And that future didn’t disappoint. On our wedding day I was carrying what would be our first child of three—two princes and then a princess. Bors doted on all of them, but our little girl, Angelica, perhaps most of all. Lately, his favorite thing to do has been having the boys hang from his biceps while rides on his shoulders.
Each Saturday, we load the children onto Bors favorite old Percheron and take them to the river for a picnic. Every week, the children fall sound asleep after a day of playing in the water and eating too many sugared orange peels. And every week, Bors and I steal away into the high grass to make love again and again. Every time is like the first time; every time, he gives me more of his heart and I give him more of mine.
He is happier now than I have ever seen him. The royal stables have the finest breeding stock in the kingdom, and kings and queens from far across the seas come to visit, to see the special royal stock of studs and mares and marvel at the brilliance of their master.
I am happy too—happiest of all when I am with Bors and the children, happiest at home in our palace, where I insist on making my own bread and picking my own flowers. When the Lenten roses are in bloom, I collect them, dry them and have them throughout the house all year.
We have a nanny for each child, but they are more my friends than the children’s keepers. Through the years, I’ve brought many women to the castle to speak with my father, the king, about life in the countryside. Angelica herself has been among them, and she too is prospering as a healer. No woman has been tried as a witch since I came to the palace. Such foolish fear of women has no place in our world.
Angelica spends many Sunday afternoons with us and the children. She’s left behind her years of entertaining men and on one spring afternoon as we rode back to the castle, one of Bors now personal guards, Seamus, met us at the gate. He’s gained my respect and my thanks as if it were not for him allowing Bors past the gates the day he rode to save me, I would have surely perished.
When his eyes cast upon Angelica, all I could think of was how Bors had looked me that first time. They have danced around a courtship for a year since but I finally believe Angelica believes he motives are true and they eloped under the oak trees once early morning the following fall.
These have been good, peaceful, prosperous years for everybody. King Rowan’s reign will be praised for generations. The infighting that plagued my father when Queen Beatrice was alive is no longer a problem; after she confessed, named all her co-conspirators and fell on my father’s mercy, she was granted a partial pardon, and lived in exile for several years in an opulent and remote palace by the sea, guarded at all times by men loyal to the king.
I don’t think King Rowan had the heart to see her executed, and when he asked my opinion I told him I was happy for her to be shown leniency. But she died through natural causes, and was buried with her own people near Sedgwick. The mother that I knew, who my adoptive father had so long mistreated as well she did me, has come to see us from time to time, but she has never warmed to me, nor have my sisters. Nor have I warmed to them. But I treat them always with the graciousness and respect that they so long denied me. I remain grateful to them for keeping me alive, even if I was not always happy under their roof. If not for them, I would never have met Bors. And for that, I remain always thankful.
The night was cold and the winter frosts were again upon us as Bors placed another log on the roaring fire, and joined me in our bed. It had always been the tradition for princesses and their consorts to have separate bedrooms, but he and I wouldn’t hear of it. We would always rather be together than otherwise, no matter if we were sleeping or awake.
His body on top of mine warmed me like nothing else could. I ran my fingertips down his shoulder and biceps, then down his chest and rippling stomach muscles. I raised myself up slightly on my elbow and nibbled his ear. “It’s time for you to put another baby in me, Sir.”
“That time again, is it?” He asked. He teased me with his cock at my opening, only just dipping into my wetness, caging me in with his massive arms on either side of my body. “Think you’ve earned it?”
I dragged my tongue down his throat and cradled his heavy balls in my hands. He gave me the special groan that he always did when I touched him there—the groan that told me, though I was curvy and soft, he was entirely outmatched by my strength and charms.
“I’m at your mercy. You fucking know it,” he whispered, and pressed his cock into me.
As he entered me, he kissed me with lusty dark fury that made me forget myself. “Mine,” he growled as he drove into me.
His.
Always.
Forever.
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Coming Next From the Fated Royals
Coming Next in the Fated Royals Series
Excerpt
Once I was satisfied that she’d had enough to eat, I took the food away and then turned to her across the bedroom. She was still tangled up in the sheets. Way the fuck too much fabric and not nearly enough skin. “Let me see you. All of you.”
She sensed my change in tone and obeyed without a question. Hooking the sheet with her toes, she slid her feet down her calves, until she lay naked in front of me. She looked fucking delicious there. Part of me wanted to take her exactly like she was. But it was time to get back to serious business. The things I wanted to do her most were way too filthy to do in a featherbed. To work on her properly, I needed restraints.
I leaned over her, pressing my forehead to hers, caging her in with my arms. We were so close that she had to press her chin into her neck to look me in the eye. With cool fingertips, she traced where my hair met the back of my neck. “What are you going to do to me?” she said in a whisper.
I liked that, that she sensed I had something in store. But there was a lesson here and she needed to learn it. I ran my thumb softly over her cheek so that she could feel how I adored her, being sure to comfort her as I corrected her behavior. “From now on, no more fucking questions. I’m going to do exactly what I want to you. That’s for me to know and you to find out.”
She swallowed hard and nodded. “I understand, sir.”
I rolled her nipple between my thumb and forefinger to reward her. She arched her back in pleasure, offering me her throat. I kissed her on the spot where I’d left the hickey, thinking all the time: That title. Sir. It bothered me. Generic as fuck. She probably used it for half the assholes that came to buy dairy from her farm. I sucked a deep long pull of her throat and then let her go, as I released her nipple as well. “I want you to use a word to address me that you word for nobody else.”
“Ummm…” she said, searching my eyes.
“Don’t fucking answer yet,” I told her, scooping her up in my arms, her head over my shoulder and her ass by my chest. With one hand on her left ass check, and with my fingers just touching the bud of her anus, I hauled her out of the bedroom and took her into the dungeon, laying her on her back on the fuck table. This time, I secured her thighs and upper arms so that she was spread-eagle and helpless.