The Dark Nights of Winter

Chapter 7 - Alex

I couldn’t stop myself from watching her sleep once again. Most of which was a sheer disbelief that she could be so peaceful. I admired how easily she could put her worries aside and slip into slumber. It was a skill I wish I had myself. Instead, I laid there watching her and worrying about how I could possibly protect her from all the problems that were to come, all the dangers.

Crown or no crown, I was of interest to the public. Not just my own people, but people from most places in the world. It was pretty much impossible to avoid the intrusion we faced in the future, short of heading to a remote private island and even then there were no guarantees. The public weren’t to blame; it was the media. Without sight of us, the public would lose interest and forget we ever existed. The problem was that the press wouldn’t let that happen. The cockroaches would do anything for a few hundred quid.

It wasn’t the media as a whole. No, it was a useful tool for people like me. The major corporations were much better, but the freelance photographers had no morals for the most part. There used to be honour among them once upon a time, but that time had long pasted. Jimmy was one of the worst. He would do anything for a photograph to sell on to the papers. Even if I pleaded with him, it wouldn’t stop him from coming back. Some photographers, it was possible to at least barter with them. They would forgo the photo you didn’t want them to take if you offered them something else of interest. It was what my father had done when I was younger. When someone from the press was pursuing me for whatever reason, he would offer them some sort of exclusive from himself. It kept them at bay and allowed me to live my life. Once Jimmy had Noelle in his sights, there were no such options to get him to leave her alone.

I knew Noelle shied away from the spotlight. Her reasons were valid and understandable, but her lack of familiarity with the world I lived in did her no favours. I walked away from the palace because I couldn’t lose her, but I hoped to make her see the situation before us. The crown might be the reason for the interest in my life, but it also provided protection. There was no shaking the interest, all we had done was forgo the protection.

For the time being, I had some protection, but it was limited. That would vanish once the abdication was official. We would have to live a modest life and that didn’t come with the money to hire bodyguards or grand walls to keep the cockroaches out. It was the curse of a prince. I had little skill to speak of. There was my degree in history, but there wasn’t much money for me to make in that field while keeping out of the limelight. I would get an allowance from the crown, or at least I should. It was still to be determined and the final say was left to my cousin. No doubt he wouldn’t be generous.

The problems before us were insurmountable, and yet she slept like an innocent angel. All while I let them spiral around in my mind. Her slumber was bred from ignorance of the problem, and I wanted to keep her that way for as long as possible. There had to be a way to protect her and to have her. I should have been a better man. I should have cast her aside for her own sake, but alas, I wasn’t a good man. My entire life I had believed myself to be moral, but as much as I wanted to protect Noelle, the only way to do so was to be selfless, and I couldn’t bring myself to lose her, even if it was better for her. I had gone from striving to be a hero who would do whatever I could to protect my people, to a villain who would throw it all away just to keep her. Just walking away from my people meant leaving them in the hands of the devil himself. I just didn’t care.

The cutest grunt of a snore interrupted the silence and my thoughts. Bringing me back into the moment and making me force a laugh back down inside for fear of waking her. She was always so full of contradictions. It was one of the reasons I was drawn to her. I was desperate to understand how she ticked and what had happened in her short life to have developed her into such an enigma. So perky and positive, yet at the exact same time negative and withdrawn. A woman desperate not to be noticed, yet with those cat like green eyes and that hair with just a hint of fire, how could she not be the centre of attention in every room she entered? I had heard her at the palace describe herself as plain, but she had no idea just how wrong she was. She was a walking, talking ball of fire and energy. A force that pulled people towards her and refused to let them go again.

For someone who seemed to doubt themselves so much, she was truly remarkable. I hadn’t known that she hadn’t been with a man before me, but it became apparently, quickly. Yet also so hidden that I had doubted myself completely. Watching her intently as she moaned and squirm on the bed, but there was the tiniest hint of apprehension in her eyes that had confirmed it. Still, she had taken everything I threw at her. If I had known sooner, I might have been more gentle with her, but once her tight little p***y was wrapped around my c**k, I was lost. All sense of reason or hint of a gentleman that might have lurked within me was snuffed out. Something more feral took control of me. I wasn’t sure I could have held back even if I had needed to. Thankfully, I hadn’t. She took every thrust in her stride, matching my force with the grace of a queen.

I stroked a stray piece of hair back from her face, just as an excuse to feel her skin against my fingertips. It seemed to have become a habit already. There was a magmatism in me that forced me to reach out and touch her, and I could only resist it for so long before I succumbed. The force had been enough to draw me in from across a gulf and sea alike. There was no doubting that she had too much power over me. It might have been a problem if my heart wasn’t being controlled by such a beautiful soul. That was the only way to describe Noelle. Despite whatever put the pain deep in those emerald pools of hers, she had chosen to only ever respond to the world with kindness and forgiveness. All I really knew about her was that I would kill to make sure that she never had to feel another drop of pain or sadness for the rest of her life.