Somehow, it wasn’t the disaster he’d expected.
“Sir?” she murmured, coming awake in a flutter of lashes. “Have the servants come?”
“No, sweet. They won’t appear until we summon them, this morning of all mornings. Although I imagine quite a few people are lurking outside, waiting for us to emerge.”
“Must we rise so early?”
“It’s not early.” He laughed, tucking her close to him. “And no, we don’t have to get up yet.” He loved her sultry laziness, probably because it brought to mind the way they’d spent the hours meant for sleep. He’d taught her quite a bit last night, with many carnal adventures still to come.
Her fingers trailed over his chest, tracing the ridges of his muscles. “How strange,” she said, peeking up at him, “to wake with a man in my bed.”
“Not strange, when it’s your husband.” He put on a stern face. “Though mind me, I’ll be the only man in your bed, ever.”
“And I the only woman in yours.”
She said it blissfully, ignorant of the fact that few men honored their marriage vows. He hadn’t planned to be part of that honorable group. Once he’d gotten his wife settled, he’d imagined he would take up again with his various mistresses, politely keeping them from her notice. She’d be busy with balls and parties, after all, and taking care of the children. They would both have their own lives.
But maybe it wouldn’t turn out like that.
“How are you feeling today?” he asked.
“I feel relieved.”
He raised a brow. “Relieved?”
“Yes, that you aren’t an insensitive monster, more concerned with asserting your dominance than accepting me into your life.”
“Like your father?”
Her gaze flickered. “Yes. I’m glad you aren’t like my father. My mother wouldn’t have wanted that sort of life for me.”
Gideon noticed her eyes fill a little, though she didn’t cry. He embraced her, stroking her hair back, untangling her sleep-tousled locks. After a while, she sat up against the pillows and looked about the room, then up at the coronet that crested the bed. “His Royal Highness Prince Gideon Augustus Wickham of Hastings,” she read. “An excellent moniker for a future king.”
“And you’re the future queen now. Officially.” He winked at her. “After four ‘consummations,’ no one can dispute it. Later today, you’ll get your crown.”
“A real crown?” she asked. “Will it be heavy?”
“Not too heavy.” He kissed her forehead, lingering gently over the task. “God willing, you’ll be strong enough to bear the burden.”
She turned her face up to his, offering a deeper kiss, which he boldly accepted. By the time they parted, he was ready to bed her again, but she was too tender after all their lovemaking, so he settled for a languid exploration of her body that left them in a tangle of limbs.
“I always imagined I’d get a wife I hated,” he said, nipping at her earlobe. “Someone to make me miserable after all my crimes.”
She sat up a little straighter. “What crimes?”
“Petty crimes only, I promise. Just know that you’re better than I deserve.” He couldn’t tell her what a rakehell he’d been, or that she’d somehow reformed him in the space of half a week. But he could let a little of that gratitude and wonder show in his smile.
“I want you to be happy,” he said. “In Hastings, in this marriage, in everything, I want you to...” I want you to always be as open and trusting as you are being with me now. It was marvelous, the way she looked at him. He never wanted that to end.
“What will make you happy?” he demanded, to cover his cascade of feelings. “What do you wish for, that I can give you?”
“A kind husband?”
“You already have that, and quite a bit more.” He slid his hard cock against her front, so she erupted in laughter. “I mean specific things. Do you want a softer bed? A firmer one? A rainbow of gowns with matching shoes and gloves? Plum pudding for dinner every night?”
“What a generous prince you are,” she teased.
“I’ll give you anything.” And that was when he realized he adored her beyond all prospects, because he spoke without flirtation or irony. He meant what he said.
She seemed to recognize this, because she answered without a lover’s posturing. “I’d like a garden,” she said. “My own garden to tend, where I can plant flowers and fruits.”
“You can certainly have that. There’s plenty of room.”
“I’d like light in all the rooms of our home,” she continued. “It was so dark in the convent. By the time the children come...” She blushed. He had explained all that last night, sometime between their third and fourth coupling. “By the time the children come, I want the nursery to be the brightest room of all.”
“Perhaps it can look out on your garden.” He was rewarded with a blinding smile. “What else?” he asked.
“Might I have a horse?” She clasped her hands together, growing excited. “Any color will do. Will you teach me how to ride?”
“Of course I’ll teach you, for it’s high time. How is it that you don’t know how to ride?”
“In my youth I had a fear of horses,” she admitted. “I didn’t trust them, but perhaps now...” Ah, that brazen look from beneath her lashes. “Perhaps now I can be braver, with you to help me.”
He swallowed and regarded the bewitching woman in his bed. He knew that, when it was time for them to rise and make themselves presentable, she’d put on a fancy gown and have her maid braid her hair into a staunch ebony crown of reserve. She’d look every inch the cool and stately princess, but he’d remember her like this, a delightful flirt, afraid of many things, but not of him.
“Horses aren’t so bad when you get used to them,” he said. “I’ll teach you everything you need to know. What else?”
She closed her eyes and snuggled closer to him, burying her head against the curve of his shoulder. “There’s one more thing, but it might be too much.”
“Ask me.” He waited, hoping it wasn’t too much.
“I know it’s customary for husbands and wives to sleep apart, and I know there’s a lovely suite you’ve outfitted just for me, but I was wondering if, at least in the beginning, as I get used to the palace and being married to you—”
“Yes,” he said.
“But I haven’t asked anything.”
He laced his fingers through hers. “Do you mean to ask if you can sleep in here with me? If we can slumber in each other’s arms every night?”
“Yes, Your Highness. That’s what I was going to ask, but if it will infringe too much upon your privacy...”
“It won’t. It will please me greatly.” He tipped her chin up to give her a deep, approving kiss. “Do you know what else would please me greatly? If you’d stop calling me ‘Your Highness.’ How can we put an end to this habit? A sound spanking whenever you forget?” He punctuated the suggestion with a few playful smacks to her bottom.
“No, please.” She squirmed, but she laughed too, a beautiful, sultry sound. A trusting sound. “I’ll try to remember. This is all just...so new...Gideon.”
Her gaze sobered, traveling over his face and stopping at his lips. Yes, this closeness was new to both of them, but it seemed that everything would be fine.
“What do you want?” she asked, touching his cheek. “I’m not the only one in this budding marriage.”
“I want so many things,” he replied, flashing a grin. “A great deal of them right here in this bed.”
“It’s good, then, that I’ll be staying here every night.”
God, how he wanted her, but tonight would be soon enough. In the meantime, he’d content himself with her laugh and her smile, and the grandeur of a coronation. Just as he thought it, he heard faint throat-clearing from the direction of the dressing room.
“Bertram,” he said with a sigh, “it’s the morning after my wedding.”
“Just so, Your Highness. Bu
t time slips on and…well…” The unflappable servant actually sounded embarrassed.
“I believe the princess and I require a few more hours of sleep,” he said, to tease the man.
“Your Highness, the coronation!”
“The coronation,” Gideon whispered to Cassandra, making her giggle. “Shall we rise and get you your crown?”
“Yes, as long as you’ll be beside me,” she answered, squeezing his hand.
Three days wasn’t enough time to know a person intimately. Perhaps it wasn’t enough time to truly fall in love, but it was enough time to know if that person could be trusted with a new, improved version of yourself.
Three days, thought Gideon, was enough time for a dark-eyed princess to awaken a rakehell’s heart.
A Final Note
I hope you enjoyed this fantasy tale about Gideon and Cassandra’s wedding in the Kingdom of Hastings. I have two other novellas set in the same world, telling the story of Gideon’s great-great-grandmother Queen Violetta and her consort, the stern and forbidding Duke of Thornton. Those novellas, Royal Discipline and The Royal Wedding Night, have quite a bit more discipline, training, and spanking than A Rakehell’s Heart, but they have equally happy endings. Even better, The Royal Wedding Night is permanently free at many outlets. I hope you’ll check them out!
And for kinky historical romance set in the real Regency and Victorian eras, be sure to read my Properly Spanked series, as well as my standalone novels, Disciplining the Duchess and Lily Mine.
Lily Mine by Annabel Joseph
When Lily wends her way down the country lane to Lilyvale Manor, she hopes the coincidence of names bodes well, for she is in dire straits. She’s been disowned by her London family and finds herself desperately in need of a job.
Lord Ashbourne is equally at ends, his fiancée having jilted him for a commoner and run off to the Continent. Her powerful society family is determined to delay the breaking scandal in order to save the younger sister's prospects. When a servant leads Lily to his parlor, James is astonished to discover how closely she resembles the missing lady of the manor.
He hatches a plan, convincing Lily to play his absent “wife” to keep the gossips at bay. He reassures her it will be in name only, but soon enough, playacting turns to real attraction, and friendship to aching, mounting desire. The strictures of society and unforeseen tragedy combine to test the pair's forbidden love, even as they are driven ever closer into one another's arms…
This novel contains spanking, light bondage, and light BDSM elements.
Disciplining the Duchess by Annabel Joseph
Over five seasons, Miss Harmony Barrett has managed to repel every gentleman of consequence and engineer a debacle at Almack’s so horrifying that her waltzing privileges are revoked. If she’s not in the library reading about Mongol hordes, she’s embarrassing her family or getting involved in impulsive scrapes.
Enter the Duke of Courtland, a man known for his love of duty and decorum. Through a vexing series of events, he finds himself shackled to Miss Barrett in matrimony. But all is not lost. The duke harbors a not-so-secret affinity for spanking and discipline…and his new wife is ever in need of it. Will the mismatched couple find their way to marital happiness? Or will the duke be forever Disciplining the Duchess?
This 85K word erotic romance novel contains domestic discipline themes and both harsh and loving spanking scenes.
About the Author
Annabel Joseph is a multi-published BDSM romance author. She writes mainly contemporary romance, although she has been known to dabble in the medieval and Regency eras. She is known for writing emotionally intense BDSM storylines, and strives to create characters that seem real—even flawed—so readers are better able to relate to them. Annabel also writes non-BDSM romance under the pen name Molly Joseph.
You can follow Annabel on Twitter (@annabeljoseph) or Facebook (facebook.com/annabeljosephnovels), or sign up to receive her newsletters at annabeljoseph.com.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
A Final Note
Lily Mine by Annabel Joseph
Disciplining the Duchess by Annabel Joseph
About the Author
A Rakehell's Heart Page 6