by Frankie Love
“I don’t believe we’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, ma’am, but I am Thomas, the bodyguard for the Prince of Rochester, and this is Princess Dahlia—”
“Oh, my word,” Gladys gasps, her hand over her mouth. Her body dips into a curtsy, awkward on account of her snow parka. “The Princess, here, in my winter home?” She shakes her head in disbelief. “See, Reggie, I knew coming up today was the right time.”
Reggie cocks his head to Gladys. “She’s been asking me to drive the Sno-cat up all week. We love it up here this time of year.”
“A Sno-cat?” Thomas asks. “Wish I’d had one of those today.” He explains the details of how we ended up here, and Gladys and Reggie nod. Apparently getting stuck in the mountains isn’t unexpected in Rochester. “So tomorrow a crew from the Royal Guard is coming with a tow truck, hoping the snow will have abated by then, so we can get this Princess to her wedding.”
“The snow isn’t coming down as hard, and I’d take you to the palace tonight in the Sno-cat if it weren’t so dark,” Reggie says.
“I understand,” Thomas says. “It wouldn’t be safe. I was able to radio the palace and they know we are somewhere safe for the time being.”
“Tonight you’ll stay here. Princess, you can have the bed of course,” Gladys says, patting my arm.
I look at the old woman and shake my head. “That would be absurd. I’m perfectly fine on the couch. You’re sleeping in your own bed with your husband.”
Thomas looks relieved that I’m insisting they sleep in their own room.
“What? I may be a Princess, but I’m also practical. You can tell your boss that,” I joke.
He just smiles and says, “And I can sleep on the floor. We don’t want to put you out, especially after we broke into your home, ate your food, and drank your whiskey.”
Reggie laughs at this, and mentions needing to get their bags from the Sno-cat.
“If you insist,” Gladys says, winking. “But you must use the dry sauna. It’s the least I can offer.”
“Sauna?” I ask, not having seen anything of the sort in this small one-bedroom get-away.
“Yes, my dear. We have one right outside the cabin, on the back end. It’s an infrared sauna, perfect for frosty nights. And it will do wonders for your skin.”
“I feel like I’ve already taken more of yours than is fair.” I look down at the pajamas I’m wearing, wondering if Thomas and I left any indications of our earlier romp in their bedroom.
With an internal groan, I think of the used condoms in the trash. I need to bury everything because this evidence be could be held against me.
Against the royal family.
“Oh no, please help yourself, Princess.” At that Gladys stifles a yawn. “Reggie, dear, would you go get our bags? I’m positively exhausted.”
Taking the opportunity to get Gladys away from the room so it can be emptied of our sexual evidence, I ask her to show me how to turn on the sauna.
“I’ll just get my shoes,” I tell her as she walks to the back door, flipping on a light switch.
Grabbing Thomas’s arm, I whisper, “You need to go empty the trash and straighten the pillows.”
He grins broadly, not realizing how stressful this is.
“And will you reward me, Princess?” he asks, patting my bottom as I turn away. “For doing the dirty work?”
Gladys is calling for me, so I just shake my head at his ridiculousness.
But as I walk outside in the freezing cold, listening to Gladys explain how to turn the sauna on, I think about Thomas’s hand on my ass.
I need to get him in this sauna, stat.
Chapter 14
The moment Gladys and Dahlia step outside, I make quick work to tidy up the bedroom. I’m sweating by the time I’m done, not wanting Reggie to catch me poking around his bedroom. I fluff the pillows, straighten the quilt—grateful we never got under the covers—and grab Dahlia’s pile of discarded clothes.
I cross into the bathroom and have just shoved handfuls of tissues in the trashcan under the sink, when I hear Reggie coming in.
“You need a hand?” I ask him, wiping the back of my neck. Hell, Dahlia would be in a jam—and so would I—if anyone thought she was sleeping with a bodyguard before her royal wedding.
It takes me a second to remember that no one would be in any trouble. I’m the prince—even though right now I can’t help but wish I were Thomas, a man who could give Dahlia the simple and quiet life she’s used to.
Another part of me, though, is anxious to get her to the castle, so she can see just how big and beautiful of a life I can give her. I want her to understand that her gentle demeanor and undemanding personality are exactly what the country needs. They need a queen like her.
I need a woman like her.
Damn, she had me so hard—her hands on my cock, tempting me with her exposed breasts—before Reggie and Gladys showed up.
I need to get her naked, and I can’t wait all night.
“I’ve got it all here. We’re light packers, and since we come up here a few times a year, the cabin has most of the things we need.”
“You sure?” I ask.
“I guess you could grab the cooler. Got my darling’s cream for her morning coffee. Milk for oatmeal, too.”
“I’m on it.” I encourage him to take a load off, have some of that whiskey. He nods, saying he’ll save some for me.
By the time the groceries are unpacked, the women are back inside, and the whiskey is poured, I watch as Dahlia makes a bed for me on the floor. The day disappeared somewhere between our fucking and our supper. The sky is dark.
The older couple yawns, then they exchange a knowing look.
“I’m spent,” Reggie says, pushing himself out of the rocking chair next to the fire. “You ready, Gladys?”
She smiles, giving Dahlia a warm hug. “You kids going to be okay out here?” Dahlia assures her, but still, she looks pointedly at me. “You make sure you keep our Princess safe,” Gladys says, wagging her finger at me.
“I’m on it, ma’am. It’s my royal duty.”
Dahlia and I sit on the couch, watching the fire. Both of us are still holding glasses of whiskey, but the liquor isn’t the only thing burning. My desire for this woman has grown to an inferno. I need to get her stripped down in that sauna, and I need to do it now.
“Do you think they know?” Dahlia asks, her voice revealing her fear.
My shoulders tense, realizing that Dahlia is scared of what people might say. It makes me feel like shit that I made a decision about keeping my identity from her, a decision that causes her to second-guess her choices now.
“They’re a sweet, unsuspecting couple. You don’t need to worry.”
“You hid the evidence?”
“I did.”
She exhales, and I know it’s time to come clean. She needs to know that I’m the prince. Waiting any longer to reveal the truth is just unnecessarily torturing her.
“Thomas,” she begins, her voice still quiet, looking over her shoulder to check that Gladys and Reggie aren’t stirring. They aren’t. Their murmuring from the other side of the door has faded, and there’s no light coming from under their doorway.
“I have something to say first,” I tell her. “Something I should have said earlier. Something that will change everything.”
She shakes her head vigorously, sitting so prim and proper on the couch bedside me. Her hands reach for mine. “Don’t, Thomas. Don’t say it. Don’t say anything that might ruin this memory for me.”
“It won’t ruin it, Princess.”
There are tears in the corners of her eyes. I cup her cheek, wiping her tears with my thumb.
She grabs hold of my hand, her lip quivering. “Please. There’s nothing you could say that would change this reality.”
“Oh, Princess, there is.”
She gives a sad half-laugh.
“Thomas, this afternoon when we came here, I told you that my fantasy was to have a ni
ght of my own choosing, a night that no king and no prince decided for me. I wanted my first time with a man to be with someone who chose me. And you gave me that. Tomorrow everything will change—but tonight, please let me have this. Don’t ruin it by telling me that this time isn’t what I think it is.”
Her words slay me, stop me in my tracks. I wish I had more time to think.
I have no idea what her reaction will be, when she finds out the truth. She could yell or scream, possibly slap me. Gladys and Reggie would get involved, hear her screams about us sleeping together before our wedding night … which could cause rumors to spread about the not-so-virginal princess.
She would be mortified. I would be ashamed.
Fuck.
I don’t want any of those things. Best-case scenario, she’s overjoyed, wraps her legs and arms around me, and rides my cock into forever.
But either way—me telling her the truth tonight or tomorrow—won’t change the fact that, regardless, we are getting married. This is a royal arrangement and it is happening.
Not like I’d let anything stop us from getting hitched. This woman is my Princess and my Queen.
This woman is mine.
Maybe it would be better to wait until our wedding, to not tell her ahead of time.
Maybe it’s better to wait until she’s walking down the aisle, until I lift her veil, and she can see that I’m her husband. It would be a massive surprise. She’d see that I’m her Prince Charming, and be so relieved it’s me that she’d forget to be angry.
I don’t know.
Looking at her now, her face revealing how badly she wants this time with me to be hers, unconnected to her father’s plans for her, or Rochester’s plans for her, I decide that my princess needs to live this fairy tale.
“I will do anything you ask of me, Dahlia, now and forever.” I pull her mouth to mine, kissing her softly. Then I kiss her nose, her chin, her cheeks, her brows. I kiss her eyelids and I kiss her neck. I want to kiss more of her. I want to kiss all of her.
“I love that you’re giving me this,” she whispers. “No questions asked.”
I kiss her hands, her palms, her fingers. Not rushing, because deep in my soul I know she and I have our whole lives ahead of us.
“No questions asked,” I tell her.
Then I pull my princess up and lead her outside.
Chapter 15
The sauna is warm and dry, but not fiery or unbearable. Since it was just turned on, it’s still comfortable with our clothes on. But we don’t want to be dressed.
We want to be bare and exposed.
We aren’t taking this one night together for granted.
And I know it’s an unspoken truth; we aren’t saying this with words, but I don’t need words from Thomas right now. Right now his eyes say everything.
They are hooded, heavy on me.
His eyes say yes, yes, yes.
His eyes say now.
Knowing Reggie and Gladys are sound asleep, the cabin is quiet, and the two of us are alone, I feel safer than maybe I ever have in my life.
Of course this situation pains me. But I’m focusing on the fact that if the circumstances were different, I might have not had this night.
If Thomas hadn’t been the one assigned to escort me home. If Lucas had come instead. If the snowstorm hadn’t hit so hard, and if the tires of the Land Rover hadn’t swerved. If there wasn’t this cabin.
If it weren’t my heart and his heart, beating as one. If, if, if.
There are so many reasons why this shouldn’t be happening. This is too good to be true. But ever since I was a little girl I’ve believed in magic.
I believe in fairytales—and no, Thomas is not the Prince Charming I’ll be marrying.
Of course we can all do what we want, whenever we want, but there are consequences to our actions. And I know running away with Thomas—who hasn’t even suggested that idea—would be horrible for the country of Rochester and devastating to Elexia.
Maybe if I was a different sort of girl, maybe then I could daydream about the possibility of a life that wasn’t the one I have.
But you can’t deny who you are. I know my life is not my own—and that isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world, to have a life of sacrifice.
And even saying that, I sound so privileged and ridiculous.
Sacrifice, me? Really?
I’m going to be living in one of the most exquisite castles in the world. Married to a Prince who is known to be kind and gentle and honorable. I’m not being sent away to a dungeon, with a monster as my master.
So yes, I can forfeit the deepest desire of my heart, because I don’t need forever love.
Who would be so lucky to have that? I would never imagine myself being the sort of person who would have a love that lasts a lifetime.
Maybe Reggie and Gladys have that, and I’m so happy for them. I don’t begrudge anyone if they find their soul mate, especially if that person also happens to be their spouse.
But I’m a realist.
I’m realizing that now, as my fingers are on Thomas’s belt buckle, as I unzip his pants and let them fall to the floor of the sauna.
I am a realist.
I always called myself a romantic, daydreaming about that happily ever after. But in the space of a day I am no longer a child holding on to romantic fantasies.
Thomas made me a woman and now I see.
His pants are on the floor. He stands before me, unbuttoning the pajamas I wear. I step out of my pants and he does the same. I unbutton his uniform, revealing his bare chest, strong and protective.
His arms wrap around me and goosebumps cover my flesh even though I’m in a sauna.
My body responds to him.
He draws me close, embracing me like he’s my lover—because for this night, he is. My arms wrap around his neck, my cheek is against his chest, and I don’t want to move. I want sweat to trickle down my body, between my breasts, between my thighs. I want sweat to coat his skin, and I want our bodies to melt into one.
“Oh, sweetheart,” he says. “I could hold you like this forever.”
I bite back the pain, desperate to hold on to what I have right now. My fingernails dig into his skin, yet he squeezes me tighter, as if knowing I need something more, deeper, visceral. Raw.
“Take me, Thomas. Take me again. Take me away,” I tell him. I don’t look in his eyes; instead, my eyes rest on the glowing embers in the corner,
There’s a machine that makes them glow; electricity turns them red. Flip one switch, and the room changes from something cool and dank into something hot.
Something alive.
Thomas runs his fingers over my back, down my spine, to my bottom. His fingers graze along my ass, and I close my eyes, sighing in pleasure, not wanting his gentle stroking to stop.
I caress his skin as well, my hands running along the taut muscles of his back, until I hold his firm ass. I smile, finally daring to look up at him.
“You say you train your unit in the Royal Guard … but, Thomas, you can’t make an ass like this. You were born with this.”
“So you’re what, an ass woman, are you?”
I laugh, shaking my head. “I guess I am.”
“I’m an ass man, myself.”
“And you like my ass?” I know I’m being coy, fishing for compliments, but I don’t care. I like this game.
His fingers run up and down my ass crack, and he moves my ass cheeks apart, widening them with his finger. Pressing against my hole, into my hole, unexpectedly—but also so right.
“Your ass is so gorgeous, Dahlia.”
I nod, ever so slightly, licking my lips. My fingers glide to his groin, stroking his cock nice and slow, pumping him as he fingers me from behind.
His cock is so hard, so meaty, and I just need more of him. Now. I press my lips to his, kissing him hard. My tongue darts past his lips quickly. I want to inhale him and taste him, be filled with him in this small way.
Preparin
g myself for the other way I’m about to be filled.
He squeezes my ass and turns me around, spanking me softly as he does.
“Touch yourself, baby,” he tells me. “Touch yourself, you know you want to.”
I do as he says, my feet spread apart, one hand bracing myself against the wall, my other hand rubbing circles over my clit, squeezing tight.
I feel his cock against my ass and I arch my back so that he runs his tip up and down my pussy. It gets me wet, his hardness against me, and I crane my ass against him, turned on by the way he commands me.
I rub myself harder and harder, until my juice drips down my leg. It’s always been so easy for me to get wet, but this? With Thomas? It’s like my cunt was made for him.
My hand moves faster, using two fingers in a circular motion. Using my hand to brace against the wall is useless. I can’t help but turn around, my back against the wall. Thomas grabs my knee and pulls my leg up and around him, so he can get a better view of my dripping pussy.
“Princess, you’re so fucking wet.”
Thomas strokes himself hard, watching me. I’m grinding my hand against my pussy, harder and harder, this time squirting my release against his cock.
“I want more of your pussy juice on my cock,” he tells me. “I need your come all over me so I can fuck you from behind.”
I want to use my come to get him lubricated, and I keep gushing. It’s exhilarating, watching what my body can do,
What Thomas makes my body do.
His hands stroke my tender pussy, and then he pumps himself with my come. Not wasting a moment, he flips me around.
I brace myself against the wall, this time with both hands. I sink against the wood paneled sauna, sweat beading over my breasts, wanting so badly for him to give me everything his body has to offer. Wanting so badly to give him everything that I have, too.
He spreads my ass cheeks, edging his hard length into my ass. For a second it hurts like hell. Not a bad hell, not a hot and fiery hell.
It feels like a hell that’s perfect for naughty girls like me.
I moan. He brushes my hair away, his hot breath against my ear. He whispers, “I’ve got you, Princess. You know you want to be filled with me.”