Page 52 of Coronation (Royally Forbidden #1)

Thirty-Three

Benedict

I t’s Zelda’s idea to walk the maze.

I see her gaze catch on the high row of hedges as we step out of the car beside my typical entrance door to Ashwell Palace. The entire garden was bathed in moonlight, and when she looked back at me, it was to ask hesitantly if we could stay outside for a while before turning in.

There isn’t a single part of me that wants to refuse her.

Zelda pulls off her shoes, setting them by the door beside a bemused guard, and when I hold out my hand, she takes it without hesitation.

The night is still, and I’m acutely aware of every soft rustle of our feet on the grass, the sound of my own breath leaving and entering my lungs, and an owl hooting from the patch of trees beyond the garden wall.

“It’s a bit forbidding at night,” I warn as we pause before the great, arched entrance. When I turn to Zelda, I find her already looking up at me, as incandescent as she ever is in the moonlight.

For a moment, I forget there is anyone else in this world .

“You’ll protect me, won’t you?” she teases, her smile gentle and unbothered.

In way of response, I pull her through the archway.

It’s hardly the first time I’ve walked the maze this late, and I doubt it will be the last. This is, however, the first time I’ve done it with another person, and I find myself more aware than I typically am moving along the darkened path.

There is nothing inside the palace walls we need to be afraid of, and yet, natural instinct has my awareness heightened as we move through the shadows.

“Tell me a secret,” Zelda requests as we make our first turn, her voice as lovely and familiar as the darkened space we currently inhabit.

“What sort of secret?”

She hums, clutching my hand a little tighter as we make another turn, heading north now. “Any kind.”

It only takes me a few moments to come up with something.

“I kept your panties from the night we met. They’re back at the palace in my rooms, if you’d like to confirm.

” My chest expands as Zelda’s answering laugh rings through the warm night air.

It’s not something that comes easily to me with others, but god, do I love making this woman laugh.

“You’re telling me that I played shepherd in no panties, when you had them in your pocket all the time?” she demands, but there’s no genuine anger in her voice.

We reach the end of a stretch of maze and turn left, drawing nearer to the center now. Grinning, I lift our intertwined hands to kiss the back of hers. “I’ll buy you a replacement if you like.”

I mentally add taking Zelda Flowers lingerie shopping to the list of requirements for me to die a happy man.

Zelda sighs, “It’s the principal , Benedict.”

“My full name? My, I must be in trouble.”

Another turn, briefly interrupted by a searing kiss that leaves us both panting.

If I’m not careful, my balls will actually explode from what I’m putting them through tonight, but it’s worth it.

Drawing that line in the sand seems to have lifted whatever remained of Zelda’s fears.

This, right now, is the most relaxed I’ve seen her in my company since that last night we spent together in Fernhill, and it’s difficult to contain my excitement.

Finally, I’ve done something right.

There are obstacles yet to be overcome, practical measures I will have to take if I want to make this woman mine in any kind of permanent way, but this—her trust in me—was the biggest. It hasn’t escaped my attention that the coronation is only a few weeks away, and if we stick to the PR plan originally put forth, she will be leaving afterward.

Could I persuade her to stay?

Since the beginning, I have been laboring under the assumption that being queen would be as torturous for Zelda as being king is for me, somehow neglecting to take into account that we are different people .

“I believe it’s your turn to tell me a secret,” I muse, our pace slowing as we arrive at our destination.

The center of the maze is bright in the moonlight, and the towering old oak is still, its branches casting long shadows over the carpet of moonlit grass. Some of the sharp pieces inside me seem to settle as we stand side by side, taking in the place that has always been most grounding for me.

Zelda hasn’t answered, though, and when I look down, her expression is pained. “Anything?” She lifts her eyes to meet mine.

I tug on the hand still entwined with my own, leading her into my arms. She doesn’t hesitate to hug me back, her arms wrapping tight around my waist as she buries her face in my chest. There’s tension held in her body, lingering worry from whatever it is that she’s afraid to tell me, and I won’t have it .

Pressing my lips to her temple, I murmur softly into her ear, “Keep your secrets, darling. You’ve given me more than enough tonight.”

A quiet noise of disbelief comes from the woman in my embrace, and still, she holds me tighter. “I haven’t given you anything.”

Ha. “You’ve given me hope,” I admit, every word weighed down by the lingering guilt. “That I haven’t ruined this. That I might still have a prayer of keeping you.”

Against me, Zelda trembles, and after an age, lifts her head to look at me. “I’m afraid,” she admits, misery evident in every beautiful line of her face. “That you won’t want me if I’m not perfect.”

God, I’m not sure I could possibly hate anything more than I hate that idea in her head.

It’s been clear to me for some time that I’m falling in love with this woman, or perhaps, that I’ve already fallen.

Whatever the case, it seems clear I lost a piece of myself to Zelda Flowers the very night we met, and it won’t ever be recovered.

The owl hoots noisily nearby.

With a brand-new ache spreading through my chest, I lower my lips to kiss the corner of her mouth, her chin, her jaw, her neck.

“I hope you aren’t perfect,” I promise as I lift my head to meet her shining eyes once again.

“Perfect is fake. I don’t want another flawless thing I couldn’t possibly deserve. ”

I want you.

I want to be the me I am when I’m with you.

I want us to be together. Always.

Another breeze rustles the tops of the hedges around us and carries through the branches of the great oak as I kiss her.

Zelda is small and fragile in my hands, and yet, as she kisses me back, it is with a force that reminds me she will not break. It goes on and on, growing more urgent with each greedy touch and broken intake of air, keeping time with my thundering heartbeat.

I’m overwhelmed by the intimacy of it, and the absolute certainty that the need threatening to swallow me whole will take us both. We are in this together, drowning in the same bottomless well of need, and it’s the closest thing to a miracle I’ve ever known.

“Ben.” The sound of my name on her lips, breathless and pleading in the briefest space between kisses, does nothing to anchor me to reality. I crowd her backward into the trunk of the tree, grinding my erection into her stomach, my hands clutching every part of her they can reach.

Zelda’s hands find my face, though, pulling me back to meet her eyes. “I trust you,” she pants, and even in the shadows, I can see her pupils are blown wide.

Something inside me seems to catch. Fuck . “Are you sure?—”

“Yes.” Her voice breaks. “I promise, I trust you. Please, Ben. Please .”

The meaning of her words and their implications make my chest expand, as I’m flooded by a gratitude and desire so intense I know I could live the rest of my life in it. What more could I ever need? What more could I ever want?

I dive forward with a groan, silencing Zelda’s pleading with another fierce kiss, and I wasn’t conscious of holding back until she removed the last barrier between us. Now, the need to be inside her is rushing beneath my skin, as powerful as any biological impulse, voluntary or otherwise.

Our actions are uncoordinated and messy as we struggle to rid each other of the few barriers standing between us.

We pant into each other’s mouths, breathing the same air as my hands dive beneath her skirts to find those lacy panties and shove them down her legs.

In seconds, the zipper digging into my cock is dragged down, offering me some relief. Some, but not enough.

I don’t stop to check whether she’s ready for me, not when I already know she is.

We don’t exchange another word as we work as one, me leaning down to grip the backs of her thighs, lifting her up and open, while a hand that is softer and smaller than my own reaches into my trousers to grip my length.

I’m shaking as she guides my weeping tip to her entrance. Lost in the shadow of the tree, it’s too dark to see properly, or even to make out more than the angles of her face. I sink forward, stretching her body open with mine as the carnal noises of our pleasure fill the night air.

Even as drenched as she is, I am too large to fit inside her so easily. With difficulty, I force myself to slow down, fucking my way into her while heat surges through my veins like wildfire, and the muscles in Zelda’s lithe thighs shake.

It doesn’t have to be as it was before, not now, when I know this won’t be the last time. We will have more moments just like this one, more sleepy lovemaking before the sun has fully risen, and more frenzied fucks after it’s set. A whole lifetime of them if I can manage it.

“ I love you .” The words surprise even me.

They’ve been lingering at the edge of my mind for weeks, taunting me, and I hadn’t been planning to say them now.

It should have been another moment, a more romantic, deliberate one, and yet I’m so flayed open that I can’t help saying it again as my hips finally meet hers, all the way in at last. “I love you. I love you .”

In my arms, Zelda cries out, her fingers digging into my shoulders as she brushes her lips over mine. “I love you too.”

Four words to transform me forever.

Raw with emotion, I kiss her, tasting the salt from her tears as I do. It doesn’t alarm me, though. This woman feels all things so very deeply, and that I could be worthy of such a gift almost brings me to my knees.

“I’m going to be so good to you. I swear, darling.

I swear .” The promise comes out desperate and rough as I begin to fuck her.

It may have been weeks since we were last together this way, but I remembered it every night as I wrapped my fist around my cock, and the relief of being inside her again is intense.

This won’t last nearly as long as I’d like it to, but holding back anything right now is impossible. I’m too far gone.

Zelda’s answer comes in a moan and a breathless, joyful laugh as she holds me closer. “We’ll be so good to each other.”

Yes. We will.

I press my forehead to hers, listening to her cries grow unrestrained as I find the angle she likes, fucking her hard and fast against the tree. “There?” I demand, my fingers digging savagely into her ass.

Zelda’s mouth falls open, her impossibly tight cunt contracting. “Yes. There. Right there!”

“You see?” I spit through gritted teeth as pleasure begins to tighten in the muscles of my abdomen.

“I haven’t forgotten. I give you what you need every.

Fucking. Time .” Each word is punctuated by a deep, unrelenting thrust, so hard it must come with an edge of pain, and yet I know it’s what she’s been waiting for.

Triumph surges through my veins when I’m proven right.

Zelda’s orgasm is an explosion. Her nails dig into my shoulders as she grinds helplessly against me, tits heaving and lips parted as her cream floods my dick.

“Ben! Oh my god, oh my god —” she chants over and over again, almost sobbing in pleasure as, still, I don’t stop, bearing down on her poor cunt.

We’re not using protection. Birth control isn’t something we’ve discussed at all, and yet I’m not the slightest bit afraid of the consequences as, seconds from coming, I hiss, “Where do you want it?”

Warm hands find my face, as Zelda sobs, “Inside me! Come inside me!”

Christ, thank god.

My abs tighten as I manage a few shaky, shallow pumps of my hips, and finally let go. Nothing has ever been more satisfying than spilling inside this woman, and I bury my face in her neck, panting as my cock throbs, filling her with my cum.

I’m still recovering when Zelda presses her lips to my cheek, her skin warm and damp against mine, whispering words in my ear that give me more than I ever knew to want. “I love you,” she tells me, dragging her fingers through my hair.

Above the high walls of hedges, another breeze sweeps through the palace gardens, the sound of the rustling leaves joining our heavy breathing.

After an age, I lift my head to meet her gaze through the darkness. We’re still pressed together, my half-hard cock resting inside her, keeping my release exactly where it belongs as I echo her words, “I love you.”