Page 40 of The Prince Falls First
“It’s not a good thing. I have to be on full alert whenever I’m home because of my mother, and now I just naturally do it everywhere.”
He nodded, understanding. “They liked you. Gaston told me as much earlier.”
“He barely talked during lunch. I’m not one for gossip, but Princess Agnes mentioned that he and Miss Coren may have had a falling out.”
“It’s not like Agnes to be so…forthcoming.”
“She was worried.” At his look, she continued. “About him, I’m sure, but also she was worried I might have taken offense at his greeting. She was only trying to smooth things over. She knows I would never say anything to another.”
He nodded as they came upon a stone doorway. He let her go through first and ducked under it, as it was not tall enough for him. Then he pulled her against the wall. From here they would be hidden from view for the most part, until his siblings reached the top from the other path at any rate.
“You’ve been driving me crazy all day, you know. It wasn’t easy sitting on that fucking blanket hiding my arousal.”
She giggled and wrapped her hands around his neck. “That jacket of yours came in handy after all. I noticed you didn’t bring it on our walk though.”
He kissed her neck and down to her decolletage, while his hand slipped under the hem of her dress and slid up her thigh. “Why do you think I always ask you to precede me out of the room?”
She huffed a laugh. “Always using me, aren’t you?” Her hands slid down to his arms and teased the edge of his short sleeves.
“I hope not, my dear. Though I will admit that I can’t wait to worship this body one day.”
“You can’t fuck me against the ruins of a 12th century wall.”
He shifted one hand to her ass under the dress, and squatted. “Well, Icould, but I won’t. You deserve better for your first time.”
Her eyes widened. “What are you doing? Get up! You’ll get your pants dirty and people will know what you were trying to do.”
He smirked. “Trying? I know how to balance on my feet, my pants won’t get dirty.”
She looked down at him, the emotions on her face shifting too fast for him to see from his vantage point. Eventually, her voice soft, she said. “Please get up.”
He stood up slowly, removing his hand from under her dress and resting it on her waist. “Talk to me.”
“You don’t care, do you?”
“About you? Of course I?—”
“About what people think of me. You show up with dirty knees and you’ll get grins from your brothers. I’ll get something very different, I assure you.”
“My brothers wouldn’t shame you, and neither would Agnes. I don’t know the other ladies, but they’re both dating princes. They understand the silence that royal life requires.”
“That’s just it. I don’t want to live in silence. I do that all the time now, terrified I’ll say the wrong thing and set my mother off again.”
He pursed his lips. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how uncomfortable you were at lunch.”
“I’m a very good actor, Gabriel, but I do not want to spend the rest of my life as one. I’m not suited for it. I act all day in my house, I act every time I leave the house, and I’m just so…tired of it.”
“It’s not always acting. We don’t act when we’re together, do we? We’re honest with each other.”
She sighed. “Maybe, but that’s not much of a life.”
He sensed this was some kind of turning point, that if he didn’t convince her to try this with him, then he’d lose her forever. “If we married, you’d have more power than your mother.”
She nodded and shifted against the wall. “Maybe, but I’d never be rid of her. If I married some title-less man, I could leave my mother behind and never speak to her again. But I can’t do that if I married you, could I? I’d have to play nice with her for the rest of her life.”
As a man so used to having power, he rarely saw the downsides of it. Yet, he could see them now through her eyes. He was used to ‘putting up with’ so many people, but knowing he could order them out of the room if he wanted. He never considered that there may be a case where he’d have to keep them in the room too. His family were not like hers, after all; they genuinely cared for each other.
“I’d protect you, you know I would.”
