Page 65 of The Prince Falls First
Corrado nodded once. “The staff will take your luggage up. Would you like them to unpack it as well?”
“No, thank you. I’d prefer to take care of that personally this time.”
“Of course. Tomorrow, we’ve set up an appointment with the security staff. They’ll grant you access to various parts of the palace. Until then, please travel with His Highness or feel free to page me and I’m happy to escort you as needed.”
He handed her a card, which she slipped into her purse. “Thank you.” She wanted to apologize to him for adding more work to his plate, but she wasn’t sure if that was the ‘appropriate’ thing to do, so she didn’t say anything further.
Once again, they walked into the Royal Wing and towards his apartments—theirapartments—but it felt different somehow. Leaving that house for good, coming here…so much had changed recently and she wasn’t sure she was going to manage them all as effortlessly as a potential future queen would.
Now she had made a confession—to both herself and to him—maybe it was time to take things a little further. Gabriel had also changed in recent days and weeks; he’d become someone more attentive, someone who listened to her rather than ordered her or demanded things from her. He was careful and caring with her, and it only made her love for him deeper.
“Would you like something to eat? I can’t imagine you had much of anything at the Kaurs.”
She took a long look at him, dressed elegantly in his black suit and tie. Her future king and her current prince.
“There’s only one thing I want right now, and it’s you.”
He smiled. “I’m not sure you realize how sexy that sounds. I don’t believe you meant it that way.”
She grabbed his hand and started leading him towards the bedroom. “I know exactly how it sounded. That’s why I said it. I meant it.”
He tugged her hand, forcing her to stop just outside the bedroom door. “I hope you don’t think I’m forcing you into anything. I never would, but especially due to your…past experience. You don’t owe me anything for living here.”
She decided to be amused instead of outraged and rolled her eyes. “I know I don’t owe you anything. I want to be with you, physically I mean. If you’re interested, of course. I would never force you either.”
He stepped closer and brushed a loose lock of her hair back. “I know you wouldn’t. I’m only trying to understand your frame of mind. You’ve had several trying days, even weeks and months and likely years because of your mother’s treatment of you. You’ve only just left the home you grew up in and you buried your dearest friend.” He paused. “This isn’t because of Samira, is it? Another way to honour the promise you made her?”
She shook her head. “I understand why you think that, but no.” She reached up to cup his face, the edge of his mustache scratching her hand slightly, but she didn’t mind it at all. “I love you, Gabriel, and I don’t want to hide that anymore. I don’t want to hide us anymore. And I don’t want to avoid being intimate with you because of something that happened to me in the past. I don’t know how I’ll respond. Maybe I’ll need to stop like I did in my bedroom when you visited me the first time. Maybe I’ll keep going. But I want to try again.”
She lowered her voice, even though they were the only ones there. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, you know. About our first kiss, and the way your mustache felt against my thighs, and the way you knelt before me during the picnic, and-mmgh!”
He interrupted her with a hard kiss that turned gentle, his tongue easily coaxing her mouth open. His arms banded around her, and he crushed her against him.
Through a haze of kisses, she vaguely noticed him walking backwards into the bedroom, then hitching her up so her knees were by his hips, and he sat down on the bed with her straddling him.
He drew back and she gasped for air, his lips moving to her throat and kissing her pulse.
She felt constricted in all her clothes, and started gesturing for Gabriel to unzip her dress.
“Not yet,” he murmured against her ear, sending a shiver through her.
She wove her fingers through his hair and gripped tightly, forcing his head to come up. “Why not?”
“Because I plan to enjoy you. Slowly. Reverently. Completely.” He pulled back for a moment. “If you need to stop, at any time, for anything, you tell me.”
“I will. I promise.”
He flipped them so she was laying on the bed and he was over her. He watched her for a moment—maybe waiting in case she needed to stop?—but then continued his exploration of her body.
His hands were sliding down her stockinged legs towards her feet. “Did you bring that nightgown you wore the first time I came over?”
“Yes,” she breathed, then cleared her throat. “Yes.”
“Good. We’ll have fun with that one another time.”
“What kind of fun?”
He gave her a devilish grin. “The kind where you stand before me naked and put it on—without the panties of course—and then take it off slowly. Or maybe it’s the kind where you’re laying here just like this wearing only that and I slowly peel it from your body. Or maybe it’s the kind where I fuck you hard while you’re wearing it. Or maybe it’s the kind where I force you to wear only that in our apartments so I can have you against every wall and every surface until I’m satisfied.”
