SHOULD HAVE slung her over my shoulder that evening in the club and carried her away when I had the chance. Shouldn’t I.
Coulda. Woulda. Shoulda. I can’t stand to think like that. But I can’t stand to lose. The picture of her running away stayed in the back of my mind from that moment to this. I thought about it as I ran out of my apartments, stomped down the hallway and bolted down the sweep of the grand staircase, three steps at a time.
The Royal Palace has more than four hundred and fifty rooms and three and a half miles of corridors. but I knew that the ball was going to be over the staterooms and grand reception, the banqueting hall and the Grand Gallery. The kitchens and cellars for state occasions like this were in the basements immediately below.
I did all of the princely, royal things when I first lost her, of course. I sent out the Royal Guard. They were useless. Great fellows and all. Fearless and unbeatable warriors who would lay down their lives in a heartbeat in defense of the realm or the crown or whatever. Not, truth be told, super-bright, though. Captain of the guard asked me what she looked like. Idiot.
I smiled indulgently and put a hand on his shoulder. “She’s wonderful She’s the most beautiful woman in the land,” I told him. Looked at me like I’d just landed from outer space, poor fool.
After they came back with no results I dispatched envoys, courtiers, emissaries and spies to search the land. As you do. Didn’t work. That never works for some reason.
A much more sensible thing occurred to me, and it seemed way more practical, I had the owner of the club brought to me, and all of his staff. He said he knew nothing about her. Didn’t even know her real name.
Turned out all of the waitresses were on no-contract contracts to avoid having to pay them benefits. Most of the girls were students, struggling to pay off college loans.
The manager told me he couldn’t speak to me without the owner’s permission. So, I bought the club. Then the manager told me he didn’t know any more than the owner had already told me and I yearned for the days when I could have just slung him into a dank dungeon and left him there to be eaten by rats.
We still have dank dungeons, way down in the bowels of the palace. They don’t get any use these days, though. Human rights and all of that modern nonsense. Tell that to the poor starving rats.
So, I went to the university and the community college and every seat of learning in the land. But without a name or a picture I wasn’t going to get anywhere. The secretaries of all of the educational institutions told me very stiffly and in their very boring ways that they couldn’t release information about students, past or present, because of data protection laws. Even if they had any. Which they all swore they hadn’t.
Well, she was here now.
I bounded off the bottom of the grand stairs, an equerry in footman fancy dress jumped out at me. Usually all the attendants wore black frock coats and white starched shirts. The colors and braid and stockings must have been for the ball.
“Your Royal Highness,” he bowed from the waist. But he was in front of me.
“Out of the way,” I tried to move around him but he barred my way.
“The King has asked for you, Your Royal Highness. May I take you to him?”
“You may not. You may help me or you may get out of the fucking way.” My voice was tensing up. Bad Prince, I told myself. Whatever one’s going through, it’s never okay to take it out on the staff. Damnit.
The lovely and ample Lady Sonia flitted down the hallway and overheard. In waves of chiffons and sheer silks, she displayed her luscious curves to stunning effect. The rise and fall of her full, creamy breasts rustled the fabric and released her perfectly chosen scents and perfume.
She dashed up to me. “Hugo.” She made a small curtesy and fluttered he eyelashes. That show was all for the benefit of the equerry. Lady Sonia and I were never so formal.
She told the equerry, “I was with His Majesty just now and he mentioned that he wanted an audience with the Crown Prince. I can see you have much to do. I’ll conduct Prince Hugo.” She took my arm and steered me away. I wondered what she was up to. I was getting impatient.
The equerry was in a difficult position but Lady Sonia had given enough of a way out. Without too much more formality he made a small bow of the head and went about his business. Lady Sonia had me by the arm and she quickly hustled me straight into a study nearby.
“Look,” She shut the door behind her. Her voice was a low purr and her eyes glowed like coals as she leaned back on the paneled door. “I hear you aren’t coming to the ball,” her leg stretched and her open toed sandal pointed toward me and waggled.
She raised the hem of her dress. Her thigh shimmered in the black stocking. Her breasts swelled. The tip of her tongue slipped out between her lips as her head tipped back. Stretching her long neck, her eyelids drooped as she said, “I wanted to show you some of what you’ll be missing,” her lip curled and her voice was smoky, “If you don’t,” and she leaned forward to show the deep cleavage between her magnificent tits as she moaned the word, “Come.”
I held up both hands and made for the door. She advanced on me, padding across the floor like a royal tigress. “You should come, Prince Hugo.” Her chiffon began to part. She stood in front of me and licked her lips.
“Let me help you to come.” And she began to kneel. “You can come with me.”
“You’re very beautiful, Lady Sonia, and your charms are a royal delight.” I pulled her up to look in her eyes. “And your skills are a legend.”
I gripped her by the arm.
Her eyelids fluttered and her breath quickened, “Not nearly as much of a legend as your own massive Royal assets, my prince.”
Her lips parted slowly. Pushing her breasts forward, holding them together she peered down at the huge bulge in my pants. Then back up into my eyes.
“Could it fit between these, your royal highness?” And her eyebrow lifted as she shook her shoulders.
Lady Sonia could raise the dead. Batting her eyelids like that, I swear, she could make statues in the palace’s ornamental gardens come. Not to mention the insistent heat of her firm and voluptuous body, pressed tantalizingly close to mine. Yes, there were ridiculous stories about the size of my royal rod. I’ve no idea who started them but it’s true, I encouraged them and made use of them. And, I have to admit, are mostly they’re all true.
And Lady Sonia’s breath on my chest was enough to make my enormous cock throb and stiffen. My cock strained and ached inside the taut fabric of my pants. It buzzed with the pressure and it hardened until it was almost ready to burst.
It wanted her, I can’t deny it. But I didn’t. She was not my true love. I might never find my true love again. I had been doing all that I could to resign myself to the fact, but having seen her through the window, knowing that she was in the palace grounds, I had to find her and have her. Nobody else would do. Not for me. Not now, not ever.
I did my best to smile at Lady Sonia as I pulled her to her feet. She was beautiful, and she was a delight. And nobody could have been more persuasive. But I was unmoved.
“I know that my father sent you. You’re on an errand from the King.”
“True,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t want to find you.” She blinked again. “I wanted to come with you, Crown Prince Hugo. I hoped you would come with me.” She pressed her lips together and then wet them with her tongue as she moved even closer. “Can’t I get you to come?” Her eyelids drooped as she groaned the last word out.
I pulled her, firmly but as gently as I could, to the door.
“You’re a marvel, Lady Sonia. A true force of nature.”
As I reached for the door handle, she said, “I know that your heart is taken.” There was no way that could have leaked out. Not even to the inner circle of the courtiers. I hadn’t mentioned anything. Not to her, not to anyone.
“Oh, don’t look so shocked, your royal highness,” she smiled. “I know. I can see it in your eyes. I can almost hear it on your breath. You can’t keep anything from me.”
It was true. I was shaken.
She smiled. “Maybe nobody else knows. I haven’t heard anything.” And she touched my chest, “And I promise you, your royal highness, all of your secrets are completely safe and secure with me.”
I believed her. Lady Sonia was one of the most honest and sincere people in the whole court. She asked again if she couldn’t persuade me to come to the ball. I told her, “No.”
And I told her. How I had found the love of my life and lost her. But how she was here. Now. In the palace.
The look on her face was a mixture of shock and giggling delight.
“Then all the more reason that you should come to the ball.”
I was pulling open the door and about to eject her when she said, “I know. I was teasing. Will you forgive me, Crown Prince? You know I really do have the fondest feelings for you.” and she pouted, prettily. “You have to find her. Right away. I get it.” then she stepped through the door and pulled on my sleeve, “I’ll help.”