“I wish you could too, my wife. I wish you could too. But you never can. Not if I wish to keep you safe and believe me when I say, Psyche, I would kill to keep you safe. You’ve made powerful enemies, but I promise I won’t let them touch you. I won’t let them ruin us.”
I wish I knew what enemies it was that I’d made. I wish I could have apologized to them, shown them that I was no harm in any way. I was simply a humble woman.
“Do you think I could have my family over one of these days?” I asked and felt his great body tense. Then I felt cool air above me and I knew that he was gone. “Phineas? I…I am not unhappy, if that’s what you thought. I simply wanted them to see how good you are to me. How beautiful our home is. That I am well and I am so happy.”
“Oh, my Psyche. You must think me a mad man. Whisking you away as I’ve done. Can we just be together, for now? Just us? Nothing else? It is safe for us here, my queen. Safe for you.”
I didn’t understand that, but he was right, we needed our time together first. I was just so proud and happy to know that cursed or not I had managed to find my perfect love, just as he’d promised me that day at the beach that I would.
I nodded. “Of course. I did not mean right this minute anyway. I simply meant at some point in the future.”
He took my hands in his and once more I felt the cage of his warmth shielding me. He must have been on his knees before me.
“Then yes, maybe someday in the future. Just not tonight. Not right now. Be with me only, Psyche. We have waited for this moment for so long.”
I nodded.
And then I yipped when I felt his strong arm wrap around my waist and pull me into the cage of his body. The brush of large wings caressed my bare flesh and I shivered deliciously.
“I am so unbelievably in love with you,” he whispered heatedly and I blinked, forgetting all about wanting to prove to my family that I’d done even better than they could have imagined and I’d done it without sacrificing myself or my values. I’d found true love.
I nodded. “As I am with you, Phineas.”
We kissed. And then we kissed some more. And though I was sure we couldn’t have sex one more time, we did.
Oh boy, did we.
And it was even better than the last.
It’d been several months of wedded bliss. And I was happy. So happy I could burst. Save for one problem. One thing that I knew would not make Phineas happy if I brought it up again.
I loved the palace. I loved the gardens. But I felt like an animal trapped in a cage. A gilded one to be sure, but trapped all the same. It wasn’t like he’d taken what he’d wanted from me and now ignored me. Oh no, if anything he was more attentive to my needs than he’d ever been in the beginning. And though we’d both been virgins when we’d married, I could not fathom there being a better lover in all the worlds than he. The things that man did to me ought to be criminal. I smirked. Not that I cared.
I felt his strong hand lazily caressing the soft swell of my belly and I smiled softly. I’d never been happier, so why was I so sad?
“Your thoughts are so loud I cannot sleep, my love. What is it?” he asked, gravel still in his voice.
I rolled over, almost able to sense where his eyes should be, we’d been together six months now. I felt like he was a part of me. Part of my soul.
The sheets stirred and his warm hand was gone from my stomach. He’d sat up on the pillows. “Psyche, tell me.”
Using the sheet to cover my breasts, I too sat up. Staring at the dip in the pillow beside me.
“Phineas, I…” I swallowed. We’d had this conversation so many times. And always he told me the same thing.
“It is not safe for you to leave this place. And I must keep you safe, my Psyche, I must always keep you safe.”
The quiet between us was thick, stifling.
Finally, he sighed. “I know what this is.”
I cringed. “I…I love you, Phineas. With all my soul, I love you. Please do not think me displeased by our union.”
“Psyche,” his voice cracked when he said my name. “I’ve never wanted to make you unhappy. Your happiness is paramount to me. It always has been, but—”
I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling heat gathering behind them. “I know. I know. I just don’t know what enemy I could have made. My father held such a tight grip on me growing up, I didn’t get out much. I have no friends to speak of really, I don’t know why I want to leave.”
“Is this palace not beautiful enough for you?” He asked, and I heard his strangled plea that I help him to understand.
Releasing the blanket, it immediately puddled around my waist, freeing my breasts. I shook my head. “I’m so happy I could burst. But Phineas, all my life I was told what I could and could not do. All my life I was given constraints. And as much as I love you—”
“I’m doing it to you too,” he said softly.
I nodded. Feeling as though I might cry, because I didn’t want to hurt him. Phineas had such a good soul. A good heart. And I knew he loved me. No woman could be loved more.
“I’ve trapped my butterfly in a cocoon, haven’t I?” he asked, and I was pleasantly startled to feel the heat of his breath roll over my mouth. My stomach churned, and need rose in me. My nipples sharpened to points.
“Phineas, I don’t want to hurt you. Please understand me.”
“What do you need, Psyche? What would bring you joy?”
I gasped, realizing what his words meant. And while I wanted to tell him that I wanted to be out in the world again, exploring all that it had to offer, I also knew it would make him panic. For whatever reason my mate truly did believe me in danger if I stepped foot outside these gates.
And I trusted that he must have a valid reason for feeling so. My need to feel like my own woman was also tempered by my desire to do right by him too. I wanted him to know that he could trust me. That I held him in the same esteem that he held me. That his feelings were valid too.
“My sisters,” I said excitedly.
“Your sisters,” he sounded dubious. “What of them?”
It was no secret he thought my sisters silly and vainglorious, but they were my blood. I loved them and I knew they loved me, even if they were sometimes very silly sisters.
“Let them come here. To the palace. Let us have a visit? Tea. Cakes. Just a small gathering. If I should get that I know that I would feel more settled here. I wish to show you off.”
“Well they can’t see me.” He chuckled deeply and I felt the bed dip just a second before his hot hand landed on the inside of my thigh.
I sighed, feeling the delicious curl of golden heat wind through me as it always did when Phineas touched me so.
“No, no I suppose they can’t,” I squeezed out when suddenly my legs were gently shoved open, exposing the center, the very wet center, of me.
I gasped as the cool air caressed my sensitive bud. Phineas had shown me pleasures with his hands, his body, and his mouth that I’d never known could be possible before. He was an inventive and skilled lover and I found out rather quickly into our arrangement that I had a wanton side to me I’d never known existed before.
“If I said yes to this would my queen be happy with me?”