“I will not call for you tonight,” I said as we finished our meal.
Lucille’s expression saddened. “Your Highness.”
I lowered my voice. “Summoning you could end up with the same result as last night. Tonight, come to me without a summons.”
“I do not,” she said.
“Tonight, you will.”
Pink filled her cheeks as she nodded. “Yes, Your Highness.”
Later that night, I paced my bedchamber, wondering if Lucille would do as I said and come to me of her own accord. As the time on the clock was almost ten, I debated. I could go to her side and behave as Roman, admonishing her for not doing as she was told, or I could be a gentleman and leave her to her own choices.
What if she’d been drugged again?
The new fear prickled my skin and fueled my determination.
As I flung open the door to the bedchamber and stalked toward the doors to the connecting parlor, I told myself it was about Lucille’s safety. That was all.
Opening the door to the parlor, I sucked in a breath, coming face-to-face with Princess Lucille.
“Your Highness,” she said with a curtsy.
I didn’t say a word as I stepped back and bid her entry. It wasn’t until the door was closed that I cupped her cheeks and brought her lips to mine. “I was worried.”
Her blue orbs swirled with darker hues. “That I wouldn’t come?”
“That we were overheard, and you were lying on the floor drugged.”
Her smile warmed me from within. “I’m enjoying the clandestine encounters. There’s a spontaneity we lacked.”
“I wish this were a game, Lucille. I would play it with you every night.” My timbre slowed. “It isn’t a game. I’m fearful for you.”
“Don’t be, Roman. I’ve been here for long enough to understand the rules. I just want to be here…with you.” She looked around. “You called me here. What do you want to do now?”
“What I shouldn’t,” I said, my tone and timbre dropping as I led her back to my bedchamber.
Once inside with the door closed, Lucille reached for my hand, lifting, turning, and studying it. “That’s Roman’s wedding ring.”
“Or a good imitation.”
“Take it off,” she demanded. Almost instantaneously, she looked up and her tone mellowed. “Your Highness, not because I don’t want you to wear it. I want to see the inside. Very few people know of the inscription.”
Twisting the diamond-encrusted gold band, I pulled the ring from my finger. Squinting at the writing inside, I read, “Happily ever after.”
Lucille’s chin dropped to her chest. “It’s his. What has become of him?”
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly as I placed the band back on my fourth finger. “Happily ever after?”
“When we courted and when you proposed, you promised me a real-life fairy tale. Those made-up stories always end with that same sentence. I had it engraved after the ring was fitted for you.”
I reached for her hand. “I’m sorry he didn’t make it come true.”
“He changed. I can’t explain it. His social anxiety got worse and with it his quickness to anger. Isabella said he was jealous.”
“Maybe we can make it work,” I said. It was a crazy thing to say. A husband wasn’t replaceable with a look-alike, and yet I’d given a vow. I’d make one to Lucille too.
She shook her head. “I’m afraid—afraid of the consequences. The reality hit me again yesterday when I dared to lash out. It isn’t something I would do, not before.”
“You had every right, Lucille. I never should have taken the risk.” I squeezed her hand. “Multi-tasking. I was working with Lord Taylor and thinking about being alone with you. Since last night, it’s all I want to think about.”
“We’re alone.”
Oliver
“Princess.” My voice was gravelly with pent-up desire. “I want you more than I should.”
“I want you, too.”
“Your vow,” I reminded. Though my body wanted me to leave the real Roman out of this equation, I’d become too infatuated with this woman to take advantage of her position. I’d even used the word love when speaking to the senator. It wasn’t rehearsed. It just slipped out.
Exhaling, Lucille pulled back the blankets on the bed and untied the sash of her dressing gown. With her blue gaze transfixed on me, she pushed the dressing gown from her shoulders, allowing it to fall to the carpet.
As she stood, I scanned from her flowing long hair to her mesmerizing stare, her kissable lips, and lower. Lace straps over her shoulders kept her long white satin nightgown in place. She was an angel sent to earth.
I was the impostor who didn’t deserve her.
Lucille’s breasts pushed forward with each breath as she stared at me. “I’ve forgotten what it was like to be desired. Even without words, I feel desired by you.”
Pulling the pajama top with the Godfrey crest over my head, I stood before her in only satin pajama bottoms. Lucille would have to be blind to not see my desire tenting the pants.
“You are desired, Lucille.” I reached for her hands, holding them between us, as she craned her neck upward to maintain our eye contact. “Roman was a fool if he didn’t desire you.”
“He did and then he didn’t.”
“I won’t be your reason for eternal damnation that comes with breaking your vow.”
“I’ve been damned, Roman. The last five years have been hell on earth. I don’t know if Roman kept his vow to me. I suspected he didn’t, but I was never brave enough to ask.”
Cupping her cheek in my palm, I sensed the warmth of her skin as she inclined her face to my touch. “I’ve never been married.”
“Are you telling me that you’re a virgin?”
The chuckle bubbled from my throat. “No, that isn’t what I’m saying. I’ve never broken a commitment, a vow, or cheated in a relationship. I’ve broken off relationships and been cheated on by others, but my word is true.”
“Such a kingly thing to say.”
“I’m no king,” I replied. “However, I did make a vow to Molave, and if I am going to keep it, I want it all. I want you at my side.”
Fuck the idea of a divorce.
Taking my hand in hers, Lucille led it to her shoulder, prompting me to push the lace down her arm. I didn’t need her assistance with the other strap. My mouth went dry, and the temperature of the room rose exponentially as her nightgown fluttered to the floor. With a white puddle of satin around her feet, the princess stood before me the way God had made her, beautifully nude.
Unable to stop myself, I reached out, running my touch over her flesh and down her arms as my gaze scanned her pert breasts, flat stomach, shaved mound, slightly rounded hips and ass, and then lower to her shapely legs.
“To say you’re beautiful is doing you an injustice, Princess.”
Her blue eyes sparkled. “Last night, I wore bloomers. Tonight…” As she spoke, her smile grew. “I hoped if I didn’t have them, you would remove the pajama pants?”