Chapter 21

Drew

The days are bustling and busier now.

Peaceful, prosperous, but very busy. With three nations to look over, Ash and I find our days completely full.

And yet, there’s still time. There’s still time before the morning tea and breakfast to inhale her body. Her softness and smoothness and also her wicked hunger.

For someone so polite, Ash is insatiable, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So, in the early morning, there’s still time to indulge in each other as the smells of spring come flooding through the open windows. There’s time to indulge in each other as the sun rises over the orchards, the rolling hills, and the sea. The sea, with those two landmasses like dark smudges in the distance. Those smudges: two of the three islands we rule together.

Unsurprisingly, Aisling has proven to be a master at both diplomacy and logistics. She understands farming, and she understands economics. Actually, she understands everything that you explain to her.

So I walked her through the orchards and—after a tryst or two for old-time’s sake—explained to her how fruit farming works. The planting, the growing, the frosts and the harvests. And I walked her through the corn fields, and the fields of grass.

I taught her about plowing—about the dairy and the pigs. And then we sat down together, and she explained to me how we could completely rebuild the economies of the islands from the ground up. She floors me, that woman.

The people from Fergus’s island love her. In a way, they still ended up with the queen they were expecting…just not through an expected route. And she’s perpetually being pulled over there to help with the plans for harvest and planting seasons.

Befriending majors and dukes and telling them how to best run their little patches of earth. Visiting schools and asking what they need.

But for these few months I get her all to myself. We’ve agreed that she’ll travel less for now, and I am very, very happy with that arrangement.

This morning, she was sleepy and slow in bed. Languishing in waking up slowly together, kissing, taking time to actually look each other deep into the eyes, and then slipping into her.

Gently, slowly, passionately. And more and more gently as the months pass.

She’s still sleepy and blissful over breakfast. Hazy-eyed as she looks over letters requesting help, advice, royal visits. I have letters I have to answer too, but I prefer to just soak her up.

The presentness of her…the fullness of her.

The way she has come into herself since the wedding. She sees me looking, watching the way she absentmindedly stirs honey into her tea; the way her brow furrows when she gets to a difficult question, adoring the way she takes time for every single letter.

Every single request. Wanting to answer slowly, properly, carefully.

She smiles when her eyes meet mine.

“Don’t you have work to do?”

I put my hand behind her neck and kiss her there, making my way slowly up to her mouth. “We work so hard. I think I deserve to bask in this a little, don’t you?”

“Oh, completely.”

Our kiss is long and slow and deep and contented. It only ends when the servants come in to clear the table, and then hurry out embarrassed. That happens more and more often around here.

She’s right. There’s certainly a lot to do today.

With spring in the air, we have to start planting. And I will personally oversee the planting on this island myself. We have to start moving seeds and moving earth and moving people.

Today alone, I have around ten meetings to make plans and to ask others to make plans, and Ash has just as many, although, as I keep telling her, now is a time for her to rest. Others can make plans.

And just for today, maybe we can put off the day a little longer. I watch as she finishes eating. You can certainly tell she’s a princess when she eats; everything is just so neat. There isn’t a crumb in sight.

Then, she tries to go back to her letters, but I take them out of her hand. Fold them up. Put the pen on the blotter and the cap on the ink-bottle.

“These can wait,” I tell her.

“People need us,” Ash says.

“They need us to be happy first, then we can do all the other things they need of us.”

I take her hand and help her from her chair, wrapping my arm around her as she stands.

“We’re going to the beach. The day can begin after that.”

She smiles that smile that I fell in love with: polite but clever and mischievous. She happily lets me lead her outside into the glorious morning.

The whole world knows it’s spring. The birds are going mad with the joy of it all. I feel a little mad with the joy of it all too.

There are blossoms on all the trees, and the air is thick and heavy with the smell of flowers. There are deer wandering through the orchard. At the bottom of the path, the sea is azure and twinkling.

Because it’s only spring, it’s still a bit chilly, which is the perfect excuse for me to wrap my arm tighter around her, and we take the leisurely walk downhill, discussing plans.

Dignitaries. The education system we’re putting in place. Our latest visit to her father. More crops. More livestock.

I can’t keep my eyes off her.

Her happy, open face. Her rounded breasts. Her belly.

And then we’re on the beach. Watching the waves lap at the beach and the crabs scuttle across the sand. I bend down to take off my shoes and to unbuckle hers.

We step out onto the sand together, and bask in it—looking out over it all.

“Do you know why I love this place?” she asks, looking up at me.

“I think I can imagine,” I smile mischievously, “but tell me.”

“It’s because it’s where you were first mine.”

“And you mine.”

The sea is beautiful, but not as beautiful as the sight of Queen Aisling looking up at me. Eyes big and round and full of love. I run my gaze over her.

Then I can’t help but run my hands over her too. Under her royal velvet, her belly is swollen and beautiful.

“What are we going to call him?” I whisper.