Royals and Rebels 1: The Queen of Coleum

Chapter 15

Fifteen

After a particularly long, hellish week at school a night at the Opera was exactly what I needed. What I didn’t stop to consider was that it meant that I would be staying with Everly’s family, at the palace. In close proximity with Apollo, all weekend. Despite the necklace he had given me, and the kiss, we hadn’t really been together all that much.

Apollo was a senior, three years ahead of us. We didn’t share any classes, and his dorm was on an entirely different side of the campus. If Everly had seen him, she hadn’t mentioned it to me. But I didn’t get the impression that they were close in the way that normal brothers and sisters were. I didn’t think that they had that luxury.

We packed up our things, and the security team drove us to the castle. I didn’t know what I had expected when I thought of the castle. Maybe like those images of large, stone fortresses in fairy tales.

The castle was large, and white, with hundreds upon hundreds of windows. Standing at the entrance were two guards, dressed as footmen from the 1700s. They opened the large, wrought iron gate for us, allowing us in.

The guards opened the door for us, greeting Everly, and eyeing me with mischievous grins on their faces. Our bags were taken, and when we walked inside, Queen Lucy was waiting for us.

“Everly!” she ran up and wrapped her daughter in a warm embrace. When she saw me, she smiled, saying, “Rose.”

“Your majesty,” I gave a fake, little curtsey, still not knowing how to act around you.

“Apollo is waiting for you in the garden. The maid will take you there.” She gestured to a young woman with red hair that seemed to be so common on the island. She wore a black dress, with a white apron, and a white cap, looking like a maid who might have belonged to the Downton Abbey house.

Apparently, time stood still in the castle.

The maid smiled at me. “Follow me, Miss James.”

I did, and we walked in an awkward silence until finally, we reached the large, French doors that led out to the palace gardens. Standing there, by a large, ornate fountain with the god of his namesake in the center holding up the sun, was Apollo.

He wore a fine, blue suit, and he looked more relaxed than I had ever seen him. This was his home. His element. Where he belonged. “Rose,” he said, as he strode towards me. He wrapped me in his arms, picking me up off the ground, and spun me around as if I were light as a feather.

I laughed, when he put me down finally, he kissed me. One of those kisses of his that always, always left me weak in the knees. “Well, that’s quite the hello,” I said.

“I’ve missed you,” he admitted.

“You know where I’ve been,” I reminded him, “I haven’t gone anywhere. I don’t think I had the choice to.”

“No, you don’t,” he said, resting his forehead against mine, “where you go, I go. Anyway, Mother thinks we should keep a low profile, until we announce things officially. We’re taking the pictures this weekend, after the opera, and then we can spend as much time together as you like.”

I smiled. “I’m glad. I’ll finally be able to be honest with people. Everyone keeps on asking me questions, I have to give vague answers. If it hadn’t been for Everly making up our backstory of how we met, I don’t know what we would have done.”

“You’ll be fine,” he said, “soon, we’ll be shouting from the rooftops, and everyone else will too. All of Coleum is going to celebrate the two of us being together. Quite literally. Mother’s been planning an engagement party for us.”

“What does your father think of all this?” I asked. “Because I still haven’t met him yet.”

“Father. Well….” he hesitated.

“Everly told me, about the attack, and I know about the cancer,” I said, “is that why I haven’t seen you around as much?”

He nodded. “I’m not King, not yet. I haven’t officially gone through my coronation. I can’t, until. Well…”

He didn’t have to finish that sentence. I understood, and nodded, to show him that I did. “Mother tries to perform most of his duties, since she wants me to finish my degree. But there are still certain obligations that I have to attend to.”

“I understand,” I said, “well, as much as I possibly can since I only just got thrust into this world myself.”

He smiled. “The palace will want us to spend as much time as we possibly can once the engagement is official. I promise, we’ll get some alone time too, and of course we won’t be getting married right away. Both Mother and Father want us both to finish school. They feel that a long engagement is best, to push away any questions about us, and so the public will get used to the idea of you.”

“Well, isn’t that romantic?” I drawled.

He frowned. “It’s not, is it?”

I sighed. “I guess I just…I don’t know…I know this is all very professional, but I had hoped that there would at least be some romance for us.”

He grinned. “How does a picnic sound?”

“Did you actually plan a picnic for us?” I asked.

“I did,” he said with a nod.

He took my hand and led me to through the gardens. The gardens mostly consisted of a maze filled with rose bushes. The roses ranged from pink, to white, to red, to yellow. The picnic was all the way at the center. While most people, including myself, would have gotten lost Apollo had no trouble finding the center of the maze.

I gripped his hand tightly as we walked through it, worried I would fall behind and lose track of him, never to be found again. “You’ve spent a lot of time here, haven’t you?”

“It was my hiding place as a child,” he confessed.

“You were the kind of Prince that ran away from nannies and governesses, weren’t you?’

He chuckled. “We didn’t have governesses. We aren’t that old fashioned. But yes, I did give the nannies a run for their money. Tell me, was that an Archives bracelet I saw on your wrist?”

“Yes,” I admitted, “Everly took me there. I wanted to know more about the history of Coleum, to understand if I was making the right choice. I…I can’t help feeling like I’m missing something.”

He paused and turned to look at me. “What did you find?”

“I found a story about Serenity and Oro.”

“Ah,” he said, “The Bastard King and his childhood love. I wondered how long it would be before Everly told you that story. It’s always been one of her favorites. She used to make our nannies tell it before bed. What do you think?”

“She didn’t know what she was getting herself into, like me,” I answered.

He gripped my hand tightly, as if to assure me. “I’m The Sun Prince, Rose. I would never lead you into any situation I didn’t think you couldn’t handle. As long as you are with me, I will shine light on you so that you will grow. I won’t let the darkness make you wither, and should you need to use your thorns, by all means, use them.”

“You really believe I’m the right person for this?” I said. “I’m pretty unimpressive. Even Grace would make a better fit. She’s a commoner, but she’s better equipped to deal with this world.”

“Grace is an old, dear, friend,” he said, “we’ve gone through some things that only we will ever be able to understand. But she is not, and never has been, the one that I wanted. It’s only been you.”

“But at the club, the others implied---”

“The others like to think that they know me, because they’re insiders,” said Apollo, “but the truth is, they’re leaches, like most of the people around me. Everly doesn’t see it yet, because she’s young, and inexperienced, but eventually she’ll understand exactly who those people are too us. I would never be foolish enough to reveal my feelings to them about anything. If they thought there was something more between Grace and I, it was them that drew their own conclusions.”

I smiled. “That’s the best thing you could have said to me. I don’t trust them, and I was worried that you did.”

“Never,” he said, “they are the kind of friends you share a bond with because you grew up with each other, but they are not the kind of friends that will ever know your true self. In the end, family is the only thing you can rely on.”

That was kind of sad, I thought, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.

Then, he leaned down and whispered, “For the record, you are included in my family. You have been from the moment I slipped that promise necklace around your neck.”

I blushed. “Well, you’re crazy then.”

“In love with you,” he said, “come on, the picnic is just straight ahead.”

We came to the center of the maze. There was a statue, of the moon and the sun. the moon was made of silver, and the sun was made of gold. They were on a Grecian pillar, spinning around each other. Faint, music box style music played from them.

“Does that always go?” I asked.

He nodded. “It was built as a gift for Serenity. Oro wanted her to know that they would always be in each other’s orbit. No one is quite sure how they got the music to work, since the music box wasn’t invented until 1796, but it seems to be a similar function. If you believe the legend, not only did Oro have it commissioned, he also designed it. Before he became King, he was an inventor. It was through his skill at creating weapons that he was able to win the war.”

“Wow,” I breathed, “it’s beautiful.”

“If you ever need to speak with me in private, simply tell the staff you’ve gone to find Serenity. I know you’ll mean here, and we can have a moment of peace.”

I looked down at the picnic set up finally. There was a blanket, along with a basket. Everything had already been laid out. Expensive wine, a cheese plate, grapes, strawberries, and nuts.

“Mother’s going to want to update your wardrobe,” he told me, “not only for the opera, but since you’re going to be officially part of the family soon. Those jeans and t-shirts just won’t do. Besides, your jeans cover up far too much.”

I sat down on the blue, striped picnic blanket. He laid down next to me, resting his cheek in the palm of his hand.

“Ah,” I said, “so you aren’t a fan of the jeans?”

He shook his head. “Not at all. They cover up entirely too much of your fantastic legs.”

I blushed. “I do not have fantastic legs.”

“There attached to you, therefore, they are fantastic,” he said, flashing me a big grin, “in fact, I wouldn’t mind seeing them right now, or other parts of you.”

“Why, your highness, I do believe you’re trying to seduce me.”

“I do believe you’re right, Miss James,” he said, “now I am perfectly fine with waiting, but surely you must know that there are…well…other things we can do to keep us occupied until then.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” I said.

“Surely, Miss James, you have played with yourself haven’t you?”

“I mean…I…. I’ve read fanfiction,” I told him, “and erotic romance. I’m not stupid. I know what it is, but I never really had the urge to try it.”

His grin widened. “Oh, Miss James. You don’t know what you’ve been missing. Let me show you, please?”

Hesitantly, I nodded. He used his other arm to sit himself up a bit, and his right hand started to unbutton my pants. The grin on his face looked down right wicked as he saw my plain, cotton, panties. “Oh, you are the innocent, aren’t you?” he said. “I quite love that you’re the innocent. No man has ever been here before but me. I will be the only one to touch you. I am Prince Apollo, the future King of Coleum, and I hereby claim this p***y, your p***y, in the name of Coleum.”

I bit down on my lip and blushed each time he said p***y. I had only heard that word used in the books that I read. I had never heard anyone speak them out loud before, and there was something so deliciously filthy about it.

Slowly, carefully, he pulled down my underwear. They were still wrapped around the bottom of my legs, with my pants. But my most intimate parts were bare. “I’m going to give you your first orgasm, Rose,” he said, “I’m going to make you f*****g bloom for me.”

He cupped my cunt, lightly running his hands over my bare skin, and my brown curls. Then, he parted the lips of my p***y with his fingers, holding them open at the very top. Lightly, with one, single, finger inside of me, he started to stroke, and stroke, as if it were a button he were trying to get something to come out of.

Then, I felt it. I felt my p***y clenching around his finger, felt myself dripping with wetness. My back arched, my toes curled. A noise that I had never made before, like somewhere between a moan, and a mewling kitten, escaped my lips. He kept on, inserting another finger, making torturously, slow circles on my p***y folds.

“Oh god, oh god, oh god!” I cried out, my cries echoing in the garden, and I could only hope there were no servants nearby. There was no point in trying to be quiet. He had worked his magic on me, and I was a shuddering, panting, heaving mess completely, utterly at his mercy.

“Well?” he said when it was over, removing his fingers.

I glared up at him. “f**k you.”

“Don’t worry, I intend to,” he leaned down, then kissed my lips until they were swollen. When he was finished, he slowly pulled my panties up, along with my jeans, buttoning them carefully. His fingers grazed my stomach, and I was suddenly, intensely aware of every move that he made. Everything he touched, I was jealous of, because I wanted it to be me. Whether it was his wine glass, or the grapes, I hated it.

Which I think was his intention in the first place.

I was too stunned to talk. Especially since after he finished, he took his finger, which was now dripping with my wetness, and licked it as if it were the most delicious snack he’d ever had. We ate in silence, and then when we finished, he walked me to my guest room.

“My chambers are right across the way,” he said, “I’ll come for you at eight. I’ve already had your dress picked out. I’m certain the opera will be…. enjoyable.”

He kissed me and disappeared into his room.

I went into my room, still dazed from the events that had happened in the garden. My p***y was still tingling, still pulsing with desire. I pictured him there, in my room, on my bed doing more than just stroking my p***y. I pictured him stroking me, with his c**k, deep inside my body until there was no recovery.

But I was aware enough to notice the dress that was laid out on the bed. It wasn’t at all what I had expected for a night at the opera. It was golden, and glittering, with a plunging neck line that would most definitely show off my breasts. There were slits up either sides. The message of the dress was clear.

Prince Apollo had chosen his Queen.

Me.

And he wanted me to shine, brightly. I just didn’t know if I was ready to shine quite so brightly as I wanted. There was already a maid there, ready and waiting to help me dress for the evening. Feeling as though I was either going to shine, or get burned, I let myself get prepared for my very first, official, outing with the Prince.

I did so with a pulsing through my thighs, and an almost, all too consuming desire that I was worried about getting lost in. That I already had gotten lost in. He was my first everything. He would also be my last everything. Whether I wanted it or not. Which let’s be honest, I most definitely, totally, absolutely did. Every bit of it. Every bit of him. Buried inside me never to leave again.