I’m not looking forward to having dinner with a bunch of stuffy nobles. Plus, I don’t even speak the language. I can follow along a little bit, since it’s close to German, but I can’t really interact with anyone.
Doesn’t matter. This is my job now. It’s my duty to go to dinner with some boring, stuffy nobles, and to smile like a good Wife Consort. I walk into the bathroom and look into the mirror, but I don’t see anything different.
But I am different. I’m a totally new person. And that’s a little terrifying.
11
Nolan
“I hope you’re decent,” I call out as I walk into her room.
My heart is beating fast in my chest at the thought of seeing Hazel. It’s a feeling I’m not used to. I don’t think I’ve ever been excited to see a woman with her dress still on before, but for some reason I can’t wait to see what she chose. I had the stewards get some very special dresses for her, and even managed to figure out the right sizes. The stewards may be weird, but they’re good for shit like this.
Her bedroom door is shut. “Just a minute,” she calls out.
I sigh. “You’ve had all day to get dressed.”
“I wasn’t just sitting around doing my hair, you know.”
I grin to myself. “I find that hard to believe.”
The door opens and Hazel steps out into the light. “What do you think?”
I stare at her, at a total loss for words for the first time in my life. She chose the black one, the dress that I hoped she’d pick. It makes her pale skin look beautiful. It clings to her curves and shows off just enough cleavage to give you a taste of her gorgeous body.
She looks fucking beautiful. I had high expectations, but she exceeds them all. I can’t help but stare at her, my cock stiffening in my suit pants. I don’t even care if she sees it right now. I’m tempted to skip this fucking dinner and taker what’s rightfully mine right here and now.
“Nolan?” she asks, smiling a little uncertainly. “You’re just staring at me.”
I get myself together. “You look incredible,” I say.
“Really?”
“Fucking really.” I step toward her. “I’m tempted to rip that dress off here and now.”
She blushes but smiles. “Cut it out,” she says. “You don’t think it’s too much?”
I shake my head. “No. I want to show you off. It’s perfect.”
Her smile gets bigger and I step toward her, offering her my arm. “Ready?” I ask.
“Okay,” she says. “Let’s go.”
I lead her out into the hall. We head toward the top floor. Her steward doesn’t follow us, since I’m escorting her around right now.
I point out parts of the castle that I remember from when I was a kid. I used to play in these hallways for hours at a time, running around and getting into trouble. I could do whatever I wanted, and nobody really stopped me. I was the little prince, after all. My childhood was hard, full of learning and pressure, but it was good, too. I had a lot of friends in the castle, Andrew being one of the closer ones, and I didn’t have to worry about much of anything.
“Right there, I knocked over a vase from the sixth century,” I say to Hazel, pointing at an empty pedestal.
“Seriously?” she asks, eyes wide.
“Seriously,” I say. “It was Chinese, Ming Dynasty I think.” I shrug and shake my head. “My father whooped my ass for that.”
She smiles a little bit. “You mean, he didn’t order a steward to do it for him?”
I laugh, genuinely amused by that idea. “No, my father always made sure to punish me himself.”
“Was he a strict father?”
“A little bit.” I hesitate. “He believes the world should be a certain way, and he doesn’t forgive people who don’t live up to his idea of life.”
“I can see how that could be hard.” She frowns at me. “My father was a lot like that, too.”
“Really?” I ask, my eyebrows raised.
“Really. We don’t really get along anymore, me and my family. They want me to live a certain way and I…. I don’t want to.”
“Do they know that you’re married to a foreign prince?”
She bursts out laughing and pulls herself closer to me. “Not at all!” she says, laughing loudly.
“What’s so funny?”
“I’m just picturing the look on my father’s face. He’ll lose it. He’s the kind of guy who thinks Europeans are all a bunch of hairy, lazy, stinky losers.”
I shake my head but I love the way she laughs, so light and free. She pushes herself against me and I can feel my cock stirring again. Fucking hell, my body reacts whenever she’s close. I can see down the front of her dress, and I want to see more.