My mother marrying a King, me falling for my new step brother and him pushing me to marry him because he loved me. I don’t know how we fell in love. I knew I did love him and that scared me too. When you opened up to someone, you let yourself risk getting hurt. That intimidated me and he’d just convinced me to marry him. Now this. I knew he’d take it in stride. He always managed to handle everything that got thrown his way. I was the one who ran, got scared and tried to hold back.
He never let me though. He always pushed me until I faced him, my fears and feelings. Rupert was a good man, and he was good for me. I was just scared.
“You in there Lara?” A knock on the door and a voice came through the study. I was sitting behind the desk still staring at the phone.
“Yes, I’m in here, come on in mom,” I said and waited for mom to walk in. I loved her, she’d never abandoned me, not like my father had. She’d always held my hand, had my back and given me good advice. She pushed me to face things head on, even when I had fears. She’d been the one pushing me to accept Rupert when he claimed to want to marry me.
“How did the phone call go?” She stood there, looking at me with an expectant look on her face. She smiled at me and I thought that no matter how old she got, she was aging gracefully and I’d be lucky to look like her in thirty years.
“I’m pregnant mum, I suppose you’re going to be a grandmother.” I cringed a little but I plastered on a fake smile, trying to act more enthusiastic than she actually felt. “I have to tell Rupert now; I think he already suspected but this confirms it.”
“You know I support you. You can do this. I know it was unexpected, but I’m totally ready to be a grandmother.” She hugged me. I hugged her back and then a thought occurred to me.
“Mum, don’t you think this is going to be weird? The baby’s grandfather is my stepfather….” I blinked at my mother as the reality of the situation sunk in. It was going to rile up the people who tried to blast us in tabloids when it was leaked that Rupert and I were dating after my mother had married the King.
I cringed.
“You’ll find a way to get past that. It will die down quickly. People lost interest in the relation factor when they saw there was little drama to be seen by us. Just… keep doing that and it will work out.” She patted my arm, gave me another hug and then left me to sit there and contemplate how I was going to break the news to Rupert. I knew my mother would tell her husband, which I didn’t mind. It saved me from having to tell one more person face to face.
Swallowing, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and looked at my text messages. Texting Rupert to figure out where he was, I waited until he responded. He usually got back to me quickly, which I appreciated. I was able to admit that I’d been insecure enough lately that if he took too long to reply back to me, I wondered if something was wrong. My hormones and brain was a mess. Now that I knew why, maybe I’d have better control over it.
I texted him that I’d be in our room, waiting. We needed to talk.
A couple hours later he found me and the minute he saw my face he just knew.
“You’re pregnant?” He asked me gently, his face unreadable.
Nodding, I didn’t know what to say. When he kissed me and hugged me tight, I was shocked and then kissed him back. He looked like he wanted to dance around with me, but he let me go and grabbed my shoulders.
“This is going to be fun,” he grinned at me again. “But, we need to get married. Our baby deserves that much. If you really don’t want to do a big wedding, we can elope. I don’t want to stress you out.”
“No, a regular, big wedding was important to you. Arrange the details with my mother, I don’t want to know. I’ll get the dress, I’ll walk down the aisle, but no stress for me.” I told him. I loved him, I knew how important it was to him since he was royalty. I would learn to accept that I was going to be a Princess by becoming his wife, not just having my mother marry his father.
“Lara, I can do that, but right now, I want to make love to you. I brought some new toys I think you might like,” he said grinning, his tongue ring flashing and I blushed. I had fond memories of that tongue ring touching places that left me breathless and squirming.
“What did you have in mind?” I asked him, my eyes widened in surprise when he walked over to his dresser and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. He grinned at me and nodded for me to get on the bed. I complied, and the next thing I knew I was completely naked, with my hands fastened to the headboard. His warm breath sent shivers down my skin and made me break out in goosebumps. I could feel his fingers skimming against me lightly as he took out a blind fold and put them over my eyes. I couldn’t see anything; I was encased in darkness. But I could feel everything. The lightest touch, the way his lips would brush against random body parts.