Pretend Princess With Benefits: A Royal Fake Marriage Romance

by Lara Swann

  I stand in front of the door, my heart hammering in my chest and feeling more nervous than I can ever remember.

  I’m not sure whether it’s about the idea of seeing Hanna again - or trying to convince her parents that despite proposing to their daughter, taking her away to my country for a month, and not telling them a damn thing…I’m actually an okay guy.

  If I’ve learned anything during my time studying here, it’s that being the Prince of another country doesn’t actually count for too much when it comes to guarding a daughter’s heart.

  After several minutes, I finally work up the courage to knock - probably more because I start getting worried someone will see me just standing there, and that will seem even worse.

  I hear the footsteps moving through the house, and then…

  Hanna’s father is suddenly in front of me.

  He just stops and stares when he sees me there, and that makes it clear as day he remembers exactly who I am.

  I try for an apologetic smile.

  “Hi.” I start, with no clue where I’m going to go with this. I might have been thinking about it this whole journey - and for so long before that, but…when it comes to starting? How do I not get the door slammed in my face?

  “I’m sorry, I know you probably don’t want—”

  He glances around behind me, before interrupting.

  “Come in. I doubt whatever you’re about to say is best done on the front step.”

  And just like that, I’m inside - following him awkwardly back to their living room and unable to help looking around for Hanna. Just in case. I’m not even sure I want her to see me before I’ve had a chance to get things straightened out…but I want to see her so badly I can feel my skin tingling from anticipation.

  I try not to think that if her parents kick me out I’m going to hang around waiting until I get to speak to her, but I know it’s probably true. I want to do this properly, but…there are some things I just need. Seeing Hanna again is one of them.

  “Who was it?” Hanna’s mother calls as she comes in from the kitchen.

  Then I get the same stunned expression that I got from her father - except it turns into outrage quicker.

  “What are you doing here?”

  I hold my hands up and step back, glancing between them.

  “I’m really sorry about everything that happened.” I try to start. I don’t know what Hanna’s told them, but it doesn’t really matter. “It was all my fault - a really stupid idea I had, and I didn’t think about what it would mean. I never meant anything by—”

  “Why are you here?” Her mother repeats again, and I can’t quite read the way she’s looking at me.

  Okay. I guess they’re not interested in rehashing all of that.

  I swallow. Not sure I’m quite ready to lay it all out, but feeling it bubbling up inside me anyway.

  “Because I love Hanna. It was all supposed to be fake, between us - or just a bit of fun—”

  They share a look at that, and I move swiftly past. I don’t think I quite want them thinking about the fun Hanna and I might have had.

  “—but, it was impossible. I’ve never—I’ve never met a girl like Hanna before, and I can’t just let her go—not without telling her.” I quickly add that onto the end, a little worried I’m coming off as some kind of stalker. Fuck, this is so awkward. “I want to see her again. I want to do this properly—”

  “You’re a Prince.” Hanna’s father interrupts. “If your idea of properly is to take her back to your country and marry her, then—”

  “No.” I say immediately, shaking my head. “I know what it seems like - I know that’s how it looks, from everything that happened in Aldora - but it’s not like that. I want to do it your way - the slow, sensible, getting-to-know you kind of way. So that we can know whether it could possibly work, between your daughter and a Prince of Aldora. I’m coming back here for college, and I want to date Hanna, with the sort of relationship she deserves to have - not the crazy farce we went through in Aldora. I promise. And I wanted to come here first, and talk to you, because I never did that before and—”

  “Derek?”

  I turn around in an instant.

  Hanna is standing at the open doorway, looking at me with a swirl of emotions that I wish I had time to unpick, one by one. Just seeing her sends the same waves of feeling crashing through me - heat and need and the sort of bubbling warm affection and excitement that I haven’t felt for anyone else, ever.

  Her eyes dart to her parents, and then the confusing emotions seem to settle on incredulity.

  “Are you actually asking their permission to date me?” Her voice is almost teasing, and I catch the hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth.

  It’s not exactly the running-into-her-arms and kissing her until we both can’t breathe that I was hoping for, but that little smile is enough to set my heart on fire. To make me hope, that maybe…maybe…

  “I…err…” I glance back at her parents for a moment, who are looking at me decidedly blankly. “Maybe?”

  I try to work out whether that might have been a mistake.

  “They were pretty mad when they showed up, you know.” I say as she walks towards me, her eyes shining with the light that I’ve missed so damn much. “And I could understand why, so…well…I thought… Ah, damn it, you spent a while learning my customs - you’re gonna have to teach me yours. America is pretty confusing these days, all those chivalrous, possessive type ideas and then with the whole equality thing—”

  I’m babbling. I know I am. But I’m just so fucking happy to see her, I feel everything could just bubble out of me and I could dissolve entirely with it. She shuts me up as she reaches me - leaning up to kiss me.

  Not hard. Not long. Her parents are stood right there, after all.

  Just a slight brush of lips that makes me want so much more…and tells me everything I need to know.

  My heart feels like it could burst and soar and the world suddenly seems like it’s got color again.

  “You want to date me?” She asks again, softer this time.

  And a slow smile spreads across my face as I realize who I should be asking.

  “Yes.” I murmur, my hand running back through her hair. “Will you let me?”

  She tries to act like she’s considering it, but the light is blazing in her eyes now and I can see her whole expression light up with happiness and joy. The idea that I can do that to her is somehow even more overwhelming than the fact that I feel the exact same way.

  “Yes…” She breathes, and then she pulls me in to kiss her and doesn’t let me go - no light, easy kisses this time at all. And pure desire fizzles all the way across my skin. I want to pull her to me, wrap my arms around her and never let her go ever again.

  When she finally breaks the kiss, I can’t help myself - my eyes dart to her parents still stood there, mostly glancing between themselves - and I actually think I feel myself going red. Hanna might be used to this kind of thing, but back in Aldora…the thought of my family seeing me do something like that…even with my usual deviation from a lot of Aldoran culture, that strikes me as weird.

  She seems to notice, because she laughs at me, and then pulls me in to hug her again. I can’t help it this time, and my arms do wrap around her. She feels perfect and soft and warm in my arms, and I lean down to inhale her sweet scent, almost instinctively.

  And for the first time in what feels like weeks, my body finally relaxes.

  “Yeah, thanks, guys.”

  I blink, looking down at where Hanna is rolling her eyes at her parents and then twist around to see them looking not-quite-innocent as they smile at Hanna. I have the awkward feeling they were just saying something about me, but at the same time, if nothing else - that makes it clear that everything is good between the three of them again, and another weight loosens in my chest at the thought.

  “C’mon.” Hanna says, and tugs on my hand. She glances over her shoulder as we leave the room. “W
e need some privacy.”

  She says it deliberately, and my eyes widen as I realize how her parents are probably going to take that, feeling embarrassed all over again—

  And then I realize that I can take that the exact same way, and I forget all about her parents.

  Instead, all I can do is watch her hot ass swinging in front of me as I follow her up the stairs, think about having her writhing below me, kissing me, touching me, screaming my name…

  Okay, maybe not screaming. Parents. These walls aren’t exactly castle quality.

  By the time we make it into her room, we’re not far off from that either. I catch her on the landing, and push her back against the door to her room, kissing her, breathing her in, nibbling and nuzzling all down her throat.

  She moans into me, just lightly, and her arms come around my neck. I feel for the doorknob behind her and twist, letting it open behind her and propel us into the room.

  “Derek…” She murmurs.

  “Oh god, Hanna.” I say, kicking the door closed behind me and running my hands up and over her body, as if to remind myself that she’s real. She’s here. We’re actually doing this.

  I stop kissing her for a moment just to pull her to me, crushing her weight against me - and I feel her squeezing just as tight.

  “I missed you so fucking much.” I say, murmuring it against the top of her head. “I couldn’t stand being there without you.”

  “It was crap. It was so fucking crap, Derek. I thought—I thought it was over. Done. Gone.”

  The words - the very idea of it - still tugs at my heart, even though it’s okay now. We’re together now.

  “I love you, Hanna.” I tilt her chin back, our gazes blazing at each other as they meet. “I’ve known it for a while now. Since I claimed you, in that final ceremony - since I asked you to be my Princesca. And maybe before that. Maybe when I told my people all about how fucking amazing you were and—”

  She blinks. “When you did what?”

  I laugh, just a little. “That speech, when I introduced you. I couldn’t remember what the hell I was supposed to say, so I just said what I wanted and…what came out surprised me, too.”

  She suddenly blushes, looking away. “Oh, god. That’s why they made so much noise?”

  I laugh again, bringing her head back towards me. “Yes, my love, my Princess. That’s why. Because you’re fucking perfect and they knew it the moment they saw you.”

  Her eyes glaze and I feel her shudder under me as she steps closer, her breathing shallow.

  “I love you too, Derek.” She says, biting her lip. “I don’t think I knew it until I came back here and found out you’d fucking broken my heart, but I love you. Even when I wished I didn’t. And the last few weeks…I kept fantasizing about you asking me to stay. To be your Princess for real, not just because you wanted to impress your parents.”

  “Fuck.” I mutter. “Why didn’t you say?”

  She looks at me, shaking her head. “I don’t know. Because it was impossible. You didn’t want to be tied down and I…I’m not a Princess. My parents were kind of right about that, you know - I can’t just, even now, I can’t just become the Princess of a whole different country. Just like that. I—I don’t know—”

  The light in her eyes has dimmed to uncertainty, and I kiss her instinctively, wanting to take it away.

  “What did you hear?” I ask. “About what I said?”

  She shrugs. “I don’t know. I just caught the last bit - about you wanting to talk to my parents first. I was too distracted by you just turning up like that not to just say something.”

  I bring her hand to my lips, and kiss it, then turn it over and do the same for the other side.

  “I told them I want to do this properly - your way, as well as mine. Date you American style. For as long as you want. I’m not going to lie…you were fucking perfect as my Princesca, and I didn’t know that was important to me, but it is. So…it would mean the world to me if we could work it out somehow - if, eventually, you wanted that too. But…there’s no pressure. Just be my girlfriend. Please?”

  I hear her shudder at that word - girlfriend - and it strikes me as insane that it has more of an effect than a proposal, or engagement, or being my fiance or Princess ever did. But this is real, and all of that was…confusing, at the very least.

  And I hope that when we get to proposal, or engagement or Princess again…it will mean more this time.

  Fuck that. I know it will mean more.

  “Yes.” She breathes again, leaning in to kiss me. “Yes. I want to be your girlfriend, Derek. Just kiss me.”

  She doesn’t need to ask twice about that, and I bring her head up to me with both hands, walking backwards as I go. I’m heading for the bed, and she knows it, and I can feel her quivering beneath me.

  “I want you, Hanna.” I murmur, in between kisses. “So fucking much. I’ve never wanted anyone this much.”

  Her eyes flick open. “Me neither. I’ve never met anyone who…takes me…like you.”

  I practically growl at the words, and in the next few moments I’ve thrown her top over her head, and she’s slid her skirt down to her ankles. Her panties follow a moment later, and then I’m working my belt as she undoes my shirt buttons. She fumbles them a little, and I don’t have the patience to wait - I just rip the damn thing off, and her eyes dilate as I do.

  “Fuck.” She says. “That’s hot.”

  I laugh, even as her hands spread across my bare abs. “I’ll make a note to do it more often.”

  “Mm, yes please…”

  She doesn’t quite get to finish the thought, because I’m pressing her down towards the bed, and the next minute she’s under me, both of us totally naked and unable to get enough of each other. There’s a small thought in the back of my mind that her parents are nearby and we’ll have to be quiet, but right now it’s a background concern.

  My attention is too caught by her heaving breasts, the catch of her breath as I suck and stroke them with my tongue, the way her body writhes as I dip a hand lower to slide along her pussy. She’s soaking wet, and I groan as I bring my finger back to taste her. I start to drift down, but she pulls me back almost immediately, insistent.

  “No, I want you Derek. I want to feel you. Inside me. Fucking me. Take me, damn it.”

  I groan again, my cock feeling like it’s been waiting for this for decades, hard and hot and ready to explode before I’ve even touched her. I settle on top and she looks up at me with wide, expectant eyes.

  I lean down to kiss her as my cock nudges her entrance, and the way her pussy quivers under me is enough to tempt me to thrust all the way in - hard and deep all at once. For a moment though, I stay right there. I can feel the way her pussy fits around my cock, already squeezing and milking it as she moans and gasps and wriggles to try and get me to move.

  But I can’t help it. I’m just enjoying the moment. Being somewhere so right and perfect and complete.

  I kiss her again, my tongue plunging in the same way my cock is deep inside her, and thread my fingers through her hair.

  “You’re perfect, Hanna.” I murmur just above her lips. “Totally perfect.”

  She moans lightly, and then I can’t wait any more. I draw out of her again, soft and slow and maddening - and then I slam right back into her hard, striking up a fast pace that has her gasping in moments.

  She feels so fucking good, wet and tight and hot against me, and just being with her is enough to drive me insane. Seeing her writhe under me, her hips rising up to meet each stroke, her eyes rolling back in her head as her fingers drive into the soft sheets of her bed…I can’t imagine anything being more right than this.

  I kiss her lips, nuzzle over her jaw and down to her neck, where I bite and suck as she gasps, before making my way down to her breasts and rolling her nipples with my tongue. She cries out, in a deliberately high pitch that you can barely hear, and I grunt into her sweet, soft skin.

  My Princesca.

&nbs
p; Hanna.

  All mine.

  I don’t realize I’m saying it aloud until she responds, moaning “yes” again and again.

  I drive into her harder, grabbing her hands and linking them in mine, throwing them back against the bed as I bury myself deep within her again and again and again. I can feel my cock pulsing and everything rising up within it as her pussy starts to clench and shudder around me - then a few moments later I’m exploding within her, my seed streaming out of me. She gasps at that, arches up against me - and then collapses down to the bed, her body going tense as she shudders and moans and tries desperately to muffle the sound of the orgasm that I can see ripping through her.

  I keep fucking her through it, unable to stop even if I wanted to, and I see her go over that edge of bliss again as I suck hard at her breasts.

  Fuck yes.

  When I’m finally too spent to stay where I am, I roll off her and bring her into my arms, pulling her to me and keeping her tight and close. I don’t ever want to let her go ever again.

  We breathe heavily together for a few minutes, just touching each other and reminding ourselves of that blissful familiarity as I tell her I love her again and again. We kiss, and touch, and just stay there with each other, until she looks up at me, eyes hazy with a pleasure and warmth that I feel so damn satisfied for putting there.

  “Yeah, Derek…we’ll work it all out. Together.”

  Chapter Epilogue

  Hanna

  Two Years Later

  “Are you sure we aren’t lost?” I ask, for what feels like the dozenth time.

  I’m looking around at our not-really-discernible path and seeing only endless trees and undergrowth. I’m all for a pleasant day hiking, but…I’d like to know we can actually get back at the end of it.

  “Just because I wasn’t entirely sure that one time.” Derek rolls his eyes at me, dropping back from where he was picking out the path to sling an arm over my shoulder. “Relax, Princesca. It’s beautiful here - and there’s no one around for miles and miles. Enjoy it.”

  I feel the smile tugging at my mouth at that comment.

  We have enjoyed it. Several times already. And I could swear I still have little twigs stuck to places they shouldn’t be.