Chapter Nine
In the end, the king elected to stay longer than he’d originally indicated, and as that was his prerogative, Emrys and Caitlyn could do nothing about it. Their “trial run” week passed, and then another, and during that time, Emrys was wound so tightly that Caitlyn thought he might snap in his father’s presence any moment. And the king had still not offered his official blessing on their union, even if it was now common knowledge in the kingdom and beyond that the prince was engaged. Even the queen encouraged him, subtly and very politely, to make an explicit statement about it. As September drew to a close, Caitlyn got on the travel forums that she frequented for planning trips—usually with a much smaller budget—to ask about good places to visit in October.
When Emrys started talking about a new movie he would have to shoot soon, Caitlyn pulled him into her rooms the moment no one was looking and sat in a large chair with him, discussing the possible places they could go out of sight of the royal family’s judging eyes. He seemed delighted by the idea and told her to leave it all to him.
Within a week, they were off to Greece.
It was a point of pride, Emrys had said, to spend several days in Athens, and there they took in the museums and went to the Parthenon. For Caitlyn, the highlight of this trip happened on the street, where buskers stood playing guitars, lyres, organs, and drums. One day, the buskers were playing, and a man walked into the street to begin a dance. After a bit of encouragement, two tourists had joined him, and then several more. Within a few moments, all kinds of people filled the street to dance together. After watching Caitlyn clapping and laughing, Emrys had bounded off to join them, and he’d done remarkably well beside the others. An older woman patted his arm and smiled to him.
Caitlyn wished a little bit that she had joined in too.
From there, Emrys had taken her to Mykonos, saying that a proper Greek vacation had to include the islands at some point, and he particularly enjoyed Mykonos for the kind of relaxation they were after. The hotel where they stayed had technically shut down for the season, and they were the only two there. The décor was very crisp, with white walls and white linens. Their suite opened into a large living room, off of which branched a small bedroom featuring a king-size bed and a balcony overlooking the ocean. From the balcony, Caitlyn could see the stretch of shops and clubs along the beach, and in the distance, a line of windmills.
They arrived very late at night, and Caitlyn was both tired and hungry. Their early dinner in Athens, delightful as it had been, had worn off long ago. Emrys slipped a bill to their bellboy to ask the kitchen for some service.
“I should have vacationed with a prince sooner,” Caitlyn said as she sifted through her clothes for a nightgown. She paused to adjust her bra, which didn’t seem to fit right. It must have warped, because her cup size hadn’t changed since she was in high school.
Emrys swooped in behind her and kissed the back of her neck. “This is our holiday before I go back to filming. You get anything you want.”
“And you?”
“I get you, don’t I? You’ve allowed me so much more than the one week you promised.” Emrys kissed up her neck until she turned her head to meet his lips. “I am properly spoiled.”
“I’m glad we decided to do this. Your father was ruining your time off,” Caitlyn declared.
She rubbed her stomach, feeling hunger pangs again. This Greek food was so strange. Some of it was very rich and filling at the time. Then she found herself hungry again after a couple hours. But it all tasted so amazing. Caitlyn had always labored under the assumption that she disliked tomatoes until the moment Emrys had fed her a slice from his plate. Juicy, ripe, and red, the flavor burst in her mouth. It was nothing at all like the watery offerings that people had tried to force on her for most of her life in Ohio.
Emrys slipped his hands under her blouse and unhooked her bra. She sighed as he massaged her breasts, and she cupped the back of his head and kissed him again. Her appetite for him had increased as well. Now that they were on their own, every room of every hotel suite they’d stayed in had been a possibility for their lovemaking. Even now, she felt a bit swollen from three vigorous sessions in the jet over here.
“Unnn,” she whined. “I want to, but my body is weak.”
Emrys bowed over and kissed the tops of her breasts. “Then just let me worship the perfection that is you.”
“Stop!” Caitlyn laughed and swatted him off.
She had to admit that she felt very sexy. Part of it was his gushing attention, yes. But it was also how her clothes were fitting. She felt slinky, but weighty. She felt like her clothes hugged her body in a good way, her breasts bouncing more with each step. It was like his love had taken root in her body and begun to bloom. Because he wanted her, she had become more and more of what he wanted.
Caitlyn removed her blouse and jeans and slipped on a long, silky pink nightgown. Emrys sat on the edge of the bed watching, and so she dressed just a little bit slower, with a few extra motions, feeling over her own plump backside, a hand down her stomach. Once her gown was on, she ran her hands up her sides and cupped her breasts, causing Emrys to gasp and lean forward.
On a whim, Caitlyn slid her hands back down her sides, wiggling her hips and swaying to no tune but the sounds of the ocean and the fan spinning lazily above them. Emrys folded his hands between his legs. His eyes followed the gyrating of her hips, her arms moving over her head, and the swishing of her hair. He reached out for her, and she took his hand before turning and rotating her hips around and around. When she stilled, his other hand squeezed her hip, and she bent over at the waist, swishing her ass from side to side.
“Have mercy,” he muttered.
She bounced her ass up and down a little, giggling when his hands finally gave in to temptation and reached forward for a squeeze. She sat in his lap, spreading her legs wide, and stretched her arms over her head, dancing in his lap against his rock-hard erection.
“You’re going to destroy me,” Emrys declared.
“What do you suppose we can do with this?” She ground against him.
“It’s looking like we’re going to have to send these pants out for cleaning.”
Caitlyn reached back, touching his hair as she continued to rub herself against him. After a moment, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to the side, where she laughed and kissed him.
“Okay, okay. Let me find another way to torture you.”
Caitlyn unbuttoned his pants with one hand as they kissed eagerly. Then, she slipped down onto the soft rug by the bed and jerked his pants down.
“I am starving,” she declared.
She freed his erection from his briefs and held the thick length of it in her hand. She met his eyes before giving it a kiss on the head, and then swirled her tongue around the tip. Emrys groaned and clutched the bedspread. Her lips wrapped around the shaft, and she made her way down with a series of wet sucks. Impatiently, he reached behind her head and grabbed her hair. There was a twinge deep in her own groin, and she squeezed his thighs as she took more of him in.
Humming determinedly, Caitlyn milked his shaft in long sucks and fondled his balls with one hand. That only made him grab her harder and let out what sounded like a growl. She repressed a laugh and squeezed him harder. He cried out. She dragged her teeth very gently down the length of his shaft. Emrys was shuddering now.
Soon Caitlyn was engulfing his entire organ, sucking it greedily, and massaging his balls. His feet lifted upward, pressing his toes into the rug, and he let out a roar. Come flooded into her mouth, and she drank every thick, sticky drop of it. When he’d finished, sagging back against the bed, she patted his thighs and sat back on her heels. Caitlyn looked up with a smirk as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
“Come here,” Emrys ordered.
She obeyed, rising and lying beside him. Emrys pressed a kiss to her forehead and tugged his briefs back into place before pulling her flush to his chest. Caitlyn curled into him, taking in the smell of him, his warmth, and the simple energy he exuded. With a yawn, she thought maybe they could just stay here forever, enjoying one another and making love in as many ways and as many places as they could imagine.
There was a rap on the door, and Emrys groaned.
“You’d better get that.”
“Do you still have an appetite after that?” he teased.
“Feed your princess to be,” Caitlyn ordered.
Emrys chuckled and went into the living room to open the door. Two men came in wheeling large carts laden with plates of eggs over steak, fat slices of tomato, thick yogurt with little slices of orange in it, loaves of olive bread with side dishes of peppered kopanistí cheese, and cut fruit sprinkled with spices.
Three other men set their table quickly and disappeared with bows, but not before Emrys gave them a hefty tip. After he’d closed the door behind them, he pulled a chair out for Caitlyn.
“After you, my princess.”
***
Since it was the off-season, most of the beaches and restaurants weren’t crowded. It was the time that Emrys liked to visit here best. Fewer prying eyes, less competition for venues. He was especially pleased to have the small off-season staff of their hotel to themselves.
In the mornings, they went out to enjoy the temperate weather. Emrys enjoyed each of Caitlyn’s floating summer dresses, each bikini that hugged her soft curves. She was a vision lately, though he had always appreciated her figure and style. Walking along the beach, he tucked her strawberry blonde hair behind her ear and took her hand. He was so lucky to have her with him.
How long could he keep her by his side? They hadn’t spoken any more about her leaving, but the reality was that he would be back on set in a few weeks. He wasn’t sure how to get her to stay and wait for him, and if she went home, she might second guess this entire thing they had together and not come back. He needed something to intervene. He had already offered her a permanent spot in the royal family, and she had turned him down.
The only people on the beach were a mile or more away. Emrys pulled Caitlyn to his side and looked into her eyes. She smiled, the breeze lifting her hair slightly and billowing the hem of her dress, and squeezed his hands in her own. Their lips met and her hands moved up his back and held onto him tightly. He wrapped his arm around her and took her to the edge of the water. She sat, digging her toes into the wet sand and letting the cool water wash over her feet.
It was an excellent day to just exist.
But the next day proved otherwise. Caitlyn got a call from her friend Melinda, who had taken a picture of a tabloid on the stands in America, and by the time Emrys had gotten out of the shower, Caitlyn had found the article online and read the whole of it: “Who’s that GIRL? Fiancée Furious with Her Playboy Prince!”
They’d gotten so many things wrong. For starters, the pictures that the tabloid had taken of them together on the beach were labeled as the Playboy Prince and his Mystery Girl. Her face was away from the camera, true, but there had been no reason to assume that Emrys was cheating on his fiancée. But assume they did, and the single article multiplied over the course of the day; each new one delighted in recounting Emrys’s more public affairs of the past five years and before. One magazine had even dug up a picture of Caitlyn from France and commented that she was a part of Emrys’s chubby-chaser phase.
This paucity of journalistic ethics didn’t faze Emrys, but Caitlyn was new to being the target of such tactics, and even though he’d asked her to avoid reading any of them, she seemed to encounter a new one every hour. They were all over Facebook, too, it seemed. Eventually, she gave him her phone and locked herself in the bathroom, sobbing.
“Cait, this is ridiculous. They’re reporting my cheating on you with you!” He sat by the door and laid his head against the wall. “The rest of it—I wasn’t with you then. Many of them I dated to force myself to get over you, and Miranda didn’t mind because she didn’t want to marry me in the first place.”
He leaned his head against the door and listened intently. Her breathing was still shaky, and she didn’t answer him.
“Please be calm, love. Don’t let them spoil our time together. All they want is to sell stories.”
Emrys folded his hands between his knees and stared at them. This could not have come at a worse time. He’d been hoping to cement her affections for him over the course of this trip, and it had been working until now. The last thing he needed was for every news outlet in existence to rub Caitlyn’s nose in his bad behavior.
“My heart broke when I had to leave you,” he said quietly. “I have never made apologies for how I chose to tape it back together, but I would never want you to have to suffer the consequences of my actions. I’m sorry these people are forcing you to dwell on things that are over. Completely over, I promise. Not one of these women has ever meant anything to me.”
Emrys rubbed his hand over his mouth. He was thinking of leaving her alone to deal with this, when she spoke, her voice thick with tears:
“I know this isn’t your fault.”
“I’m still sorry you’re hurting over this.”
Caitlyn began sobbing again. Emrys set her phone on the table.
“Love, I’m going to that bar from last night for a drink, so you can be alone. If you want to talk to me, just call or text and I’ll be here. I think I’m not helping you at all just sitting out here, reminding you of the stupid prince who has let you down once again.”
He stood, hesitated only briefly, and left.
***
When Caitlyn finally managed to calm down a little, she got in the shower and turned on the water as hot as she could stand it. She had been crying so hard that her face was throbbing. The article hadn’t even been that vicious, though not for lack of trying. She had suffered much more hateful language criticizing her every move during high school. Maybe it was the combination of reminders: She wasn’t in fact the most beautiful woman in the world, no matter what Emrys said. And he had been with many, many other women who were far better matches for a prince.
Caitlyn had been trying to keep this affair light. She had wanted to protect her heart from getting too invested in Emrys again, but seeing these reports made it obvious that she was far from indifferent. She was in love with him. She had never stopped being in love with him.
But she didn’t know if she could do this. Did she have the strength to stay with the type of man who considered marriage a business arrangement to get his trust fund? Could she stand being in the tabloids whenever there was a slow news day?
Caitlyn came out of the shower, and true to his word, Emrys had cleared out to give her space. She was grateful. Even if she wanted his arms around her, having him near was too overwhelming. She went to her closet, slipped a dress over her head, and combed through her wet hair as she went over to the table to retrieve her phone.
She was tempted to check where the news cycle had taken this story, but as curious as she was, she didn’t want to start crying again. It felt like she might never stop if she started. Instead she called down to the kitchen to request tea be sent up, took her phone, and went out onto the balcony to try to relax and enjoy the crisp autumn air.
If this thing between her and Emrys could go nowhere, if she could never be good enough for him, then why let the paparazzi ruin her vacation? She could speak with him about arranging a plane home when he left to go film. Better to cut it off now before she found herself in so deep that she couldn’t pry herself away from him.
Her phone rang. She looked to find that Melinda was calling her again.
“Hey,” she answered.
“Hey, girl. Just wanted to check in on you. How has it been?”
“I’m just exhausted, honestly. I don’t know why this hit me so hard.” Caitlyn rubbed one hand over her arm. “I should’ve known he had other girlfriends.”
“Yeah, but nobody expects the paps to be all up in their business. This really does suck.”
Caitlyn stretched out like a cat. “It does. And our vacation was going so well, too. Aside from this and my incredible shrinking bras, everything was basically perfect.”
“Shrinking bras?” Melinda laughed.
Caitlyn cupped one of her breasts. “I don’t know what’s up with these things. They’ve been the same since I was sixteen, but now they aspire to be the size of my head.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I’m exaggerating. Can having too much sex make your tits swell?”
“No!” Melinda scoffed. “Well. Actually, they could if you were pregnant. Are you pregnant?”
“Of course I’m not pregnant! We always use condoms.” Well, almost always. Caitlyn licked her tongue in mock offense. “How rude.”
“I dunno, girl. It only takes once. Overly emotional, tired, swollen jubblies…”
“Don’t joke. That would be the worst thing that could happen right now. There are a million cameras on me.”
Caitlyn frowned and sat up to look at how her breasts fit into the top of her dress. It had been a long time since her last period, but she’d always been irregular, to the point where her doctor had told her she might have trouble getting pregnant. That knowledge had kept her from worrying about the occasional lack of protection.
“Maybe so. Sorry this is so rough on you. I guess getting whisked off to a European castle can’t be perfectly free of tension. Or if it is, you probably have to put up with singing rodents or something. I’m glad you’re okay, though. I was kind of worried that you’d disappeared for so long.”
“It’s just so hard to leave Emrys.”
“Because he wants you to stay?”
“Because I want to stay. I want to be with him, but…I don’t know if I can make this work.” Caitlyn rose and walked back into the bedroom. She stood in front of the full-length mirror, smoothing her hand over her dress and trying to determine if the curve of her stomach was curvier than it had been. She had been indulging a lot during their vacation, and it would be too early to see anything, even if it were true.
“What time is it there, Mel?” Caitlyn asked. “Can I call you back?”
“It’s almost five AM here. We’re nine hours behind you and I’m about to go out for a run. Any other time you called would be great.”
“Okay. Talk to you later.”
Caitlyn went to find underwear and shoes and headed out of the hotel on foot. She found a market where she could pick up a few things. Back in the hotel room, she stepped into the bathroom and ripped open the package. Used the test. Waited three minutes.
As she stared at the test, and it stared back at her, Caitlyn sucked in her lower lip and felt her heart pounding so hard that it shook the ruffle on the top of her dress a little.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” she murmured.