When the Night Falls: The Crown Lies Heavy
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Nureyluna
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40
Chapter 1
Catastrophe (noun): an event causing great and often sudden damage or suffering; a disaster.
JASMINE
My eyes fluttered open when I heard Theodore finally come in through the bedroom door. The sun was starting to stream through the window, trickling in lazily.
How long had he been gone? I must have fallen asleep while he was away at the palace.
Theodore hovered by the door, unbuttoning his shirt. I raised my head off the pillow, squinting in his direction, the warm hallway shone behind his perfectly chiseled body.
“Get in bed,” I urged him.
Slowly, he walked toward me, flinging his shirt to the side, revealing a muscular v-formation which led my eyes to his now unbuttoned trouser button.
I was wide awake now, hanging on his every subtle movement.
“Did I wake you?” the question oozed out of his perfect lips.
“Yes,” I watched him unzip his pants. “But I don’t mind.”
“Oh yeah?”
He kissed me on the lips, but quickly pulled away leaving me wanting.
What a tease.
Taking my body in as he peeled the sheets off of me, he bit his lip. I liked to sleep naked, which Theodore loved. His hands always gravitated to my body in the night, seeking its warmth. I always felt safe in his arms, like nothing could touch me.
I crawled up to him, my eyes never leaving his. Starting to kiss his chest, I made my way down his torso, my lips grazing each of his abs along the way. His skin felt hot against my lips. My hands slowly pulled his boxers off of him, revealing his throbbing hard cock.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go back to sleep?” he teased, already knowing the answer.
How could I sleep when he was standing right there in front of me, looking like that.
I shook my head, which made him smile. He slipped the t-shirt over my head, kissing the spot right between my exposed breasts.
“You’re so sexy,” he whispered into my ear, tugging my earlobe gently between his teeth.
As he traced down the nape of my neck with his lips, my nipples hardened. I arched my back, pressing into his touch. I was magnetized by him. Sometimes I thought that my body could still find his in a pitch-black room, that there was some sort of psychic connection we shared.
Grabbing my waist, Theodore pulled me in.
His tongue traced around my nipples, wetting them. His lips circled around them and sucked, sending a shiver down my spine. When he massaged my breasts with his strong hands, I could already feel a wetness start to build between my legs.
As if reading my mind, Theodore’s hand wandered down my torso, moving my underwear to the side. His fingers traced the folds of my opening delicately, gradually opening me up. I spread my legs apart, needing his fingers inside of me.
I gasped out loud when he dipped a finger into my wetness, smiling right away when he felt just how wet he made me.
His palm massaging my throbbing clit, he stroked my insides with his finger. The heat was starting to build in my core, threatening to burst at any moment.
As I loosened up for him, Theodore slipped a second finger into me, intensifying the waving motion of his fingers. By the time he added a third, I was writhing in place. He grabbed my ass, digging deeper into my core.
Suddenly, his lips suctioned onto my clit, his tongue flicking it back and forth slowly.
The rhythm of his fingers quickened in and out of me as I covered him in my wetness.
“I need your—” I moaned loudly, unable to finish my sentence.
“You need my what?” Theodore asked, even though he knew what I meant.
“I need your dick,” I finally managed to make out.
“Where do you need it?”
“Inside of me,” my eyes rolled to the back of my eyes as he reached his fingers further into me.
“Your wish is my command.”
I took his length in my hand. I moved my hands up and down, readying my body for him.
Theodore guided himself to my entrance, massaging the outside with the tip of his dick before pushing into me.
He always liked to tease me with just the tip. Never giving in to my moans too quickly.
“Please,” I sighed, begging him to press the rest of himself into me. “I need all of you.”
Theodore smiled, sliding the rest of his member into me. The muscles of my core tensed around him. I could feel every single inch inside of me now. I felt whole when he was inside me. Like some vital organ of mine had been missing as I navigated the world.
Our bodies fit perfectly together. The side of his cock matched the curvatures of my insides. Even our body parts were made for one another, just like two puzzle pieces.
My hands gripped the silk sheets as he reached further into me. My core throbbed with pleasure as he slowly began to thrust, opening me up with every pump.
I moaned loudly as he edged toward my core, nearly screaming with pleasure when he hit that spot which had been yearning for him from the very first touch.
“You feel incredible,” he whispered into my ear.
“You feel incredible,” I repeated his words verbatim, to find other words was asking too much of me right now.
When Theodore touched me like this, I could barely think, let alone speak. Original thought was well beyond me this close to an orgasm.
I could feel it at the tip of my fingers, that feeling of complete surrender. There was no one else in the world that I would be happy to give in to other than Theodore.
The heat was starting to build. It emanated from my clit and ravaged my body like a wildfire. As Theodore pushed in and out of me, he massaged my clit with his finger. He knew exactly what buttons to press to make me cum.
“Will you come for me?” he asked.
I nodded, kissing him desperately.
Theodore’s eyes darkened as he started to thrust more urgently. He was as desperate for me as I was for him. I ground my body on his, pressing myself against him. The tension inside of me was building until it was almost unbearable. I gasped for air, unable to tear myself away from the mind-blowing pleasure, even for a proper breath.
Theodore pinned my hands above my head as he leaned deeper into me. Our bodies tensed at the same time and released in perfect orgasmic unison. My body was flooded with sheer ecstasy; it was like I could feel the universe expanding.
He kissed me tenderly, letting me finally catch my breath. My heart rate eased slowly till the room stopped spinning. I pressed my ear against Theodore’s muscular chest, listening to his own heartbeat.
I tried to sync my breath to his, it was a game I liked to play sometimes late at night when he was fast asleep and I lay awake.
As I lay there listening to his steady breathing, I remembered what had happened the night before, the reason why Theodore had to leave our cottage late at night after Emrich’s birthday party.
The King was in an accident.
How silly of me to have forgotten.
I had gotten so swept up in the heat of the moment that it totally slipped my mind.
“What happened to the King?” I asked Theodore.
Theodore, however, didn’t respond. Instead, his eyes remained fixed on the ceiling unmoving.
“Do you not want to talk about it?” I carried on, propping myself up on my elbows to get a better look at him.
Still his eyes did not move from that singular spot up above.
“Theodore?” I asked, more loudly.
It was very unusual for him to be ignoring me like this. Even when he didn’t want to talk, he usually explained himself to me. This was very strange.
“Theodore?” I repeated, this time more urgently, touching his chest.
I was filled with an eerie sensation. It was like he couldn’t even see me. My throat was starting to close up, my chest tightening anxiously.
What was happening?
***
I gasped for air, my eyes bursting open.
I was in mine and Theodore’s bedroom at the cottage, the sun now fully up in the sky, shining through the storybook window.
Only now I was totally alone.
Theodore was nowhere in sight. His side of the bed was still made up.
He never came home last night after leaving to see the King at Versailles. This could only mean one thing. It was bad news. Maybe even the worst possible news.
Dread filled me as I got out of bed. Just as everything was starting to make sense for us and our family, life threw us yet another curveball. I was beginning to think that these curveballs would never stop coming. That perhaps I might as well get used to them and perfect my swing.
Yet, I shuddered to think what the King’s death might mean for our little family. For starters, we would have to kiss this perfect little cottage of ours goodbye and move into the overbearingly large palace.
Goodbye normalcy.
We would be launched right into the public eye. Every single step we took would be up for scrutiny under the press’ microscope.
A shiver ran down my spine when I remembered the whole Jacques debacle before our wedding. I could only assume that things would get worse once we actually ascended the throne.
The kids… what about the kids? Could they handle it?
The sound of the door knocking interrupted my frantic thoughts. Thea burst through the door, my anxiety evaporating the moment I saw that giddy smile of hers.
“Jasmine!” she squealed, jumping into bed.
She raised an eyebrow, a confused expression on her face, “where is dad?”
“Your father had some business to attend to,” I explained, not even knowing how to answer her question.
The truth was, I had no idea what was going on at Versailles. And while my mind raced ahead trying to fill the gaps, we would have to wait for word from Theodore to truly know what happened. Till then, all we could do was wait.
As stressful as that was, I had no choice. It was best to stay occupied till then.
Everything is going to be fine, I reassured myself. No matter what you have your family.
“How do we feel about breakfast?” I asked Thea.
“We feel great about breakfast!” she screamed.
“Let’s get your brother.”
***
Baby Emrich struggled as I tried to put him into his high chair. He thrashed his legs around violently, laughing as he did it. He thought the high chair was a game, make mommy’s life as difficult as possible as she tries to strap you in for breakfast, the instructions would read.
Actually, Emrich thought everything was a game. He was a happy baby.
“You took your first steps yesterday,” I smiled at him.
He smiled back, only half understanding.
We would have to get someone into the cottage to baby-proof the place now that he could walk. That is if we were to stay here in the first place. I tried hard to push the thought away from my head, reminding myself that worrying about something that hadn’t even happened yet only made you worry twice as much.
No. For now, I would just enjoy this breakfast with the kids and wait for Theodore to come back.
Maybe the accident wasn’t as serious as they initially thought.
“False alarm,” Theodore would say, raising his arms up in relief. “We’re not going anywhere.”
I so wanted that to be the future. I begged for it to be true. I hardly ever prayed, but found myself praying.
Remember me, God? It’s Jasmine.
As the children tucked into the French toast, I sipped on some tea. I couldn’t stomach proper food right now. It would be asking too much of myself.
I looked out at the garden, the flowers we had grown together, the swing gently swaying in the morning breeze. I could hear Thea’s windchime in the distance. It was the image of idyllic serenity.
All of a sudden, the shrill sound of the front doorbell filled the air.
Immediately, a lump formed in my throat.
I knew in my bones that this couldn’t be good.
When I opened the door, I found the royal attache waiting for me, a severe expression on his face which could only mean one thing.
We would not be getting the good news I so desperately hoped for.
Quite the contrary, this was going to be bad news.
