“I’m so happy for you, Ella.” Charlotte wipes a little tear from her eye too. “You deserve this. You deserve the whole world.”
36
Thorsen
“Don’t be nervous,” Calder tells me.
“I’m not.”
But I’m lying.
“You are.” He laughs. “I’ve never seen you so uptight, and that’s saying a lot. Just try to relax, if nothing else, for Mor’s sake. Look how happy she is.”
My eyes haven’t moved from Ella and my mother all night. It’s strange how natural it is for her to meet someone, even on their death bed, and put them at ease. This is how it’s been every night since I brought her to the palace three weeks ago.
My mother loved Ella the moment she saw her, and I’ve never felt so right about anything in my life. Every evening, we come to her room for a visit. Sometimes, Calder tells her stories about his latest misadventures, and sometimes, I fill her in on the duties I’m slowly adapting to. But often, when there is a silence, Ella talks to her about the herbal concoctions she’s dedicated her life to making. She jots down notes as my mother happily passes on her knowledge. It’s bittersweet, but we never miss these opportunities because the doctors tell us it probably won’t be long now.
“I think she approves,” I tell Calder.
“I think we all do,” he says. I’m grateful that both he and Ella have seemingly put the awkwardness of their first interaction behind them, for all our sakes.
“The media perception has taken a turn for the better since you’ve been in public with her,” he adds. “It must be a nice change of pace.”
I shudder at the memory of the chaos that ensued when I had to announce that I was not, in fact, engaged to Lavinia. The aftermath was quite the shock to all the media outlets who suspected I’d chased her off too. But when they saw Ella, they were quick to move on, rabid for information about the beautiful French girl who stole my heart and softened the hard edges of my personality.
“She’s easy to love,” I say. “And I’m a better man for it.”
“What are you two whispering about over there?” Ella peeks over at us suspiciously.
“Climate change.” Calder smirks, and Ella rolls her eyes.
“You’d better come say good night. Your mother is tired.”
We join her at our mother’s side, and I think she has never been so at peace. Alfred has decided to take up residence in her bed, which Ella explains is his way of comforting her. Either way, I’ve become fond of the little gray street cat, and I know Mother has too.
We say our goodbyes and leave her to sleep, and in the hall, Calder informs us he has a hot date. Ella tells him he should try taking her out before he sleeps with her this time. After a bit of grumbling on his part, he finally disappears, leaving us alone for the night.
“What now, my King?” The little fire-breather leans up on her tiptoes and brushes her lips against mine.
“Let’s take a walk in the garden.”
She kisses her way across my jaw to the beating pulse in my throat as her palm comes to rest on the bulge in my trousers. “Or we could just go to our suite.”
My cock stirs to life, and I close my eyes, trying to remember what I was supposed to be doing before she distracted me.
“You’ve been so busy this week.” Ella takes my hand in hers and leads me to our door. “So tense. Surely, there’s something I can do to ease your stress.”
“What did you have in mind?” I hoist her up into my arms, and she wraps her legs around my back. Her fingers cling to my biceps as I carry her across the threshold of our suite and kick the door shut behind me.
“I don’t know, Your Majesty.” She teases my ear, biting at it as she grinds against me. “Would you like me to suck your royal cock?”
“You’ve turned into quite the little deviant,” I muse, setting her onto her feet.
“I had a good teacher.”
She sinks to her knees before me, and I’m trying to remember my plans as she unbuckles my belt and unzips my pants. It certainly didn’t involve her on her knees with a mouth full of my cock, but I’m not about to say no to that either.
Ella pulls my dick free and then pushes me back into the chair as she crawls toward me like a predatory feline. I’m anxious to feel her lips wrapped around me because this never gets old. Her nails scrape over my thighs, and she toys with me for a while, licking me soft and slow. Her eyes hold me hostage as she leans between my parted legs, worshipping me with her mouth. I fall back against the chair, eyes at half-mast, my body relaxing as she gives me exactly what I need.
It would be so easy to blow my load in her mouth right now. It would be pure fucking heaven. But more than anything, I’ve made it a goal to come inside her at every opportunity until I’ve claimed her body in an entirely different way. Breeding her until she’s round with my child. It stirs a primal possession in me, and that’s what has me pulling her hair back until my dick falls out of her mouth.
“What’s wrong?” she asks.
“Get on top of me,” I command. “Come sit on your throne.”
Ella grins and shakes her head. She knows exactly what I’m doing, and she loves every filthy moment of these games. When she stands up and lifts her skirt, she’s not wearing any panties, and I’m officially on the fucking edge.
She grips my shoulders as she straddles me, slowly lowering herself onto my shaft until she’s so full of me she collapses forward with a faint groan. When she rocks her pelvis into me, I dig my fingers into her hips and thrust her body down. The shock reverberates through both of us, and Ella takes over, fucking me like it’s her last day on earth. And I love her like this. Wild for me. Desperately chasing the high that I give her. She is achingly beautiful, and when she breaks apart, crying out in agony, she is mine.
The spasms in her body milk the come from my dick, and still, the little fire-breather hasn’t had enough. She grabs my face and continues to kiss me, long after my cock has gone soft inside her. I think we could kiss each other like this forever, and that reminds me, I was supposed to try my hand at being romantic tonight.
I had a walk in the garden planned. A starry night. The scent of roses around us. I even had a speech prepared. But nothing has ever felt as natural or right as this moment does now, with the two of us still intimately connected. When I pull away from her lips and force her to hold still, she pouts.
“Why are we stopping?”
“Marry me, Ella.”
Her eyes widen, and she freezes. It takes her a full minute to say anything, but I’ve come to recognize this is how Ella processes everything. She takes her time, and I’ve learned not to push her during these moments.
“You want me to marry you?” she whispers.
“More than anything.”
She squishes my face between her palms and nods, tears shining in her eyes. “I want that more than anything too, my King. I love you so much.”
“I have never felt more like a king than I do right now,” I tell her.
She starts pawing at me again, frantically trying to unbutton my shirt and strip me down naked, just how she likes me.