10
Reece
An angel sat on my navy blanket, the purple of her dress pooled around her knees as she absently studied the plate of strawberries in front of her. "Sweet dreams of me, I hope?" I asked, sitting down next to her and watching as her attention jumped to me immediately.
Her hands loosened, releasing the death grip she'd had on the blanket while occupied by her trance. "I'd need to be asleep to dream." She smiled and it didn't stun me. It didn't take my breath away as it usually did.
My heart ached because there was only sadness where I wanted there to be joy. Starting our lives together should have been a momentous occasion, but something ate away at my Princess despite the physical claim I’d laid on her body. My cum hadn't yet dried on her skin, and already she tried to pull away from me.
"Fair enough," I chuckled, hiding my disappointment. My sheltered Princess needed more time to come to terms with the changes in her life and the way I'd rocked her world with her first orgasm. A little bird that first spread its wings outside the cage it had been in its entire life had to be allowed time to test its flight.
I could be patient.
Maybe.
Holding out the tea, I didn't allow her to take it from me. "Tell me what you think." She reached for it yet again, quirking a delicate eyebrow at me when I shook my head with a teasing tut. Holding the cup out level with her mouth, I nodded to her until she understood my intent. I wanted to worship her. She wouldn't let me. So I would start by feeding her, by giving the body I claimed as my own the nourishment I had a feeling she would neglect if allowed to wallow in the conflicted turmoil of her mind.
She sighed before leaning in to wrap her lips around the edge of the cup and allow me to tip it slowly until the special blueberry leaf tea of my home poured into her mouth with ease. She swallowed, pulling back once she'd had her taste. "It's heavenly," she admitted with a sigh. "What is it?"
"My mother used to steep it from a special berry bush in her private gardens. I could show it to you if you like. It's really quite beautiful. Though not as stunning as you." I watched as desire pooled in her stunning green eyes momentarily, but instead of seizing the opportunity it would present, she glanced around the gardens.
"Maybe another time," she whispered, but the dismissal in her tone was blatant. If Alina had her way, she would never retreat to my mother's gardens with me. Fortunately, I had no intention of letting her get away so easily.
I realized now what I’d done. Confronted by the force of emotions that had slammed into me when I had first witnessed her, I had acted on instinct and nothing else.
I'd moved too fast, taken too much and frightened her. That much was clear, but her skittishness wouldn't change the end result of our relationship. "Perhaps we should socialize with the others. I've never met any of them, and I feel like it's my duty to get to know some while I'm here." She craned her neck, looking around as her brow knitted with confusion. "Did you see my brother when you went for tea? He seems to have disappeared again."
I thought it over, realizing that I had not seen him in fact. He was conspicuously absent from the gardens, despite the presence of most of the other royals. "I haven't, no."
"Well, I'll just have to introduce myself without him then," she said, pushing herself up off the ground and standing next to the blanket. The normal elegance of her movements was absent as she stumbled in her heels like a newborn foal, skittish as she tried to escape me and whatever had transpired between us. With a long low breath, she stood and delicately wiped her hand down her dress to fix herself. "Thank you for the tea. It was lovely." No mention of our secret stolen touches in my sanctuary or of the brewing need for more that warred within the both of us. No hint that as she spoke, her skin probably pulled tight with my release as it hardened and marked her as mine.
Just a clear attempt to dismiss me from her life, as if it could ever be that simple for my Princess to get rid of me.
I stood next to her, getting as close as I thought she'd allow. Or probably closer. Lowering my voice so that others wouldn't hear, I smirked down at her. "You want to socialize?"
"Yes. It's only appropriate under the circumstances," she returned, her spine going taut as she glared up at me.
"You hate attention," I accused, feeling the truth of the words in my soul. "What do you think will happen when you speak with them? You'll be a spectacle to these people, Alina. They don't care for you or what it must have been like to be so trapped in a life that you didn't choose for yourself."
She huffed a laugh, shaking her head at me. "And you do? What do you know of being told what to do? You're a King, Reece. Of a Kingdom as powerful as Oshal. You do what you please," she spat. Rage twisted her delicate features, making her look every bit the passionate Queen I knew she could be. Little hints of what she truly was without her mother’s influence or her own self-consciousness.
I didn't want her proper. I wanted her filthy and rebellious.
I wanted her mine.
"I may not be as controlled as you have been in many aspects, but even Kings feel the pressure to be a certain way. To do things as expected of them for the betterment of the Kingdoms they rule. I am limited by my desire to allow my Country to continue to prosper and to be a fair King. I cannot marry just any woman, because she must be a Princess to continue and uphold my line."
"Ugh!" she growled, glancing at me and ignoring the watchful eyes as she clenched her fists at her side. "And I’m what? To be your duty then?" The sarcasm in her voice brought out the wolfish smile as I stepped closer into her body. I no longer cared for her need for space or what propriety might demand. “How are you any better than all the others?” she muttered under her breath.
Her reputation no longer mattered when she'd be mine in the end.
"It is most fortunate for me that the only woman I have ever desired to make my wife, happens to be a Princess," I murmured, touching her cheek as her jaw went slack and she stared up at me. “And yes, my Baby Bird. That makes me better than all of them. I’m the only one for you. I am the only one whoseesyou.”
"You cannot be serious," she whispered back, her green eyes searching my blue. If she was searching for any trace of a lie, she would be disappointed because there was none to be found, and Alina quickly melted into my touch.
"I intend to submit a proposal for our union, Alina, and I plan to do it soon." I paused allowing the words to sink in before I continued on finally. "I don't know what I've done to give you the impression that this wasn't serious for me. You are not just a random fling or an obligation. You'll be my wife, and I want nothing more than to help you thrive in your newfound freedom." Her eyes lit with what I could only pray was hope, but she bit down on her bottom lip. “I would open your cage rather than stick you into a new one. Then you’ll fly.”
"My mother...." she trailed off, shaking her head to try to dispel my hand from her face. "She'll never allow it."
"What exactly do you think a Queen Mother of the nation of Lantis can do against the King of Oshal? In this, your mother is as powerless as she made you all those years. I won't let her interfere with our marriage." I squeezed my hand around hers to bring the point across. To make her feel even a fraction of what I felt inside me.
Ticking down in dangerous seconds. Threatening to explode sooner rather than later.
"But—" she protested, silencing herself as she looked to the other side of the garden. I looked over and saw her eyes meet Corbin’s and it took everything in me not to let rage overtake me. I had no doubt that whatever had overcome Alina, filled her with doubts in my few moments of absence, had something to do with the King who would take her from me.
Releasing her face finally, I took her hand in mine and tugged her toward my Palace.
She didn't believe my words so I would show her everything with my bod