by Ashley West
But Kaia had revealed to the human woman that the more severe the wound, the longer it took to heal – and mortal injuries could be just as life threatening to Kael as they were to humans without timely medical treatment.
He was not immortal.
Slowly, she advanced into the bedchamber, stopping short mere feet from him to dip a small curtsey as she lowered her eyes in respect. “My prince.”
When Kael didn’t answer her, she raised her eyes to see the man absorbed in his thought. A beat passed before he finally spoke; and when he did, his voice was low and tight with tension. “The Reman will be executed tomorrow.”
Danielle swallowed her cry of protest, instead managing to keep her expression fairly neutral. Quietly, she made her way to the sleeping pad to take a seat beside her husband, running her fingers through his rampant navy locks as she loosened them from the braid he customarily wore. She said nothing, knowing that the prince needed to speak without interruption. “He has been interrogated…extensively. Every effort has been made to extract information from him. Who he was working with, who provided his passage to the capital city, were there any more bombings planned…but he won’t speak a word.” Kael’s long fingers curled into fists on his lap as his mouth tightened into a firm line. “Traitorous cad.”
Taking a breath, Danielle did her best not to panic. If the Reman was being executed the next day, that gave her very little time to speak with him. Her mind whirled over her options even as she tried to show a support for her husband’s decision. Since the explosion, she had not been able to voice the slightest protest against his policy; and now that she was plotting to go against his wishes, she could hardly display any displeasure for the Reman’s fate.
“So it will all be over tomorrow.” He curled her fingers into one of his biceps, brushing her lips over his bare shoulder gently. “He will have paid for his campaign…and you will move forward with the raid…they will learn what it means to challenge the authority of the empire.”
“That they will.” The prince replied purposefully, his wife’s hands creeping over the firm hardness of his abdomen. Despite the fact that he had been stiff with tension when she’d first seen him, the more attention she paid him, the more he relaxed against her. As her mouth feathered over his shoulder blade and the back of his neck, a pleased sound escaped him; and when she pressed her body to his, he turned to her, multicolored eyes alive with desirous heat. Without any warning whatsoever, he scooped her into his arms and Danielle emitted a cry of surprise, clinging to him. “Come, wife.” He growled lowly, his eyes leaving hers. “I have need of a bath.”
“I-I already took a bath!” She tried to protest, but he was already carrying her back towards the bathing chamber, the few attendants still within the room fleeing at the site of their amorous prince.
“Then you will have another.” He entered the immense bathing chamber to set her down for long enough to remove his pants – leaving the man gloriously nude before her. Any thoughts Danielle might have had about skipping her bath scurried from her mind the moment she saw proof of his desire; unfortunately, it was also that awe that kept her from shedding her robe completely before the prince dragged her into the bath with him, completely soaking her.
As her robe clung to her legs and breasts, the young woman slicked her blonde locks back from her face with a gasp of outrage. “Kael! At least let me get undressed!” The man’s heated, demanding mouth met her own, cutting off any further protests. As his tongue sinuously tangled with hers, he worked the wet material of her robe from her shoulders, undoing her sash so the heavy fabric floated leisurely to the floor of the pool to rest there, unseen. His dexterous fingers slid over her slick skin, drawing her close to her as he thoroughly dominated her mouth, his body hot and hard against her own.
It suddenly seemed like an eternity since she’d had him, though in reality it had barely been a day. His lips burned their way over her throat as he pressed her up against the side of the pool. His fingers immediately found the pebbled tips of her nipples, plucking and toying with the tiny nubs to send streaks of almost painful desire zipping to the core of her. The man was obsessed with the differences in their anatomy. He particularly loved exploiting her nipples and her clitoris, as he had never seen such attributes in a woman.
Let alone tasted them.
When he lowered his mouth to the hardened peaks, she arched into the scalding warmth, a low moan escaping her as he laved one with his tongue before biting at it gently. He repeated the gesture with more and more pressure, switching back and forth between her breasts until each nip of his teeth stung, making her shudder with pleasure-in-pain. Danielle’s hands slid down the smooth panes of the man’s chest and he lifted her halfway from the water, his mouth finding her neck once more to bite and suck at the soft skin so she mewled in pleasure.
Her legs seemed to wrap themselves around his waist of their own accord, and the hardness of his arousal jutted against her lower lips, making her squirm in his embrace. She only prayed the man wouldn’t choose now as a time to toy with her. When he was in a mood, he could toy with her body for hours, taking her to the brink of orgasm again and again until she didn’t think she could endure a moment longer.
Only then would he slip inside of her, and Danielle would know that she had died and gone to heaven.
Now, the prince stopped, very suddenly, drawing back to gaze down into her eyes as his own danced from green to blue and then back again. For a moment, he just stared at her, his expression unreadable. He cupped her cheek almost tenderly, before leaning forward to press an insistent kiss against her lips – one that burned with its intensity and stole her breath with its ferocity. When he pulled back, the man’s voice was ragged. “In the wake of the explosion when I lost sight of you…do you know what I thought?”
She shook her head slowly, entranced by the fierceness of his gaze. “I thought I would find you buried beneath some rubble, lifeless, and that you had been stolen from me. That I could not even protect the wife I had taken…the wife I had chosen. That I had failed her and her people…now my people.”
His hands sifted through her wet hair, making her inhale sharply as he took a handful of the blonde locks to pull her neck taut for his feasting. “And then…when I learned of the child within you…the child that might have been killed with you…I knew that I could not afford to be so careless again.”
He worked his way leisurely over her throat, his slow kisses leaving her panting for more. “I knew that I would do anything to keep you safe…to keep our son safe…and I was furious, Danielle…not only for the threat the criminal posed to our empire…but for the threat he posed to my family.”
Easily, Kael lifted her from the water entirely to seat her on the edge of the pool so that she looked slightly down at him. In his eyes, she saw uncertainty mingling with hunger, and the sight made her breath catch. “I ask you: what kind of ruler does that make me? That I would put my own personal needs ahead of those of my people?”
His gaze never leaving hers, his head lowered so he could press his lips to her sternum, right between her breasts, before beginning to work his way slowly, inexorably downward. As shocked as Danielle was that the man was being so open with her, she could hardly gather the wits to answer him. As he tasted the ridge of each of her ribs, then dipping his tongue into her belly button, she shuddered, her fingers threading through his dark hair.
“It makes you a man...and a strong one. It takes more courage to care for people than to cast them aside, Kael.” A low moan escaped her as the prince, slid her hips to the edge of the pool, his eyes glittering as he eyed the prize between.
When he began to kiss her there, his tongue dancing over her lower folds so that her hips arched into his ministrations, a soft cry escaped her. As usual, Kael took his time, nibbling and sucking at the most tender parts of her until she was writhing in his iron grip, unable to escape the pleasure that assaulted her. The man’s fingers curled tightly into her thighs as he fastened o
nto her clit, assaulting it with his tongue so that the mounting tide of delectation within her suddenly turned to a flood. She squirmed and whimpered, her entire form trembling as she was less edged toward her orgasm than shoved off the precipice.
Her husband’s name was wrung from her on a cry as she came powerfully, her entire body quivering like a taut bowstring. Slowly, she sank back to the stone floor as she caught her breath and the young woman’s eyes fluttered open. She found Kael staring down at her with rapt attention, his mouth gleaming with the fruits of her orgasm. He leaned down to kiss her – and this time, the gesture was soft, intoxicatingly tender, and Danielle slipped her arms around his neck, clutching her prince to her tightly.
The man withdrew for a brief moment their mouths a hairsbreadth apart. When his gaze locked with hers, the need she saw there melted her against him. “I will never let any harm come to you or our child, Danielle, I swear it.” His voice was low and fierce. “I will soon be King…but I will be no king if I cannot protect what is mine. “
In that moment, Danielle found that she understood.
She understood why Kael held her close at night, and why every time he had made love to her lately he had done so as if it would be the last time. He took her protection as his sacred duty…and if she got hurt, that would mean he had failed.
If there was one thing she had learned about Kael since she’d married the volatile prince, it was that he had a very hard time coping with failure. Kaia had told her how he contemplated his mistakes for weeks…and now, he would see his family as another weakness that could be exploited.
Reaching up, she cupped his cheek caressing his face gently. “I doubt there could be any better protector…for our family or this empire.” She whispered the affirmation as she hugged him to her, sliding her water-slick body against his. “And I’m sure our son, and each child to come after him will know of their father’s strength.” She gasped as Kael surged forward, entering her in one stroke – filling her completely.
His arms encircled her, cupping her behind tightly as he drew her flush against him, pressing so deeply that she cried out. Her fingers curled into his shoulders as he buried his face in her neck, groaning in satisfaction as her inner muscles gripped him like a vice.
He held her close, his grip unbreakable as he thrust into her – again and again until her voice rose to the vaulted ceilings, her fingers leaving red furrows in his shoulder blades that faded, only to be replaced repeatedly.
She wanted this man…she needed him. And she needed him to know that she, of all people, was aware of the fact that no man, prince or king was perfect. Danielle couldn’t ask him to be perfect…because then he wouldn’t be Kael.
Her husband.
The man she had come to love.
She relished the feel of him inside her, each thrust deeper than the last, driving her hips against the tile until she screamed his name, coming apart against him as shudders wracked her body. Her femininity clamped down on him, milking the prince with powerful contractions that soon had him shouting her name hoarsely as he also succumbed to his completion.
In the moments after, he sagged against her, his breathing labored as his grip slowly relaxed on her hips. Danielle was sure she would have bruises the following morning but she hardly cared. They would remind her that Kael wasn’t heartless – in his own, unique way, he cared for her.
And he would care for their son.
She inhaled sharply as her husband slipped from her before lowering her once more into the heated bathing pool. “Now,” His tone was gruff as he sank down into the water to his neck, “you need a second bath.”
Danielle couldn’t repress a laugh of amusement. Her prince looked entirely too smug with himself – and the moment that had passed between them was over.
As she lingered in the water, watching him bathe, she felt her heart clench in longing. All she wanted was for him to realize that he didn’t have to put his life in jeopardy…that war might be avoided if only he could talk to the Remans he was hell bent on subjugating.
She didn’t want the empire she had just arrived in to be thrown into chaos…and she was sure that if Kael could see the reason of another option, he would understand it.
She cared for him too much to lose him.
Which was why she would have to disobey him – and try her best to speak to the Reman prisoner before he was executed.
It might be the only way to keep from plunging the Garinian Empire into conflict – and to keep from losing her husband and thousands of other lives that would be wasted in the process.
Chapter Seven: Love and War
It was the middle of the night when she slipped from bed. She knew what a light sleeper Kael could be, and so with every movement she made, she feared he might wake, and she would lose her opportunity. However, even when she stubbed her toe on a silver hued vase filled with flowers, cursing lowly, the prince slumbered on, totally unaware. Danielle supposed she couldn’t blame the man for being exhausted. He’d seduced her twice more before finally succumbing to sleep, and she’d had to wiggle from his arms with the utmost care – a task that had taken the better part of an hour.
Now, she crept through their suite to the outer courtyard and her beloved garden. While there were guards posted at the door to their chambers, and almost every window, there were none in the courtyard- and from there, there was a small niche in a dividing wall that led back into the main body of the palace.
It was through that niche that the woman now squeezed, only just barely able to make it. The moment she was back in the palace proper, she found herself ducking behind a wide pillar, hiding from one of the many guards patrolling the area. Of course, security around this wing of the palace was the heaviest because it was she specifically who had been targeted in the recent bombings.
However…if she could make it out of the east wing…there was a very good chance she could make her way, unseen, to the lower levels of the palace.
And the holding cells.
From there, she would just have to bluff her way past the guards and hope they found nothing suspicious. After all, all she wanted was to talk the prisoner. She wasn’t naïve enough to try and save his life, or to go too near his cell. The man had tried to kill her, and she didn’t doubt he would try again, given the opportunity.
But why? That was the question. If she could just get him to reveal who had sent him…what his reasoning was…there was no reason one man had to stand for the entirety of Reman culture…and that was what she hoped to get Kael to understand.
Slowly but surely, the princess made her way through the castle. It took her an hour alone to leave the east wing, as she was constantly ducking and hiding, wary of the guards that patrolled the corridors. There had to be fifty of them – well trained men, all, and Danielle knew if she was caught that would mean the end of her venture.
Eventually, however, she breathed a sigh of relief as she passed from the royal wing and was able to move more freely. From there, it was simply a matter of finding her way through a maze of hallways and atriums down to the lower levels.
Though the palace was immense, over the past few weeks, Danielle had done her best to learn her way around, and now she was glad she had. She managed to find herself in the rooms where she normally took her classes with Kaia – past the kitchens and down the corridor to the council convening chambers before finally arriving at a staircase that would lead her down into the bowels of the castle – and places she’d never been permitted before.
Danielle knew that there were holding cells scattered throughout the city – and that the palace holding cells were reserved for only the most offensive criminals because they were the most heavily fortified. The young woman had never even visited a prison on Garinia, and now, taking a deep breath, she began to descend to the lower levels.
Despite the fact that she knew Garinia was far technologically superior to Earth, Danielle somehow expected a grim, dungeonesque atmosphere. Instead, she found the level br
ightly lit, though there was a distinct lack of windows, and all the doors seemed to be made of solid metal. She encountered her first obstacle minutes after she descended. Her way was barred by two immense guards, both of which wore impassive expressions.
Danielle swallowed thickly as nervousness began to churn in her gut. She just had to remember everything Kaia had taught her. She was a queen. The young woman had managed to wrestle her way into one of her best gowns, and now, she straightened her back, held her head high, and moved forward.
“Prince Kael would like me to question the prisoner before his execution tomorrow. Stand aside.”
She hoped that the words had come out more commanding than they sounded to her own ears. For a moment, the guards simply stared at her and the young woman feared they would simply send her back to where she had come from. However, once the terse minute had passed, the two burly men surprisingly stepped aside, opening the heavy door to admit her.
Danielle couldn’t believe her luck. Riding high on her new authority, she strode through the door, jumping slightly when it closed behind her.
With each additional door the young woman passed through, she grew tense once more, only to breathe a sigh of relief and pride when she was admitted on the most meager excuse. She supposed she had underestimated how unyieldingly men would follow orders if they believed them to be from their prince.
She made her way lower and lower into the bowels of the castle, down two, three, four more levels. She hadn’t even known that the palace went so deep – and when she finally reached the holding cells, she lost count of how many doors she passed through. She was admitted to first the outer holding cells, all of which were empty, before she faced a final guard before the last row of cells closed off from the rest.
