Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117920 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117920 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
To be honest, I didn’t feel all that comfortable leaving him in the palace. After I discovered he had gone into Aurora’s room that one time, my guard around him has been up, much higher than usual. Every single day I berate myself for keeping him in this house and every single day I come to the same conclusion; That I have no choice.
That said, I made sure Maja was here the whole time I was gone, and I know Aurora doesn’t like Nicklas and avoids him at all costs. Hopefully this wasn’t an issue.
A high-pitched squeal comes from upstairs, followed by the sound of stampeding feet. You’d think a palace would have better soundproofing, but I guess my royal relatives never had to worry about pigs on the loose.
I brush past Nicklas, nearly hip-checking him out of the way, and head up the stairs.
“Papa!” Clara yells excitedly, holding up a tennis ball. She’s at one end of the hall with Freja and Aurora, Snarf Snarf running around in circles.
“We’re teaching him how to play fetch,” Freja says and both girls start running toward me. The pig follows them, ears flapping as he runs, shaking the floor. Aurora had warned me that “teacup” pigs rarely stay “teacup” sized and now Snarf Snarf is the size of a cocker spaniel and about five times as heavy.
I crouch down and hold my arms out and the girls run right into them. I lift them up, smiling at their joyous faces and my heart starts to bleed. My love for them is unshakeable, indescribable, and to see how happy they’ve become makes all that we’ve gone through worth it.
“What am I going to do when you’re too big to lift up?” I ask them, kissing Freja on her nose, which she immediately scrunches, and then Clara on her cheek.
“We’ll use a ladder,” Clara says, wrapping her hands around my neck and grinning at me. “Or Aurora can lift us up.”
Aurora is slowly walking toward me, a slight downward cast to her face, a shy smile on her lips. I don’t always see her so demure. Usually she’s yelling at me for one reason or another. But now it’s apparent how everything has changed between us.
I can’t help but smile at her, unable to rein it in.
Just the fact that I don’t have to pretend with her anymore makes my smile stretch wider, my heart in my chest buoyant and light and warm.
Though she’s at the end of the hall, distance doesn’t matter anymore. I’m able to look into her deep brown doe eyes and know that she’s mine. I’m a king with a palace full of treasures and yet she is my greatest possession.
I put the girls back down on the ground and they go running after Snarf Snarf, throwing the ball past Aurora and scrambling after it.
While they go, she comes over to me and gives me a small, hopeful smile.
“Hi,” she says.
“Hi,” I say back, still grinning. It takes every ounce of restraint to stop myself from kissing her right here, to not take her hand, to not touch her. We’ve gone from holding ourselves back for months to giving in wildly then back to being in control. It doesn’t feel right but it’s all we have to work with.
She feels this too because she steps forward and then back, as if she’s not sure where she stands. She clasps her hands together at her waist and asks, “How was your trip?”
“It was fine. Would have been better if you were there.”
“Me? With a stuffy bunch of royals? I don’t think so.”
“They aren’t so bad.”
“Are they anything like you?”
“Hey,” I admonish her, poking her in the side. “Be nice to your boss.”
She giggles and moves out of the way. “Why should I start now?”
Good lord. Her eyes are getting that devious glint to them and she’s starting to gnaw on her lip. I want to do the same, suck it between my teeth for a moment before holding her face between my hands and kissing her until she’s breathless.
My cock is already hard, straining against my fly, not caring that we’re in public, that my children are at the other end of the hall. What an inconsiderate dick.
Her tongue touches the tip of her teeth and she smiles, her brows raised. “Careful, Your Majesty,” she whispers.
And that’s when I realize how fucking hard this is going to be. For some reason I thought that this would be the easy part, where we didn’t have to pretend with each other anymore. It’s only easy when we’re behind closed doors—it’s the rest of the day that’s painful.
It doesn’t help that she’s wearing her uniform. I mean, she always wears it but now the sight of her in that miniskirt is painful, knowing what her smooth and shapely legs feel like under my grip.