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15
Alina
Iwanted a longer dress. Something that wouldn't make me wonder if everyone could see the fluid marking my thighs. Where I wouldn't have to hope it wouldn't go below my knees. As Reece helped me dress and adjust my hair until it didn't look like I'd had a sex marathon in his office, I wondered why Aric hadn't yet come.
He should have been there to negotiate my marriage contract. While I was thrilled with the more pleasurable way our negotiations had gone, I worried for him. It wasn't like him to disappear that way.
Duty or not, when I truly needed him, he was there. So where was he?
"Do you think they did something to him? So they could get me out of Oshal without his interference?" I asked Reece, letting him guide me out of the office.
"I'm sure he's fine. Perhaps he's distracted with his own potential bride," Reece teased, but I heard the suspicion in his voice. I didn't think he knew my brother well, aside from the generic relationship Kings tended to have with one another. But I suspected he knew Aric was a good King and didn't skirt his responsibilities. The whole world knew it to be true.
Our country was a demanding one, with poverty and suffering requiring constant attention. It was part of the reason my mother keeping a Princess locked away from the people was so selfish. I could have been helping somehow. Heading charities. Planning fundraisers. Spreading love.
Just being with my people. Instead I'd been forced to suffer dance lessons, etiquette lessons, music lessons, and on and on. Ways to seduce men without being sexual. Pointless and useless in the grand scheme, now that I finally understood the motivations. My mother had simply never cared for the Country she called home.
"Perhaps we should enter separately," I whispered, desperate to avoid another grand entrance like the one my mother had orchestrated only two nights prior.
"Are you ashamed of what we've done, my Bride?"
I flushed, the sensation heating my cheeks, firing and up down my spine as I stared towards the desk. "I'll never be ashamed of loving you, Reece. However…" I trailed off as I rushed over to the desk where, as I'd been horrified it would be so, the recorder that my King had turned on at the start of our negotiations was still on. "It's not something I want to have a record of, I don't think."
I pushed down to turn it off but I knew that our sex had already been recorded. I shot him a scolding look as he guffawed, walking over to pluck the recorder off the desk and enjoying watching me squirm uncomfortably. From virgin to recorded sex, how quickly he’d corrupted me.
I reached out for it but he raised it over his head to keep it out of my reach. "You have to erase it!”
Shooting me a teasing grin, he tucked it in the inside pocket of the coat he'd just shrugged on. "I think I'll keep it. Don't worry, Baby Bird. I'm not about to share this with anyone, but consider it a bargaining chip for our negotiations."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Acknowledged. Note that it will be the last time you get laid if you do not get rid of it." Considering it a good final word, I flounced out of the room, leaving him to race after me.
Outside his office, he tugged me to him with a laugh and pinned me against the wall. He devoured my lips and pulled back with a smile on his face. "There is the firecracker Queen I knew was in there, beneath all your mother’s influence." I reached up a hand towards his face, his look so intense I could drown in the deep blue of his eyes. “You’re perfect for me, my Princess.”
"I'll be the Queen worthy of you, King of Oshal." I quirked my lips at him, ducking under his arms that caged me against the wall. "But I’m not married to you yet, so might I suggest we go downstairs and make an announcement so that we can get that done as soon as possible."
"I can’t wait.”
* * *
The memories of that first night flashed back into my mind. The staring eyes and curiosity of other royals too morbid to be healthy. Scrutiny so open it left me feeling raw and naked. A mother cackling behind her hands at the successful unfolding of her sinister plans. It felt like a lifetime ago, even if it had only been days since I’d prepared to live my life alone.
Just days before, I had been hidden away from the world by a conniving mother who'd wanted nothing more than to use me for gain. I hadn't known what it was like to be kissed, to feel the comfort of being wrapped in Reece’s arms. Of being filled with him, with blinding pleasure exploding through my body. I hadn’t known what it was to love.
A silence descended on the gathered crowd as he kissed the top of my hand and guided me into the room. My eyes instantly found my brother's, and I released the breath I hadn't known I'd been holding.
Alive and well. Seemingly unharmed by Corbin and my mother, he stood without his tie, and with his usually styled hair mussed. It seemed that I was not the only one who’d been busy.
"My friends," Reece spoke up in his deep voice. He didn't shout, but he didn't need to. Not when the whole room stopped to listen to what he had to say. "I would like to present to you my future bride, Her Royal Highness Christina Marie Alina Atwater of Lantis. The next Queen of Oshal."
My heart thudded in my chest for a beat as silence dominated the room before people applauded politely. A tall man, probably older than Reece. walked over and gave him a one-armed hug. The easy way they spoke told me they were friends of long standing. But before I could comment or insert myself into their conversation, I felt myself being dragged away.
Eyes so much like mine smiled down at me as my brother pulled me to him with a laugh. "Got rid of mom and Corbin, did you?"
I wrapped my arms around his waist and squeezed hard. "Where were you, Aric? I worried when Reece's aide Cheval couldn't find you."
He looked away for a second before shrugging. "You sound like Hicks, Alina. In any case, I’m fine. Just had very important business to attend to. I leave you for a couple hours and you turn everything upside down." He gave my temple a soft kiss. "I'm very happy for you."
"So am I." There was a tension in his words that hadn't been there earlier. A problem brewing that my brother was desperate to fix. "I hope you can be as happy, Aric. Reece has said that he’ll—”
"I'll be fine, Little Sister. Let's celebrate." He pulled me to the dance floor to dance, but not before I grabbed Reece's hand to drag him with me. And it was his laughter that rang in my ears as we celebrated what was surely one of the happiest moments of my life.
