Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
I remember drinking a little too much champagne while watching the happy couple together at the reception. Then I remember dancing. God, I think I danced most of the night with Romy. Images of us laughing float through my mind. I remember him twirling me around the ballroom. In fact, I know he saved me from a terrible date I’d been on.
“Why am I naked?” I add, wanting more of my memory to come back, but it’s not happening.
Romy drops his forehead to mine, a pained expression crossing his face.
“After we got married we came back to my room, where you stripped your dress off,” he tells me, and then I remember doing it. I also remember doing a little dance while I did it, as Romy’s eyes raked over my body.
“I tried to get you to put on my shirt, but…” He trails off, and I remember that, too. He’d made me lie down in bed. I kept trying to get him to do more, but he kept telling me no, wrapping his body around me to cuddle. Nothing more.
“I…” I can’t find any words to say. “I’m in your room? In your bed?” I finally get out.
“Yes,” he says simply. For some reason, anger grows within me, and I don’t know what to do with it. Or where to direct it. God knows how many women he’s had in this bed. I’m not even special.
I’m never going to know love.
Maybe that isn’t true. Romy could easily make me fall in love with him. But I don’t know that he could give me the marriage I’ve always dreamed of.
What have I done?
2
Romy
I watch as disappointment hits Star’s face, and it makes my chest ache. I never wanted my wife to feel an ounce of sadness, and day one, I’ve failed.
People will look at us and think what they want, but I know in my heart that I’ve wanted Star since the moment we met.
She’s been the one that I was never good enough for. A princess truly made for a king. But, being second in line to my throne, I would never be able to give her the title she deserves. I know that she has her own land and that who she marries will take over, but it’s not the same. I have money and land, but so does she. What could I possibly offer her that she doesn’t already have?
In the past, I’ve given her a hard time, teased her and driven her crazy. But it was the only way to hide what I felt for her. I needed to disguise the intense desire to make her mine, to claim her and her title and breed an heir into her womb. I wanted to take what was mine by birthright and spread my royal seed in her. But I knew her tender heart, and I knew above everything that she wanted love.
I’ve been portrayed as a party guy who can’t keep his dick in his pants, the younger brother to the next king of our land, and I’ve never been taken seriously. I’ve never done anything to stop those rumors, and now I’m seeing the error in that.
I watched Star at the wedding last night, watched her the way I always do, wanting her, wishing for her, and never allowing myself to have her. I’d stood by and watched my brother become the happiest man on earth, and all I could feel was jealousy. I knew where my happiness lay, and she was on the other side of the room with another man. I couldn’t stand it any longer, and I asked her to dance.
She thought I was teasing at first and said yes as she proceeded to indulge me. But as the night went on and I wouldn’t let her out of my arms, something changed between us. I knew that I would no longer do the right thing. I knew when her body pressed against mine that I was no longer an honorable prince. I was a king by blood, and I would claim what I wanted.
We found the officiant at the reception and he made the blessings in a private part of the castle, binding Star and me together in marriage, entwining our souls for eternity. She was finally mine. No one knew what we did, but I knew in time we could tell the world. I wanted this stolen day with her. Maybe even two, in order to consummate our marriage and fulfill our royal duties to breed an heir.
I knew that the champagne she drank had gone straight to her head. But I’m a man of low morals and married her anyway. This was my one chance to have her for myself, and I wasn’t going to pass it up.
When we got back to my room and she stripped bare, I was finally tested beyond my control. I didn’t touch her the way she wanted me to. Instead, I protected her virtue and held her all night, no matter how badly my body cried out for her. I wouldn’t make love to my wife until she was fully aware of what was happening. She was mine to do with as I wished in the eyes of the royal law, but deep down I knew why I stopped.