by Leslie North
Prince Louis laughed before he replied. “So now you want to know about me but when I enquired about you, you chose not to tell me.”
“Well that is different.”
“Is it?”
Macee sighed. “Fine, what is it that you wish to know?”
The prince turned around and faced her. His gaze instantly made her feel uncomfortable. He studied her from head to toe. Macee looked to the side and started walking. “Did you know I was working on a science degree?” she asked. She had to take control of the situation quickly, as he made her too uncomfortable.
“Is that so?” The prince walked behind her. She bent down to smell the flowers. He found himself staring at her bottom.
“Yes.” Macee sprung back up to her feet. “I love painting, sports and baking,” she added.
“You bake?” He was surprised. She did not seem like the domestic type.
“Yes, why are you surprised?”
“Just that you do not seem like the domestic type.”
“Then what type do I seem?”
“The type of woman who does not indulge in domestic duties.”
Macee frowned at him. She wanted to know what she appeared like in his eyes but he gave nothing away. She stopped and gasped when they came upon some white cabanas at the other end of the garden. She wanted to run up to one and throw herself onto the daybed but she had to restrain herself.
“You like?” he asked her. Macee nodded. He wrapped his arm around her waist and walked with her toward the cabanas. He lay down and patted the mattress for Macee to join him. She took her shoes off and climbed on.
“This has become my favourite place,” Macee said. She could definitely see herself coming out here often.
“I am glad that you like something around here,” the prince said. Macee laughed and for once, it was not a sarcastic laugh.
“Just because I do not like you does not mean I do not like everything else.”
Prince Louis jerked up and supported himself on his elbow. He looked down at Macee. “Seriously, what is it that you dislike about me so much?”
“Well for starters, I barely know you. I had hoped that I would know a great deal about the person I would marry, but there are times I feel like we are from entirely different worlds. Put that aside, you expect me to fall all over you simply because you are the crown prince. I do not work that way.”
“So you have been saying since day one.”
“You're quite pretentious too.”
The prince laughed. “I am a man of looks, intelligence and the future king. Should I not be?”
Macee narrowed her gaze at him. “That is the reason you and I cannot be together. You are too different. I despise vanity in a person.”
“What to do, ma cherie. We are stuck together until death do us part.” His tone was quite sardonic. Macee leaned toward him.
“You can help me with the annulment.”
The prince raised an eyebrow. Was she out of her mind? Why on earth would he do that? However she must have come to realise that the only way for her to get the annulment was if he agreed to it.
“And then what happens next?”
“You can remarry, hopefully this time to a woman who worships the ground you walk on.” Macee rolled her eyes. Such materialistic opportunists annoyed her. Before the prince could reply, one of the maids came with refreshments and placed the tray on a small table next to the cabana. The prince sat up and reached for a drink.
“Why can you not be that for me?” Prince Louis asked Macee. She frowned at him as he laughed. “I was jesting.”
“Who uses the word jesting?” Macee asked and laughed.
“You make fun of my speech,” he did not seem offended.
“Another reason why we do not match. We speak like we are from different times.”
“You focus too much energy on finding reasons as to why we do not match.”
“I am trying to convince you to see my point,” clearly it was not working. He shrugged his shoulders. Macee took the drink from the prince's hand and took a few sips. He raised his eyebrows. “It was too far for me to get my own glass,” she said as she handed it back to him.
“Shall I get you a drink then?”
“No, my thirst has been quenched,” she said with a grin.
Prince Louis laughed as he placed his drink down and lay next to Macee. “You smell nice,” he said to her. Random, Macee thought to herself. Prince Louis found himself looking at her flat stomach. He reached his hand out and started caressing it. Macee's eyes flew open.
“You're touching me,” she said. This time she was able to speak.
“I am touching my wife.” he replied.
Chapter 15
This was the first time that he had ever referred to her as his wife. As much as she thought she wanted to object to him touching her, she didn’t want him to stop. She turned to face him. This time he was not smirking. He had a different look on his face. He pulled her closer to him as he slipped his hand underneath her top to touch her skin.
“You let me touch you but you won't let me make love to you,” he said. Macee's face immediately turned red. How was she supposed to reply to him? She stared at his chest unable to look him in the eye.
Prince Louis caressed her face with the back of his hand. He lifted her chin with his index finger and pulled her face toward his. He started kissing her. Macee hated to admit to herself that she was waiting for that kiss. She felt too shy to initiate it and if she kissed him first, she would be betraying herself by doing so. She said too many times that she was not interested in him and she was not going give him a reason to think otherwise. Except that her body was continually betraying her.
His kiss was as gentle as before. He caressed her neck as he kissed her while his other hand remained under her top stroking her back. Macee was grateful that she was lying down because had she been standing up, then her legs would have given way. Her hands found their way to his chest as she kissed him back.
He moved closer to her and started kissing her neck. He took his time on each spot as Macee let out a sigh of pleasure. Even though the prince was hopeless at modesty, he was good at this. He knew exactly where to touch and kiss her. His hand came around and cupped her breast as his thumb brushed across her nipple.
The prince wanted to rip her clothes off and take her right there but he was determined to restrain himself. He had to keep going slow and not rush her into anything she did not want.
“I have to stop touching you,” Prince Louis said. He kissed her once more before stopping. Macee sat up and adjusted her top. This was the second time he had gotten her all hot and bothered, and then stopped. It was frustrating.
“Then why start?” Macee mumbled.
Prince Louis laughed softly. “You are angry, ma cherie.”
“No, I am not.”
“I told you, I will not make love to you until you ask me to.”
Macee got up and rushed back to her quarters. Prince Louis groaned in frustration after Macee left. He was full of mixed emotions. She was not the kind of woman he wanted to marry but he was married to her anyway. He wanted her to want him the way every woman wanted him but she simply did not. He wanted to make love to her for reasons he could not understand but she still did not let him. He wanted her to say it, tell him how much she wanted him.
* * *
Macee woke up to chaos in the palace. Her maids were panicked and whispering amongst themselves. She asked them what the issue was. They were reluctant to tell her. Macee frowned. “What is it?” she demanded. One of them switched on the television for Macee to see for herself. Her jaw dropped open when she saw what was on the news. It was a story about her. They were saying that she was unsuitable to the crown prince. There were pictures of her from parties. Macee wondered how they had gotten a hold of everything.
It was even worse that she was on the front page of the newspapers. The article was suggesting that she was promiscuous and she was not meant to be t
he crown princess. Macee did not want to be the crown princess but she did not want it to end like this. She was not promiscuous; she had never slept with any man. It bothered her that someone would go to great lengths to tar her image. She went to search for the crown prince and found him in his office.
“It's not true,” she said as soon as she walked into his office. She did not know why she went to him first but she did.
“I know,” he said as he stood up from his desk and came to her. He could see that Macee was upset. He held her shoulders as he searched her eyes. “It's okay,” he said to her.
“It's not okay.”
He pulled her into an embrace and rubbed her back. He believed her; he knew she was not promiscuous. Every time he touched her, he could see how nervous and inexperienced she was. There was no way she was this promiscuous woman the media had painted her to be.
Macee wanted to cry so badly but she held it in, as she wrapped her arms around him and buried her head in his chest. She could imagine how her mother was reacting. She probably had fainted by now. Macee was scared of how the king and queen were going to react. They were probably raging at the shame she had brought to the family. The prince released her from his embrace. He kissed her forehead and told her that he had things to take care of and then he left to see his parents.
Just as he had assumed, his parents were angry, especially his mother. “How could something like this happen?” his mother asked. She was fanning herself, as the anger was making her temperature rise.
“I knew we should not have trusted that family,” Bridgette said. She was sitting there with a smug I-told-you-so look on her face.
“All of that is false,” the prince said.
“And how do you know?” the king asked him.
“I know her character.” He did not know much about Macee but the one thing he knew without a shadow of doubt was her innocence. She was not that kind of person. There was no way on earth.
“There is no smoke without a fire,” Bridgette said.
“She is the crown princess of this country. Of course, there will be some malicious people who want to destroy her image. By becoming a royal, she has automatically made some enemies.”
“What about the obscene photographs?” the queen asked.
“They show nothing incriminating. Besides that was before she even knew that she was going to be the crown princess. She cannot be held accountable for that.”
“I understand you want to defend your wife but as the crown prince you have to be objective about this,” the king said.
“I am and I will get to the bottom of this. The culprit will not escape my wrath,” the prince said and left the room. Admittedly, when he first saw the party photographs, he thought this was Macee's method of getting an annulment, but when he read the newspaper article about her being promiscuous, he immediately knew she was being set up.
When Macee was done speaking to Liane, she was surprised to see Francesca enter her quarters. All this time she had been living in the palace, her sister had never come to see her. Francesca walked over to Macee and hugged her. Macee could not help but breakdown. “You came,” she said between sobs.
“Of course, I came,” Francesca said. “You’re my baby sister.” She released Macee from her embrace and guided her to the sofas. Francesca held her younger sister's hands. “Are you okay?” she asked. Macee shook her head.
“Why would someone do this? What is the point of being so cruel?”
“Mace, you are the crown princess now. You automatically became an idol and an enemy.”
“I never asked to be the crown princess and now I am being punished for it.”
It broke Francesca's heart to see her sister like that. Macee was the light of the family. She was the one who never followed anyone's rules. She was always so happy and free spirited. It was rare to see her cry. She felt guilty for giving her a hard time at the beginning. She vowed to herself to make sure she exposed the person who leaked those pictures and made up those lies about Macee. That person had to pay.
“It will be okay, Mace,” Francesca said and kissed Macee on the forehead.
“I hope so,” Macee replied. She was glad to have the support of both her sisters. She still had not spoken to her parents and she was dreading it. They might not be as understanding as the crown prince had been. Macee had expected him to be angry about it. It surprised her to see him so calm and try to comfort her.
Chapter 16
Francesca had gone to speak with the crown prince after she had seen Macee. Her intention was to plead on Macee's behalf and convince him of her innocence. To her surprise, the crown prince was already convinced that Macee was innocent. It made her feel better about leaving Macee in the palace alone. She did not want her sister to go against the royal family by herself. Francesca was pleased to see that the prince was going to be in her corner.
“I will find out who did this to my sister,” Francesca said to the prince before she left. The prince nodded.
“That is exactly what I aim to do. If you find something or need anything, do not hesitate to contact me,” he replied her.
Francesca curtsied before she left his office. One of the advantages to being her father's daughter was that she had the connections and the resources to get to the bottom of this.
As expected, Mrs LeBlanc was furious. Francesca returned home to find her raging on the phone. “You have disgraced the family,” Mrs LeBlanc screamed. Knowing that it was Macee she was speaking to, Francesca grabbed the phone from her mother’s hand and slammed it down.
“Mother, stop it!” Francesca shouted.
“Francesca LeBlanc, what is the meaning of this?”
“Macee did nothing wrong. Can't you see it was a set up? How can you blame her for this? Are you so against your own daughter that you would believe this trash?”
“That is exactly what I said,” Colonel LeBlanc said as he entered the room. “My little girl is not promiscuous,” he added.
“Father, you should have stopped mother from calling Macee,” Francesca admonished. “She always makes her feel bad. No more! Leave her be if you are not going to be fighting for her,” Francesca shouted before she left the room. Mrs LeBlanc dramatically held her forehead as if she was going to faint.
“Wife, Francesca has a point. We need to be there for Macee. She is the victim in all of this and it is time that you stopped treating our youngest as if she were an unruly child. She’s a young woman AND the crown princess. It’s time for you to act appropriately,” he said. He turned on his heel to leave the room, “I am going to see her,” he added as he walked off.
* * *
A few days later, Princess Katherine went to speak to Macee. She wanted to find out what was going on. She was the only one who had yet to speak to her. When the stories about her came out, the princess had been out of town. Her mother filled her in on her displeasure with Macee when she returned to the palace.
Macee and the princess sat on the balcony drinking tea. Squeezing Macee’s arm, “Tell me what’s going on.” Macee sighed before she replied.
“Yes, I did go to a few parties when I first started out at university, but that was where it ended. I was too busy with my studies. I never smoked, drank or took drugs. And I was certainly NOT promiscuous,” Macee said.
“You must know that there is no smoke without a fire,” Princess Katherine said softly echoing her aunt’s previous comment.
“In this case, there is no fire. Someone is deliberately trying to tar my image for some sick reason.”
“That may be the reason but my parents are not taking it well. My mother has had annulment papers drawn up.”
Macee's jaw dropped open. The thing she had wanted so badly. Now she was seeing a way out but not like this. The royal family would think poorly of her and her family. They already did. The fact that they had already drawn up the papers meant they were ready cut all ties with the LeBlancs, which meant the end of her father’s career.
�
��Really?” Macee asked flatly.
“Yes, your parents have been summoned to the palace.” Macee hung her head. “Brother,” Princess Katherine said getting to her feet. Macee looked up. The prince kissed his sister on both cheeks.
“I need to speak with Macee,” he said. The princess nodded and left. Prince Louis sat down in front of her.
“Hello,” she said to him.
“How are you feeling?”
“Oh, you know, like I’ve been raked over the coals.”
He nodded. “I understand,” he said. He called for his maid to come out to the balcony. She was holding a brown envelope in her hands, which she placed on the table and left. Macee looked at it and asked what it was.
