Page 6 of Learning to Rule

“So, are you going to tell me who the lucky lady is? We can double date.” I wink at my friend.

Her face becomes serious again. “I wish I could, Dalton, but I’m not sure I can trust anyone with that information at the moment. Can you give me more time?”

I pull Marianne in for a final embrace. “Tell me when you’re ready.”

“Thank you. Do you want me to come with you to see your father?” Marianne asks.

“No, this is something Elodie and I need to do together.” I turn back to the woman I love with all my heart. “You ready to go to war?”

Elodie takes my hand and nods.

“I was born ready.”

Three

Elodie

“How old is the palace?” I ask Dalton as we walk back through the maze of corridors toward his father’s apartments.

The tension is palpable, and I need to dispel it before Dalton loses his temper with his father. We need to stay calm to convince the king I’m not going to be a disgrace to the Janastrian royal family.

“There are parts of it that are almost six hundred years old, but the majority is from a major upgrade about two hundred years ago. The electrics and plumbing were added much later,” Dalton explains.

“I’m glad about the plumbing. I wouldn’t want to have to do my business in a chamber pot every morning,” I tease him.

He pulls me to a halt and takes both my hands in his.

“This isn’t going to be pretty.”

“It probably isn’t, but as soon as it’s done, you can give me a proper introduction to your palace and the land of Janastria, and I can learn to love them as much as you do. Plus, I’ve always dreamed of bedding a prince in his opulent four poster. Do you have one?” I stand up on my tiptoes and press a kiss to Dalton’s lips.

“Please don’t get me hard before I confront my father. All the blood will go rushing to my dick, and I’ll probably end up ripping your panties off in front of him and sinking inside you, just to prove he’s never parting us. It’s that kind of behavior that got me into trouble in the first place.”

“Sorry!” I bite my lip and lower my heels to the floor. Dalton lets go of one of my hands, and we stroll together down the corridor.

“I’m fucking you so hard when this is over,” Dalton growls, and with his free hand, he rearranges himself in his pants.

“I’ll look forward to it.”

As we approach a set of apartments with a closed door, a guard dressed in the finest livery steps in front of us.

“His Majesty isn’t receiving visitors at the present time,” he informs us, but Dalton doesn’t blanch. He attempts to push past the guard, and they get into a mini scuffle for a few moments.

“If you want to keep your job, then you need to get out of my way, or I’ll have you dismissed, and you’ll be prevented from working anywhere in Janastria ever again.”

“I can’t do that, Your Highness.”

The guard continues to refuse us entry, but with one last push, Dalton manages to get past him. Then opening the doors to the apartments, he grabs my hand, and pulls me inside.

“You can’t go in there, sir,” the guard protests one last time, but it’s futile.

If Dalton wasn’t the Prince of Janastria, the guard would probably exert more force against us, but with a senior member of the royal family, he has to be careful. I turn to the guard and give him an apologetic smile as Dalton leads me deeper into the king’s private apartments.

We pass through an open, solid oak door, inlaid with colorful blue and gold patterns, and into a bright green room with silk fabric on the walls. In the center of the room, Dalton’s father is sat behind a large, antique desk, and standing beside him is Felix, Dalton’s former personal secretary.

“A word, Your Majesty,” Dalton says as he slams to a halt in front of the desk.

“I think we’ve said enough. Now leave.” The king doesn’t even look up at us when he speaks. Felix, on the other hand, quickly bows his head toward Dalton.

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