The castle was a different place at night. The hallways which seemed intriguing and mysterious in daylight were full of shadows and secrets at the late hour.
In my knee-length baby blue nightdress, I would have been cold had I not grabbed the white waffle-knit robe that was waiting in my room when I arrived the first day. It even had my initials embroidered on the front. Now, I wrapped it around my body, grateful for the small amount of warmth it provided.
My feet carried me over to the library from the other day, my heart pounding as I made my way over. I wasn’t sure why I wanted to visit that place again… Why I was desperate to be back at the scene of the crime.
I came to a stop in front of the large, intricately decorated doors, admiring the stunning Alice in Wonderland artwork yet again. My fingers brushed the wood, and the moonlight glinted off its surface.
“What are you doing here, chérie?”
I gasped when I felt his fingers ghost over the top of my neck, brushing my hair off my shoulder. His mouth was on my neck next, his teeth biting down into my tender skin. My knees turned to jelly. I felt the secret I was hiding rearing its ugly head, the first sign of a wedge between us. The first lie.
“I couldn’t sleep,” I said. “Just a lot of excitement these past few days. I’m sorry I’ve been acting a bit…”
“Cold?” he finished for me. His knuckles met the small of my back and I gasped when he pushed them up my spine. “You’ve been a little bitch, haven’t you, Amber? Disrespecting me.”
“N-No.” I was stuttering, my mouth watering when I felt him reach in front of me, undoing my robe.
“I don’t like it when you’re a bad girl,” Olivier grunted in the shell of my ear. He pushed the robe off me, and it pooled at my feet. “Spread your legs.”
“I c-cant-”
“Now.”
My legs shuffled open, allowing him to press his hand over me, cupping my pussy and making me drip onto his palm in a matter of seconds.
“Holy shit, chérie,” he growled. “I knew you’d want it, but I didn’t know even your pretty pussy would beg for it. Look at you drip all over my fingers. Gonna clean them up, baby?”
“Yes,” I whispered, and his free hand went to my throat, gently clasping it beneath his fingers.
I let out a choked mewl, and he grinned at me. “What pretty sounds you make, chérie.”
He lifted his fingers from my cunt, bringing them to my lips. I licked, slowly at first and with more and more need as he fed me my own juices.
“Nothing you do here goes unnoticed,” he growled in my ear. “Remember that, baby.”
Shivers went down my spine. Does he know?
No, surely he couldn’t. Safiya had been so nice to me after what happened in the ballroom. She wouldn’t have gone and told him.
All worries went out the moment he grabbed me by the hair, pulling me down the hallway behind him. I let out a loud scream at the feeling.
“Shut the fuck up,” he growled. “Or I’ll make you crawl behind me.”
My mouth closed, and I followed as he tugged on my hair. I’d braided it, and Olivier wrapped the hair around his fist, pulling on it hard enough to make me cry out every time.
It was a side of him I hadn’t seen. My heart pounded with fear, my thoughts going to mine and Bruno’s conversation about Olivier. That he was keeping a secret. What could it be?
“Here we are,” he finally said after we stopped in front of a door.
I saw a keypad in front, and Olivier blocked my view to put in the number. The doors opened with a whoosh, and he pulled me into the room. The doors closed behind us, a mechanical lock clicking into place. My heart and mind were a mess. I was so cared I could barely breathe.
Olivier let go of my hair and I stumbled backward. He was on me on seconds, and when he grabbed me, I felt shame for the dripping mess between my legs. I was every bad word he’d used to call me. Why had I fooled myself into thinking I’d escaped my past?
I was still just a toy.
A whore for Olivier to do with as he wanted. Even after we married – if we married – I would be his puppet. His pretty doll that didn’t have a mind of her own and followed her Master blindly.
And the worst part was, I wanted it.
“Do you know where I brought you?” he whispered in my ear, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end. I shook my head no, and he smiled against my skin. His lips were hot. “We’re in the royal treasury, Amber. I wanted to show you a few things.”
He turned me around like a real gentleman, every trace of the monster from before gone with a flash. It was disturbing, how fast he changed. One person one second, and someone else the next.
“Come here,” he said with a warm smile, helping me to join him in front of a glass case. “This is where we keep some of the crowns.”
I looked down, my eyes landing on a golden tiara.
“That’s your mother’s crown, isn’t it?” I asked, touching the glass pane.
“Yes,” he replied with a cool smile.
He opened the pane with the touch of a fingertip, and I gasped when he took the tiara out. It shone like nothing I’d ever seen before, the gold encrusted with tiny diamonds sparkling like stars.
“It’s beautiful,” I told him as he came up to me. “Olivier, what are you doing?”
“I want you to wear it,” he grinned at me. “Just for me.”
“But…” I started, nervously biting my lip. “I’m not the Queen.”
“Not yet,” he growled, placing the tiara on top of my hair. He led me to an ornate gilded mirror in the corner of the room and made me look at myself.
My skin was flushed, not just my cheeks but the top of my tits and my arms, too. I looked at the floor to avoid the sight of myself.
“Don’t look away,” Olivier whispered in my ear. His finger pressed under my chin and gently lifted my head back up, so I was once again faced with my reflection. “Look at your pretty face. Look at your sexy body. See why I’m so crazy about you, Amber?”
I stared at him instead. He was so handsome. Every feature so perfect, like it was carved out of marble. He was ridiculously good looking. I’d never feel good enough, but for now, I had to hide it.
“Don’t you want to fuck me?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Do you want me to fuck you?” he asked, nuzzling my neck, his eyes on mine in the mirror.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
He touched my waist, sending shivers down my spine.
“Listen to me, and listen good, chérie,” he growled in my ear. “I don’t like this game much more than you do. I want to be done with this goddamn competition, so I can finally claim you and start fucking my babies into your belly. I want to be done so I can put you on my lap on the throne and watch my mother lose it because she hates you so much.”
“But I-”
“No,” he interrupted, pulling my nightdress over my bare ass and eliciting a gasp from me. “You shut up while the Prince is speaking. The thing is, we must see this thing through, Amber. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I managed. “I understand.”