Royal Chronicles of Denmark, Books 1 & 2

by Kiki Leach

  She crept closer, placing a hand at my back. “I asked on the night I informed you of his leaving if you loved him, and you said you were fond of him. I asked again in the garden and you said your fondness had grown. And each time, you said you didn’t know if you could ever love anyone, but you do. You have.” She smiled wide as if a freshly baked lemon cake had been dangled before her nose. “You have fallen completely in love with him, haven’t you?”

  “Brigita…” Her eyes were so bright and happy, her voice lifted to excitement. But I refused to answer her and placed the brush atop the dresser. “I’m going.” I turned to her and sighed deeply. “Don’t wait up for me, as you are free to return to your chambers.”

  When I reached Norvack’s door, I waited a moment and exhaled. My breath was as shaky as my hands. But I somehow managed to knock three times before he answered, wearing his white tunic and matching tight fitting riding pants from earlier in the day. I flushed when I noticed the large bulge in his pants that seemed to grow in size the longer he kept his entrancing jade green eyes on me. I stopped myself from licking my lips in a craving to taste his and tightly clasped my hands together before my waist. I looked up at him and smiled sweetly but he remained stoic, or confused; even as I noticed him staring down at my breasts, which peered over the rim of my nightgown. The longer he looked, the more my already hardened nipples grew in size. Per the norm, I expected him to make a crude remark under the guise of a compliment, but he didn’t.

  He knit his brows a little and looked away at the fire blazing in the fireplace across his room. The sparks lit up the walls with flashes of gold. I could tell he was thinking something serious; I wished to know what it was. He pressed the outside of his hand to his mouth and cleared his throat. “What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice dark, almost annoyed.

  “They told me you were upset because of the quarrel with your father. This one seemed more serious, and I thought--”

  He grimaced. “They, who?”

  “The…” I stopped and straightened myself. “Brigita. She said you were upset. May I?”

  Norvack looked me over once more, wavering before finally moving away from the door. As I glided into his room, I felt his eyes on me the entire time, burning a hole of desire into my skin. I took much pleasure in him watching my gown slide up and down against my bare backside as I moved. And I wished for him to take me, to press me against him as he had done so many times before, and allow me to feel the length of his hard cock against me as he playfully fondled my clitoris with his long fingers and kissed me deep with his tongue. I shivered in delight just thinking about it.

  The next noise I heard was the slamming and locking of his door. I swung around and held my chest, laughing a little, nervous. Norvack remained unyielding. He gradually moved toward me as I stood near his bed and held his goblet close to his chest, resting just inches away from my body. The heat rising from his was oddly pleasurable yet excruciating. I noticed him shut his eyes and inhale deeply. I imagined him inhaling the scent of my skin and hair. I imagined him tasting parts of me that he hadn’t before.

  When he opened his eyes, he peered, questioning. “What do you wish for? Why are you here at this time of night?”

  I lowered my voice and exhaled, looking to the floor in search of a proper answer. “To give you comfort.” I looked up at him again and he lifted his brows -- his eyes seemed to brighten. And then he scowled.

  “You wish to provide me comfort? Of your own free will?”

  “Yes.”

  “Whatever for?”

  “Because I’m not just a woman sent to help you heal at your request, I’m your wife. We share a bond as you said, and I…” I caught myself before going too far and stopped. “If you wish for me to leave --”

  “No,” he said quickly, raising his hand to me. “I could never wish for that. Brandy?” He made his way to the other side and poured more for himself.

  “You know I don’t drink,” I scolded.

  He looked to me from the corner of his eye and grinned. “Just this once. A taste from my own.”

  I waited before nodding in compliance. Norvack handed me his goblet and I took a sip. He licked his lips, perhaps admiring the way I drank from the same side as he often had. A burning sensation filled my mouth almost immediately and traveled down the back of my throat as I swallowed. It was as if I had been subjected to drinking a hot bed of coals! I made a sour face and coughed, handing the goblet back to him. “No more of that.” I laughed, holding my chest as it burned. Norvack took the goblet from me, allowing his finger tips to brush against mine. A much stronger need to taste his lips and tongue passed through me and I immediately whirled away, hoping he hadn’t noticed. “When you questioned me before in regard to why I didn’t drink, I assumed it was one incident you had managed to miss out on. When I was thirteen, I had stolen a flask from an old man in the square. It was filled with brandy. I don’t recall it ever tasting like that, but I vowed to never drink it or anything like it again. I poured what was left to the ground and bartered the flask with the baker. I had bread for an entire month that year.” I turned to him and leaned my head aside. “Do you wish to tell me about the quarrel with your father?”

  “Not really, no.”

  “Why?”

  “This morning you asked me not to go to him, and now I realize that it was with good reason. I shouldn’t have gone, nothing good came from it, as it never does.” He smiled sadly. “I don’t wish to further upset you, my favorite girl.”

  “I am not upset for myself.”

  He took a seat at the edge of his bed and sipped his brandy, fondling the goblet. I dithered before joining him and sat so closely, there had been no space between us. He looked over at me as I deliberately rested my body against his. I needed to feel the warmth of his body against mine.

  “Brigita tells me you went riding tonight. I’m thrilled for you, but, where had you gone?”

  “I traveled to Hadenville, to your cottage.”

  I leaned back and puckered my brows. “Why?”

  “A safe haven,” he said. “After dealing with my father I needed a place in which I could be completely alone, without the servants, without my mother. I wished to be near you, but I couldn’t. And so, I went there.”

  “What exactly did your father say to you, Norvack?” I whispered.

  “What he always says to me in an attempt to lessen my importance and accomplishments -- that despite my healing, despite the victory of my men against the King of England and his army, I am still bound to be a disappointment in some way, to be a failure as the future King of Denmark.”

  “And he continues to be wrong.”

  “Does he? I wonder if he is, and if my victory was a stroke of luck.”

  “It wasn’t a stroke of anything, it was determination that paid off, and your father is wrong. You earned this victory, one that proves just how wrong he remains.”

  “But he is right about one thing, something in which despite my triumph, I fail to recognize. I fell short during that battle.”

  “No--”

  “I failed him, and my men. He claims that they won that battle, not me. They deserve a higher ranking in the court, deserve to have more power and influence over the citizens and parliament of Denmark. Not me.”

  “Your father is bitter.”

  “Perhaps. But he isn’t wrong about this. I have been a rider my entire life, and at the precise moment in which I needed to prove my worth to him and my country, to be a leader for my men, I fell from my horse and nearly broke every bone in my body. And to add to the overall humiliation of it, the King of England attacked me himself. I’m convinced my father will never allow me get over that.”

  I reached up for his shoulder and squeezed hard, tears filling my eyes. “As am I, but you will overcome it, Norvack, and I can help you. You defeated the king.”

  “My men defeated the king.”

  “They would not have managed to defeat a fly without strong leadership f
rom you. Falling from your horse, the attack from England, it only made them more determined to win for you and this country, and they did. Your falling was not the end of it all, it was the beginning. And even so, you did not break every bone in your body. What sprained healed rather quickly, as did the wound, given the circumstances. More importantly, you are learning to ride again. Falling is still bound to happen, it happens to the best of riders.”

  “Not to me, it should never. I am one of the best this country has to offer. It isn’t arrogance, it’s fact.” He shook his head. “My father didn’t want to send me to England because he knew better, but he had no choice.”

  “He had a choice. I have bitten my tongue on this from the beginning, but I won’t any longer. Your father had a choice and it was the wrong one. His men couldn’t survive and he knew it, but he sent them anyway. He shouldn’t have sent you into that battle against the King of England and his men, not because you weren’t ready but because it was his burden to bear. He made a promise he knew he could not keep that caused all of this, not you and yours.”

  “It doesn’t matter now.”

  “It does matter--”

  “It doesn’t,” he said. “You are wrong in that he had a choice, he didn’t. He sent me because he couldn’t fight.”

  “He sent you because he was a coward who chose not to fight in a battle he himself put into motion! He sent out his own son to fix his mistake. Despite your victory, YOUR victory, that battle shouldn’t have happened!”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore, Cinder!” he hollered. “It doesn’t matter.” I lifted my hand from him and he looked over at me and glowered, grinding his teeth. “I’m sorry.”

  “No,” I said softly. “You’re angry, and I understand that. But you should not continue to blame yourself for something that was never your fault. That’s all.”

  He sighed. “Whether or not I was meant to be there, whether or not it was meant to happen, I was there and it did happen. And my father knew I wasn’t ready for it. He knew I wasn’t ready to go against the king’s men.”

  “And he sent you anyway because he was willing to risk your life before his own.”

  “That’s not how he saw it--”

  “It doesn’t matter what he saw or how he believed things to be,” I replied. “It’s how it was.”

  He lowered his head. “My father claims to know me better than anyone.”

  I made a face. “That isn’t true. You know you better than anyone.”

  “I am not so sure anymore. I thought I was ready to take over, that if I were to become king at any moment, I could handle anything that came my way. He sends me out to prove it, and I failed him.”

  “My God, you didn’t fail anyone! You won a battle that your father was assured you would lose, and now you have more power and influence over this country than ever before and he is attempting to snatch it from you by making you feel this way.” I paused, struggling for the right words. “This is why I wished for you not to meet with him. I was certain he would do or say whatever he could to make you feel inferior if only to exonerate himself of his own weaknesses and inferiority, and he did. In only a matter of hours, you went from the most confident man to the most self-loathing. Norvack, you are strong and brave. You are intelligent and commanding. You guided those men to a victory against a ruthless king, and you should be proud of the outcome. I don’t believe you should have been there to begin with and I will state so until my dying days, but you were and no matter what occurred during your time spent, nothing will change the truth of your victory. Yours.”

  He nodded nonchalantly and took another sip of his brandy. I turned my focus straight ahead, feeling as if all of my words were useless and had fallen on deaf ears, but could feel his eyes on me, visually warming my body.

  He squinted. “Why did you choose to stay with me, Cinder?”

  I sat up straight and snapped my head in his direction. “What?”

  “After I returned from battle, all but impaired. There was no guarantee I would ever recover, no guarantee I would be the man I once was, or that your current status within the hierarchy would remain in tact. Why did you choose to stay?”

  “Since when do you care how you receive what you wanted? As long as you have received it within a timely fashion?”

  “I’m curious.”

  I fixed my gown and stared down at my hands. “Because I made a commitment to you. I became your wife and I knew that no matter what, I couldn’t leave, I couldn’t turn my back on what I had promised you -- just as you had promised to keep me safe, which you have at all cost. And the vows said in sickness and in health. You were bound to heal no matter what you believed, you were too strong not to. And I felt you needed an ally against your father, and I was right.”

  “So all in all, you stayed out of pity.” He chuckled. “You have said I was just like him, but feared I couldn’t handle myself against him?”

  “No, I… I was wrong in what I said, you are nothing like the king.” He disregarded me once more, waving his hand and drinking the remainder of his liquor. “I mean it. When I said that, I only knew a part of who you were, not all of you like I do now. The more I learned of you as I took care of you, how open hearted and generous you are. How caring and in truth, quite unsure of yourself, as opposed to the slight facade of superiority you have always portrayed to the country.” I stopped and swallowed hard, staring at his lips, wishing he were kissing me. “Much of what I knew, or thought I knew, was perception. It wasn’t real, it wasn’t the truth. I learned that you are nothing like the king, you never could be.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  “No, I’m not.” I lowered my head in an attempt to recapture his attention, but he ignored me. “Look at me, Norvack. Please look at me.” When he wouldn’t relent, I reached over and placed my fingers beneath his chin -- scratching his stubble, much to my own delight -- and lightly, but forcefully turned his face to mine. He appeared somber as our faces rested just inches apart. The smell of liquor on his breath inflamed my nose, but I couldn’t pull away. “Listen to me when I say that you are not your father. You are not the king. You are your own man, as it should be. It puzzles me that you continue to wish for his respect, yet aspire to be nothing like him.”

  “He is my father. I shall wish for his respect even to my grave.” He looked directly into my violet eyes, then seemed to let his eyes travel and study the face he had known since we were children. He closed them and inhaled once more, flaring his nostrils. “You smell of lilacs tonight…” He opened his eyes and grinned slyly. “Did they bathe you in lilacs, my favorite girl?” He looked down at my breasts again.

  I inhaled, pushing them up a little, and nodded. “For tonight, yes.”

  “It’s my favorite scent on you.”

  “I know…” I stared at the shape of his mouth and exhaled. I was so anxious to taste him, for him to taste me. I shut my eyes to regain my train of thought. “Your father--”

  “I may not be him at this very moment, but I shall no doubt become him someday. I will have no choice but to be as ruthless as he ever was in ruling this monarchy if I wish to ever earn his respect.”

  “But you don’t have to be! You have so many choices in life, Norvack -- you don’t have to make the same choices as your father to earn his respect. Especially choices which could lead to the innocent deaths of so many, much like he has.” I slid my fingertips back and forth alongside his jaw line, gazing his reaction. “That could lead to the death of someone like me.”

  He tensed and breathed out. “Cinder.”

  I noticed the arousing sensation I was causing within him and wet my lips with my tongue, lightly nibbling the bottom, imagining it was his. “You don’t have to be like him. We shall have our own monarchy, and as I said, you will be your own man, and in turn, I will be my own woman. And our children--”

  “Children?”

  I stopped and arched my brows. “I assumed….” I rattled my head and laughed, feeling silly. “You
don’t have to be your father anymore than I have to be like the queen.”

  “The queen.” He smiled with a sort of drunken desire. “I remember our wedding day. How you wished to never become like her, how you feared of living a life the same as she had with my father, a woman with no voice or thoughts of her own, you said. And I told you that you could never be anything like her. And she… could never be anything like you.” He reached for my hand and flattened it against his cheek. I jumped at the eroticized sensation it gave me, shattering like glass throughout my entire body. “Your skin is so soft tonight,” he said. “So warm. You have a voice with me, Cinder. A great influence. You could never be like the queen.”

  “And no matter what I said before now, you could never be like the king.”

  He rested his fingers between mine, clasping them as he had done before, and lowered our hands to his lap. When I brushed my fingertips across the center of his pants, Norvack made a hinting noise, a deep guttural sound rising from the back of his throat. I pretended not to hear it, though inside, it made my heart sing that he noticed.

  “Then who could I be?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “Who could I be? If I am not like my father… who could I be?”

  “Yourself.”

  He grinned. “Yes, but who am I?”

  I paused, thinking. “Norvack Lars Belarus I. The Prince of Denmark. A person who only lets so many into his world. Obliging when you choose to be, but not cowardice. You are unabashed but most relenting to--”

  “To what? To you?” He took in a breath. “Careful. Someone may believe that you are beginning to care for me.” He squeezed my hand.

  I moved my head about and muttered. “I care.”

  “Really.”

  “Yes. I wouldn’t have helped you heal if I didn’t. I wouldn’t be in here if I didn’t.”

  “You wouldn’t stay if you didn’t.”

  I smiled involuntarily as he continued to hold my hand tightly, moving it to his fast beating heart. A mixture of fear and anxiousness grew inside my chest in an instant. My cheeks reddened and I began to stutter. “Perrrrhaps I should return to my chambers.”