by C R Riley
I know that none of that was appropriate, but it sure did feel good watching her shrink within herself. She most definitely understood what I was telling her, and perhaps realized that she was never going to be able to slither her way into the life I had unintentionally taken away from her. It was time for her to move on and stop with all these stupid games.
Chapter 40
Antonio
Another few months have pass. It is also a brand-new year; one I have high hopes for.
The last year seemed to be full of so many unexpected events. Some good, like Larkin, some not so good. In the end though it turned out to be the most important year of my life as of yet.
I am hoping this next year is even better.
We are starting it off exactly how I want. It took some hard work all the way around but we managed. I have finally moved my main office to Maximiliano Chateau and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
For now, we are going to live in the cottage. Living apart just wasn’t working for me, or Larkin either really. We did so much better when we spent the majority of our week together and there was no reason, I couldn’t do my job here just as well as I did it in Aragon. One week a month I would have to return so I can meet with the King’s Council, along with deal with any other business that might come up. Otherwise everything could be done via satellite, or if it truly was urgent then I could either return to the Palace or they could come to me. I can promise you I will be making them come to me as often as I can get away with it.
Isabel is enrolled in the local school. She is very excited about getting to know all her new schoolmates when it starts up again in a few weeks. While I know she will miss living in the Palace, I also know she will love living in Maximiliano Chateau once it is completed.
Alejandra and Triana are proud parents of a little girl, Doreen. She is just a little over three months now. Triana has three more to go before I will allow her to officially return to work, although I get this nagging suspicion, she is unofficially doing some work from home. Her replacement, Violet Blanc, has been working out just fine, keeping my schedule exactly how I like it and getting everything done that needs to be done. Which is why Violet will remain at the office in Aragon Place and run things there, assisting me during those times I return.
Alejandra and Triana are also making the move with us to Homero, renting a house in town for now. Eventually they will take up residence in the guesthouse, that way they can be close when I need them and will also get to use our au pair for little Doreen.
Maximiliano Chateau’s final date suggests that we will be able to move in come early spring. Larkin, as you can imagine, is not at all happy about the fact she is three months behind her original schedule. There were several snags along the way that seemed to put each and every deadline behind, postponing phase three until after the first of the year. Which by the way is the phase where she will get to build that library she designed.
They waited to start this portion of the project for several different reasons. Other areas of the chateau needed to have some critical work done to it. Structural work that was required so that they could complete all the final stages at once. Phase three was not just about the library—which would be Larkin’s main focus—but also about the finishing touches that needed to be completed in the rest of the home, minor details that could now be finished.
So when Isabel and I arrive one day behind her, I’m not at all surprised to not find my wife where she was supposed to be. She has been so eager to get her hands on the tower; I knew that as soon as she received the green light, she’d be in there preparing it.
I am however surprised when I hear her voice echoing loudly as she argues with Gino and Dane. It makes me wonder what she is up to that has them both ready to wring her neck.
“Your Majesty, I really must insist you come down.” Gino is typically laid back, but right now he does not at all sound relaxed.
“Insist all you want Gino. I am not coming down until I am good and ready to do so.” I also recognize the stubbornness in that voice. “Hope, pull that rope so the pulley will shift just enough for me to reach this. Perfect.”
“Miss Hope.” A very stern Dean grumbles out. “It would be very wise of you not to listen when she instructs you to do something like that. It will be your head if the Queen falls and gets hurt. You two should not be doing these dangerous …”
“Shut up.” Both women shout at him at the same time.
“We are not amateurs Sir Dane.” Hope’s sarcasm does not go unnoticed.
“It is just Dane.” I hear him curse loudly. “Woman, you are going to kill her if you keep messing with those ropes like that.”
Hope and Larkin are both now laughing.
I unfortunately walk through the door right as Larkin gives Hope another order. My eyes travel up the three ropes in the other woman’s hands, to where my wife dangles three stories up—actually I believe it is more like four. Larkin is in a harness that is strapped to both her legs and torso. Currently she is leaning as far back as she possibly can with a very small wire brush in her hand, wearing eye protectors and some kind of hardhat secured on her head. Like that dang hat would do a darn bit of good if she plummeted headfirst into the concrete slab below our feet.
“What the hell?” I bark out as I glare at both men just standing there.
“Don’t look at us like that.” Gino points his finger at me. “She was already up there before we realized what these two were up to. They told us they wanted to check a few things out. They didn’t tell us they were going to risk life and limb just so she could clean and repair the ceiling.”
A loud yelp has all three of looking up.
“Heads up.” Larkin shouts as something falls to the left of me. “Oops, that was close. Good thing I have a backup brush with me. Hope to the right just a bit.”
I have no words to describe all the crazy reactions traveling through my body and mind right now. Hope seems to know what she is doing and even has the nerve to see if she can rile us up a bit more.
“You know if you guys were any good, I’d let you take over here so I could join her. But one wrong move and poor Queen Larkin could end up being another victim of this tower.” Just her saying that makes me want to order Larkin to get her butt down here where she is completely safe.
“Don’t egg him on Hope. I completely trust you, know you what you are doing, but you and I both know how dangerous this looks. How very dangerous it is, which is why we take all the extra safety measures to make sure accidents don’t occur. Plus, the way you are holding onto those ropes, as if my very life dangles in your hands, makes you look like a real bad ass. Now stop messing around and get your ass up here to help me.” Larkin is looking at us all from her upside-down position, laughing. “I can’t believe they actually fell for that.”
Hope drops the ropes in her hands and I swear we all flinch expecting Larkin to plummet to her death, except she doesn’t budge. Then we all watch in awe as Hope straps into a harness of her own, ties herself to one of those ropes, and like magic gets hoisted to the ceiling. Once she is up there, she starts securing her body to a whole other system of ropes, and with ease begins acting like Spiderwoman, moving across the ceiling with ease.
“But it’s so much fun messing with them. I told you it would be. I bet they’ve never seen anything like this before. This really is beautiful, such a shame that it was hidden all those years.” Hope begins doing what Larkin is doing.
We stand there and watch them for an hour. I cannot take my eyes off of her hanging up there without a care in the world. Both of them drop several more tools, hollering out each time to warn us. By the time they start their descend, I am about to lose it.
“We will leave you to deal with them Sir.” Gino obviously understands my dilemma.
I nod and as soon as Hope’s feet touch the ground, I encourage Dane to help her. “Perhaps you could escort Miss Manchester back to her car.”
Dane snickers a little dismayed that
he has been ordered to take on the firecracker Hope Manchester. “Did I do something to deserve such a task Sir?”
“Larkin, are you coming down soon?” Hope hollers back up at my wife who is clearly absorbed in a dream up there.
“Yeah. Just making sure we got it all. Looks good.” She makes her way towards the ropes and starts doing whatever it is she needs to do to descend.
“Alright, well I’m see you in the morning then.” Hope rolls her neck a few times. “King Antonio, you look as dashing as ever. Lovely home you have here by the way.”
“Thank you Hope. So, you are on her team now?” I take my eyes off my wife for a second.
“I am.” She glances over her shoulder. “You two be careful now.”
While I wait for Larkin to slip out of all her safety gear, I pick up all the brushes they dropped. As soon as I see her walking over to the corner to put her things away, I slide in behind her.
“That was a cruel joke.” I inform her.
The low rumble of her laugh goes straight to my groin.
Things between us have slowed down a bit. First it was because I knew sex was the last thing on her mind, so we dialed it down and reverted back to the days before we married. Her body and mind needed time to heal. I also needed time to connect with my wife on a more intimate level, and if you think the most intimate level possible deals with sex, then you couldn’t be more wrong. Discussing all our dreams we have for our future family can be very intimate. It was also a subject we had put off until then because Larkin hated getting ahead of herself.
We discussed names we might like to name our children. She was very aware that the firstborn often bore the name of his father in one form or another, and that the second born usually did as well. So she thought it would be fitting if we named our firstborn according to tradition and after another king who took a chance. If we had a son, she liked Nicolas Antonio. Should we be blessed with a girl she suggested Nicolette Antonia. I was in awe of the fact that she had taken this so to heart and I agreed with both of those choices. It was some of the other unusual names that she threw out there that had us both laughing and disagreeing. It’s probably a good thing we don’t have to name all our children before we have them.
It also got us seriously talking about how many children we would like to have. After losing a child, I can imagine that it often changes a person’s perspective on what they thought they wanted. It had for both of us at least. Larkin admitted that it scared the daylights out of her to think she could possible give me a basketball team—that would be five by the way—or worse yet a baseball—nine in case you are having trouble figuring that one out. But she had decided that if God wanted to bless her with children, even an unmanageable amount, she would consider herself blessed and accept them as miracles gifted to her from above. Even though she quietly admitted that if I felt the need to get a little snip, clip and tuck, she’d be all for that too, of course only after we had at least one of each.
“Hope’s idea.” I hear her whimper when I press my front into her backside. “Wow. That’s quite an impressive predicament you seem to be in King Antonio. Perhaps I should check if I have something handy that could assist you.” The frisky side of her has returned so I decide to take advantage.
“Are we alone?” I rub my hand over her jean-covered backside. “Please tell me we are alone.”
“If you are asking me if there are other people here working, the answer is no. They won’t be back on the job until tomorrow. Hope arrived early and stop by, talked me into getting started.” She straightens and I allow my hands to slither forward and form a triangle around her front. “Are your guys around?”
My guys are probably in the vicinity, but no one should be inside the house. “Outside yes. Inside, I do not believe so.”
“Dr. Wilson called me today.” Larkin’s voice is almost a moan as she reacts to my fingers toying with her center. “Said my blood work was good. Told me that the results were what she expected. Informed me that if we wanted to start trying again, we could.”
Thank God, is what I am thinking.
“I’m game if you are,” is what I say.
When you haven’t made love to you wife in almost three months, mainly because you both had decided to not take that chance, you start thinking about certain fascinations. Trust me, we’ve done lots of other stuffs. Both of us have done our best to drive the other person absolutely insane, trying to one up the other person at times. So as soon as you get the green light there is very little that will stop you from pressing the pedal to the floor. If Larkin claimed she wasn’t ready yet, I’d slam on the breaks.
Except she doesn’t, “How fast do you think you can get inside of me?”
Fast baby.
My fingers flip the button to her jeans free and I have the zipper down within seconds. Her jeans are around her ankles now, making it so I get to appreciate the way those boycut knickers hug her. I don’t take long to admire them though because I need this woman.
As I drag them down her legs, I warn her. “This isn’t going to be gentle mi lunaita. If you need me to be gentle, please tell me now so I can modify my approach.”
“Just. Need. You.” Her broken speech hints she is aching for this as much as I am.
I love this woman. I never expected to actually find a woman that I could truly love. I have though. I have found a woman to love in a way very few people I imagine get to experience.
My own pants are now around my ankles, along with my underwear. There aren’t many hidden spots in this room. Windows surround us, so anyone watching will be able to see exactly what we are about to do, what we will do. I however can only focus on one thing right now, and I am holding on to that person’s hips at the moment.
I run my length between her legs as a tilt her forward. She can only spread her legs so far, so I really hope I don’t hurt her.
“Grab your ankles baby and hold on.” I instruct her.
She does exactly what I direct her to do with this glorious grin on her face. I place my tip at her entrance, and without giving her time to think about it, I slam home. Knocking that grin right off her face and replacing it with a blissful expression.
“Oh wow.” Larkin whimpers. “Geeze. That. Is.”
I don’t let her finish before I am pumping my hips and I am not doing it in slow easy drives either. I am taking her hard and fast and can feel her insides responding to each harsh thrust. It takes us no time at all to get to where we both want to be, and as soon as I hear her voice shriek out, letting me know she is where I want her to be, I fall right there with her.
Literally.
We both climax and then both end up tumbling forward, until we hit the concrete slab. Thankfully I am able to slide out and roll to my side before I crush her beneath me.
“Are you okay?” I ask when I catch my breath.
Larkin doesn’t say anything, so I grab her shoulder to roll her onto her back where I can see her face. She isn’t talking because she is laughing so hard no noise is able to escape from her. Her hands motion between us like she is trying to explain with that motion alone.
One look at us and I get it. We most definitely look ridiculous, with our pants around our ankles, while lying on the concrete floor after one hell of a sexual performance.
I join her in laughing and I know that this woman was created for me and only me. No one else could make me forget that I am King the way she does. No one would be able to make me laugh with my pants down around my ankles. No one could get me to not care about the fact that my men could walk in and see us looking so disarrayed.
I’m certain that when God made this woman, he made her with me in mind. Therefore, I will thank him every day for leading me to her when we both needed it. No one will be able to convince me that God didn’t orchestrate all this, because only God could bring us together the way he did.
So, there you have it, the story of how a man of my status found love, real genuine love. I wasn’t supposed to find it. It w
asn’t part of the plan so many had for me. It took me having faith in what I believed in, and not letting those around me advise me away from those strong beliefs.
I am King Antonio Ramon Reyes, of Hermosa Islas, and I am the first King in its history to marry for love and only love.
Epilogue
Three Year Later
Larkin
You really didn’t think we would leave you hanging did you. Make you wonder if or when our firstborn made an appearance. Speculate if it were a boy or a girl. That would really not be very nice of us now would it?
So, let me give you a quick little run down of the last couple of years. Well I can’t tell you everything, because there are parts of this family’s story that aren’t mine to tell. If you are really lucky, perhaps they will share it with you when they are ready to do so.
I didn’t believe Antonio when he told me that monarch’s firstborns didn’t take as long to cook as the rest of the world. But after doing my research I learned that appeared to be the case. There were only two other firstborn births in the history of Hermosa Islas monarch families that were past the nine-month time frame. A few were hard to really say one way or the other, but close enough that you definitely started trying to do the math.
Our baby however took a record of fourteen months to cook. Princess Nicolette Antonia Moon Reyes came to us two months after our one-year anniversary. She possesses her father’s black hair, but has inherited my blue eyes. The contrast of her darker tinted skin and those eyes make them almost glow. I know for sure one day they are going to drive the boys crazy, which means her poor daddy is going to have his hands full.