The King’s Innocent Bride

I pull back to look at him. He always says the right thing to make me feel better. “I just want to be a good wife,” I admit. “I’m new to all of this. You know relationships.”

“Thank fuck. I hate the idea of your heart having belonged to another.” Jealousy flashes in his eyes as he puts me on my feet in the bathroom. He pulls my dress over my head, stripping me of all my clothes and leaving me naked. “This is mine. All of it.” He takes off his clothes next.

“I’m new to this, too, Kate. I’ve never done the whole relationship thing either,” he tells me. That takes me a little by surprise. He’s already admitted to me that women are always trying to get his attention but for the wrong reasons. “I wanted what my parents had and I wasn’t willing to settle.” He picks me up again, carrying me into the shower and turning the water on.

“But you bring out a side of me that I didn’t even know was there. You make me do and say things I never thought I would. Who knew an angel could make a man want to do such dirty things?”

“You do the same to me.” I admit. “Make me want to do things I’ve never even thought about before.” I love hearing that only I get this from him. It puts me even more at ease.

“And, for the record, you’re already the perfect wife. All you need to do now is walk down the aisle to me to make it official.” He pulls me under the water with him and starts washing my body. He doesn’t miss an inch of me.

When he’s done he washes himself before turning the water off and then drying us off. “Stay,” he tells me as he exits the bathroom and comes back with pajama pants on, with a white nighty in his hand for me. He slips it over my head, and the silk is soft against my skin.

“That doesn’t stop me from wanting to take you right now,” he warns, looking almost frustrated. His hands come to my hips. I was surprised he hadn’t done anything in the shower already—I could tell he’d wanted to. His cock was begging for attention. Each time I tried to touch it, he’d grab my hand, kissing my palm before telling me to be a good girl. I don’t want to be good.

He was hard. I’d never seen a naked man before and he was more than man. He looked like a warrior. He might not have let me touch his cock, but my hands had wandered everywhere else. I place my hands on his chest, my fingertips grazing over the hair on his chest.

“This is the best birthday I’ve ever had,” I tell him, bringing his eyes back to mine. I can tell he’s about to lose all his control and he doesn’t want to do that yet.

His hands on my hips grip me harder as he lifts me, throwing me over him shoulder. When he sets me down, I see there is a picnic laid out on the floor.

My eyes lock onto a cake my body stills. “I saw the cake in all your birthday pictures,” he says into my ear. “The recipe was in the box I got from your uncle’s.” He kisses me below my ear. “I had the chef make it. If I made it, I likely would have burned it,” he chuckles.

My grandma and I made that cake together for every birthday. Hers or mine. It was a tradition, one I would now be able to carry on with my own children.

“It’s perfect.” I reach out and swipe my finger across it. I bring my finger to my mouth and moan around it. It’s even better than I remember. I do it again, this time bringing it to James’s mouth. He wraps his mouth around my finger, sucking on it. Slowly I pull my finger away.

His mouth takes mine. He flips us so I’m under him. “I can’t wait another second.” Before I know what he’s doing he’s slipping a ring onto my finger. I bring my hand up to look at the antique ring. “It was my grandmother’s,” he tells me.

The thick gold band has a large square pink diamond in the center, with smaller diamonds all around it. It’s unmissable on my finger.

“I love it,” I tell him. “I love you,” I add. “I know it’s soon and—” His mouth crashes down on mine, taking my breath away. I thought we’d kissed before, but this is different. This is everything. This is the beginning of us.

“You don’t have to explain or reason anything to me, princess. I know because I’ve loved you from the moment that hood feel from your head revealing my future to me.”