by V Vee
Augustus pulled his cock to tap it against her clit, before wrapping an arm around her and sliding back into her. He placed gentle, quick kisses all over her face as he drove into her with powerful thrusts. Helen planted her feet into the mattress and curled her toes. It felt so good, to have her tighten around him, unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. It was better with each stroke. Shoving out all other women he’d ever slept with. Every other fuck he’d ever had. Helen was his North Star now. His barometer by which he measured every other woman. He took her lips again, kissing her deeply, feeling as if he would lose her if their mouths weren’t melded together.
Once again, he rolled onto his back, bringing her with him. Helen sat up, her breasts swaying in her face. He reached for her waist, even as he took a nipple deep into his mouth. She rode him to the rhythm he’d set.
Hard.
Fast.
Deep.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
Harder.
Faster.
Oh god. She was so fucking tight, Augustus had no idea how he’d lasted this long, her pussy holding his cock in a vise grip. He gritted his teeth, willing himself to hold on just a little bit longer. He knew he would never get enough of her, there was no way this would be the only time he had her in his arms. In his bed. But the wonder of watching her mouth drop open in a silent scream as another orgasm starts to crash down over her was something he wouldn’t dare miss. He would watch for as long as he could hold on. Helen started to roll her body, as he thrust up into her the two of them too far gone to do anything more than simply gasp, hiss, and groan. Augustus released a growl and sat up, wrapping his arms around her. He buried his face in her neck as pleasure swamped him.
Augustus felt wetness landing on the side of his face, before he registered that they were tears trailing down Helen’s cheeks. When he tried to look up at her to check if she was okay, alarm coursing through him, her fingers locked in his hair. He tightened his hold on her as soft sobs shook her curvy frame. Determined to stop this time, he slid his hands to her ass and guide her to halt her movements on his shaft.
“N-no. Don’t stop. I’m not crying because I want you to stop,” Helen stammered. “I’m crying because I-I think I’m falling in love with you. And this is what I always imagined this moment to be,” she laughed wetly. “Minus some other details. This right here, you and me? You taking such care of me… I wasted so much time with my ex when you were out there all these years.” She lifted his head and smiled down at him, Augustus felt his heart clench at the naked truth being exposed in her gaze. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
He groaned into her neck, her words knocking the breath from his lungs for a moment. He swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat and placed a gentle kiss on her lips with a nod.
“I didn’t know it, but I’ve been waiting for you too.”
With that he continued his strokes inside her body, her walls sucking at his shaft. She was coming again, and he knew he was not going to last through this one. He lifted his head to lock eyes with her. He wanted that connection again when he came inside her. Her eyes told him she knew how he felt, and Augustus was humbled once more. He wiped at the tears on her cheeks, shivering when she turned to pull his fingers into her mouth with a suck. He took her lips with his again, tasting her along with the salt of her tears in his mouth. Her body began to shiver and tremble around his cock. Wanting to fall over the edge with her Augustus lifted his hips harder and faster, planting his feet into the mattress. There was no more holding back, they were going over the edge together. Their spirits colliding into one another. Their souls fusing. Their hearts breaking and re-stitching themselves until they each had half of the other’s residing in the other.
He roared his release as he pumped deep inside her, for the first time in his life Augustus cursed the barrier that the condom created. He wanted his seed inside of her, dripping down her thighs. He pushed that thought away. It was too soon for that. Regardless, it was the most intense orgasm of his life. He cupped her face in his hands, running his thumb across her bottom lip as they both gasped for air.
Augustus kissed Helen’s forehead before falling back onto the bed, easing her down with him. He wrapped her in his arms and held on tight. She snuggled her face into his chest and his stomach flipped. He forced his hands not to stroke her body, keeping them on her back, the back of her neck, and in her hair. They both needed to recover before starting anything again.
“Helen,” he said, once he could breathe again, enough to be understood.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“I think I love you.” When he felt her body sag into his with relief he chuckled. He would never let her forget or question how he felt about her. She was it for him. His destiny. His forever. He would always be honest with her, just as she was with him. He would make sure there was never a question about whom he belonged to. Or who she belonged to. They were destined to be.
“I think I love you, too, Augustus.”
Five Days Later
“Why do you look so… different?” Laeticia asked Helen when the two of them met up outside of Valerie’s wing that she shared with Algerone and their children. Helen giggled nervously and smoothed her hands down her long, brown skirt that swept the floor, shaking her head. Oh God, could Laeticia tell she’d lost her virginity to Augustus days before? How could she do that? Helen had looked at herself repeatedly ever since they’d been together that first time, and she hadn’t noticed anything.
“W-what do you mean? I d-don’t look any different,” she stuttered.
Laeticia huffed and pointed at Helen. “Bitch, don’t lie to me. You don’t look that innocent.” Helen cringed at Laeticia’s use of profanity and opened her mouth to reprimand the other woman, stopping when Laeticia waved her away. “And don’t be trying to correct me either. Why. Do. You. Look. So. Grown?”
Helen laughed loudly, this time out of pure amusement, rather than nervousness. “I’m not a child, Teesh. Of course I look ‘grown’, do you want me to look like a teenager or something?” she teased.
Laeticia was prevented from responding when Valerie opened the door, a tense smile on her face. She went to wave them inside only to hold up her hand and point at Helen. Helen froze, her eyes widening as she felt herself come under the laser-like scrutiny of her best friend.
“Mmm Hhmm,” Laeticia said, nodding her head. “I see it too. I just don’t know exactly what I’m seeing.”
Helen opened her mouth to respond when Valerie gasped, covering her mouth as she shook her head.
“No!” she breathed, and Helen’s stomach dropped. There was no way she knew.
“You had sex!”
Okay, maybe she did. Crap dang-it.
Chapter Fourteen
The Wedding of Crown Prince Algerone and Princess Valerie
Augustus was barely restraining his temper as he stared at Helen intently, his jaw tight as she walked on the arm of Algerone’s friend, Gabriel Worth. All the women in Valerie’s wedding party were wearing various shades of red, with gold or white silk ribbons tied around their waists, in honor of the Malvidencian royal family crest and the country’s colors. And while Valerie’s friends and sisters were all beautiful, none of them could hold a candle to Helen. Which was why Augustus was on the verge of stomping down the aisle to rip her away from Gabriel. He didn’t care if the man was happily married to his wife, My’chell and they had kids. The man was smiling down at Helen and looking around at the gathered crowd in the royal cathedral with pride.
That pride doesn’t belong to you, thived isri, Augustus thought unkindly. She’s mine. That beautiful woman gave me her virginity and her heart, and I will do whatever I have to do to keep them. So, don’t enjoy yourself too much.
Algerone’s bouncing from foot to foot showing his own frustration and anxiousness to have his wife in his arms, snapped Augustus out of his jealous rage and caused him to smile genuinely.
>
“Calm down, bruthrar. Your zul ruĝa comes. See?” He pointed where Valerie prepared to walk towards them. Her cheeks spread with her wide grin.
Augustus watched along with the everyone else as she and her father paused at the end of the aisle so that the royal photographer could take a picture, and hand her the cascading bouquet of red roses and white hydrangea, with gold ribbons intertwined and flowing out, and before taking another picture. Once the photographer had his pictures, Valerie and her father finally made their way down the long aisle of the cathedral to where Algerone waited with his brothers and friends.
The room was decorated beautifully, reds, golds, and whites tastefully filled the space of the cathedral in ribbons, flowers, sashes wrapped around the tops of the pew. Valerie and her father, as well as the rest of her bridal party had walked on a white carpet, trimmed in gold, with red roses, dropped by Valerie and Algerone’s daughter, Chiamaka, My’lynda: Gabriel and My’chelle’s youngest daughter, Emerald: Antwaun and Amber’s daughter, and Saanvi: Eve and Farhad’s youngest daughter. They had been the most adorable flower girls Augustus had ever seen, each of them wearing white dresses trimmed in gold with white shoes. Though in Augustus’s opinion, his vessrir had been the cutest.
When Valerie finally reached the altar, she smiled up into Algerone’s eyes as she and her father stopped before him. A small sniffle had Augustus looking across the priest to where Helen stood, a smile on her face as tears rolled free. He wanted to march over to her and gather her in his arms. To share the moment with her, but he would never do anything to disrupt or wreck his brother and sister-in-law’s wedding, so in compromise, he smiled gently at her, touching the tips of two fingers against the left side of his chest, right above his heart.
The blinding smile Helen offered him, almost sent him to his knees, and Augustus took a deep breath to steady himself. He was gone over her. Smitten. Sprung. Addicted. And he never wanted to be cleaned of the habit.
Algerone stepped forward to accept Valerie’s hand, then her father wrapped their clasped hands in both of his. Augustus looked over at his father, the man’s chest expanding with pride no doubt expecting deep, loving, and decades-earned wisdom to be passed down from the jovial, kind black man, to his son and new daughter, but he joined Valerie and Algerone, as well as everyone in the room in an explosion of laughter at what Mr. Hall actually did say.
“There be no refund policy here, Son. She belongs to you now and we won’t take her back, so I suggest you treat her well, and treat her like she’s new every day.”
Augustus found himself wondering what Helen’s father would say if and when he gave Helen away at her—their—wedding. That also made him wonder if she would even want the other man to give her away after the revelation of the secrets he’d kept from her. Speaking of secrets revealed, Augustus had the results of Helen’s blood test. He’d had Andreas speed up the results. His younger brother had access to some of the most sought-after doctors, diagnosticians, physicians, government personnel, etc. in the world. And the way Andreas had taken such an interest in Helen when finding out she was adopted from Tepprysi, Augustus knew the younger man would rush the results and ensure they were done properly. Augustus was itching to open the envelope, even though he was certain that Helen wasn’t infected with HIV, even though if she were it wouldn’t make him want her—love her—any less. They would simply have to use condoms for the rest of their lives, because he wasn’t letting her go. Not for any reason.
“Who gives this woman to be married?” the priest asked, and Augustus jerked his attention back to the wedding.
“Her mother and I do,” Lloyd’s voice boomed with pride and emotion. He placed a kiss on Valerie’s forehead, then turned to sit down.
Valerie looked up at Algerone. “Let’s get married.”
“Again,” Algerone agreed with a smile.
“We are gathered here today in the presence of God and His children present here to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony. While a legal marriage in itself is simply a piece of paper, signed by two consenting adults to join their lives, homes, and hopefully their hearts together, holy matrimony, a marriage created by joining two lives, two souls, two spirits, two beings and hearts together, is much deeper. It is the connection of two people who have acknowledge that we are merely anchorless ships, flags blowing in the wind with no meaning or pole to keep us secured, unless we have love and the ties of others in our lives. Whether this is the love and ties of family and friends, or children, or significant others, we all need that bond, that anchor in our lives, else our souls will always be calling out into the void searching through the shadows for light,” the priest, Father Fernando, an olive-skinned older man with kind, dark brown eyes stated.
“Prince Algerone Smythe and Princess Valerie Hall-Smythe, took the steps required to build an unbreakable bond long ago. Before anyone could offer objections, or caution. They simply followed the beating of their hearts to one another, and because of their instinct to join their souls and fuse their spirits, they started a family, and lit the fire of a love that refused to be extinguished, regardless of the trials they endured. I have known Prince Algerone since he was a boy, and through all his antics as a young man, there rested inside of him a warrior, and a seeker of truth. I knew that one day he would meet someone who would give him something to fight for, and reveal to him the truth, and the answers that he sought. The moment I met Princess Valerie, I knew Prince Algerone had finally met the woman to complete him, and bring the searching warrior, the wanderer to his peace and his home.”
When Valerie lifted her hand to discreetly wipe at the tears in her eyes, Augustus watched as Algerone reached up to wiped them away with his free hand. Valerie’s brilliant smile when turned to Algerone fully made Augustus look back over at Helen. While he was so happy for his brother and his new sister-in-law, he found his thoughts turning once again to the possibility of his and Helen’s wedding one day. Soon. He knew he’d been given a precious gift when she’d trusted him enough to offer him her virginity, and he didn’t accept it lightly. Just like Helen he saw it for what it really was. A momentous occasion. One that signified a deep connection and a permanence that, though unspoken, was very, very real.
“You may now kiss the bride,” the priest instructed Algerone later. Valerie giggled when Algerone waggled his eyebrows at her, and Augustus rolled his eyes when his older brother scooped her up into his arms before taking her lips in a passionate kiss. Of all his brothers Augustus wouldn’t have expected this romantic and sappy side of his brother, that was definitely something he would have attributed to Alfie, and yet, Valerie had changed Algerone. Totally and completely.
As Helen has already changed you.
“May I present officially, though not for the first time: Prince and Princess Algerone Smythe, the Crown Prince and Princess of Malvidence!” the priest declared.
Augustus joined the rest of the cathedral in explosive applause as Valerie and Algerone turned to begin their processional down the aisle. Augustus waited a beat before he stepped out and offered his arm to Helen before Gabriel Worth could. But everything came to a halt when the doors of the cathedral flew open and Lady Taylor Weshian stood just within the shining lights.
A very pregnant and disheveled Lady Taylor. She smoothed down her hair and stepped into the cathedral fully. Augustus could hear the murmurs of confusion and scandalized gasps, but he couldn’t decipher what was being said. Not over the pulsing and thundering of his heartbeat in his ears. His stomach felt tied up in knots and he had no idea why.
Their one night together, the night he couldn’t even fully remember was how long ago…?
“How the fuck did she get in?” Algerone growled. Augustus wanted to know the same thing, and he breathed a sigh of relief when Algerone nodded at the palace guards who came up to grab Taylor beneath the arms to carry her out.
“Wait! I’m not here to ruin the wedding, I just wanted to be here when my son’s uncle got married!”
she yelled.
“Uncle?” Everyone in attendance gasped.
No. No. No. Not me. Please God not me.
Augustus looked down at Helen who had a look of pity and compassion on her face and felt horror tear through him. Fear. Untempered anxiety.
I just got her. We just sealed everything. Just made it all official. Please, not like this.
“Put her down,” King Callum barked out. The moment the guards placed Lady Taylor on her feet, his father swept past Valerie and Algerone where they still stood in the middle of the aisle. Augustus wanted to call his father back. To plead with him to wait. To delay. To stall his conversation—his interrogation—until later. When no one else as around. Where no one could hear.
When it wouldn’t devastate his relationship with Helen.
“Lady Taylor, who are you saying is the father of your child?” he asked her.
Augustus watched with bile ripping through his system as Taylor swallowed nervously before pointing… directly at him.
“Augustus?” Valerie whispered loudly.
“You bloody fool,” Algerone hissed. “What have you done?”
He could feel his face heat and the redness spread down his neck from anger and embarrassment.
From guilt.
When a harsh sob sounded from next to him, Augustus turned his gaze to Helen whose face was streaked with tears. Without a word to anyone, especially him, Helen shoved away from him and raced out of the room.
“Helen!” Augustus roared as he took a step to chase after her, only to stop when King Callum held up a hand.
“Son?” he indicated that Augustus should follow him as he led Lady Taylor through a side door.
Augustus stood in indecision for a long moment, before he balled up his fists and stormed passed the newlyweds. His older brother and his new sister-in-law. Who were in love and blissfully happy. Who had a happily-ever-after waiting for them on the other side of the cathedral doors.
