The Wedding Night They Never Had by Jackie Ashenden, Millie Adams
CHAPTER SIX
HESLEPTWELLin the palace, and there was something surprising about that. It was strange to be here as himself, when the last time, he had been here as The King.
He looked in the closet, shaking his head. The way that Annick had gone about procuring a wardrobe for him was one of the most ridiculous things he’d ever heard. But also, ingenious, and it was true what he’d said to her last night. He had to respect her determination. She was a strong, feral creature, and if Stella had wanted him to pour his energy into anything, it would’ve been helping Annick.
It was not all truism that drove him, not really. There was something more difficult to pin down. He had been working for years now to try and make Stella’s death mean something. The problem was, there was not much in the way of meaning to be found in the death of a beautiful young woman caught in a firefight between businessmen that she should’ve had nothing to do with. He was not a man who sat. He was not a man who stood idly by and let things happen, and he had been unable to do anything when it had mattered most.
He dressed in a suit and marveled at the fact that it really did fit perfectly.
He paused for a moment, guessing where he thought Annick might be.
And for some reason, he knew she would still be in her room.
There’d been something watchful about her in the large dining room. She had said she was not accustomed to big meals like that, and what he wondered was if Annick was still uncomfortable in large spaces. She had been kept in a dungeon most of her life, so he could see why. He paused in front of a woman wearing what he took to be the palace uniform. “Princess Annick’s room?”
She eyed him warily. “If Annick has not given you the location of her chambers...”
“I will find it, thank you.”
If he were Annick, he would have put him close by. She would want him to be near enough to be convenient. Perhaps far enough to feel safe.
Then there was the simple question of where the primary bedchamber in the house was most likely to be located. He paused at the end of the corridor. At the double doors there.
“There you are.” And then he flung them open.
“Eh!” She made a sharp exclamation and scrambled back on the bed, covering herself with her sheets. Annick had her hair in a braid and was wearing what appeared to be an extremely virginal white nightgown. She had coffee and pastries around her.
“Good morning,” he said.
“I did not say you could come in.”
“No. You didn’t.” He shrugged carelessly. “But I didn’t ask.”
“Treason,” she said.
“To enter the Princess’s bedchamber unannounced? My fiancée’s bedchamber.”
“I may have agreed,” she said, sniffing loudly. “But it is not announced.”
“I assume you will announce it soon.”
“Indeed,”she said. “At the coronation. I made a plan of it last night.” She gestured toward a notebook on the bed, and he could not explain it, but his stomach went hollow.
She was...cute. And he could not remember the last time he’d found anything or anyone cute.
“Why do you eat in here?”
“I like it. I did not have a real bed for a great many years. This is one of my favorite places to be. Bed.”
She looked at him, and then suddenly color flooded her face.
And he felt an answering desire tug low in his gut.
What he’d said to her last night was true.
Sex for him was simply an appetite to be sated.
He was not the prowling, ravenous wolf that the tabloids made him out to be.
He had loved only one woman in his life, and he had loved her very dearly. They had been young, and while sex had been a part of their relationship, it had been...sweet. He had not been Stella’s first lover, but her second, and she his. Their lovemaking had hardly been the kind that rattled the walls.
But they had cared for each other. At first, he had thought that maybe women just wouldn’t be a part of his life, but it had gotten to a point where it didn’t seem like there was any reason to not have sex. His heart could not be touched. That was simply a fact. His body, though...
There was no point making it an issue. No point making it much of anything.
Annick unfortunately engaged, not his heart, but his sense of obligation. And along with it, desire. This was not as simple as he liked his attractions to be.
They would have to have children, for the sake of the kingdom. And what was marriage to him? Nothing.
But he would have her gently. With care for what she’d suffered. And it wouldn’t be about desire.
He would have control.
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Would you like a pastry?”
“Thank you,” he said. “Though I would prefer coffee.”
“I have that as well.”
“An extra cup?”
“I have that too,” she said. “Coffee service can be made in my room.” She looked very pleased with that.
He crossed the space and found the coffee station. Where he poured himself a cup of black brew, then went and sat on the end of her bed.
She turned pink, all the way to the roots of her hair. “What is my lesson today, then?”
“What lesson do you feel is the most important?”
“Well. At the coronation, I will need to know dancing. I do not know dancing. I will also have to carry on conversation with people I don’t know. And...I will need clothes.”
“A stylist can be employed for that, and they will help you figure out what it is you like. And combine it with what it is you want to say.”
“What does this mean?”
“Your clothes send a message. As you mentioned to me earlier, they liked to dress you in white because it sent the message that you were pure. An unsullied figurehead. In that same way, you will be making statements now.”
“I need to look powerful. Confident. I don’t want to look pure. I want to look like a warrior.”
“Then all you need to do it is to speak to the stylist about it.”
“All right. Dancing, can you help me with that?”
“Yes. More than that, I can help you project the right feelings. In the world we live in now, where pictures are taken constantly, if you’re going to be pretending to be something you’re not, you have to be very good at it.”
“Is that how you ended up consulting people on image?”
“No. It could’ve been anything. It is something I slipped into and I am good at it. Very good. I’ve spent my life in Southern California, around people who are nothing but image conscious. And yes, I had to learn to fit in. I had to learn to pretend that I was one of them.” His chest went tight. “That I was like my father.”
“Your father...”
“Robert King. Self-made businessman extraordinaire. Not as entirely on the up-and-up as he would like the world to believe.” His father had secrets. Secrets he knew would hurt his whole family. Secrets that had already hurt the innocent. “My father is an expert at looking like he belongs.”
“Is that where you learned it from?”
Perhaps it was simply in his blood. “I don’t know that I learned it from him, but I discovered what a necessity it was by being his son.”
“I see.” He did not think she did. But it didn’t matter. She didn’t need to see.
“Get dressed,” he said.
“I do not take orders,” she said, narrowing her eyes and curling her fingers around her coffee cup like claws. “I’m to be Queen.”
Half his mouth lifted. It might have been a smile, though he hadn’t decided to do it, which was strange. “A boon for you, surely.”
“Indeed.”
“But for now, you are only a Princess. And I,” he said, turning that half smile into his best grin, the one that he knew made women flutter. The one that spurred every tabloid to print photos of him. “I am The King and you will do what I say. That is what you brought me here for, am I correct?”
“To do my bidding,” she said, pulling her knees up to her chest, the thin white material on her gown pulling down, exposing the plump, firm lines of her breasts.
He could see her nipples through the fabric. He would’ve said that he was a damn sight too jaded to get excited over a shadow of areola, but apparently when it came to Annick he was anything but immune.
He straightened the cuffs on his suit jacket. “Annick, I do no one’s bidding. I do not take jobs I don’t see as important. Now, you listen to me. I am not staying in Aillette forever. We might marry, but I will go on with my life. I will not be here to prop you up forever. That means you must learn to stand on your own feet. Congratulations, you managed to get me to the palace. Now make use of me. Do not be stubborn. Do not fight simply because you spent years being unable to fight. Because you felt weak. You weren’t weak. If you were weak, you would be dead. You wouldn’t be here. You hate that you had to hide pieces of yourself, but it kept you alive. You hate that you had to play a game, but it’s why you’re here. So now you will play a new game. And you will let me teach you the rules.”
“I don’t like this,” she said, looking at him out of the sides of her eyes.
Wretched creature that she was, he imagined she had disliked a great deal in her life. “I don’t care. If you will not work with me, if you will not do what I say, then I will walk out right now.”
“I will have the guards seize you.”
“I would hate to hurt your guards.”
“You have no weapons,” she said.
He fixed his gaze on her. “Annick, do you honestly think that I require weapons? A gun is a useful prop, but a man must know how to take care of himself. A man must know how to contain all the danger he possesses in his own body. Myself, I can seduce or I can kill...with just my hands. I don’t require weapons. As you observed, I am both Maximus King and The King. I could be anything I choose.”
“You will not kill my guards,” she said.
“I certainly wouldn’t want to. But if I decide to leave, I will leave. And only God will be able to help those who stand in my way.” He looked at her. “Now, get dressed.”