Lianne’s body dropped hard on her mattress after she had managed to undress out of the gown she had worn at the party.
She was wearing her chemise now with no brassiere. The thick cotton sheet provided her with a decent amount of warmth as the cold breeze of the night began to tickle her skin.
There were so many emotions that played on her mind. This night had proved to be too inauspicious indeed.
She had wondered how would she be able to face Lord Cain after such an incident, and to make matters worse, the prince has now returned. She was sure as hell that he didn’t believe her alibi. But it was only a matter of time though, because tomorrow, Lady Faye would tell him everything about the party. Hopefully, she wouldn’t divulge the particular event that left the princess frantically lying all about.
Lianne knew that tomorrow and the days afterward would never be the same again. If only she could will herself not to wake up, she wouldn’t have to face the worries that had seeped deep inside her mind.
She woke up the next morning quickly wearing a puzzled look on her face.
Apparently, an intruder had entered her room and now was sitting adjacent to her bed staring at her so intently with those hauntingly beautiful brown-green eyes of his, hands resting on the sofa chair handle and legs crossed on top of each other.
It was only just a matter of seconds that she realized who the person was. Ruen was wearing a turtle-neck gray long-sleeved shirt paired with black pants and low-cut dark brown boots. He had a little grin on his face, almost like he had just outsmarted her.
“Don’t you have any sense of propriety?!” Lianne shouted, brows furrowing hard. “What are you doing here?! How did you enter my room?!”
She swore to herself that she locked the main door of her room before she went to bed last night, but realizing it was the prince that she was talking to, it was nonsensical for her to even know the answer to her question. Clearly, he had all the keys on all the mansion’s rooms including the servant’s quarters and hers for that matter.
She stood quickly out of her bed clutching the bed sheet to cover herself and began to walk towards the main door when the prince spoke sharply, “I would advise you not to open that door.”
She turned to his side and gave him a cold glare. “And why would I even honor your command, Yo-ur Highness!?” Lianne replied with sarcasm in her tone. Her brows knitted, showing clearly she was displeased with his presence.
“If you do not want ‘us’ to be seen with these circumstances Lianne, I wouldn’t want to open that door. It is already ten o’clock in the morning. Surely, the maidservants are busy with their chores by now, some might still be passing to and from the hall outside,” he answered without a hint of mockery. It was because of that event that night that he was shipped out of the Regaleria mansion. For three years, he had suffered from it, without seeing her, with only one damn news about her. But now he has come back, and he was not going to blow it all away just by having another rumor with her again in the very same room that caused it all.
She felt he was dead serious. Had she been sleeping that much that she even didn’t notice him entering her room? She got caught up of the events last night that it was hard for her to even sleep. Why does he have to torment her early in the morning?
Remembering the very night that sparked a lot of rumors about them, she realized that it was the right thing to do not to open the door, although reluctantly. It wasn’t like she wanted for her and the prince to be in the same room and even appear so casually dressed in her chemise in his front!
A quick awareness dawned on her. She directly stared at him who was already observing her.
“Since when have you been sitting in that chair?” she inquired.
Ruen remained silent and quietly turned his attention to the wide windowpane of her room showing the west wing garden outside, his smile devious.
She was mortified by his silent response and with that, she stomped her foot. “You expect me to even hospitably accept you into my own room when you are not even answering my questions properly?”
“Long enough…” the prince whispered a drought of words and then turned his attention again to the enraged princess in his front towering above him.
‘Close enough,’ He thought.
Yes. This much close was the only limit he could give himself to, and another step closer would be sheer torture for him. He would definitely, without a doubt, pin her down into her own mattress and make love to her on the spot if only he was not restraining himself.
She was such a beauty to behold. Her silky light brown hair down to her waist, the curls swaying playfully on her bare shoulders. Her porcelain white skin exposed to his admiration. She was barefooted and her legs were partly seen behind the fall of the bed cover.
“Long enough to see,” he continued.
“See what?” Lianne clarified with wide eyes, but before he could voice out the word, she already read the way his eyes grazed on the curve of her breasts and realized that except the lower undergarment and the chemise that she had worn as her nightdress, she was naked beyond it.
“Oh! How could you do this?! Don’t you have any decency at all?!” she cried out loud.
The prince then stood up swiftly causing Lianne to step back to open up an even space between them.
She felt intimidated by his towering height. She remembered, he was five inches taller than her. The light of the morning showed how much he had physically changed since these past three years. His shoulders were broader, his jaw more finely shaped, and though he wore a turtleneck shirt to cover his body, she knew deep inside that garment, lean muscles shaped into perfection could be seen.
“Lianne…” he uttered her name, eyes piercing into the depths of her anxiety. “Believe me. Staring at you is never enough. Looking at you sleeping in that bed is already a torment for me.”
“Then, why are you here in the first place!” she shouted, unable to control her temper. Her heart drummed like it was about to burst out of her chest.
“Lady Faye had told me everything,” Ruen revealed without delay.
Lianne was taken aback. So, Lady Faye and the prince had already talked.
“The party last night surely was a blast right? Lady Faye seemed to be so engrossed with that fact. I wonder if that mark in your neck didn’t deprive you of the attentions of men.” Ruen condemned without hesitation, sounding deceived with her meager lie last night. Lianne’s eyes widened in alarm. “But apparently, she has denied me the juicy information I wanted to know.”
The prince suddenly lifted her up and carried her back into the bed to her surprise and frustration.
Her eyes fluttered in disbelief of what he had just done. She lay awkwardly, half her body was in the mattress while her feet dangled on the bed. His hands pinned her arms, her waist in between his knees, and his weight depressed the mattress considerably.
Amidst all these intrusions, what made Lianne conscious was the proximity of her lips to his. She could feel his warm breathing fanning her face, making her skin tingle in delicious waves.
“Ah! What are you doing? Let me go!” but Lianne vehemently protested. She cast aside all womanly responses to the deepest part of her brain and decided to cry out her frustration.
Ruen tightened his grip of her arms and proclaimed, “I am here to see to what extent had he touched you.”
“What are you talking about?!” she complained and tried to yank her arms from his tight hold.
“Don’t lie to me, Lianne. That kiss mark on your neck screams the most strong evidence of his taking advantage of you,” the prince pointed out, his voice stern and steady.
“And you’re no better than him!” the princess spat the words like a dagger. “Isn’t this what you call taking advantage?! At least Lord Cain was drunk that’s why he did those things to me, but you… you’re clearly within your mind to control yourself.”
She glared at him showing how much she resented him. Their eyes once again met and he could see the hate deepening in her eyes.
It was then that he slowly released his grip on her arm and stood back up giving Lianne the privacy of her own space.
She managed to cover herself back with the bedsheet she was holding earlier and raised her head giving him another cold glare.
“Hmf, so my suspicion was true.” He looked at her, disappointed, and began to speak again. “Aren’t you too easy to get.”
Like a flash of lightning, Lianne’s right hand flew towards the face of the prince trying to slap him of his insult on her, but Ruen’s quick reflex managed to block it and seized both of her hands in order to immobilize her.
She wrestled her way out of his hold but she knew she was no match for him to which she had proven long ago. She instead growled in frustration.
“How dare you say that to me! Even though he had taken advantage of me that time, nothing happened between me and Lord Cain beyond his kisses! So, don’t you ever… never look down on me like that! Like… like I’m some kind of a trollop!” she bellowed in anger.
Her tears began to stream down her cheeks, and Ruen, stirred by her raging emotions, began to remember the first time he saw her in the greenhouse when they were younger.
This was the same… the way her tears fell down her cheeks, her gleaming wet eyes, the blush of her cheeks. It was more than he could ever ask for.
This was the very reason why he changed… the very thing that moved his senses, that brought his dead emotions back to life.
Without warning, he released her from his grip and she dropped on the bed as if her energy was sucked out of her.
She sat down covering her face with both her palms trying to buffer the sound of her cry.
Ruen wanted to embrace her at that moment, to try and console her, but he knew he had no right as he was the very reason for her suffering.
“Leave, please, leave me alone.”
That was all he could hear aside from her sobs. Though unwilling, he left the room silently with a heavy heart and closed the door leaving her inside sulking.