Loving a Prince Charming

by Danielle Monsch

  Kira walked over to Seth, taking in every detail of his beloved face. This would be the last time she would be this close, and she wanted to savor it. His hair was mussed and his lips were parted, very soft snores audible now that she was closer. She kneeled beside him, twirled his hair between her fingers, and then, with a final stroke, leaned down so her mouth was inches from his. “You’d better not embarrass me and not wake up. Do that, and I promise you a hurting when you do finally wake. Understand me?”

  The slight prick of his stubble rubbed her fingers as she laid her trembling hands on his cheeks. She held him as her mouth met his, his lips as soft and firm in sleep as she remembered them being last night, his sleepy scent settling against her.

  Love you, love you so much—come back to me. Even if you aren’t mine, I need to know you are somewhere on this world.

  His mouth moved under hers, lips parted, and his tongue swiped along the seam of her mouth demanding entrance, cutting off the small sob that rose in her throat with a demand she would never refuse.

  One hand cradled the back of her head, digging into her hair to keep her close, while the other grasped her hip and pulled her body into the cradle of his, letting her feel the hardness of his chest, his stomach, lower, igniting in her the same desire.

  An annoying noise sounded above her. She reached out a hand to find something to throw but the noise kept sounding, and it finally clicked in her addled mind. Rosamund. Audience. They were not alone.

  Kira pulled away, but Seth’s hand in her hair would not let her go far, just enough that she could look down into his clear blue eyes and to know, yes, he was awake. He was awake and alive and the curse no longer had a hold over them. “Hello, Sleeping Beauty.”

  He smiled, the most beautiful sight in the world. “Hope I didn’t worry you.”

  She ran a finger down his nose and over his lips, his chin, the firm line of his jaw. “Nah, I’m used to getting you out of scrapes. That’s what we do.”

  “Always.”

  Always. And the word broke the magic that held them together, because it was a lie, the second one Seth had ever told her. They didn’t have always.

  They were out of time.

  Seth sensed her mood, or maybe he somehow read her thoughts in that way he had. Either way, his hands dropped from her body and she rose, turning to Seth’s fiancée.

  Turning to Rosamund, and letting go, finally letting go of the impossible dream.

  Giving a small bow, she finally addressed the waiting princess. “Hello, Princess Rosamund. I’m Kira. I’m a friend of your…betrothed.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  It was only when he tasted blood that Seth unclenched his teeth and quit abusing the inside of his cheek.

  Kira gave him a disapproving look, her almost-perfect mouth scrunched up. Desire, swift as a summer storm, swept through him, and in his mind he walked to her, flipped her around so she was leaning over the table so that perfect backside was at the perfect height to rub against. He was hard and she would be wet, and they wouldn’t need any preliminaries, not this time. This time, no matter how quick he was, she would be quicker, the sensations as she came around him driving him out of his mind and the catalyst for his own orgasm.

  Kira’s mouth lost the tightness and parted, her chest rising and falling as she damn near panted, and he took the first step toward her—

  “Seth, have you heard a word I said?”

  His father’s voice sliced through his fantasy, and his teeth bit into his cheek again before remembering the previous abuse. “I heard you.”

  It had been two days since Kira had woken him from his slumber, and they were preparing to sign the final marriage contract. It surprised Seth this wasn’t done before—his understanding his whole life was that the marriage was a done deal, all contracts signed. It made even less sense now that his father never broke their engagement and accepted another offer; there wasn’t even a contract to break and no repercussions. Marriage understandings were very different from the actual contracts. Understandings were broken with enough regularity that his father wouldn’t have suffered any ill effects.

  But his father and Matthias had never hinted in that direction, just ordered all documents to be prepared with all haste. The wedding preparations were underway, and the wedding would take place in three days’ time. The kingdom, finally free from the pall under which the curse had placed it, was in full celebration mode.

  He took in Kira again, who was very diligent in not looking at him. Her red hair was braided. It lay over her shoulder, the trail it set leading to the curve of her breast. Even under the loose clothing, Seth could easily make out the soft lines and lovely slope of her breasts.

  She had been avoiding him. When cornered, she gave a sad smile and told him this was his chance to get to know Rosamund before the marriage, then fled before he could offer any protest.

  Magic forgive him, but he didn’t want to spend time with Rosamund. She was sweet and kind and he knew she would always be a dear and beloved friend. But she wasn’t Kira. She didn’t fire his blood or make him hard with a look. She didn’t excite or challenge him. She wasn’t the woman he loved, and he wanted to spend every moment he was still free with Kira, gorge himself on her until honor demanded he give her up.

  Except he couldn’t. He couldn’t give up Kira.

  The documents were near completion, the advisors for both kingdoms going over them one final time. Twenty-five years in the making and the desire of two powerful monarchies, this marriage would mean nothing but good things for both kingdoms.

  But it would also mean living without his heart, becoming a shell of a man who knew duty and nothing but. He would become cold and calculating, one who talked about odds and advantages and discounted feelings and magic. He would become bitter, envious of anyone who had the good fortune to live their lives with joy and happiness and who could balance duty and desire.

  He would become his father.

  Scales slid from his eyes and the man before him became simply that, a man. The king was gone, and so was his father. Only the man remained. And the man was a good ruler who cared about his kingdom, but he was hard always, even when soft would be better. He was rigid with no give. He was never, ever happy. He found no joy in the world around him and could not see the joy in others.

  It was a cold, hard existence, and Seth did not want it.

  He loved his people. He was proud to be their prince, and he was prepared to offer sacrifices to be the best leader possible, but he was not prepared to give up his heart.

  He would not give up Kira.

  He opened his mouth to tell his father.

  “Father, I need to speak to you.” Rosamund’s voice cut through the room, the shock at the normally quiet girl’s very loud request stopping people in their tasks.

  King Matthias rose. “Rosamund, what is the meaning of this? That is no way to enter a room.”

  “Father, I will not agree to this marriage. I will not marry Prince Seth.”

  Expressions on those around the room went from shocked to dumbfounded. He looked to Kira, who was looking back at him. Her expression mirrored the others, save the small sliver of—hope?—that existed in hers.

  “What nonsense is this?” Matthias’ voice went deeper in his anger. “You do not dictate to me.”

  “I’m not going to marry him.” The tone and the volume were lower, but the resolution in Rosamund’s voice spoke to her strength, the solid core that let her survive alone and with the curse always hovering. “His heart is not mine, and after all he has done for me, I will not condemn him to a loveless marriage. So tear up those contracts.”

  She reached out and grabbed one, her intention to start the destruction clear.

  Seth’s father grabbed her wrist with such force that redness was visible underneath his fingers. “Do not—”

  Seth jumped and grabbed his father’s wrist in return, squeezing to loosen the man’s grip on Rosamund. “Let go,” he said in his lowest
voice. His father dropped her arm while he stared at Seth.

  Kira walked over to Rosamund, separating her from the men and whispering into the princess’s ear. They sat, Kira putting herself between Rosamund and both kings.

  The tension now between the three men was so heavy it beaded on Seth’s skin, pulling it taut and making him itch. His father cleared his throat. “This is a very delicate time, and I reacted poorly.”

  “We’re not getting married.” And now he finished what Rosamund started. “Sign any papers you wish, but there will be no marriage between our kingdoms.”

  His father looked murderous for a moment but apparently thought better of another display of anger. Instead, in his most diplomatic voice, he said, “I know you are very protective of Rosamund and desire to grant her every wish—”

  “I love Kira,” Seth cut in.

  Kira’s gasp was loud in the tension-filled room. He was doing this all wrong, saying it in the wrong order to the wrong people. Seth turned away from his father and looked at her beloved face.

  “I love Kira,” he said again, but this time his eyes were locked with hers, his body moving toward her. “I love Kira. I have loved her as far back as my memory allows me to remember, and I’m sure I loved her before that. I love that she’s a warrior. I love her compassion. I love that with her support, I can be the best man and the best ruler I’m capable of being.”

  She was within touching distance now, and he stroked his thumb over the line of her cheekbone. She looked up at him with shining eyes. His beautiful Kira, as she always was—strong and resolute, ready to follow him no matter how hard the road he chose to take was. He talked to her now, not his father or the others surrounding them. “You say I’m good, but don’t you understand? The reason I can stand so firm is because I know you are always behind me. I’m never alone, and I’m never scared that something I say or do can drive you away. How can it? You’re braver than I’ll ever be.”

  “No, not braver,” she replied, tears welling in her eyes but her smile bright and shining. “Just aware that no matter the price, it’s worth paying as long as I’m with you.”

  He leaned close and laid his forehead against hers, taking strength from her. “He’s going to disown me,” he whispered.

  “We’ll think of something,” she whispered back. “I’ll hire myself out as a bounty hunter or a tracker and lead manhunts, and you can watch everyone’s kids until we get back.”

  Seth laughed, and the sound was bright and airy. He was free. He could live his life with her. “Deal.”

  He leaned down to kiss her, but Matthias’s voice stopped him. “Seth, Kira – King Thomas and I have something to say.”

  Seth looked at the men. It struck him then how old they both appeared, how worn, and the barest brush of sympathy for them rushed over him. It wasn’t just he and Rosamund who had survived the curse. It had eaten away at these two men as well – was in part what turned them into the hardened rulers they were.

  Matthias held his head high and looked straight ahead, avoiding eye contact with all of them. “I make no apologies for what I have to say,” he began.

  He felt Kira’s movement beside him and turned to look at her. Kira’s eyebrows drew hard together and she gave a questioning look to Seth. He shook his head. He had no idea where the king was going with this either.

  Matthias continued. “I loved my daughter and I loved my kingdom. I did what I felt best, and I stand by that decision.”

  Rosamund stood now as well, her look of confusion as vivid as Kira’s. Matthias did not look at her. If anything, his movements suggested he was avoiding her most of all.

  Seth glanced at his father, and his father…his father looked resigned. Whatever this truth that Matthias was about to reveal, his father knew about it.

  No, not just knew. His father was involved.

  “Long ago, there was a servant in the castle, a young, unmarried woman. She died in childbirth the same night my queen gave birth to the princess. No one claimed the babe.”

  Rosamund’s arms wound around her waist, the already pale skin ghost white.

  “I knew there was a possibility of something happening during my daughter’s naming – I knew enough of the Elf King’s pride to make plans against it. I decided to present that child instead of my daughter to the kingdom.”

  His voice was as flat as anyone else discussing the weather. Seth’s head spun. Rosamund was cursed during the naming. But the baby at the naming was not the king’s daughter, which meant Rosamund…

  Rosamund.

  I’m so sorry.

  Betrayal etched itself deep into Rosamund’s features, her body bowed in pain. She was a small, broken thing, a little bird left alone in the highest branches of the tallest tree and no idea how to fly. “Are you saying,” she said, her voice a whispery bloodletting, “me? I’m not your daughter? I’m a sacrifice?”

  “I never expected this curse,” Matthias said, a defense against the indefensible. “I never thought it would end like this.”

  Rosamund didn’t speak. He saw her again as she was when they were children, the longing in her to see a tree and feel grass under her feet, the emptiness she fought from consuming her.

  She had no words, so Seth spoke them for her. “No, you didn’t expect this,” he snapped, and any empathy he felt for the king was forever ended. “You expected her to die that day. At the time, all you worried about was how to reintroduce your daughter later without gaining the Elf King’s attention.”

  Matthias’s color was high, his jaw clenched, and he said nothing further. Seth rounded on his own father. “What did you know of this?”

  His father denied nothing. “It was best for the kingdom.”

  Of course that would be his father’s response. Everything for the kingdom. His life, his marriage…wait. Wait. Why the frenzy about the marriage contracts? They never would have said anything if they were planning for Rosamund to remain the princess. That they told meant he was never going to marry Rosamund, and now with the curse over, they were going to reintroduce the real princess. “Where is the real princess now?”

  Both rulers answered not with voice, but as one as their gazes locked on Kira.

  Kira’s eyes flicked between the two men, and with every pass they grew wider. Shock was not immediate, but when it hit finally, Kira’s legs buckled. Only luck that a chair stood nearby saved her from falling on the ground.

  “Me?”

  Of course it was her. The obviousness of it had traces of embarrassment coloring his mind. Why else would his father have demanded she always be around him? His father, for all his faults, was not a stupid man. He had observed Seth’s feelings for Kira. Where Seth had assumed anything from indifference to outright cruelty in his father’s machinations to keep him and Kira always together, it was instead merely a way to ensure a smooth merger of the kingdoms.

  Matthias looked at Kira then, a hesitant hope on his face. “You were safe with Thomas. It was the best I could do at the time.”

  Kira turned to him, and the truths of this day were writ large on haunted eyes and unsmiling mouth. Truths that would take time for all of them to absorb.

  Rosamund had been still and silent through the exchange. Seth looked at her. Her eyes were shuttered, but he saw the connections being made behind them nonetheless.

  Her strength awed him again, only the latest incident in a long line. She survived the crush of the curse, and she would survive this betrayal.

  With a straight back and pride in every line of her body, Rosamund walked toward Matthias. The king had the gall to look impatient, as if he wanted this discussion done with now. He opened his mouth, but before he said anything Rosamund balled her hand into a tiny fist and with all the energy in her small body, she punched him flat in the nose, so hard she was probably imagining pushing it through the other side of his head.

  Matthias howled in pain, grabbing at his nose and bending double at the waist. King Thomas was dumbstruck, the first time Seth h
ad ever seen that expression on his face.

  And Kira started to smile. At Seth’s raised eyebrow, she said, “What? If she hadn’t done it, I would have.”

  Rosamund nodded in satisfaction, though she was rubbing her knuckles with her other hand. She came to stand before Seth, and he tensed but stood ready to take the blow. She deserved this and more.

  But she did not land another punch. She grabbed his one hand in both of hers. The smile she gave him was bruised at the edges, but it was genuine. “You are my dear, dear friend, and I am always yours, no matter where this life takes me.”

  “Rosamund…” He didn’t know what to say. She had everything taken from her, and still she gave. Finally, he settled for, “Ask for it and it is yours, always and forever in this life, my friend.”

  She stood on tiptoe and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Be happy and be blessed. I’m not going to stay for your wedding. I don’t know where I’m going, but I want to live life now. I don’t want to hide anymore. Know I wish nothing but happiness for you.” And with a final squeeze, she walked away.

  Wedding. Wedding. Kira had a huge smile, echoing his own. He was a prince, and Kira…

  …Kira was a princess.

  “Princess Kira, it’s a pleasure to finally meet my fiancée. I am Prince Seth,” he said, bowing to the laughing woman.

  It took a moment, but the giggles stopped and Kira gave a curtsy, a funny-looking move when the female was wearing trousers and not a dress. “Prince Seth, I am happy to meet you as well. I am determined to do right by my kingdom and honor our engagement.”

  His light, his life, his love. Seth swept her up in his arms and spun her around, the happiness in him needing the physical outlet. “I would have married you no matter what.”

  She looked over at their fathers, both men quiet and still. “I think I’ve had enough unhappiness today. We’ll deal with this later. Right now, I want to go celebrate.” She leaned up and placed her lips on his. It was a quiet kiss, loving and tender, and exactly what he needed after so long apart from her.