Chapter 1

one

REBECCA

P rincess Rebecca Santoro woke to the feeling of lips on her neck, and kisses moving down to her shoulder. A pair of warm, familiar hands slipped around her waist and under her nightgown, one hand shifting up to her breast, the other shifting down, down, down to toy with her below.

She sighed into his touch, and tried very hard not to think about what the day would hold, and all the eyes and press that would be on her.

"You're thinking too much," her husband, Prince Alexander, murmured in her ear. "You're tensing up despite my best efforts."

She turned so she was facing him and sighed again as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight against his nude body. She'd been in love with this face for years before Alex surprised her and confessed his feelings for her. Then she started to know the man behind the face and the crown and had fallen in love. Now she was a commoner-turned princess-turned future queen and she couldn't imagine her life without him .

"I'm nervous about today," she confessed.

"You'll be brilliant."

She wove her hands into his inky black hair peppered with the odd gray, and combed down the wayward strands. He nearly always looked amazing, but she loved his morning look the best because she was the only one who'd ever see him like this again.

He shifted them until she was astride him. "Should I try relaxing you some more?"

She smiled. "You'll probably have to work for it."

He gave her one of his sinful smirks. "Then I'd better get started, darling, or we'll both be late to your event."

"Ugh. It's going to be a disaster."

His hands shifted under her nightgown again, sliding it up, up, up and off. "It's not. You're extremely prepared for this."

"What if everyone hates the idea, or gets mad about the secret we kept and hates me?"

"Impossible."

"It-oh!"

He sat up and hummed as he took one nipple into his mouth and teased it with his teeth, while his fingers teased her below. When she was breathless, he pulled back slightly. "Firstly, I'll never hate you. Neither will my parents, who adore you. Honestly, I think they might like you better than me."

She huffed a laugh and gave him ‘are you kidding me?' look. She'd gotten lucky because her in-laws did love her and treat her like family, but it was nothing like the love parents had for their own kids.

He teased her other nipple and she grinded against him. "Okay, maybe I exaggerated a little, but your idea will work, and it will help people. As for the other…people will understand and be empathetic. People love you, Mrs. Santoro, and that includes the people too, our fellow Vallerians."

Her feet shifted over their ultra soft sheets. "Mmm. They love you, and put up with me because of you."

"Enough." He grabbed her ass and pulled her against his hardening cock. "I won't listen to you say filthy lies about yourself anymore. You're amazing." He kissed her long and deep, a claiming, possessive kiss. "You're beautiful." Another kiss, and he flipped them so he was on top of her. "You're intelligent and kind and loving."

She wrapped her legs around his waist while her hands grabbed onto his ass.

With one sharp thrust, he pushed into her and she moaned.

"Most important of all, you're the love of my life. So who cares what anyone else fucking thinks?"

"Ooh, I like that answer."

He thrust in again and snapped out his words. "Only ‘like'?"

God she loved it when he got all growly and possessive. She didn't have any experience before him, but she couldn't imagine anything better than what they had together.

She shifted her hands to cup his face, bringing it to hers so their foreheads rested against each other. "Love. I love you, Alex."

"Becca." With each thrust, their lips brushed each other. Tasting, teasing, sharing breath and heat and friction. "I love you. I love you so much."

It was building, her body reaching and clenching and demanding. "Alex…Alex, please."

He thrust harder and faster, one of his hands shifting to toy with her clit, his lips gliding down to her neck and kissing behind her ear.

She arched her neck and he kissed along her pulse.

"Now, Becca. Now!"

She groaned and came at his command.

Her prince.

Her husband.

Her everything.

He followed moments later, pulsing inside her and filling her, claiming her in a different way.

His thrusts slowed but didn't stop for another minute. She loved the sight of him sliding in and out, the way his hips curved and his cock claimed and his body possessed her .

There would never be enough of this, never be enough of him. "I love you."

He lifted his head from her neck and kissed her slow and easy, as if they had all the time in the world, as if no one else even existed in the world but them.

The lovely, steamy, seductive haze broke at the sound of his phone, and he groaned for a different reason.

His cock still inside her, he reached over and grabbed the phone, glancing at the name on the screen, then answering it on speaker, his voice careful and commanding and passionless. "Yes, Tavin?"

"Good morning, Sir. The King's office has requested a meeting with you before the announcement this morning. Would you be able to meet in an hour?"

His cock started shifting in and out again, and she turned her head to the side to stifle any sounds she might make. How could he speak so calmly while his cock was so busy?

"Yes, I should be able to make that. I'll let you know when I'm on my way."

"Yes, Sir."

Alex hung up and tossed the phone back on the nightstand.

She finally let out a moan. "I thought we were finished."

"We are finished fucking on the bed, but now we'll fuck in the shower."

Her hips moved against his. How could he get aroused again so quickly? "The shower? We'll be late. You'll be late. You can't be late to meet with…ooh!"

"That's it, darling." He pulled out, then picked her up in a bridal hold and carried her to the bathroom. "I want to make sure you're nice and relaxed for today."

Her body—especially certain parts—were thrumming and yearning for him again. "I won't be so relaxed if I can't stand because you left my legs so weak."

He gave her a devious smile. "Let' s find out, shall we?"

REBECCA

Rebecca was shaking out her arms, a tactic to help keep her loose and relaxed before a speech. She was outside the press room at the palace, where no cameras were on her, and only a few waited with her, including Alex, her chief of staff Mara, and a few other staffers.

Alex rubbed a hand down her arm, then took her hand and squeezed. "Ready?"

"I think so."

He quirked an eyebrow and squeezed again.

She nodded. "Right. Be more confident. I am ready."

"Good. I'll be here waiting when you're done."

She squeezed his hand once more and nodded, wanting to kiss him, but she didn't want to risk ruining her makeup. She had to look absolutely perfect.

When her name was announced, he gave her a supportive smile. She released his hand, grabbed her talking points from Mara, and headed inside. Her heels clicked in the hallway, then went silent as she stepped into the rug-covered press room. The light chatter in the room quieted, and she heard camera shutters going off.

She took one, two steps onto the dais and settled herself at the podium. Only then did she look up. She skimmed the sea of faces in the small crowd, at the seated reporters, the standing camerapeople and photographers, staffers and others lining the walls. There were even more people beyond the camera lens, millions who would soon know everything. Today's announcement would reveal things about her and Alex, and but she could do this.

She wanted to do this.

"Welcome, everyone. I am here today to announce the launch of a comprehensive and inclusive health care program to assist people with their health, including but not limited to mental health and reproductive health."

She took a deep breath, not caring that the cameras saw, not caring that this was the clip that would replay over and over again for likely weeks to come. She needed a moment before the next lines of her speech, and she was going to take it.

"I know all too well the pressure, stigma, and harassment that surrounds and hounds someone who is trying to get pregnant." The energy in the room shifted, almost as though the reporters—the very ones who had themselves harassed her since her wedding day—were offended.

"Perhaps I have garnered more harassment than most about this for obvious reasons, but this harassment has also had negative consequences to my mental health, and exacerbated feelings of failure, which so many feel when they can't get pregnant. Or if they get pregnant and suffer a miscarriage, as I did last year."

The energy in the room shifted almost immediately, from a room full of reporters feeling defensive against her comments, to one mixed with shame for their behaviour and excitement over a new story. Whispers started across the room, growing louder with each passing moment, but she continued in an even voice, knowing they'd quiet down on their own.

"The launch of these programs will provide the support people need to navigate these decisions and stay healthy. While Valleria does not have the highest maternal death rate of developed, high-income nations, we do not have the lowest either. We need to work to care for parents before, during, and after pregnancy. We need to take people seriously when they speak to doctors about their pain, especially women and those from diverse and marginalized communities, whose pain is often dismissed. We'll also be implementing new mandatory training for doctors to help with this and mitigate bias in the medical profession, and updating medical school curriculums to include this as part of their training. We need to provide both the medical and mental tools people need to thrive .

"To be clear, when I speak of maternal health, I am not speaking only of women. Cisgender women are not the only people who can get pregnant, and our country and our medical system needs to fully recognize that, and our medical systems and software are being updated to more easily reflect that. However you choose to identify yourself, you are welcome here. Hate has no place in Valleria.

"Furthermore, this program will not just benefit those looking to have children. Choosing to be childless is also a personal and well-informed choice, and we must stop stigmatizing people for that as well. A person not having a child needs to keep themselves just as healthy as a person who is. A person is not just a vessel for children, and their whole body and their mind need to be healthy and stay healthy. These programs will benefit you as well.

"I'm sure you have many questions about these new initiatives, or even about the personal news I have shared today. As to the latter, my incredibly supportive husband and I have written about this and that should now or will soon be live on the royal website. For questions about the new health initiatives, I'll now turn it over to Dr. Evie Safar."

Reporters started shouting questions, but Rebecca waited for Dr. Safar—her doctor, who she'd approached to spearhead this initiative—to enter the stage from the opposite side. Rebecca shook her hand, then walked off the small stage and out of the door where Alex waited for her. She stepped right into his arms just as she heard a massive cacophony of cameras go off, though she didn't think they'd gotten a photo of them together based on the angle.

They'd discussed at length whether Alex should be in the room, but eventually decided it might distract from the main announcement. She needed her own platform and goals if she was going to be queen in her own right—and there were days she still had trouble believing that. Her? Simple, commoner Rebecca becoming Queen Rebecca? Logically, she knew it was bound to happen, but a part of her still had trouble believing it.

She and Dr. Safar had also discussed if Rebecca should stay on stage while the doctor spoke, but decided against it to keep the focus on the programs being launched.

Alex murmured against her ear. "You were wonderful. I'm so proud of you."

She squeezed him tight and sighed. "The hard part's over."

They rocked lightly back and forth, the movement soothing her. "Now for the endless stream of questions about it."

"We can handle it."

"We can handle anything." He paused their rocking to kiss her sweetly, gently, and—to her dismay—with very little tongue.

They rested their foreheads together against each other, taking comfort in one another.

"Sir?" Tavin interrupted. "The Queen's office is requesting to meet with you both, now if you're available. The article's live on the website, but it crashed from the traffic. We're working to get it back up."

Tavin and Mara were used to them taking quiet moments when they could, and were unfazed about it for the most part.

Rebecca broke their moment first and stepped back. "Let's go then. We can't keep your mother waiting." Whenever the king and queen contacted them via their offices, it was something official. If her in-laws needed to discuss something personal, they'd message themselves.

She and Alex joined hands easily, effortlessly, as if they'd been doing it for many more years than they had. They kept them joined as they walked slowly to the queen's office, only parting when Alex's mother, Queen Genevieve hugged them each in turn. Genevieve had lost a child years ago, and they'd discussed whether or not to reveal it, but had decided against it in the end. Perhaps one day, but this morning had been about revealing Rebecca and Alex's secret.

Now to move forward, finally, hopefully, and manage the fallout from today's announcement.