17. Happily Ever After

CHAPTER 17

Happily Ever After

Tristan

Although it began quietly, almost with an awkward silence, the little party of five warmed up as the first round of drinks came and went. Sophia recounted the events of the afternoon, saying she had resorted to calling their father when it seemed like Alexander wouldn't back off. For days, their eldest brother had been holding fast against Sophia's attempts to discuss the marriage arrangements. "‘He needs to learn how to do what he is told, Sophie,'" she imitated in a deep, mocking tone, sitting on the floor with her back against the chair in which Maximilian sat. The young prince's back was straight and his movements elegant. According to Cedric, that was not very much like him, but élodie's proper conduct inspired Maximilian to act the way he was taught.

My gaze moved from one face to the next until I reached Cedric, sitting next to me on the ottoman, holding his wineglass in both hands .

"Hm?" he said quietly, his gaze never far from me. And when he looked at me, I couldn't believe he was this beautiful. I couldn't believe it had worked.

"You're all nobility," I said, looking around the room. "I'm sorry," I said, laughing, "but I never processed this completely."

"Almost all of us," Sophia said. "Max doesn't qualify."

"Hey," the young prince said as everyone laughed.

"He lost that status when he set off a stink bomb in school," Sophia explained.

Max seemed on the edge of arguing but then nodded in surrender. "That's right." He chuckled like he had revisited a fond memory.

élodie asked me about cooking and my ambitions, and I talked about Neon Nights. A job waited for me there, which made Maximilian and Sophia exchange a look that drew my attention.

"They're assuming you're going to be a socialite from now on," Cedric explained.

I laughed. "Me? At soirees? I'd sooner jump out of the window." And when that provoked a laugh with an underlying note of bewilderment, I spoke again. "I love preparing food. It's when I'm the happiest. And when people eat what I made with my own hands, that's when I feel real pride. I feed people."

They wondered if I wanted to have a chain of restaurants, but I said I only wanted one, eventually. Until then, I was happy with Mama Viv's Neon Nights.

"And is that the place where Cedric worked?" Maximilian asked with a cheeky smile, barely containing the snicker that visibly tried to escape him .

"Hey, at least I worked," Cedric said. "Sure, I wasn't the employee of the month, but I did my best."

"You should have seen him drop a tray full of drinks," I gossiped.

Cedric poked me in the rib cage, then pressed a kiss on my face. It was enough to derail my thoughts completely and leave me fighting for air. I loved him so much. I couldn't shake off this feeling of having won something immense and incredible tonight.

The party slowed down after another round of drinks. élodie invited Max to her sitting room to listen to music. Sophia wondered if she should visit this bar where Cedric had worked, saying she would adore seeing her brother pour a beer with the right amount of foam. After that, she yawned and got up from the floor, kissed Cedric on the cheek, and then did the same to me. When she left, silence settled in the sitting room.

I took a sip of my wine under Cedric's loving gaze. Inhaling, I dared myself to check if everything was still true. It was too big, too impossible to believe right away. "Are you sure about moving to New York?"

Cedric chuckled. "Absolutely," I said. "I'm not sure I'll survive visiting Neon Nights. Mama Viv might welcome me with a firing squad."

I shook my head. "I'm pretty sure she's still freaking out for criticizing a prince."

"They all know?" Cedric asked.

"Rafael figured it out," I said. "He knows the weirdest facts, like European royalty, you know?"

We shared a laugh. Cedric inhaled deeply. "What made you come here? I thought I did…pretty well…turning you against me."

"Oh, you did that just fine," I growled. I couldn't stay mad, though. "Rome made me rethink everything. He made me realize that what you did was out of love."

"It was," Cedric hurried to assure me.

I smiled and took his hand in mine. "I know that now. And I won't doubt it again."

Cedric stood, pulling me up with him. He pressed a kiss on my brow, then each of my closed eyes, and finally, on my lips. It was soft and loving, heating up with the lust that never failed to appear between us. It existed like an eternal ember, only ever needing a small gust of wind to create an all-consuming fire. And the fire roared.

I kissed him back harder, touching his hips and pulling him close. I could never have enough of him, body and soul. Shivers ran down my arms as something inexplicable rocked my chest. Was this what pure happiness felt like? Like climbing the highest peak of the highest mountain, like rising to the top of the biggest Ferris wheel, like sitting in a magical rocket and flying into space.

Cedric pulled back from me, his eyes glimmering with happy tears and his deep dimples accenting his smile. He took my hand and led me through the sitting room into his bedroom. There, when I asked, he showed me where the en suite was behind a discreet door that looked like part of the wallpapered wall.

I showered, feeling the tiredness of this extraordinarily long day wash away and leave down the drain. When I was done, I tied a big towel around my waist, Cedric's initials embroidered over a corner of the soft, white fabric. The shower had energized me and cleared my thoughts, but it didn't dampen the desire that ripped through me.

As I stepped into the bedroom, all the lights were out. Instead, Cedric had prepared candles that glimmered from every surface in the room. The nightstands held porcelain plates with candles of various sizes, and so did the shelves, the surfaces of both of his dressers and the windowsills with curtains wide open and tied to the sides of the tall windows.

Cedric wore his white shirt and dark gray like before. He stepped toward me and gazed at me shamelessly, taking in every inch of my body.

"I should have put something nice on," I said.

Cedric shook his head. "You are perfect exactly the way you are."

My heart stumbled. I put a hand on the middle of Cedric's chest, my stomach filled with butterflies and my head spinning. When had he done all this? To be fair, I'd taken my merry time, and I hadn't exactly planned to go to sleep right away.

"And so are you," I said, popping a button of his shirt. "Although I can see a few ways we can improve your appearance."

He let out a low, deep chuckle, his hand resting on the fold of the towel on my hip. "I have a few ideas, too." His fingers slipped the fold open, and the towel parted like a curtain, sliding from my waist.

I gasped, but Cedric put his hand on my hip, the other hand resting softly on the small of my back. His lips covered mine in the next instant, and the other half of my gasp turned into a gentle moan.

These were the heated kisses of the lovers who had been separated by forces beyond their control. I hadn't known that such kisses existed, but I could recognize them clearly now.

It didn't take long for the fire in me to become apparent. My cock grew, swelling to its full size. Our bodies pressed tightly together, my dick trapped between our legs, throbbing and begging to be touched.

Cedric was hard, too, although the dark grey pants contained him mercilessly.

As he kissed me, I undid his buttons, feeling his heated body and smooth skin until he could shrug the shirt off. It flew somewhere behind him, and he unbuckled his belt for me. When the belt was off, I turned us around and pushed Cedric back. He let himself fall flat on the big, soft bed, sinking into the mattress and grinning like it was his first time.

I'm going to ride you until you go mad , I thought, my brain spinning and my heart thundering.

Cedric's gaze locked onto my hard cock, and his perfect teeth closed around his lower lip. "Come here," he said after a moment, but I hesitated just to torture him a little more. My left hand rested on my chest, sliding slowly down the length of my torso. The pull of attraction I felt between us was like sliding to the eye of the horizon of a black hole. It was inescapable. It was unbreakable. My course was charted for me, and there was nothing I could or would do differently.

It pulled me toward him until I knelt on the bed between his legs. Leaning in, I rested my hands on his chiseled abs and dragged them down to the last button that needed undoing. Once I finished, I leaned in deeper, pressing my lips against the middle of his chest. I kissed and licked him all the way down to the waistband of his underwear, pulling his pants to his knees as I kissed him. And when my lips found the soft, tight fabric of his boxer briefs, I held my breath against shivering and moaning, and I pulled his underwear down, too.

I didn't know how he did it. It was swift, and it relied on his strength. I only knew that he was lifting his torso in one instant and that our places were swapped in the next. I gazed up into his deep, blue eyes as Cedric towered over me. His legs moved, and I heard his pants and underwear falling off the bed. His arms were tense as they supported the weight of his torso, but he was lowering himself onto me slowly. His hard cock pressed lightly against my abdomen before he sank low and melted into me. Our bodies, naked and warm, touched everywhere at once. The air left me, but I kissed him instead, and it was enough to keep me alive.

"I thought I lost you," he whispered.

"You'll never lose me," I told him, my hands on his hips, sliding to his round ass and pulling him closer.

Our mouths pressed together, Cedric's tongue sliding to explore my mouth, teasing me, toying with me, driving me crazy with all this desire I had nowhere to spend. He moved quickly and trapped my hands high above my head, locking my wrists in the hold of his left hand. His right hand moved gently up the side of my rib cage until he closed it around my neck. It turned me wilder than I had thought it ever could.

My eyes rolled back, and I whimpered with a desperate need to do more.

Moments merged and blended until they were indistinguishable. It was like the soft glow of the countless glimmering candles in the room erased the space between one second and the next. Touches and sighs and kisses all melted together until I didn't know the order in which things happened.

We coiled and rolled and turned, limbs brushing against limbs, my legs wrapping around his waist, us rolling until I was on top and holding his arms trapped. We kissed, we licked, we sighed against one another's mouth. And when I lowered myself down to take him into my mouth, I could sense the tingles running through his fingers and toes. I felt the same sort of thrill when we disregarded all sense of shame and politeness. This was the ultimate intimacy between two bare souls.

I sucked him slowly, taking him deeper and deeper into my mouth until it felt like even a little more would choke me. The sounds I made and the tension in Cedric's muscles were only distant facts of the physical world. Our souls were converging and twining across the stars, far beyond anything our bodies could experience.

Cedric stopped me abruptly, laughing nervously that I had nearly finished him before we started. He turned us around and told me how much he loved me, then kissed the length of my back until his warm breath graced my sensitive hole. His tongue was hot and wet and soft at first, growing harder with each lick. He ate me, sucked me, kissed me, and probed me gently with his tongue and his finger, massaging me mercilessly and for a long, long time. And when I whimpered and pleaded with him to feel his cock inside me, he told me how much he liked hearing me beg.

With that otherworldly strength, Cedric lifted me until I was kneeling, my elbows and forearms sinking into the mattress, my ass perched for him, and my hole bared and ready for taking.

Cedric brought us lube from a drawer in one dresser, poured it over his length, and rubbed himself, then my hole, while I held my breath and shivered with desire. I relaxed myself by force of will and allowed him to enter me with one finger, then another, moaning into the thick duvet that covered his bed.

My love pressed one hand on the small of my back, the other working me loose with two and then three fingers, opening me slowly and deliberately until I couldn't remain so patient anymore.

"Please, oh fuck, please, Cedric," I growled against the bed. "I'm ready. Fuck me, please…"

His fingers twisted and slid out of me, quickly massaging my closing hole with soothing softness. And when he thrust his cock between my cheeks, sliding it until his balls settled against my hole, I exhaled roughly.

Come on , I begged silently. Do it. Fuck me. I'm ready for you, just take me .

Cedric was slow, but he was precise, and when he pressed the tip of his bare cock against my hole, he waited for me to make the next move. Relaxing once again with all the force I could summon, I thrust my ass back and impaled myself on him, his body never moving.

The first inch hurt, the next one felt like heaven, and the third made me feel complete. After that, I never wanted us to be separated again. Cedric swung back, letting me breathe out and in, then thrust his hips forward, sliding deeper into me .

Each thrust sent a small whimper from my mouth and nose, my fingers clawing the duvet, my face rubbing against the soft, clean fabric. And every other move he made caused my dick to throb and my hole to clench around him. Those were my favorite; he hissed and grunted whenever I tightened around his cock.

Cedric's fingers dug into my hips, and he knelt on the bed, ramming me harder, faster, with such force that it pushed me further along the bed, making me slide away from him. My legs spread wide, the intensity of his movements making me lose control over the very basic control of my own body. My eyes rolled back in my head, and my mouth opened wide, but all my cries and moans were trapped in my throat. Occasionally, I heard myself hiss or whisper my pleas for more or to keep going just like that.

My arms spread around the bed, hands digging deep into the duvet, fists closing around it as if I was holding myself against some force that would lift me up and carry me away.

Cedric dictated our movements; he decided on the pace and on the intensity with which he rammed into me, his dick pushing against my prostate and sending these wild, impossible sensations through my entire body.

I felt myself lifted off the back without quite understanding it. In my state of bliss, I might as well have been floating through the clouds. He had lifted me up, dragging me down his length and holding his hands firmly on my groin, sliding deep into me and huffing with exertion.

He told me how good I felt, how warm, how wet, how perfect. He told me how he loved fucking me and how I was his .

When he let my knees sink into the mattress again, his hands moved up my back, grabbing me and pressing me wherever he reached. And when his hands rested on my shoulders, he gently nudged them around my neck.

I knelt up, angling my body so that every thrust of Cedric's thick, long cock hit me exactly how I wanted the most.

Cedric's arms wrapped around my body. One coiled around my torso, and the other moved up until he had his hand around my throat.

I grabbed that hand and held it fast, not letting him let me go. It felt terrific. It felt so good to be without control, without shame, without sins, and without freedoms. They were all his. He held me, and he owned me.

When I wrapped my right hand around my swollen cock, it was wet with precum. I knew that his dick was, too, although deep inside of me. And the thought was enough to start the eruption of sensations deep inside my chest. It exploded like the universe had exploded from a single, incredible dot, spreading in all directions in a heartbeat. It consumed me, and I moved my hand away from the one holding my throat tightly to touch Cedric's hip. I pulled him in, closer and closer, wanting him to finish deep inside of me just as my hole pulsed and tightened around the base of his cock.

Hot cum spilled over my fingers and across the bed in white strings, landing on the clean sheets and staining his royal bed.

The throbs inside of me came after Cedric attempted to pull back, whispering a hurried warning.

"Inside," I gasped. "Please. Need you…" And then, it wa s too late to change anything. Cedric pressed himself deep into me, his cock shooting loads of white heat into my body, filling me and sending waves of tingling down my limbs with each fresh throb.

"I love you," he huffed, his forehead sweaty and hot and pressed hard against the back of my neck, his hand around my throat relaxing, his cock pulsing more softly and slowly until it stopped.

Although some small part of me said we would be smart to shower, my body gave in to the temptation at the first hint from Cedric, and we collapsed in an exhausted and happy heap on the bed. We held one another, limbs still tangled and sweat cooling on our bodies.

Cedric found my hand and threaded our fingers together on my stomach. Our hands rose and fell with my abs as I breathed deeply. "You are…" I whispered, out of breath again.

Cedric inhaled and exhaled just as deeply, catching his breath. "And you." He managed a grin, his eyes bright but his eyelids drooping slightly with exhaustion. "I love you, Tristan."

I looked at him. He was glowing. Sweat and joy combined on his face and lit by the many restless candles in the room, softening his sharp features and making him look like an angel. Or a god, one I would worship for the rest of my days. "I love you, too."

We lay there in the lazy bliss that followed great sex. We held each other, listening to the other one's breaths and heartbeat, my head resting on Cedric's chest at one point and his on mine later. I looked around, tremors of disbelief battering my consciousness .

This is a royal palace , I told myself, not quite believing it. And you love a prince who loves you back.

Laughter tickled me deep inside and bubbled to the surface.

"Huh?" Cedric asked drowsily.

"I…I'm happy," I said, my hand sliding up and down his muscled arm. "I'm just so happy."

He smiled and tucked his head under my chin. His palm was open on my left pec, and he caressed my naked torso lightly. "I promise I'll make you happy for as long as we live."

And I believed that he would.