SophiaI couldn’t believe that Luke wanted me to stay in his room. The gesture felt intimate, and I surprised myself by how ready and willing I was to stay with him. I worried that his mother would have a fit, but the way that Luke commanded the conversation with her earlier made me think that his father’s illness had changed him. I was glad that I wasn’t the one to bring about that change in him. In a way, I felt as if he would blame me for knowing first, even though I stumbled upon it accidentally.Watching Luke as he walked next to me, his shoulders were relaxed yet pushed back into a perfect posture. He looked more like royalty than ever. Over the last weekend we had been here, he was relaxed and ready to defend our relationship. This Luke had the weight of the kingdom on his shoulders, and I wondered if he had accepted the role of king yet. Would it be appropriate for me to ask? It wasn’t time to be shy with him when my job was on the line.I thought he would tell me, but maybe h
Sophia“You’re welcome,” I said. “Not that it did much good. They all found out anyway.”“My dear, I’ve been fighting this illness for a long time,” he said. “I’m an old man, and I’m tired of fighting. You couldn’t have prevented that.”“Why didn’t you say something sooner?”He sighed. “Pride, I suppose. I should have said something, but there’s no changing the past. That’s something I will have to bear.”“Are you going to tell Luke that I knew?” I asked. I didn’t think he had a reason to suspect our relationship was fake, but I couldn’t be too careful.“No,” he said. “He is happy with you.”I twined my fingers together in my lap. It was strange having approval from one of Luke’s parents. I wanted to know more. “You think so?” Heat rushed to my cheeks, and I pressed my hands against them.“My dear,” Erol said with a smile. It lit up his face. “I’m out of touch with the dating world, but I know love when I see it. Luke’s mother and I didn’t experience it until later on, but I do recogn
LukeSeeing Father smiling at Sophia when I returned with the water made my heart skip a beat. Even though I hadn’t directly said I was going to take the throne, knowing he was happy about who I’d chosen to be my partner—for real this time—gave me a sense of calm that I hadn’t had before Sophia showed up.I took her hand as we walked through the hallway, squeezing it. She had turned my life upside down, and I couldn’t imagine having anyone else by my side during this trying time.“I thought we were going to the dining room?” Sophia asked as I led her down another hallway, not in the direction of the central stairwell.“We’re going to get Abir,” I said. “He’s holed himself in his room for several days. It’s time for him to join the living and say goodbye to his father.”“He’s grieving,” Sophia said.I gritted my teeth. “Father isn’t dead yet. Abir might get a pass to complain for a little while, but he needs to step up and be the man that Father thinks he is, or he’ll regret it.”“Isn’
LukeI was surprised that the dining room was empty when we arrived. I had expected Mother to be there, waiting to show how disappointed she was with Sophia and me. At least we’d get a break from that. Sophia and Abir liked each other, so I looked forward to having a pleasant conversation between the three of us. Maybe Mother had changed her tune. I didn’t expect her to welcome Sophia with open arms after hearing how she honestly felt, but being cordial would have sufficed.“It’s just us?” Sophia asked.“I guess so,” I said, pushing her chair in behind her.“I don’t mind her,” Sophia said quickly. “I wish she didn’t mind me, though. Should we tell them about us?”“That doesn’t matter anymore. We’re together now. We don’t need to reveal any of our previous lies. I foresee Mother using that to her advantage and upsetting Father.”Sophia nodded. “Good point.”Abir came in a few moments later as the first course arrived. One of the servants rushed out to get another plate for my brother.
SophiaLuke’s warm lips touched mine, and my entire body exploded with ripples of pleasure. My nipples pressed against my bra, and before I knew it, I threw my arms around his shoulders and kissed him back. His tentative mouth turned hungry and so did mine. He slipped his tongue into my mouth, and I moaned into his.I regretted not kissing him sooner. He was like a glass of water after I’d been wandering in the desert. He quenched my thirst, but I wanted more.His hands reached up and moved through my hair, sending tingling feelings running down my body and spreading warmth throughout my midsection.He pulled away from me, holding my face in his hands. His eyes were heavy, and he panted slightly. He licked his lips, and my gaze fell on those delicious pillows. How I wanted to rest in them for the remainder of my life.“Sophia,” he said. “Are you sure you want to do this?”I answered him by untucking his shirt from his pants and tugging at the hem.He grinned, and the dampness between
SophiaLuke returned to me seconds later with the foil packet. He tossed it onto the bed next to me and coaxed me into a sitting position. He lifted my shirt over my head and unclasped my bra. The material fell off my chest, exposing me completely to Luke. He kissed one of my breasts while kneading the other. My head lolled back as his tongue circled the most sensitive part of my body. Well, at least, my upper body.“Scoot up,” he said without removing his mouth from my breast.I slid backward, and he crawled onto the bed with me. He switched to the other breast while his free hand moved lower. He drew a line with his finger down my middle and stopped when he reached the top of my panties. His finger curved along the edge of the hem before he pushed himself inside.I gasped as he entered me. He slid in so quickly. His thumb rubbed my clit, and before I knew it, I was climbing higher, unable to breathe properly. I panted as Luke covered my mouth with his and his tongue darted inside of
LukeWaking up to the sound of Sophia’s heavy and slow breathing was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard. Turning my head gently so that I didn’t wake her, I watched her eyes flutter as she slept. A lock of hair split her face in two, and I had the urge to move it away and fully see her angelic face.But I wanted to preserve her in her peaceful state. Sophia didn’t need to wake early to another day facing my father’s death and my mother’s grimace. She’d given me more than I bargained for last night, and she deserved some rest before waking.Getting out of the bed, I pulled my arm out from under her and flexed my fingers. Most of my arm was in the pins and needles stage of waking up, but it was a minor inconvenience after a night of bliss.The thought of more nights like this in our future made me smile. While Sophia was in my life, she would always come to bed with me, even if just to sleep.I pulled on a pair of pants and a shirt before scribbling a quick note to Sophia and placing it
Luke“I do mind,” he said. “Everyone is too worried about me. I feel okay. And you have a big decision to make. I want you to clear your head before you make it.”I knew he was talking about taking over as king, but he didn’t say the words. Since returning this week, he hadn’t hounded me about it. Did he already know what I was going to do? He had always said I would make the right choice. Was this him allowing me to do so?“I’ll still be here when you get back,” he said.I swallowed. I didn’t know that for sure, but he was right that some business matters needed to be dealt with. I’d left England too quickly when I found out Father was sick. I had a lot to do while I was there. The sooner I left, the sooner I could return. “Okay.”Father took my hand, and I held it between both of mine.“I love you, son,” he said. “You know I only want what is best for you, right?”“I know,” I said, kissing the back of his hand. “I know.”***I stayed with Father for a little while longer until enoug
LukeWhen a knock sounded on my door a little while later, I glanced at the clock, and my jaw dropped. An hour had already flown by, and I’d checked off several items from my list.“Come in!” I called. Everyone knew that when the door to the study was closed, they were to knock and wait for my approval before entering. It was my sacred space in the palace, and it wasn’t a hard rule to follow. Though, I imagined bending the rules for our child—whenever we got around to having one—since Father had always done so for me.Sophia stood in the doorway for a moment before entering the room.“Hi,” I said to her. “What’s up?”“Do you have a minute?” she asked. Her hands clasped in front of her, as Mother’s normally were. The both of them were turning into clones of each other. I wondered if I should limit their time together or not. The thought made me smile. Neither of them would agree to that. They were two peas in a pod now.“For you? Always.” I stood up and stretched. For the last hour, I
LukeAs I perused the newspaper in front of me, Sophia and Mother discussed some upcoming banquet. Glancing over the top of the paper, I watched my wife of six months calmly eating her breakfast. Tilting my head to the side, I noticed something different about her. I couldn’t quite pinpoint it. I wasn’t sure if it was her outfit; today she wore one of the more traditional outfits of our country. Over the last months, Mother had been an excellent tutor to Sophia, teaching her about our customs, traditions, and the language.Even though Sophia hated when we went full immersion with the language, she loved it at the same time. It worked her brain like her reporting career did. I still felt a little twinge of guilt now and then for taking her away from her passion, but she had a full schedule since we had returned from our honeymoon. We both liked to keep busy, and that wasn’t going to change anytime soon.It didn’t take long for Mother to get on board with the new way of life around the
SophiaHe drove a finger inside of me, and I bucked my hips up to meet him. Falling back against the fluffy pillows, we moved as one, intensifying the pleasure within me. Adding more fingers and that circling thumb, my eyes fluttered closed and moans escaped my lips. If this was what it was going to be like for the rest of my life, I looked forward to every moment spent in this bed with Luke.After the drama that we had to deal with in such a short amount of time, I never felt so relaxed in my life. That part of our struggle was over, and even though there would inevitably be issues with the kingdom and Luke’s reign, there would never be a problem that we couldn’t overcome, especially if we came together like this as much as possible.The idea that I might have missed out on this life with him made me hold him close to me. I sat up, deepening his reach inside of me, and I grabbed his hardness again, thrusting all of my love and appreciation into the movements.His chin lifted, and his
SophiaEvery single point where our bodies touched lit me up inside until searing heat scorched every fiber of my being. Touching Luke’s face, feeling the stubble of his chin under my fingertips, added licks of heat to burn through me. I fell into the pools of his eyes, my love for him wanting to burst out of me. My panties were soaked through as his hand moved up the side of my body. His fingers brushed over the side of my breast. After getting out of my dress last night, I changed into a ratty old T-shirt. The fabric was thin and worn, which didn’t offer any protection from his touches. Not that I wanted any.His fingers lightly touched my neck. He put some pressure on my jaw, and I moved my head to the side. I loved when Luke kissed the sensitive part of my neck. It was one of his favorite moves. At least, from what I could tell.His soft lips touched my skin. With each movement of my body, he left a wake of warm invisible kisses along the way. He trapped my earlobe between his lip
LukeJoining her, the two of us brushed our teeth together. It was nice to get the stale taste of food and champagne out of my mouth. I watched Sophia through the mirror as she watched me. Energy crackled between us, and I could have dragged her into the shower to expend that energy. Knowing we were to be joined by several servants as they brought breakfast in the room for us made me kill the urge. For now.Even though it was the simplest of acts, the idea that I would brush my teeth at least once a day with this woman filled me with the most joy I’d ever felt. I wondered if only the birth of our children would rival that feeling.I finished before her and held her against me while she finished. With a shimmy of her ass against my crotch, I glanced at her. She leaned back against me, lifting her perky breasts higher. Slowly guiding my hand along her middle, I caressed the outside of her breasts.That was when I heard the door open from the other room. My hand froze before I removed it
LukeI never wanted my wedding day to end. Even though it was an intimate affair with under a hundred guests, the party went much longer than most banquets that I’d attended. Sophia and I stumbled into my bedroom in the wee hours of the morning.Even though I celebrated, neither of us drank heavily. I supposed we were almost drunk from the music and dancing, so when we arrived in a quiet and sacred space, the both of us passed out from exhaustion.The one thing I remembered as my eyes closed was the way she looked slipping out of her wedding dress. God, I was a lucky-ass man.***When my eyes finally peeled open, Sophia was already up and facing me. She had a big smile on her face, and her left hand propped on the pillow between us. The sparkling engagement ring glittered in the morning light that streamed through the windows. The night before, I’d barely gotten out of my clothes, so there was no chance I had been able to reach the blackout curtains before falling onto the bed.“Good
SophiaGia smiled and reached up to grab my veil. She pulled it down over my face, and the world turned a hazy shade of white. All but two of the servants dispersed, and Gia walked into the room, closing the door behind her.“You ready to get married?” Matt asked me.“Yes,” I said, lifting my chin. For a moment, I felt like Gia. Since I was to take her place as queen one day, it seemed fitting.A swell of music filtered out from under the doorway and the doors opened. It was a good thing the veil covered the surprised expression on my face. We’d planned for the wedding to be small and intimate, but I didn’t know that there would be more than immediate family at the event. Gia had mentioned some close family and friends that she’d wanted there, and I brushed it off, thinking there would be one or two extra people.All in all, there were only about fifty people, but when their gazes turned toward me, there might as well have been two hundred people there.Matt gripped my hand harder. “J
SophiaSince Gia put together the wedding in such a short amount of time, there was nothing Luke or I could say when it came to the night before the wedding. She’d let go of most of her traditional views but chose to hold on to the one that didn’t allow us to sleep together that night.While I wanted to show Luke how appreciative I was about what he’d done for me, we respected her wishes.After a wonderful rehearsal dinner with the people we loved, I took Matt around the palace while Luke and Maddox went off together. Maddox had mentioned something about the bachelor party, and Gia’s face had paled to the color of the tablecloth. I knew Luke didn’t plan on going out to a strip club—I didn’t think they had those here—but he went off with Maddox anyway, probably to defeat his best friend’s urge to flirt.Matt eventually dropped me off in the same bedroom that I’d slept in when I first came to the palace. We said goodnight, and I thought I saw excitement flash in his eyes when he asked w
LukeThe council members shifted in their seats. I couldn’t be prouder of my mother for standing up for me. It was something I always wanted but never knew that I needed. I didn’t care that she commanded the meeting space where I was supposed to reign. We were a family, and treating the kingdom like that would be my legacy.“When Erol and I chose to adopt a son, it was not something we took lightly. We knew we would change a child’s life and possibly be able to choose the successor to the throne.” She looked over at me and smiled, the way she used to when I was a child. When things seemed much simpler. When had I lost touch with that?“We picked a boy that we felt, in our hearts, needed us as much as we needed him. You all worked with my husband and the previous king. You saw how big of a heart he had for this country. You trusted his choices. Why are you turning your backs on him now? He wanted Luke to become king in his stead. What would you say to him right now, face to face, if yo