“How did you do this? Please tell me you didn’t send Bert off to set it up with a team of under gardeners.”
“I beg your pardon,” I said with a sniff. “I’ll have you know I carried the pillows.”
Felix laughed, the best sound in the entire world. As long as Felix Wilde—Felix Grimaldi—was laughing, all was right in my world.
“Thank you for doing this, Lio,” he said with a shy smile. “You didn’t have to. I would have been just as happy in our room in the house.”
Ever since he’d moved in with me, he hadn’t been able to admit to living in a palace or a castle. It was cute as hell. Every time he tried to refer to our home in Monaco, he called it the house. And when he referred to Gadleigh, he called it the Gadleigh… house.
“Have our royal residences become so commonplace to you now that you just see them as any old house now?”
Felix’s eyes sparked at me as he immediately began undressing where he stood. “This is my real-life fairy tale, and I’m afraid it will all end at midnight. So quit teasing me and get naked. Husband.”