He paused, sucking in a surprised breath when he felt bare flesh beneath his fingertips.
"You...you aren't…" he began, but he couldn’t bring himself to say the words out loud for fear he might explode with excitement.
Rayne shrugged and interlocked her fingers behind his head to pull him back to her.
"These dresses are uncomfortable enough without wearing underwear," she whispered against his lips before she urged him to kiss her again. This time she opened her mouth to him and their tongues began to dance in a delicate, hungry dance even as he began to rub a single fingertip over her most sensitive area. Her body quivered beneath his touch and his free hand gripped her thigh in an attempt to stop her from pulling away.
His cock was throbbing so badly, it rubbed painfully against his pants. His clenched jaw was the only thing keeping him in control, and he was relieved as he felt Rayne's hands snake around his waist to urge his pants down.
It was at that moment that everything went terribly wrong. The knocking at the door was quickly followed by a raised voice, "Your Majesty, forgive the intrusion but it’s an emergency!"
Paxton's hesitance to enter told the king his advisor was well aware he was not alone. For one moment, Asher allowed himself to ignore the call. Whatever it was, it could wait until he had had his way with Rayne. After all, he might never get the chance again if she decided to stick to her word.
Then reason returned to him, and seeming to sense the urgency herself, Rayne snapped her head back. Neither said a word. They simply stared into each other's eyes and Asher could see from the mixture of concern and frustration in her gaze that she felt exactly as he did.
Without a word, the two detangled from each other. Asher grabbed his belt buckle and began to close it as Rayne slipped delicately down from his desk, fluttering her beautiful wings to aid her feet to the ground before she crossed the room and opened the door.
"Pardon me, Paxton, I was just leaving," she explained with a dip of her head. Asher opened his mouth to protest that she did not have his permission to leave, but Paxton beat him to it.
"I'm afraid this concerns you also, Miss Rayne," Paxton explained, stepping into the room in such a way that he forced Rayne to step back inside.
Asher's stomach clenched, a lump of anxiety beginning to form in his throat. If Paxton's news concerned them both, that could only mean one thing. Something had happened to his daughter.
"What is it, Paxton?" the king demanded. The heat of desire was instantly quenched by the concerned expression on his advisor's face.
Paxton dipped his head and clutched his hands together in front of him. All feeling seeped from Asher until all he could feel was numbing cold. Whatever had happened, Paxton wasn't eager to announce it.
"Your Grace, I'm afraid Princess Elia is missing."
Asher had never felt so cold in his life. His limbs turned to ice, his entire body shutting down against the devastating news. Rayne's gasp of horror might have been the only thing to stop him from shutting down entirely.
"What do you mean she’s missing?" Rayne spoke for him, and he was more than glad she was there to do so. He wasn't even sure he had the energy to ask the question. His stomach hurt so badly, it felt as if a wild animal were clawing at his insides, trying to drag his intestines out. "I left her sound asleep in her bed less than an hour ago."
Paxton was nodding as if he had no intention of calling Rayne a liar. He then shook his head as he added, "Be that as it may, one of the maids went to do her routine checks and found the princess's bed empty."
"She can't have gotten very far," Rayne protested, sounding as struck by pain as Asher felt. The way she clutched a hand to her abdomen told him she was feeling just as nauseous as he was. "She's three years old!"
Shock turned to terror in Rayne's voice, and instinctively, Asher moved toward her. He was relieved when she didn’t try to pull away. Instead, she allowed him to take hold of her hand, her fingers squeezing his.
"I swear, she was fast asleep in her bed when I left her," she said, turning her face up to his. The fear was clear on her face, her eyes glittering with tears.
"I believe you," Asher assured her. How could he possibly blame her for any of this? After all, it was his fault. If he hadn't avoided them both, his daughter might still be sound asleep right now.
"I already have guards and servants searching the palace and the surrounding grounds," Paxton assured them.
"We will find her," Asher vowed, clutching both Rayne's hands for a moment as he gazed into her eyes, sucking in the floral scent of her to give himself strength.
Chapter 11 - Rayne
Rayne had believed that nothing could make her feel more fearful than the dark nights she’d spent alone in her bed after her father had been arrested, but that night, she felt the weight of sheer terror gripping her shoulders and dragging her down as if gravity were suddenly trying to push her to the earth's core. She was not fearful for herself, but for the small life that she had been placed in charge of. I failed, she thought, trying not to let the realization eat her alive.
She’d been at the king's side all night, following him from room to room as they both called the princess's name in vain. Wherever she was, she obviously couldn't hear them. If she could, there’d been no response. With every passing hour, Rayne became more desperate, looking behind furniture before doing a double sweep of every room just to be sure they hadn't missed her. The entire palace was alive with the search. Never had the place been so full of energy, like a hive of bees all working as one to try and accomplish a collective task. Nobody said a word that wasn't centered around the missing princess, and before long, Rayne felt as though her fear and anxiety might eat her alive.
"Keep looking," Asher ordered every time someone came to offer him a report. "Nobody is to rest until the princess is found."
Though he sounded hard as stone, Rayne could see the cracks beginning to show. For the first time since they’d met, he looked tired and ragged, and all Rayne wanted to do was take him in her arms and comfort him. But she knew that would do no good. They both knew they could not rest until the little princess was found safe and well.
With every hour that passed, everyone began to look more ragged, from the maids to the high nobles. Everybody was searching high and low, from the tops of the towers right down into the dungeons. Please be alright, Rayne prayed, unable to stop the guilt that’d been clawing at her insides ever since Paxton had announced Elia's disappearance.