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Luc

M y orders for the morning were simple—show the princess her new kingdom.

As I marched into her room at seven sharp, my blood still pumping hard from my morning run, I was eager to get started. I entered the room and found her still sleeping.

Still sleeping in the nude, to be specific. With her slender body, round, full hips, and perfect breasts, Ava looked like something out of a dream. Her body was so lovely, in fact, that I barely noticed the huge tattoo that marred her arm. I could only imagine what the king would say the first time he saw that.

“Rise and shine, Princess,” I said, stepping over to the curtains and pulling them open with a quick yank. The room filled with golden sunlight, a moan sounding from Ava as the light hit her.

“Huh?”

I turned to watch her roll over onto her stomach, displaying her gorgeous ass. It was still unbelievable to me that a woman that looked like her hadn’t been with a man other than me. Then again, maybe the average man was too intimidated to approach her.

She’d told me that the reason had been because she was so busy with work and school. I didn’t believe that for a second. If anything, her busyness wasn’t the reason she hadn’t found love, or even lust, but a good excuse for her to ignore the subject of romance altogether.

Ava opened her eyes slowly, her bright blues somehow even more luminous in the morning light. She rubbed them sleepily, sitting up slowly. When she realized what was going on, however, her eyes flashed with something like panic.

“Hey!” Ava’s hand shot toward the nearest pillow. She grabbed it and covered her body. “What the hell, Luc? Did you seriously just barge into my room?”

I grinned, crossing my arms and leaning back against the wall next to the window.

“Figured it’d be a fun way to get you up.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You know, just because we… did what we did last night, doesn’t mean that you can pull a stunt like this.”

“But I did. And look! You’re up. Mission accomplished.”

“I’m up… for now. But maybe I’ll just go back to sleep, huh? You ask me, I deserve a little rest after my around-the-world trip.” With that, she plopped back onto the pillow. “Give me another hour. I promise I’ll be all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when you knock to check in on me.”

“We could do that,” I said. “Or I could get you up right now.”

“Huh?”

Without another word, I stepped over to the bed and grabbed onto her slim ankles.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Getting you out of bed.”

With a yank, I pulled Ava out from underneath the covers, the pillow she’d been holding dropping onto the ground.

“What the—!”

She didn’t have a chance to say any more than that. I pulled her onto her feet, the sunlight casting her body in a golden glow as she steadied herself.

“You asshole!” she said, reaching forward and slugging my shoulder. “Who do you think you are?”

“The man that’s going to stand here until you get in the shower. Now, go.”

She regarded me with an expression of bewilderment. But, seeming to understand that there was no getting out of it, Ava didn’t protest. Instead, she let out an annoyed whimper before stomping her foot and marching past me. As she did, I couldn’t help but take one more look at her perfect ass in motion as she disappeared into the bathroom.

Moments later, I heard the shower turn on. Part of me wanted to join her. But I held back.

After all, I’d already crossed way too many lines. If Alaric ever found out it’d be the end of our friendship, for one. Not to mention the end of my career.And possibly my life.

But there was no taking back what had already started. Whatever was going to happen was already in motion. For better or for worse.

* * *

“Holy freaking cars !”

Ava’s voice echoed through the massive garage underneath the palace. The sight of the king’s personal fleet of cars was one that managed to impress every time I laid eyes on it.

The space was large, with rows of florescent lights over top of each car, giving it its own personal spotlight.

“This is… damn !” Ava hurried over to the nearest car, a 1992 cherry-red Porsche Carrera—one of Alaric’s favorites. Ava prepared to put her hands on the hood, but a pointed throat-clearing on my part gave her pause.

“I thought it might go without saying, but don’t touch them.”

She lifted her hands and stepped away. “OK, that’s way easier said than done. This collection is amazing!”

“You a car aficionado?”

“Hardly an expert, but I can appreciate a fine ride when I see one. Not to mention, driving around a beat-up food truck for a year that constantly needs work done ends up giving you a solid appreciation for fine craftsmanship.”

Her eyes lit up as she spotted another car that caught her attention.

“Shit, a Ferrari Testarossa? This has to be… an ’88?” she rushed over to the dark blue car, ready to put her hands all over it. When she realized what she was doing, she glanced up at me with a contrite expression on her face. “Sorry, it takes a lot of resistance.”

“Close. It’s an ’87. And I’m sure the king will be amenable to you taking a closer look at his collection at a later date. The only thing he loves more than collecting them is showing them off, after all. For now, we have places to be.”

“Fine, fine,” she said, taking one last long, lingering look at the Ferrari before breaking away and coming over to my side. “Does the king ever take these out? Like, for example, on a Sunday drive?”

“When he can. Hard to be non-descript about it when you’re the King of Edoria, however. See that green Bentley over there?”

Her eyes lit up as she spotted the car to which I was referring.

“ Wow ,” she said, running over to the forest-green Bentley cruiser. “This is pure luxury.”

“That’s the king’s favorite,” I said. “He doesn’t smile often, but the sight of his Bentley always manages to put a grin on his face.”

Ava regarded me with a mischievous grin. “So, this is the one we’re taking out for our drive?”

I laughed. “Not a chance. Just wanted to show you. Our ride is over here.”

I gestured for her to follow, the two of us soon arriving at a black 2015 BMW crossover.

“I mean, it’s nice,” she said. “But a little boring. Everyone in Seattle buys something like this the second they hit six figures.”

“Well, this is what we’ll be taking out.”

The disappointment on her face was impossible to ignore.

“Are you serious? There’s a whole garage of beautiful cars here, and you want to take out the most boring one?”

“There’s a whole garage of the king’s cars here,” I corrected her. “He and I are close, but that doesn’t mean what’s his is mine. Not to mention, this vehicle is nice and discreet. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.”

She pursed her lips and nodded, understanding where I was coming from.

“Now,” I said. “Let’s get moving. There’s a whole country to explore, and we’re just getting started.”

We climbed into the car. I started the engine with a press of the ignition, and soon we were off. The garage led to a small side road from the palace shaded with the overhanging branches of trees, a small, but guarded, gate at the end. Once we were through, I pulled out onto the main road around Lausanne, one that took us to an elevation that afforded a perfect view of the city.

“Hard to believe that after the Second World War, Lausanne was a town of no more than fifty thousand, a nation of agriculture and fishing, for the most part.”

“Are you serious? But there’s got to be hundreds of thousands there now. And it doesn’t look like a lot of fishing gets done in those skyscrapers.”

“You’re right. The baby boom hit Edoria hard. Edoria was fortunate to have avoided the destruction of the war and positioned itself in a Switzerland-like stance of neutrality. Once peace settled on the continent, all anyone here could think about was having big families. Our king, your great grandfather, was able to position our small nation as a financial powerhouse, a place where the wealthy of Europe could conduct their businesses on neutral grounds. Between the financial and population boom, Edoria became what you see today.”

She kept her eyes on the city as we passed. “Very modern.”

“In some ways,” I said. “There were certain types of men and women who were eager to settle into their new roles in the global economy. But the vast majority of Edorians were more than happy to live their lives as they had for generations. As princess, you’ll be spending plenty of time in Lausanne, allowing you to get to know the city well. I wanted to give you the chance to see a part of Edoria that you might not be able to see quite as often.”

She smiled. “Looking forward to it.”

Her eagerness seemed a sharp contrast to the way she’d been last night, on the verge of taking the first plane back to the States. Part of me wanted to know what had brought on her change in attitude. Had my “distraction” done its job?

“So,” she said, taking her eyes from the view. “I’m definitely eager to get to know Edoria.”

“But…”

“But… there’s something, some one else I want to get to know today.”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah, you.”

My stomach tensed.

“Now, what’s that look all about?” she asked.

“Nothing. Just not the biggest fan of talking about myself. Always seems self-indulgent.”

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with a little self-indulgence every now and then. Like last night.” She flashed me a wicked, sexy grin, one that almost made me want to pull the car over and ravish her right then and there.

“Last night was about taking your mind off matters and helping you relax,” I said.

Ava laughed. “Oh, so you were just doing me a favor? Part of your royal duties?”

“Something like that.” I was eager to take my mind off the subject of last night. “Anyway, you wanted to know about me?”

“Changing the subject, huh?” Ava was too damn canny for her own good. “Well, whatever gets you to open up.”

“Why do you care about me opening up?” I asked. “At the end of the day, I’m nothing more than a member of the palace staff.”

“I have my reasons. And what if I just want to get to know you better? Is there something wrong with that?”

“Fine. Whatever. Ask what you want to ask.”

“First of all, how did you and my father get so close? I mean, you have to admit that this arrangement of yours is kind of strange, right? A member of the palace staff who’s the right hand to the king?”

“Well… there’s a bit of royal history that you ought to know, I suppose, involving family matters.”

“Then let’s hear them. Starting to feel like I’m wandering around in the dark here.”

I cleared my throat and began.

“Your great grandfather, Alaric the Third. His reign was long, beginning before the First World War and ending in 1963. He died of old age and left two sons. One of these sons renounced his royal responsibilities, and claim to the throne, choosing to marry a woman from New York he’d fallen in love with during his studies abroad.”

“Romantic.”

“Perhaps. But it pruned a branch of the royal family tree, which had already been sparse over the last century. His son, Gadrien the Second, your grandfather, took the throne in his forties, reigning until the tragedy.”

“The tragedy?”

“Correct. In 1990, the royal family was involved in a terrible, terrible accident. A car containing the king, the queen, the king’s eldest son, and the king’s brother, crashed on a freeway in Greece, killing all passengers.”

“That’s awful!”

“Indeed, it was. The tragedy rocked Edoria, leaving your father at the young age of sixteen as the sole heir to the throne. Your father hadn’t been prepared for the role. What he had been preparing for was a life of quiet wealth and modest royal duties—the sort of life expected of a non-heir-apparent. Your father was thrust into the European spotlight. Everyone on the continent wanted to know about this dashing young prince who would be king.”

“And that’s where you come in.”

“That’s right. I was nothing more than a royal attendant at the time, a position occupied by my father and his father and so on. The moment the coronation was complete, and your father became the new king, I knew my life was likely to take on a different shape from what I’d imagined. Your father had always been the bookish sort—his life plan had been to attend Oxford and finish his Ph.D. at an ivy league school in the states. Needless to say, his new role was something he wasn’t prepared for.”

I pulled off the freeway, taking us on a smaller road through the rolling hills of the countryside.

“I was there to help him. I guided your father through his responsibilities, always there by his side. We grew close and became friends. And that hasn’t changed to this day.”

“And my mother? How did she come into the picture?”

“Your father wed her as a gesture to the new finance class of Edoria, the daughter of a wealthy banker. It was to show the union of old and new in Edoria, that our nation could be modern and traditional at the same time. However, your mother didn’t take to the life of a queen. Hence why she fled.”

“And you knew her, right? What was your relationship like with my mom?”

I tensed. “I knew her. That’s all you need to know.”

“That’s all I need to know? How about you tell me the rest, and I’ll decide what I need to know, exactly?”

I lifted my finger toward a small village clustered on the Langford River. “There. That’s the town of Westford, our destination.”

She gave me a look that suggested that while she was willing to let the subject go for now, she would be revisiting it sooner or later.

We approached Westford, a fishing village of around five thousand. The place was all old-world charm, with stone buildings and streets, the town centered around the cathedral, the bustling marketplace clustered around it. Villagers stopped and watched the car as we drove past.

“Very cute place,” she said. “Is there something special about it?”

“Yes. Two somethings, to be precise. The first is that this place is Edoria to the core. The architecture, the people, the feeling in the air. I wanted you to see what the nation looks like beyond the limits of Lausanne.”

“And the second thing?”

I allowed a small grin. “They have the best fish soup in the country.”

I drove through town, parking on a small side street near the river. We stepped out, the shimmering waters of the Langford visible in the near distance. I led Ava through the winding roads, some of them aging back centuries. Before too long, we reached a riverside café called Martin’s, one of my favorite places to dine in the country.

The staff all knew me, giving their greetings and passing along their best wishes to the king. We were seated on the patio, the view of the river and the green, rolling hills on the other side of it some of my favorite scenery in Edoria. The docks on the riverside were alive with activity, fishing boats here and there in the water. On the patio, we dined on a lunch of fresh bread and butter with big bowls of fish soup, the flavor unlike anything else one could find in the country.

“I don’t want to sound paranoid,” Ava said as we ate. “But people are… kinda staring. Do they know who I am?”

“Not yet. If you want to know why they’re staring, you don’t need to look any further than the top of your head.”

She seemed confused, that is, until she realized what I was talking about.

“Oh, the hair.” Ava looked around. “Doesn’t look like wild colors are in style around these parts.”

“In the more modern parts of Lausanne, perhaps. Rural Edoria is a touch more conservative when it comes to those sorts of fashion choices. But don’t worry, they’re just curious about it, is all. It’s something they are not used to seeing.”

The people did their best to not stare, but rural Edorians weren’t exactly subtle about such things. We finished our meal and decided to take a walk by the riverfront to help our food digest. The hush of the Langford River’s waves upon the shore was the perfect accompaniment to our walk.

Our stroll, however, was interrupted by a small girl with bright green eyes and red hair. She approached the two of us fearlessly, beelining for Ava.

“Hey, kiddo!” Ava said, squatting down and putting her hands on her knees and smiling in a warm, inviting manner. “What’s up?”

“Are you the princess?”

“The princess?” Ava asked.

“People are saying the princess is coming back from America. Are you her?”

Ava glanced up at me, clearly not sure how to answer. I shook my head in response. There would be a time to reveal to the nation their new princess. There, on the riverside, our bellies full of bread and soup, was not it.

“I’m not the princess,” she said. “No more than you are.”

Now, there’s a diplomatic answer. It’s true that she’s not yet the princess, not until the naming ceremony makes it official.

“But you know what?” Ava asked. “You look like a real princess to me.”

To make her point, Ava leaned toward a small bunch of purple flowers nearby, plucking them from the ground. The small bouquet in hand, Ava tied a piece of grass around them, the little girl watching carefully. Then she tucked the flowers behind the girl’s ear.

“A crown fit for a princess.”

The girl beamed. “Thank you!”

With that, she was off, hurrying back to her friends near the water to show off her new accessory.

I couldn’t help but smile. Such kindness and warmth were needed in Edoria. In fact, it was a kindness that reminded me of one person in particular—her mother.