Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
I collapsed back onto the couch, letting go of any control I’d still thought I had.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I tried to hold on,” I said.
He pulled off my cock slowly, shaking his head. “You have nothing to apologize for. Unless you won’t let me do it to you again later tonight.”
I chuckled. “God, have you always been this amazing?”
“I’ve always been this into you.”
“Who am I kidding. I’ve always known you were incredible. I don’t deserve you.”
I’d never been quick to come. Actually, it had always been the opposite. Sometimes I couldn’t even come when I was jerking myself off for an hour. But apparently with Henry, all bets were off. I was turned on just from being around him, so I stood no chance when he was going down on me.
He nestled up onto the sofa with me, both of us cramming in next to one another. He was so warm, and still smelled faintly of the shampoo and body wash I kept in my shower, from this morning. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head as he held me close.
I stared out the window as we both drifted off. I didn’t look at the castle. I kept my eyes fixed on the pine trees swaying in the wind, and I felt safe—truly safe—for the first time in my life.
If my life was crumbling, it might be okay, as long as I could be here.
I woke up to the tinny sound of the old TV in Henry’s living room. I rubbed my eyes, sitting up and finding Henry sitting on the old recliner in front of it, his face bathed in the glow of the TV light.
“Sorry,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to wake you.”
“It’s okay. I slept for a while, didn’t I?”
“Couple hours,” he said.
The light from outside was faint and purple. The sun had just set.
My adrenaline spiked when I heard my mother’s voice.
“What the fuck, Henry—”
“I know,” he said. “Trust me, you can go in another room, if you want. But the queen is doing an interview on TV.”
Fear spiked through my heart. “No,” I said, standing up and walking over toward Henry. “No. Turn it off.”
“We can’t run from reality forever,” he said. He reached up, softly running a hand down the side of my body. I was still naked from the waist down, but somehow it felt infinitely less sexy than it had a couple of hours ago.
“I know,” I whispered. “I know I can leave the castle, but that doesn’t mean Frostmonte just... goes away. But I thought I could ignore it maybe for one night?”
“I want to be with you,” Henry said. “In a very real way. And I know it feels easier to ignore the rest of your life, but it isn’t realistic.”
I clenched my jaw. “I know you’re right. I just hate it.”
“I hate it, too.”
“If my mom is doing an interview on TV, I know she’s the one who called for it,” I said. I felt like I had a pit the size of an anvil in my stomach. “If she called for it, I don’t want to know what she’s going to say. About me.”
“The Queen is a master of public relations,” Henry said. “She’s going to try to save face, after what you said earlier.”
“I know she is,” I said. “That’s what I’m afraid to hear.”
I watched as the news TV show cut to a shot of my mother, perched on one of the fanciest sofas in Frostmonte Castle. They’d set up a whole exclusive interview room. At the bottom of the TV screen, a scrolling banner read Queen Charlotte to Make Comments on Breaking News About Prince Sebastian’s Big Reveal.
It was stupid.
It was disgusting.
And I was about to have my life splattered across TV for no goddamn reason at all.
“You don’t have to watch, Sebastian. I mean it,” Henry said.
“No. I know I have to. You’re right,” I said. “Reality isn’t going to just… go away.”
He nodded.
“Just come hold me, though?” I said. I tugged him, and he came back over to the couch with me, curling up underneath a fuzzy throw blanket next to me.
“I can promise you, there is never going to be a time I’ll say no to being near you,” he said.
“Is that a challenge?”
He gave me a lopsided grin. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’d want to be near me even if I was practicing the piccolo for hours on end?”
“Have you actually started playing the piccolo in the last eleven years?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. Violin, though.”
“God, that's sexy.”
“Violin playing is sexy?”
“Of course,” Henry said. “A dark, rebellious prince who plays violin up in his quarters, alone and sad?”
“I mean, let’s be honest, I’m not sure I have prince’s quarters anymore, after today.”
“Let’s see what your mother says.”