Chapter 7
It was not until we were back inside the carriage that I finally looked up properly at him.
The first thing I did was grab his hand and turn it over, checking it from every angle.
He watched me with a cautious expression.
“Did Adrian make trouble?”
Relief flooded me when I saw no injury.
Then I looked at him and found him staring at my face with concern.
“Wife isn’t smiling,” he said softly. “Is wife unhappy?”
And that was when I burst out laughing.
I laughed so hard I ended up falling against his shoulder.
Adrian looked horrified.
He wrapped both arms around me at once, trying to soothe me in a rush of nervous words.
“Don’t be mad. Adrian only wanted to protect wife. Adrian moved too fast. Adrian promises not to hit people again—”
“I’m not angry,” I managed between breaths.
I tilted my head back and looked at him, still smiling.
“Adrian, I’m happy.”
Truly happy.
For years, I had dreamed of seeing my father humiliated. I had imagined him brought low, unable to hide behind his title, his authority, or his easy cruelty. But I had never imagined someone would simply walk in and do what I had never been allowed to do.
My chest felt light. Fierce. Exhilarated.
Seeing him sprawled on the floor had filled me with a savage kind of satisfaction.
Part of me even thought he deserved worse.
Adrian tilted his head, still uncertain. “Really?”
I nodded with all my sincerity.
“Really.”
He still looked doubtful, so I leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth.
A little reward.
He went red all over at once.
“This,” I told him, “is for protecting me.”
His eyes lit up so brightly that I nearly laughed again.
“Then Adrian wants more rewards.”
He pulled me into his lap before I could answer and began kissing me in return. Before long, his soft little sounds against my shoulder changed. I felt the now-familiar shift in his body and leaned close to his ear.
“Adrian,” I whispered, “do you want an even bigger reward?”
He made a breathless sound of agreement.
“Bigger than this morning?”
I almost bit my tongue at how quickly he understood. Who exactly had called this man foolish?
I brushed my lips against his ear and murmured, “Then tonight, let’s truly become husband and wife. All the way. What do you think?”
He shivered in my arms.
By the time we returned to the prince’s residence, he was practically glowing.
That evening, after dinner, he clung to me with unbearable excitement.
Even Aiden noticed.
“What reward has Your Highness so happy?” he asked, genuinely curious.
Adrian opened his mouth at once. “The reward is that wife is going to—”
I covered his mouth so quickly I nearly tripped.
Dragging him toward the bedchamber in a fit of burning embarrassment, I shut the doors behind us and pinned him lightly against them.
“This is a secret between the two of us,” I whispered. “You cannot tell other people. Do you understand?”
I was so focused on scolding him that I did not notice how close we had become.
I had one hand over his mouth. Because I was shorter, I had ended up pressing almost my entire body against him. His ears slowly turned red. So did the line of his throat.
He gave a husky little “Mm.”
Then, before I could say another word, he bent, lifted me clean off the floor, and carried me to the bed.
The candles burned warm beneath the rose-colored curtains.
Kneeling before him, I started removing his clothes one piece at a time. Then, swallowing my nerves, I reached for the ties of my own robe.
His hand closed over mine.
He smiled at me with absurd sweetness. “Wife helps Adrian change. Adrian should help wife too.”
His fingers were clumsy and careful. He took forever, fumbling through the process with infuriating patience.
In the end, I was the one who lost mine first.
Before he could finish studying the last knot, I untied it myself and climbed onto him.
I had expected awkwardness.
I had not expected pain sharp enough to make tears spring to my eyes.
He panicked instantly.
He backed away so fast it startled me, then leaned over me in distress, wiping at my face with helpless hands.
“Don’t cry. Adrian doesn’t want the reward anymore.”
Afraid I might bite my lip bloody, he kissed me until I parted my teeth.
The kiss was steady. Lingering. Wet with restrained tenderness.
By the time I had gathered the courage to try again, he still refused.
“Adrian doesn’t want wife to cry.”
“I won’t cry this time,” I insisted softly.
“You will.”
“I’m serious.”
He looked even more worried.
Left with no choice, I reached beneath the bed and pulled out the booklet the palace matron had given me.
Face burning, I pressed it into his hands.
“You’re smart. Just… learn.”
He opened it with wide-eyed curiosity.
At first I only felt embarrassed.
Then, as he kept turning pages, a different kind of alarm began to rise.
Why did the illustrations become stranger and stranger the farther in he went? And why were so many of them focused on a man pleasing a woman?
Had the matron given me the wrong manual?
I leaned over in a panic, trying to snatch it back, but Adrian had already set it aside.
Then he turned back to me and lowered me gently onto the bed.
He kissed my forehead and said with quiet certainty, “Adrian learned.”
Something in his eyes had changed.
Not darker exactly.
Just deeper.
I felt my own breath catch.
Then his mouth trailed slowly downward, over the corner of my lips, the line of my throat, lower and lower still, until I reached for him in startled protest and he caught my hands and placed them over his shoulders instead.
The unfamiliar sensations that followed almost dissolved me.
Later, all I remembered clearly was the way the little gold bells on the canopy kept ringing through the night.