Page 23 of A Ring to Claim Her Crown
HEHADALWAYSpassed this particular summer fair as a kid, but he had never been permitted to go, much to his tearful disappointment. His father had teased him relentlessly for being soft and he’d soon learned to hold his emotions in check. It was possibly the only skill his father had taught him, other than how to stretch the truth.
He pushed away the uncomfortable echoes of his past and focused on the woman he’d tasked himself with unravelling in the present. Minerva was seated upon the tallest white horse in the merry-go-round, waiting impatiently for the ride to begin.
‘I thought for sure you would have chosen the boat, considering they are your whole life.’ She laughed down at him, her eyes still hidden behind her sunglasses.
‘What can I say? This hot-pink princess carriage called to me.’ He grimaced as his knee became wedged between the tiny seats. Better to make jokes than reveal he’d chosen it simply because it had a perfect view of the white stallion she’d selected. ‘I know this will sound strange but I don’t actually care about boats.’
‘Liro, you have literally lived and worked at sea for more than a decade.’
‘The whole ship-hand thing just happened; I didn’t seek it out because of some unbridled love of the sea. I made a single promise to myself when I left, that I would go along with my instincts. And that’s what I did.’
‘I’m glad you trusted your instincts and you proved to yourself what you are capable of. I think you would have been quite bored by all of the sitting and smiling and waving—it isnotfor the faint of heart. Plus, you are huge now—we’d have had to have all the carriages adjusted.’ She laughed, but he didn’t miss the slight change in her tone.
‘I never would have been bored with you, Min.’
‘No?’ She raised a brow.
‘No. Not with you.’
Silence fell between them, only broken by the sudden tinny music that filled the air as the carousel began to move. Minerva smiled as her white stallion moved slowly up and down, leaning back to stick her tongue out at him and tell him to smile. Liro didn’t smile—he was too busy watching. Back at the palace, the crown princess had been proud and regal. Beautiful, yes, but purposeful in every word and movement. Minerva unbound and free was...utterly breath-taking.
Her words played on his mind as they twirled round and round; her clear belief that he had left royal life out of boredom or disdain was wrong. In fact, he had fled to protect her from his father’s crimes. Despite Liro being innocent of them himself, Minerva’s court would never have seen it that way.
Once the ride stopped, he helped her down from her steed and tried not to laugh as she patted the painted horse’s nose and thanked him for his service. Nearby, a large Ferris wheel spun in a slow circle to the sound of classical Cisnerosi folk music. Liro paid extra to have one small passenger car allocated just for the two of them. It was still early evening and no queues had formed. Parents and children began to fill up the rides around them, the noise of chatter rising and making it harder to hear, so he leaned across the space between them, reaching for one of her hands.
‘You can be both, you know,’ he told her, feeling the need to ensure that she didn’t misunderstand him. ‘You can smile and wave as their princess while also remaining true to who you are—the athlete, the woman.’
‘You don’t have to placate me, Liro, I’m quite aware of the pageantry of my position.’
‘You were born to be the queen. That’s the position you were trained to fill. It’s a role that you had no choice in, but still, you were made for it. But Minerva the archer needs to be challenged, to feel in control and to feel like she is facing a new target, at all times.’
Golden-brown eyes met his, the lights of the funfair blinking around them.
‘You can be both the queen and the archer, Minerva. You can be anything that you put your mind to. If anyone in this world can change a kingdom hundreds of years old to suit them, it’s you. Push the boundaries, don’t accept the cage for what it is.’
‘Are you talking about my role as queen or what I must do before I ascend to the throne?’
‘All of it,’ he said honestly. ‘You can call it whatever you want—it is someone else telling you who you are and who you can be. You are accepting it because there is a law involved, but you won’t know for sure until you push.’
‘What about the rules you set—can I push those too?’ she asked sweetly.
‘I wish you would.’ He breathed, not bothering to temper his reaction to her words or to the images his mind created instantly at just how he wished those rules would be broken. No kissing, no touching... He had thought of little else every minute with her by his side and it was sweet torture to see her tongue dart out and lick at her lower lip. She bit down on the wet flesh, shaking her head softly, as though trying to clear similar images from her own mind. Did his princess have filthy thoughts too?
‘Why would you make a rule that you have no intention of abiding by?’ She breathed, her cheeks definitely flushed a little darker than they had been a moment ago.
‘If I planned to break my own rules, I’d have done it the moment I had you alone on my yacht. That’s not what today was about.’
‘Then what was this about?’ She frowned.
He leaned back, staring out as the fairground became smaller and smaller below them. ‘I told myself that I just wanted to give you some time away from the pressure of the palace, away from your duty. Some time for us to get closure before I leave.’
‘I want closure too,’ she said softly. ‘But I don’t think I’m going to get that from a funfair.’
‘What would you do, then?’ he asked. ‘What do you need?’
Her lips touched his, tentatively at first, as though she was feeling her way onto uneven ground. He wasn’t even sure when she had moved into the seat next to him but, once she had grown certain of him, she inched closer until her thigh practically splayed across his. She angled her face, her hand touching his beard and holding him in place, and he let her. He submitted to her kiss, knowing that was what she needed from him in that moment. She needed to trust in her own ability to break the rules he had set for them both, and thank god...because he had been one step away from kissing her senseless from the moment she had appeared at his yacht, eyeing up his naked chest.
When the wind picked up and their car began to rock side to side, he used the momentum to his advantage, lifting her to straddle his thighs fully, her centre pressed full against the evidence of his arousal. Far from being scandalised, his fearless princess simply ground her hips against him and carried on plundering his mouth, using him for her pleasure in the best way possible.
