Queen Of Nothing

"It"s lovely, Princess." I said trying to keep the laughter from my voice.

She gave me a sharp glare through the mirror and grunted. "Don"t you have... anywhere else you could be?"

I smiled at her, attempting to use my charm to disarm her but by look in her sharp eyes I could tell it didn"t seem to be working. "As a matter of fact, I don"t. I couldn"t bare leaving you."

The maids giggled as the looked over to where I was slumped on the sofa and then back to the princess who was still glaring. She just rolled her eyes, making the maids giggle more, and looked back to the mirror. "Are you sure it will be ready?"

"Yes, Your Highness." The younger blonde maid said.

"I hate white." The princess mumbled.

"It is Morean tradition to dress in all white for one"s coronation." The older, dark haired maid said.

Ranking her fingers through her long raven hair, Arabella groaned once again. "I am aware... okay, I"m taking this off now."

She slipped behind the changing shade with her two maids changing back into her own gown before coming and dropping onto the sofa next to me. She said nothing as she leaned against my side, laying her head on my shoulder, and closed her eyes. I stayed still, happy that she had been more affectionate with me the past weeks. While our situation had become no less precarious, our relationship had grown into something resembling, well, a relationship.

I leaned over, pressing my lips to her head, "I thought you looked very beautiful in all that... fabric."

She huffed a breath, turning to meet my eye. "That gown will weigh as much as your armor when finished."

"If you would like, I shall carry you and your gown down the isle."

She chuckled darkly as moved to sit in my lap, facing me. "You are determined to get us killed, aren"t you?"

I leaned forward brushing my lips to hers. "How can I be blamed for wanting to flaunt my beautiful princess about?"

She laughed kissing me rather firmly. "I am yours now, am I?"

I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her against me. "Kiss any other knights today?"

"I don"t report to you." She smirked, her violet eyes twinkling with merriment and... something else. Something that had my heart racing and my throat tightening.

"You may not report to me, but you sleep in my arms every night." I claimed her soft lips, kissing her deeply.

"That just shows you are my favorite of the lot, nothing more."

"So long as I am your favorite." I said against her lips. She opened her mouth for me, granting my tongue access to her own. "And I will thank your G.o.ds and my own for allowing me such an honor."

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She ran her fingers through my hair, grabbing it just behind my ears, locking my head in place. "Who knew that the First Sword of Althea was such a hopeless sap."

I laughed, the sound seemingly lost to her lips. "How is it hopeless when you are in my lap, Princess? As you kissed me first, I would dare say that I have all the hope in the world."

She rolled her eyes, shoved her lips pa.s.sionately against my own for a long, heart stopping kiss, then rolled off my lap and laid down with her head on my thigh. "I..." she glanced up at me and then closed her eyes. "When you said you loved me, did you mean it?"

I ran my fingers through her raven curls, them tangling around my hand. "You doubt me?" She gave a slight shrug of her shoulders but her eyes remained closed. I leaned down and pressed my lips to her forehead. "Yes. I meant it then and I do now. I love you, Arabella Victoria Amell. Come what may, I will always love you."

She stiffened slightly. Turned her face keeping her eyes closed. "...I cannot return your feelings. I do... I think I feel quite similar but I cannot, will not, put a name to it."

I lifted her head from my lap moving us so that I laid behind her against the back of the sofa, her face buried in my chest. "I know."

I whispered into her rose scented hair. "It is enough that you lay here with me. That you allow me to hold you. Touch you. Kiss you. I wouldn"t ask for more."

"And if you needn"t ask? If I gave without provocation?"

It was now my turn to go rigid. My entire body hardened like the steel of my breast plate while my heart beat fiercely against my chest in a painful rhythm. "Arabella..."

Now she met my eyes, and the intensity I saw in her gaze might have killed a lesser man. "I mean it, Drake. My coronation is a fortnight away. My forced marriage soon to follow then.. I have no doubt he will kill me the moment I bare him a child. Time doesn"t favor us. I want... need to spend what time we do have meaningfully. I want to experience what it means to... and you should to. I know you were waiting..."

I silenced her with a deep kiss. A soul searing kiss that not only took her words but the very breath from her lungs. It wasn"t until minutes later that I pulled away from her meeting that unwavering violet gaze. "Yes. I want the same as you. But not today. You"re emotions are stretched to their very limit and if we were too.. make love," I said feeling a slight warmth to my face. "I fear that it might push you over the edge. Or it may not even be what you truly want."

She sat up and glared at me. "Are you honestly telling me what I want? Saying I don"t know my own desires? Own mind?"

"That is not what I am saying. I am simply saying..."

"I know what you"re saying, Sir Ramneal. Why must you always do this? Always push me away and tell me that I don"t not know what I ask for." She stood up and stormed into her bed chamber taking all the heat in the room with her.

"Why indeed..." I mumbled.

But was I so wrong? I just needed to be sure that she was truly ready. Laying with a man, with an enemy, was something that should not be considered lightly. Especially for the soon to be queen of nothing.