The Prince Ch. 06

In order for someone to love you, you must stand completely naked and bare before them. You must be willing to expose the most intimate knowledge of your body and mind to that person and allow them to pass judgment upon it. Love is not blind, love reveals the truth and your desire for it. Love is the recognition of all of the things you value in a person. Love requires you to know what it is you value and for you to see it in order to exist. I know what I value and I see it reflected back at me every time I see my love. I hope that you may one day share in this feeling and to understand just how clearly Love can see. Enjoy...

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Amber awoke to find herself still lying in the soft silken sheets of the Prince's bed. There was a low light coming from a few candles spread throughout the room. She could see from his window that night had fallen not long ago. Her body ached, but the pain was bearable. She looked around and wondered where he had gone. He must have left her while she was sleeping and she wondered if he expected her to leave or not.

It was at this point that she realized that she was still nude and that she had no idea what had happened to her clothes. She scanned the room to see if he had left them some place obvious so that she could let herself out. They were nowhere in sight, which led Amber to the conclusion that he must not want her to leave yet and that he would have to return before she could go.

Knowing this, Amber wrapped the blankets around her tighter reveling in the sensation of the silk against her body. She had felt it before, but she had never had the opportunity to fully experience the feeling of his sheets embracing her. Nothing in her past could compare to the touch of the blankets now wrapped around her.

No bed should feel this good, was the only thought that she was capable of. She could understand why it was that anyone in the position to afford such a lavish and luxurious bedspread would insist upon having one. Amber knew that she would likely never experience something like this again; she used the spare moment that she had without him and enjoyed it unabashedly.

She knew that time was fleeting and that she would have to return to the reality of what had happened today and what her true position was soon, but for right now, she would pretend that she belonged here. She would pretend that this was her bed, her home, and her room. She would pretend that she was the lady of this house.

Within a minute or two, her fantasy was placed in limbo. The door had opened and she saw the Prince as he entered the room. She made herself sit upright on the bed with the blankets covering her chest modestly as he walked toward her. His face seemed to hold little emotion as he came near to her. This worried her as she thought that she may have angered him in some way or another.

She found that this was obviously not the case when he leaned over and kissed her. It was a gentle kiss, one that felt different from any they had shared before. The immediacy and violence that was normally associated with a kiss between them was not there this time. Instead, this kiss had a tone and a quality that was of simple, effortless bliss. The kiss made both of them feel as though happiness was the only possible state of existence and that any sort of pain or suffering was unnecessary and irrelevant.

When the kiss ended, she looked at him feeling starstruck and dizzy. Before she was able to fully regain her wits, he asked, "Feeling better?" His face was just inches from hers.

"Much," she said cheerfully. It was only after she responded that she realized that he had never asked a question like that before. His proximity kept her from being able to think deeply on the issue.

Just as her slight sense of uneasiness started to set in, he spoke again. "Good. Now, before you go, I should warn you that the kitchen in the palace has closed," as he said this, his voice held no special character, but she could see that something greater lay just beneath the surface. There was a reason he was telling her this and that reason was revealed as he said, "In light of this fact, I want you to eat dinner here tonight. I will not have you being left to starve."

Amber was thoroughly confused by his actions. He had let her sleep in his bed, he had taken the time to make her more comfortable, and now he wanted to make sure that she ate something. The way that he was treating her today was very different from what she had thought that she could expect from him. His actions made it almost seem like he cared for her.

He had paused in his speech and was observing her, but she did not notice his watchful eye upon her. He had left her baffled. Her face had a very large question mark written on it. He was fine with her being confused as she was as he did not particularly want her to understand his current actions. He snapped her out of her revery as he ended the pause by saying, "I took the liberty of exchanging your uniform for your own clothing and have left the outfit sitting and waiting in the bathroom for you. I wish for you to dress promptly as I shall await your arrival in the dining room. Do you understand?"

She did not understand, but she answered, "Yes I do, and I shall hurry."

"Good, then you have all of my instructions," with that said, he moved himself off the bed and out of the room just as promptly as he entered it.

She sat in the bed for a moment or two longer than she meant to as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. She moved herself off the bed sluggishly as she continued to think. Something in her interpretation of the events today must be wrong was the only possibility she could see or believe.

It was not possible that the man who had put her through such a long and, wonderfully, agonizing torture could care about her well being. Those two facts seemed to contradict each other and she could see no way to reconcile them. She decided that the only reason that he could have for having dinner with her was so that he could exact a new sort of torture upon her. No other reason made sense.

Her movements became more rapid and exact as she gained confidence in her theory. All of his previous, seemingly, caring actions towards her must have been part of a plan to leave her more vulnerable to him. The thought that he needed her more vulnerable confused her at first, but began to make sense as she realized that she had only been vulnerable physically to him before and he wanted her to be mentally assailable as well.

Every one of his actions made sense with this as a motive. However, one thought crossed her mind that made her stop in the middle of dressing herself. She could not understand how he could kiss her like he had upon entering the room without meaning it. She kept telling herself that he had done it so as to complete the ruse and that he must simply be a very convincing actor. Her mind would not accept this answer fully, but she did not have the time to come up with a more satisfying one.

She had not noticed what outfit he had brought her when she was putting it on, but she now saw herself in the large mirror in the room. He had picked out her favorite dress. It was pastel yellow in color and fit her very comfortably. The cloth held onto her slender frame lightly, only hinting at the figure hidden beneath. She had always felt beautiful in that dress and she could not help but to smile seeing herself in it.

Amber tried to raise her guard as she rushed down to meet him, but if his goal had indeed been to leave her vulnerable in a way that she had not yet been, he had succeeded. She could not help feeling comfortable and happy. He had made it impossible for her to feel any differently.

He stood waiting at the bottom of the stairway ready to meet her. It took all of her willpower not to run down the stairs and kiss him. Instead, she walked down the stairs without trying to seem rushed or hurried. She moved with the patient grace of the women that she had always admired growing up.

Her entrance to the room was a feat that he had not expected her to achieve and that he greatly enjoyed watching. He could not help thinking that she looked as if she belonged here. She was a worthy adversary indeed.

When she reached the bottom of the stair she stood and waited for him to speak. Instead of speaking, he simply smiled at her and began walking in the direction of the dining room. She followed him obediently.

After they entered the room, he pulled out a chair and stood waiting for her. It took her a moment to realize that she was meant to sit down there. She hurriedly moved towards the waiting seat and sat down in it as he pushed it in for her. He then sat in the seat next to her.

There were two plates and a bowl on the table in front each of them. The larger plate was covered and hid whatever lied beneath from view. The smaller plate held a decorative salad that had items on it that she did not readily recognize and the bowl contained a creamy and delicious smelling soup.

The soup lay directly in front of her and it seemed that this was where they were both to start their meals. Smelling the food made her realize just how hungry she was and the effort needed to keep from devouring everything in front of her was momentous. She did manage to wait with the effort she exerted.

Once he recognized that she was waiting for his permission diligently, he turned to her and said, "Please help yourself to as much as you would like. I know that you are famished."

"Thank you," was all that she could reply before they began eating.

She tried to constrain herself in how much and how quickly she ate, but the soup was delicious. It contained some sort of seafood and a variety of herbs. She did not know all of the things that she ate, but the smooth silky texture and rich flavor made it impossible to maintain a high level of control.

He sat and watched her in obvious amusement as she continued to eat. Tonight, he had decided to be patient and to wait until her appetite had been satiated, to an extent, before beginning to speak to her.

She went to the salad next, but her pace slowed a bit. No longer was she consumed and driven completely by her hunger.

"Are you enjoying the food, my pet?"

She stopped eating for a moment to reply, "Yes, it is very good."

"I'm glad," he said with a smile on his face and in his voice, "Please try the wine, I am sure that you will enjoy that as well."

She picked up her glass and took a sip from it. The wine had a light and sweet flavor to it as well as a decadent after taste. "This is delicious," was all that she could reply.

"I am glad that you think so. I picked this particular bottle out because of how well it goes with the main course," and as he said this, he lifted the cover off of both the larger plates.

A steak had lay in wait for each of them. Her sense of smell was captivated by the meat in front of her. He watched her reaction with a wry grin and said, "Try the steak and the drink together, I am sure that you won't be disappointed."

She wasn't. The seasoning and natural flavors of the steak went together perfectly with the wine that he had chosen for the two of them.

He never took his eyes off of her for more than a moment. He almost wished that he had not chosen that dress for her to wear, almost. She had been right in thinking that he wanted to make her vulnerable in a new way from before and he knew that his plan had worked. Her guard was down and he knew that the wine was likely already beginning to take its effect.

"What did you do while I was gone Amber?"

"Other than keep your home in order?" she asked uncertain of how he expected her to answer. When he nodded whilst taking a sip from his own glass she went on to say, "I suppose that the main thing that I did was spent time with Marissa."

"Is Marissa a close friend of yours?"

Amber giggled a little at the question.

"Have I said something wrong?" was all that he could ask as he gazed at her.

"No, it was just a funny question to ask."

"How so?"

"I simply don't know what I would do without Marissa," Amber answered in all honesty. "It was a funny question because of how obvious the answer is and must be."

"What makes the answer so obvious?"

"Do you honestly not know?" she asked after she finished tasting the sweet drink again. It seemed to her that he should know the answer to this question as easily as she did.

"No, I can honestly say that I do not," he answered earnestly, nearly laughing at her unfounded suspicion that he knew was related to the glass in her hand.

After staring at him for a moment she remembered that she had never even mentioned Marissa before a few moments ago and that he knew nothing about their friendship. It had just seemed that he knew more; it had just seemed that he should know so much more than he did about her.

"I guess; you wouldn't, would you," he heard her say slowly and somewhat distantly.

"No, I cannot say that I would," he said with a sly grin.

"It's just that Marissa has helped me through so much. I don't know that I've ever had a better friend than her. She really means the world to me."

"I'm glad that you have someone that you can depend on so readily." He had not meant to say that, but he could not deny that he meant it. Before she could speak again he went on to say, "How long have you been friends?"

"Well, we both started working at the palace around the same time. Marissa was here a little less than a month before I was and when I arrived she instantly befriended me," she paused for a moment after she said this, but it was clear that there was something else she wanted to say. "She seemed to seek me out. It was, It was almost if she felt a need to protect me from the very start."

"What makes you say that?"

Her face still showed lines of thought crossing through it. "When I first arrived here, I went through the same sort of hazing process that all the girls do. The older girls seem to have a need to use the authority that they have on all of the younger girls.

"I did not begin working here with a friend, as many of the girls did, and I do not make friends easily. I suppose that this made me more of a target, because I had no protection," he nudged her glass toward as she paused. She took another sip before continuing, "One day, I had been cornered by a particularly nasty group that liked to call themselves the 'Primas.' I tried to get away, to escape them, but whenever I tried to leave one of them pushed me back. They called me ugly, stupid, and many other names. They took things from me. They purposefully dirtied my uniform so as to get me in trouble.

"I did my best not to cry, not to let them win because I knew that was their real goal. They did not want my things, they just wanted me to be miserable and for them to see it. I don't know why people exist in the world that act like they do, but they seem to be everywhere," there was clear distress in her voice.

"I know, I have seen them as well."

This seemed to calm her down a bit as she went on to say, "Anyway, it was right when I felt the first trickle of moisture run down my face that Marissa appeared. Marissa had never been afraid of anyone and even though there was only one of her and four of them, she never wavered or showed a hint of fear. I think that her calm was what bothered them more than anything; well, that and her clear willingness to fight.

"At first, I had wished that she would not have helped me. I didn't think that I was worth her putting herself in harms way. It is not because I do not care for or value myself that I wished for her to stay away, but because I thought that I could handle it and did not need to be a burden on anyone. In fact, I even told her that after she had come to my rescue, but she wasn't willing to listen to me on that point.

"She told me that those girls had had it coming for quite some time and that I was just an excuse to pay them back for wrongs that they had committed. I knew that she was stretching the truth back then, but I realized that it didn't matter and that if she really wanted to defend me so much, what could I do to stop her?

"So, you see, she had always been there to help and protect me from the moment I arrived to such an extent that she would not listen to me even if I told her to stop."

"Do you have any idea why she is so adamant about helping you?"

"I honestly can't say because I'm not sure if she even knows the full reason herself, but she has told me that I am someone that deserves to be protected. That I do not deserve to be picked or punished without reason. She never could tell me fully why that was, only that she knew without a doubt that it would be a sin for her to ignore my plight and leave me."

It was at this point that Amber discovered how warm and flush her cheeks felt. Both of them had continued to drink slowly and she had not even noticed him continuing to refill her glass as she had been so caught up in telling him everything he asked. She knew that he must have been refilling it though as the level had never dropped.

A small voice in her head said that she needed to be more on guard now than ever, but that voice held too little power to be of consequence. She was happy to be talking to him. She was happy to be near him. She felt comfortable around him.

It was not the same sort of comfort that she felt around Marissa. The comfort that she felt now was different from any she remembered. The feeling came not from the fact that she trusted him as she did Marissa, but that she trusted him in a completely different way. She trusted that he would understand her and the meaning of all the things she said. She trusted Marissa would always be a true and good friend to her even if at times she could be a bit misguided. With him, she trusted that he would always be able to know more about her than anyone else could.

"So it appears that you don't know everything that happens in the castle," she said with amusement in her voice and a smile on her face.

"What makes you think that I would?"

"Well, all of the girl's in the palace say that nothing is missed by your eyes and that you see everything that happens," she stated as though the answer should be obvious.

"Oh really," he said with a tone of some surprise, "and what else do they say about me?"

"Only the obvious," her voice playful and teasing.

"And what, is that?"

"That you are as strikingly handsome as you are severe and exacting," she said leaning in closer to him.

He shifted himself closer to her, so that he was looking directly at her and nearly touching her. "I wonder."

"What do you wonder?" she asked feeling how close he was to her.

"I wonder if I should be doing this to you."

Before she could manage to ask what he meant by that he locked his lips atop hers. She resisted the kiss only for the instant that it took for the surprise to wash away from her mind. Her arms wrapped his back and she felt him pull her onto his lap so that she was sitting with both her legs swung over one side of him.

He hooked one of his arms around her waist and started untying her dress while kissing her. Once he managed to get the dress loosened on her he started tugging it down and exposing more of her body. He moved it down far enough so that he could move his other hand beneath it and start massaging her breast. She grabbed onto him all the tighter as her body responded to his touch.

Her body ached for his touch and tonight she wanted to be his more than she ever had before. She moved one of her arms off of his shoulder so that the dress slid down further, fully uncovering his hand on her breast. He kissed down her leaving a trail as he headed down her neck and toward her chest.

The moment his mouth and tongue found her nipple, she couldn't help but to let out a moan and wrap her arms around his head. He kissed and licked it gently at first, but became more forceful as he started sucking as much of her breast into his mouth as he could.