The Royal’s Pretend Wife

by Sophia Lynn

  “You don't look like you have much patience with unhappiness,” she commented, and he shook his head with a grin.

  “Not me. I like to have fun. Carolina worries sometimes that I cannot be as serious as things demand. There is time though. When my mother passes the crown on to me, I will be serious then. Until then, well, there's reality television and sports.”

  Trinity laughed at his honesty, shaking her head. “That sounds like a good philosophy. I wish Apolo had more time to play. Even now I know that he's thinking he should get back to work.”

  “Ah, well then, it is your job to teach him how to play, no? You help though, everyone can see it. When he looks at you, he does not think of work or Greece or the cameras.”

  Then he's doing a better job than I thought he was, Trinity thought. She should have felt pleased that Apolo was doing such a good job, but something about it made her feel oddly unsteady. Some of it must have showed on her face because Antonio reached across the space between them to take her hand.

  “But today is about reaching outside of our little couples, yes? Let's simply get to know each other today, and tomorrow we can go back to being good spouses.”

  “Careful,” she said with a slight smile. “That's the line of a man who doesn't really mind stepping all over his vows.”

  “Ah, well, I would never step over my vows. I love Carolina too much for that, but perhaps I might walk up to them?”

  “Then you can walk up to them with someone else,” she said firmly, and to her relief, Antonio nodded, accepting her rejection with grace.

  The car pulled up to the gates of the Victoria and Albert Museum, a grand edifice that left Trinity gasping with pleasure.

  “Oh, I've always wanted to come here!” she exclaimed.

  “Good,” he said, offering her his arm. “Shall we take advantage of a free day to see what it has to offer?”

  For a moment, she wondered if she should put a halt to his friendliness. He had pulled back in the car, but that didn't mean that she really knew him or what his intentions were. Trinity was all set to pull back, but then she remembered Apolo's shrug that morning and his careless comment.

  Well, it isn't good if they think that we're living in each other's pockets, she thought. I should make sure that people know that I can have a good time without him.

  She still couldn't help but be guiltily pleased that he had ended up spending the day with Serafina. He liked Carolina well enough, but being matched with Serafina would not be fun for him.

  Trinity knew that such thoughts were not kind ones, and as Apolo's “wife,” she should try to be kind. It was only good politics, and what she was getting paid for, after all. The fact that this would all be ending in a week was a thought that she pushed away.

  “You look like a girl in a candy store,” Antonio observed, and she grinned at him.

  “Very close. I want to see everything, and I think when I get going, I'm not going to stop. Do you mind?”

  “Not at all,” he said with a laugh. “I'll follow your lead. Frankly, I would love to see you get going.”

  “I am going to ignore that,” she said cheerfully. “Come on, all the art of the British Empire is waiting for us.”

  If she had had more time to think about it, she might have worried about whether she could showcase her enjoyment well enough. The fact that they had surprised her with one of her most longed-for treats sent her into a high spiral that took over quite naturally for her. Antonio followed after her with tolerant good humor and she wandered from gallery to gallery, checking her map constantly to make sure that she had not missed a single piece.

  In the end, however, as the day drew towards sunset, she had to admit that the place had beaten her. There was simply too much to see, far too much to explore. She could search for days and still not feel as if she had experienced everything that it had to offer. The limo appeared again, and it dropped them at a quiet fountain a short distance away, where they would be meeting the other couples. They were the first to arrive, so they took a seat on the fountain's ledge.

  “I'll just have to come back with Apolo,” Trinity said, toeing her flats off. She was surprised to find that her feet were so sore, but she had been running around trying to see everything.

  “I'm sure he'll be happy to see the place with you,” said Antonio with a grin. “Though with all the pictures you took for him, perhaps he'll already have the idea?”

  Trinity blushed. It had seemed like second instinct to whip her camera out and to point it at everything that she thought Apolo might like. She had resisted the urge to send them to him because he was presumably doing something with Serafina, but perhaps when they were in bed that night, she could share them with him.

  “You love him a great deal, don't you?” Antonio asked.

  “I do,” she said without thinking. The truth was that she didn't have to think about it. As the setting sun came down to kiss the fountain's waters with gold, she realized the truth of what she said.

  Against her will, tears came to her eyes because now she realized what an impossible situation she was in. She was no wife, no princess. She was simply someone who had a very good agent.

  “Trinity? What's wrong?”

  “Nothing, nothing,” she tried to say with a smile, but he frowned, coming closer.

  “It doesn't look like nothing to me. Here…”

  He handed her a clean handkerchief, and she used it to dab her eyes. In that moment, she could have consigned all the cameras and their attendant crews to hell quite cheerfully.

  “You can always bring Apolo back with you,” said Antonio. “I am sure he will love this place and appreciate it far more than a clod like me.”

  She started to respond to him, but then it occurred to her that there wouldn't be a later, not for her and Apolo. She could come back herself, but there would always be a space where she felt Apolo should be. After this, there would be nothing, and suddenly she couldn't stand it.

  She burst into a storm of tears, crying into Antonio's handkerchief. It seemed to take her an eternity to still those tears, but really, it was only a few minutes. When she looked up, Antonio was watching her with concern.

  “It's really nothing,” she said with a sigh. “Only perhaps sometimes I feel things more deeply than I should.”

  “Better a cold wine and a warm wife,” Antonio quoted. “Apolo is lucky he has you. I love my Carolina with all my heart, and I can see the signs of someone who loves just as I do. Do not be ashamed of your feelings.”

  Even if they were for show? Even if they are bought and paid for?

  For a horrible moment, she thought she had actually said those terrible words, but she was relieved when she realized she hadn't.

  “Thank you for saying so,” she said with a sigh.

  She leaned in to hug Antonio, because after all, he had been very sweet, all things considered. Of course that was when Serafina and Apolo showed up.

  With a roar that sounded more warrior than modern royal, Apolo stormed up to pull Antonio away.

  “What the hell do you think you're doing?” he growled. “Did you hurt her? If you hurt her, by god, I won't care whose son you are or what kind of army you can mount…”

  Serafina, for her part, only stood with her arms crossed over her chest, mingled spite and admiration in her eyes.

  “Well, well. I was wondering whether Antonio was going to make another conquest. Did you have a good time with him, or did your purity not allow it?”

  Most of the time, she would have met Serafina's words with a quip of her own, but right now, that wasn't going to happen. Instead, she only closed her eyes and wished that she could disappear. Perhaps she could dive into the fountain and turn into a fish, swimming down the drain and out to sea, never to be seen again.

  Because her eyes were closed, she didn't notice Jozef and Carolina showing up. Apolo had grabbed Antonio by the lapels, dragging him close. For his part, Antonio was
still speaking calmly and with even a measure of amusement, but there was something increasingly impatient in his gaze that told Trinity that he did not intend to be patient for very long.

  When Carolina saw another royal grabbing her husband, she uttered an ear-piercing shriek and launched herself across the square. More surprised than anything else, Apolo let go of Antonio, who expertly gathered his wife into his arms to explain everything.

  Of course at that point, Serafina and Jozef were already biting and snapping at each other, and Trinity, for her own part, had had enough.

  Without looking behind her, without pausing to make any explanations to the host who was just stepping out of another limousine, she turned back to the one she had gotten out of. She imagined that it had been meant to take her and Apolo back to the manor, but at the moment, she was perfectly happy allowing him to find his own way back.

  Shutting the door behind her was like entering into a private sanctuary. No cameras, no royals, nothing but a plush silence and a privacy glass between her and the driver. Finally, she was free to do what she had wanted to do for what felt like years.

  As she held herself tight, Trinity's tears rained down her face.

  What am I going to do? Trinity wondered. I wasn't supposed to love him…

  When she thought of the word, however, she knew that it was true, and once it was there, there was no taking it back. She had heard other actors and actresses talking about it. They had talked about how easy it was to fall in love with a co-star, and how very simple it was to take feigned emotions for real ones.

  She had always assumed that she would be too clever, too intelligent, far too on her game to make such an error. If Trinity were honest with herself, she would have said that she thought her heart far too cold and far too calculating to do such a thing.

  It had happened, however, and now she had to deal with the consequences.

  In the middle of all the chaos, seeing Apolo with Serafina had stung in a way that she didn't expect it to. When she had felt that hot stab of jealousy and despair, there was no getting around it. She knew then and there that she had been fooling herself, and it was love all along.

  She leaned back in the seat, wondering what in the world she was going to do.

  Chapter Eight

  Trinity heard the others arriving at the manor. She had beat them by almost two hours, and in that time, she had showered and spent some time thinking. At the end of it, she had decided two things.

  The first was that there was no way to make her feelings go away. One of her teachers had always said that the best way to let emotions run out of control was to simply box them away. After that, the results could be brutally terrifying.

  The second was that she did not want to waste a single moment that she had left with Apolo. She had spent two weeks with the cast of the reality television show, and she knew very well that this was a world that she was only visiting. The amount of money she was being paid for her performance as Apolo's wife was nothing but spare change to these people. She had heard Carolina talk about putting in a new wing of her home with more than double the money that she would receive for her role.

  No, Trinity knew all too well that she was only a visitor here, even if she was one that fit in fairly well. She laughed with Apolo, but she had found moments to share with Carolina and even Serafina. They weren't friends, but they accepted that she was one of them reasonably quickly.

  The problem was Apolo. When she was with him, she had no distance. The loving looks, the gentle touches, they were all real, and they were all precisely what she wanted. They were only holding themselves back from more because of her, because of her fears that her emotions would get the better of her. Of course, now that they had, she figured she might as well take what she could while she could.

  When she heard the others enter the manor, Trinity hurried to put her plan into play. She dressed quickly, and when she was done, she threw a thin silk robe over herself. When she heard Apolo's familiar step in the hallway, she dimmed the lights and went to sit on the bed.

  He entered their suite softly, entering with his shirt partially unbuttoned and his jacket slung over his shoulder. He raised his eyebrows when he saw her.

  “I was worried you were asleep,” he said. She could hear some hesitation in his voice. He spoke quietly, as if worried about agitating her.

  “No, I'm fine. A little tired…” Trinity said. She could hear how hoarse her own voice was. She wondered how he took it.

  “You were clever to get out when you did,” he said with a grimace. “It turned into a bit of a free-for-all, and after Carolina jumped in, things got pretty fraught.”

  She waited, but he simply tossed his shirt into hamper. Even in the dim light, she could tell how powerful his frame was. She longed to touch him, and not just a gentle stroke along the face, or a squeeze of the hand. She wanted to run her hands over him and make him feel as good as he had made her feel in Spain.

  “I thought you would be angry with me,” Trinity murmured. “When you came upon us at the fountain…”

  Apolo made a sound that only the very generous would be willing to call a laugh. “I…may have acted rashly. And after you left, things only continued to heat up. I suppose I'm not as good an actor as you are.”

  Trinity blinked, because of all the things she had been expecting, that wasn't one of them. “I don't think I understand.”

  He shook his head. “Not something for you to worry about.”

  “Apolo…We're out there together, so I think I should know what's on your mind. Please don't keep this from me…I need to know what you need.”

  He had his back turned to her, looking out the tall windows. When he heard her words, however, he spun to look at her, and there was fire in his eyes. With a small gasp, she shrank back, and he stalked towards her.

  “You want to know what I am thinking?” he growled. “You want to know what is on my mind and what I need?”

  She swallowed hard. When she spoke, there was a tremble in her voice that was only partially fear. “Yes,” she whispered. “I always want to know that…”

  The words were barely out of her mouth before Apolo's mouth crashed down on hers. The kiss was brutal, just short of painful. It would have been justifiably terrifying if she hadn't wanted him as much as she did, if she hadn't returned the kiss with just as much fervor and just as much need. With a sound that was more a growl than anything human, he pressed her to the bed, forcing her down until she was flat on her back. He rose over her like some kind of dark god, ready to take what he wanted and needed from his human worshipers.

  She threw her arms around him. She couldn't get him close enough. When his tongue invaded her mouth, she opened for him willingly. She twined her legs around his, pulling him down to her desperately.

  “Every day I see you, it is like running through darkness as you carry a flame,” he said, his voice harsh with desire. “I see you before me, I see what I need, and I can’t have it…”

  “You can,” Trinity gasped. “You can. Come here, please…”

  He dragged her further up the bed until they were both in the center of it, his weight pinning her down. Even now, she could feel the hardness of his arousal pressed against her thigh. She knew that his need hung by a thread, and right now, she would give anything to snap that thread.

  When he pulled back for a moment, she took the opportunity to undo the knot of her robe. Even in that moment of passion, the artist in her was pleased by his sudden shock.

  Over the last few weeks, she had been wearing nightgowns. They were pretty enough, but they were hardly what most thought about when they thought of desire and passion. Tonight, she had dispensed with the nightgowns entirely. Instead, she wore a scrap of black lace that pretended to be a pair of panties, and a light half-cup bra that revealed more than it concealed. Even in the dim light, the contrast against her pale skin was bold, and with a trembling hand, Apolo reached to touch her.
r />   “Sometimes, I can barely believe that you are real,” he whispered, and she laughed unsteadily.

  “Real enough,” she whispered. “Real enough to hear, to touch, to taste…”

  He lowered his head to her neck, licking and kissing. There was something more considered about his motions now. She sighed when she felt him press his lips against her throat, measuring her pulse with a gentleness and patience she wasn't sure she had ever felt before.

  “The last time we did this, I was too rough, too fast,” he murmured. “I took what I needed—”

  “You can't think I was displeased,” she whispered. “I felt as if I was swimming in the stars of Spain.”

  “I could feel your pleasure, but this time, I want more than that.”

  Trinity started to ask what he meant, but then his hands were ghosting along her body, raising gooseflesh in their wake. He was touching her with a feather-light gentleness that made her breath catch. She knew that he was capable of great strength, but this gentleness was new, almost strange.

  It's like he's touching me as if I were something precious, something dear to him…

  She melted at his touch, letting all of her thoughts drift away. It was far easier to simply open for him, lying in front of him with her heart and body bare. His light touches sent licks of flame dancing along her body, growing greater with every pass. She whimpered a little when he slid her panties down her long legs, dropping them somewhere on the floor.

  When he parted her legs, she tensed for a moment, but he stroked her thighs until they relaxed and opened for him willingly. He lay down between her legs, kissing his way up one thigh and down the other. When Apolo ghosted his lips over the very core of her, she sighed with pleasure. Time and again, he drew closer to the seat of her pleasure, then drew back.

  Her hands were fisting in the sheets; she didn't realize how aroused she was until she felt the tension running along her legs.

  “Please,” she murmured, her voice broken, but clear.