Sleeping Beauty (Not Quite the Fairy Tale Book 7)(12)

“What measures?”

“For now, your doors will only open to you or me. Whatever maid you may have will need to work while you’re in. The system dates back to when Aurora was a toddler, to ensure no one unregistered may have access to her. Now, unless my company is distressful to you, I believe you’ll have no further protest.”

He went to her utility cupboard himself and retrieved the blankets she’d let him borrow the previous night.

“You can’t sincerely wish for another night on this torture instrument.”

She’d fallen asleep on her sofa while reading a time or two, so she knew what she talked of.

“Unless that was an invitation to share your bed, that’s quite a pointless remark.”

She blushed. Oh, for Heaven’s sake! She was a goddamn adult.

“Well, I don’t see why not. My bed could fit in half a sports team, surely there’s room enough for two of us without things getting awkward.”

Rupert stopped moving, before turning to her and laughing.

“It has just come to my attention that you seem to be quite mistaken about a great many things, Rory. Let me explain.”

He dropped the sheets on the sofa and advanced, heading right to her. She could hardly breathe when he sat on her bed, and bent forward, speaking so very close to her.

“Firstly, you’re mistaken about me. You look at me and see your King. The representative of the Crown you serve. The Crown you trust.” He was almost whispering now. “I’m no King, Rory. Not in this room. This is just you and me now. You and a man.”

His gaze dropped to her lips. “Secondly, you’re mistaken about your bed. For surely, a whole team may fit. And nonetheless, it doesn’t change the fact that, were you to invite me into it again, things shall certainly get…” he quoted her words, “Awkward.”

Oh.

And just like that, she was wet, and longing for some awkwardness.

Eventually, she learned how to breathe again. By then, he’d returned to the sofa.

“Good night, Rory.”

“Good night, Rupert,” said she. And she’d certainly remember to differentiate His Highness and Rupert from now on.



He was going to wed Rory when things settled down. The woman who’d believed in him, the woman who’d remained loyal. The woman who loved her King. She’d be his reward for sacrificing his happiness in the name of the Crown the first time around.

She liked the man he was, he’d seen it in her gaze. He might very well have shared her bed that night, if he’d so wished, but he needed to keep his head clear, focused. Aurora was his first priority. Aurora, and the sensitive upcoming weeks. The subjects of Ferren didn’t know him - now was the perfect time for a rebellion and the Councilmen he’d just dismissed knew it.

They said keep your friends close and your enemies closer; wedding Marina had quite disillusioned him on that notion. He loved his enemies as far as he could throw them. Let them plot and play their parts. He was King and the game still was in play until he was taken.

His first priority had been ensuring Aurora’s safety; no doubt, anyone wishing to get through to him would think of harming her in order to do so. Well, now they couldn’t. He’d hidden her where no one would think to look for her. His second thought had been for Rory. He’d told her of one of the safety measures he’d taken on her behalf, without breathing a word of the other two. Every robot still active from back in his day, whose mission was to take care of the King, had now been reprogrammed to mind her. He’d also set up interviews on the morrow. Back in the day, his private secretary would have seen to such things but he was alone with no one to trust save for Rory. He and she would run through the applications together.

Firstly, he needed personal guards, for both of them. Secondly, there was the matter of their staff - down to the very last cook and server, for it was all too easy to slip poison in their bowls. He’d barely eaten a thing, and only taken what wasn’t served to him in two days.

Rupert ran through all this in the morning. “I hope you might take the day off to assist me.”

She shrugged. “Waking you was my job. I’m quite free for now, although I’ll certainly need to start writing reports.”

He smiled at her innocence.

Asking her to be by his side was telling. He might as well have gotten on one knee and proposed. Yet Rory didn’t seem to realize yet that she was to be Queen.





Chapter 10





Marriage of Inconvenience





Oh, this was bad. He was giving her the respect, the duties, and the deference a King reserved for his Queen. Finding enemies everywhere and betrayal at every corner, Rupert had attached himself to the one woman he believed he could trust - the woman who’d saved him. She understood that. But she damn well wouldn’t marry a man because he was grateful or afraid. She had more pride than that. After two unsuccessful relationships also based on nothing - certainly, no affection - she also had more sense than that.

Never had she known anything to be quite as fucking tempting, though. He wasn’t any king; he was Rupert, her Rupert. She knew everything there was to be known from books about him. She knew every one of his features, each line on his face, having studied them quite closely since she’d started interning with the previous head of science. And now, she knew his voice, the way he moved and the way he smiled - at her, specifically.