Chapter Twenty-Five

 

Parties agree that their partnership is exclusive and monogamous.  Additionally, each day, they will alternate mutually agreed on physical contact (ie: third-base behaviors).  The purpose of said activity is the satisfaction of needs.

 

Clothes will stay mostly on.

 

Clause 21- Amended Physical Contact Agreement

(Containing Nullification of Clause 7-Separate Lives and Other Relationships)

 

“I couldn’t save them both.”  Gwen said faintly, finishing her story.  “I wasn’t strong enough.  I could only pull one to safety.”

Midas nodded.  “So you chose Avalon.”  It wasn’t even a question.

“So, I chose Avalon.”  Gwen concurred.  “I held her tight and I let him fall.”  She was quiet for a moment.  “He really wasn’t so terrible in the beginning.  I never loved him, but he wasn’t evil.  Just self-indulgent and egotistical.  Something dark took root in him.”

“Or maybe he was always evil and you were too Good to see it.”

“I’m not so Good.  I punched him.  That’s why he died.”

“He died because he was an abusive maniac.”

She barely even heard that assurance.  “It all happened so fast.  I was frantic to get her back and then… he was just screaming all the way down.  Screaming for Jill.”  At the end, maybe he’d realized what a terrible mistake he’d made in not treating her better.  “That scream went on forever and then it stopped, but it was even louder, somehow.”  She sniffed back more tears.  “Do you think it’s true that I murdered him?”

“It was an accident.”  Midas insisted firmly.  “An accident he caused.”

She wanted to believe that, but it was so hard to be sure.  “I’m not a violent person.  I wouldn’t have deliberately killed him.  Not unless there was no other option to save her.”

“I know.”  His hand smoothed down her hair.  “I’m so sorry, kitten.  This is my fault.”

“Yours?  That’s ridiculous.  You weren’t even there.”

“Once I escaped the WUB Club, I planned to kill Arthur.”  Midas brushed a tear from her cheek.  “I would have, should have, except he died before I got back to Camelot.  So, you have nothing to feel guilty about.  If he hadn’t died with you, he would have died with me.  The bastard would be dead right now, regardless of how things happened that night.  I just wish I had been the one to do it.”

“He died the same day you escaped.  There was nothing you could have done.”

“If I had known you then, I would have come for you sooner, no matter what it took.”  It was a vow.  “I would never have left you and Avalon with that man.  Not even for a day.  Arthur was right.  I would have stolen you both away.”

“You wouldn’t have had to steal us.”  Gwen met his eyes.  “I would have come with you willingly and I would have given you my daughter.”

Midas liked that answer.  “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”  Gwen gave him a watery smile, shifting closer to him on the bench.  “I was swept up in you before we even met.”  She confessed.  “Avi would tell me things about you.  About how kind you are.  And honorable.  And gentle.  And I swear I could feel you.  It was like we were already… connected.”

“We are connected.”  He shook his head.  “Except I’m not kind and honorable and gentle.  You don’t believe that, I know.  And I don’t try hard enough to make you see the truth, because I’m afraid that you’ll stop looking at me like I’m important to you.”

“You and Avalon are the most important things to me, Midas.  For two years, I’ve thought about you.  Do you really believe I don’t know who you are inside?”

“You have no idea who I am inside and I hope you never find out.”  He lifted her body so she was on his lap.  “You are in my head every second of every day.  Until you and Avalon came home to me, I was empty.”  He held her tight.  “I had nothing.  And now there is nothing I won’t do to keep you both beside me.”

Gwen cuddled closer, comforted by his warmth.  “Do you think Arthur sensed that I was thinking about you so much?  I worry that’s why he tried to hurt you and Avi.”  She blinked up at him, confessing her deepest fear.  “Do you think it was because of me that he targeted you two and…?”

“No.”  Midas interjected emphatically.  “No, Gwen. You did nothing wrong.”  He kissed the top of her head.  “You and Avalon are the victims in this mess.  Everything that happened was because Arthur wanted what was mine.  That son of a bitch is lucky he’s dead.”  Midas brooded for a beat.  “He’d better be fucking dead.”  He muttered.  “I wake up at night, afraid he’s somehow alive and you’ll be his wife again.”

“I would never be his wife, again.”  Gwen vowed with a shudder.  “Ever.  But, he is dead, Midas.  I saw his body.  He’s gone.”  She laid a hand on his shirtfront.  “And we’re here.  That’s all that matters.”

His cheek rested against her hair for a long time.  “Thank you for saving Avalon.”  He finally whispered.  “Thank you for coming here and trusting me with her.”

“Thank you for protecting our daughter, when I had nowhere else to go.”  She tilted her head back.  “You’re the one who gave us a place to hide… Oh!”

The “our daughter” part of that comment had made Midas extremely happy.  His mouth claimed Gwen’s, his lips slanting over hers.  Good Lord, but the man could kiss.

Emotions running high, it only took a moment for passion to take over.  Clause 21-“Amended Physical Contact Agreement” said that they would alternate days when they pleasured each other, but, so far, Midas had spent all his days touching her.  She’d tried to get his pants off on numerous occasions, but he’d always talked her out of it.  The man could be so damn persuasive when his fingers were doing naughty things.  This time, Gwen wasn’t going to give him a chance to distract her.  She shifted, so her knees were on either side of his hips, her hands reaching for his belt buckle.

“Gwen.”  He tugged her blouse open, nuzzling the valley between her breasts. His teeth grazed her delicate skin, marking her, and she whimpered.  The small sound enflamed him.  “I need to touch you, kitten.  Come back to my bedroom and let me…  Holy shit.”

Gwen grinned in triumph.  “It’s your turn.”  She managed to get his pants open and then he was at her mercy.  “We need to follow the rules of our Contract to the letter.”

He caught hold of her wrist, keeping her still.  “If you do this, I won’t be able to go back.”  He warned.  “I’ll need you even more than I need you now… and that seems fucking impossible.  You need to be sure.”

“I have been sure about you from the minute I saw your mugshot, Midas.”  She gently tugged against his hold and he released her.  Her fingers wrapped around him and he gave a harsh groan of bliss.  “Are you sure about me?  Do you still want me, even after everything I just told you?”

“Of everything in this world, you are the thing I am most sure about, Guinevere Pendragon.”

She leaned forward to kiss him, loving that answer.  “We really should find you a last name, so Avalon and I can change ours.  I have a feeling you don’t want to be a ‘Pendragon’ with us.”

He kept his eyes open as their lips touched, like he was afraid to look away.  “You’d share a name with me?”  No one had ever linked their name to his before.  He looked amazed.

“Well, only if it’s really cool.”  She grinned, her palm massaging the massive evidence of his desire.  “Nothing beige.”

“Pick anything you want. Just so everyone knows that I belong with you and Avalon.”

“We belong together.”  She corrected.  “I guess we’ll have to amend Clause 2- ‘Change of Names’ and update the marriage scroll, too.  But, we can get that from that drunken wizard who performed the ceremony.”

Midas dragged his attention from watching her fist caress him.  “I have our marriage scroll.”  He admitted warily.

“You have it?  How did you get it?”

“Trystan stole it for me.”  Midas’ focus drifted to her breasts, again.  “I asked him to.  Our marriage can’t be officially dissolved unless the scroll is destroyed, so I thought it would be better if I just held onto it.  For… safekeeping.”

“Oh.”  Gwen wasn’t sure what to make of that.  “Well, I guess that will make the name change easier.”

Midas nodded.  “Very logical.”  He couldn’t work the bra’s small closure through his gloves, so he just ripped it off of her.  Gwen was used to that.  In the last week, he’d shredded at least eight others in the same way.  “God you’re beautiful.”

“I’m not going to keep buying lingerie, if you keep destroying it.”

“Good.  I’d be happier if you didn’t wear a fucking thing.”  His mouth dipped to suckle her taunt nipple, making a hungry sound.

“No.  I mean, you’re going to be the one paying for…”  Gwen gasped.  “Midas.”  She arched against him and his hands smoothed over her body, memorizing the curves.

“I want to feel you, without the damn gloves in the way.”  He snarled in frustration.  “I would give anything to be able to touch you for real.”

“You are touching me for real.”  She tightened her grip on his shaft.  “And I’m touching you.”

“Fuck.”  He gave a hiss of pleasure.  “You keep that up and this will be over fast, kitten.”

“Then, we’ll just have the opportunity to start it all, again.”  She teased breathlessly.  “Unless you have something better to do with your evening.”

His smile was filled with something deeper than lust.  Something huge and warm and real.  “There is nothing better than you.”  He said quietly.  “You are the very best, Gwen.  I knew it from the minute I saw you.”

She blinked back a new rush of tears at the soft words, the final requirement of her Right Man list checked off.  Midas definitely wanted her as much as she wanted him.  She could see it all in his eyes.  Gwen’s forehead dipped forward to rest against his.  In that moment she’d never felt closer to anyone.

Midas’ expression turned more solemn, like he sensed it, too.  Their breath mingling, as her hair fell around them like a curtain.  He lifted a palm to cradle her cheek.  “I wish I could touch you for real,” he whispered again, “half as deeply as you touch me.”

Her lips brushed against his, her fingers moving faster.  Her free hand came up to thread through his fingers, holding it against her face.

Midas’ head tipped back in ecstasy.  “God, kitten.  I want it to last, but I can’t.  I need you too much.”  He shifted her open palm, so he could kiss it, only to stop suddenly.  His gaze locked on the place where her wedding band rested.  “Gwen?”  He gave his head a clearing shake, like he was trying to concentrate.  “Would you take his ring off?”

That surprised her.  “Right now?  Why?”

“Because I’m asking you.  Nicely.  I’m asking you nicely to give it to me and not to wear it anymore.”  He paused.  “Please.”  He added, like that might help with the “nicely” part.

Gwen had to admit, it was fairly convincing.  “Are you going to try and buy it, again?”  She asked suspiciously.  “Because that was really tacky and not in your usual cute way.”

He shook his head, his breathing ragged.  “I won’t offer to buy it.”  He got out.  “I just don’t want to come in your hand, when you’re wearing Arthur’s ring.  I want it to be you and me and no one else.”

Gwen blinked.  The wedding band was just money to her.  It had nothing to do with Arthur.  Obviously, it symbolized something else to Midas, though.  It wasn’t just a trophy for him to acquire, like she’d thought.  It was a sign that she was still connected to another man.  That’s why he wanted it.  She should have realized it sooner.  Midas could be sentimental, at times.

“Once I remove it, it won’t be enspelled, anymore.  I won’t know for sure that no one can ever take it.”  It was a risk for her to give up her safety net of guaranteed funds.  “It would lose the magical connection to my body.”

“I know.”  It was a snarl of satisfaction.

“What will protect Avalon, if something goes wrong?”

“I will.”

Gwen considered his intent face for a beat and then nodded.  “Alright.”  She murmured, agreeing to give him far more than a hunk of gold.  “Since you asked me nicely, you can have it.”

The tendons in Midas’ neck went taunt, his body swelling, but still he tried to focus.  “You’ll give it to me?  Right now?”

“Well, I have my other hand full, right now.”  She nipped his ear.  “If you want the ring gone, you’ll have to do it yourself.”

His gaze leapt to hers.  “You’d let me remove it?”

“I would let you do just about anything, Midas.”  Since no wedding band could be removed without permission of the owner, though, Gwen figured she’d better be more explicit.  “Please take my ring off.” She held up her left palm for him.

Midas pulled it free so fast it was a wonder he didn’t dislocate her joint.  “About fucking time.”  He survey the naked finger, like he’d just singlehandedly felled a rampaging dragon.  Triumph glittered in his gaze.  “Mine.”  He tossed the wedding band aside and pushed her newly liberated palm towards his lap.  “Use this hand.  I want all those pretty, bare fingers wrapped around me.”

Gwen arched a brow and did what he wanted.  It was strangely arousing that he was so fixated on a simple circle of gold. “It really bothered you that I was wearing Arthur’s ring, didn’t it?”  She surmised, feeling him grow impossibly harder in her grip.

That incredible golden gaze flashed up to hers again, burning hot.  “Yes.”  He intoned and she heard all his suppressed frustration in the word.  “It really bothered me.”

Why was his possessiveness such a turn on?  With Arthur, jealousy had been suffocating and scary.  With Midas, she just wanted to sooth his frown away.  The difference was all in the man and how deeply she trusted him.  Her nails lightly scratched over Midas’ velvety tip and his whole body jolted.

“Gwen.”  His teeth ground together like he was barely holding on.

She kissed the side of his jaw, pleased with that response.  “It’s just a ring, you know.”

“I’ve bought you safes full of jewelry since you’ve been here.”  Midas panted.  “Every ring for sale in the whole goddamn kingdom.”

“That’s why you’ve been doing that?” Lord, he was so impractical.  It was part of his romantic, gallant nature, she supposed.  “Do you have any idea how much all those rings must’ve cost?  It’s going to add a fortune to my bill and…”

“I don’t care.”  He interrupted.  “I care that you didn’t wear them.  You still wear that ring.  Day after day.  The one that marks you as Arthur’s wife.  The one that says you still belong to him.”

“I don’t see it that way.  Really.  I just saw the wedding band as my safety net.”

“I see it as his.”

“I’m sorry.”  She said honestly.  “I truly didn’t know it was such a big issue.”

“How could it not be a big issue?”  He’d clearly been storing up a huge list of grievances about one tiny ring.  “You put that ugly chunk of metal right in our Contract.  You said you wanted to keep it, just in case something went wrong with our marriage.  Use his gold to buy food for our daughter, instead of any of the gold I gave you.”

She made a tsk sound.  “I should have remembered how sensitive you are.  Let me make it up to you.”

“I’m not sensitive.  I just don’t…”  He trailed off with a moan as her body slid off his lap, so she was kneeling on the floor.  “Oh Christ, yes.  Make it up to me just like that.  Just like that.”  His legs shifted, giving her room.  “I need your mouth on me.”  His fingers tangled in her hair, urging her towards his throbbing shaft.  “I need it, kitten.  I need it so bad.”

She dipped her head, but she didn’t give him what he wanted.  Instead, she nipped the inside of his thigh, enjoying his frustrated oath.  “Do you know why I let you take the wedding band off?”

“Please.”  He got out, his jaw like granite.  “Now, Gwen.  Please.”  He was about to lose control.

“Because, I don’t need it to be my safety net anymore.”  She continued.  “I have you.”

“You have me.  God, you have all of me.  You are my goddamn life and soul.”  He shuddered as her tongue flicked out to measure the length of him.  “That’s the reason I stole the scroll.  So our marriage can’t be broken.  I can’t ever give you up.  I can’t go back to the darkness.”

She glanced up at him, through her lashes.  “Why Midas, stealing from a wizard sounds like something a Bad man would do and you’re always such a gentleman.” It was also pretty hot.  She rewarded him by taking one deep, tantalizing taste of his pulsing flesh.

“Fuck!”  Midas’ whole body arched and she knew he was at the end of the game.  “I’m not a gentleman.  I’m Bad and you’re mine and I’m taking you.  Open.  Now.”  He nudged her lips, wanting entrance.  “And never put his ring on again.”  He added, like he still wasn’t over the whole wedding band issue.  “No one else ever marks you as theirs.”

“Alright.”  She agreed, completely turned on by his wildness.

“I mean it, Gwen.  Never again.  I can’t fucking stand it.”

“Never again.”  She stopped teasing and gave him what he wanted.  “I swear it, husband.”  Her lips sealed over him, but it was calling him her husband that sent him over the edge.

Midas erupted with a hoarse shout.  His hand fisted in her hair, like he was afraid she would pull away and leave him bereft.  “Gwen!  Oh God.  Gwen.”  His hips jerked, sinking deeper into her mouth and she suckled every drop from him.  “Oh fuck yes.”

Damn, but she rocked at seduction.

“My wife.”  Midas whispered when she was done.  He said the words every time they finished, like he just couldn’t believe she was really married to him.  It always made Gwen smile.

“Yours.”  She told him, because he needed the reassurance.  “I’m yours, Midas.”

He pulled her into his lap, his face buried in her hair.  His lips pressed against her temple in something like reverence.  For a man who fought and paid for everything he possessed, he always seemed shocked at how easily she allowed him to hold her.

“But you’re mine, too.”  Gwen continued, pretty damn smug with how well that had gone.  “Equal partners.”

“Equal partners.”  He kissed her full on the mouth, looking arrogant, now.  “Do not wear another man’s ring.”  He commanded, like maybe his feelings on the subject still weren’t clear enough.  “Not unless I’m dead in the ground.  It drives me insane.”

“I noticed.”

“I want the Contract to say you can’t get jewelry from any other men.”

“Now you’re just reacting emotionally, again.  It’s not your fault.”  She patted his cheek.  “You’re a very passionate man.  It clouds your logic sometimes.”

“Clause 14- ‘Renegotiation of Contract’ says I can renegotiate at any time.”  He insisted, still panting for oxygen.  “That’s very logical.  I want the contractual right to slaughter any bastard who gives my wife so much as a paperclip.”

“We’ll discuss it later, when you’re not overcome by your delicate sensibilities.”  She pushed back her hair and ignored his skeptical snort.  “Would you do something for me, right now?”

“I would do anything for you.”

“Good.  Make love to me.”  She ordered, feeling exhilarated.  “Let’s change the Contract and be together without any restrictions.”

Midas hesitated and she saw a flash of longing on his face.  He wanted her.  His eyes dipped down to her breasts, to the small marks his teeth had left on the soft globes. She could actually feel him hardening again, recharging at a furious pace at the idea of being inside her the next time he came.

“…No.”  He said anyway.

“No?”  Gwen hadn’t expected that.  “You just said you’d do anything.”

“Anything but that.”

“Why?” She demanded, stung by his refusal to do what they both wanted.  She scrambled off of his lap, ready to argue her side.

Midas didn’t try to hold her, which wasn’t like him.  “You’d just be unhappy afterwards.”  He said dully.

“I seriously doubt that.”

“It’s true.  You wouldn’t stay with me.” He shook his head.  “And if I lose you and Avalon, I would die.”  The words were stark and certain.

Her heart flipped over.  “Avalon and I aren’t leaving you, Midas.  Why would you even think such a thing?”  It had to come from his childhood.  He said he’d lost his parents when he was nine.  That had to create abandonment issues.  “My love,” she tilted her head to meet his gaze, “we will never leave you.”  This man was the only place in the world she wanted to be.

It was like he didn’t even hear her reassurance.  He lowered his face to his hands, not wanting to maintain eye contact, and rubbed his forehead.  “My life is perfect.”  He was talking to himself, now.  “I can’t risk that.  Not for anything.”

“Perfect?  We’re at war with a madman and people are trying to kill us.”

“That’s a temporary situation.”  He assured her distractedly.  “The Scarecrow will be dead soon and I’ll have everything I ever wanted.  You and Avalon will be happy, and safe, and looking at me like I belong with you.”

“You do belong with us.”

“For so long, I searched for what you’ve given me, Gwen.  I didn’t even have a name for it.  I think I thought it was fucking class,” he snorted, “I was an idiot.”

He was still being an idiot.  “Midas…”

He cut her off.  “But now I wake up to it every single day.  I’m not going to take a chance on losing that, no matter how much I want you.” He swallowed.  “God, how I want you.  You have no idea.  Sex with you would be… magic.  You don’t think I know it would be goddamn magic?  You think I don’t want you so bad that I can’t sleep?”  He plowed a hand through his hair.  “But I come downstairs in the morning and you’re here, Gwen.  In this house.  Smiling at me.  Calling me your husband.  And that’s what I want more than anything.”

It was difficult to be angry when he said things like that.

“Bad enough I have to take you to Celliwig tomorrow,” he continued, in increasing agitation, “I’m not going to do anything else to jeopardize our marriage.  I don’t care if I have to live in cold showers for the rest of my life.  I’m not going back out onto that godforsaken porch!”

Porch?  What in the hell was he talking about?  “How would sleeping with me jeopardize our marriage, Midas?  Married people have sex all the time.  It’s really very common.”

“You’ll leave.”  He said again and his tone was utterly sure.  “You won’t need me with you anymore and you’ll leave.”

Whatever was happening in his mind, he’d somehow connected sleeping with her to the end of their marriage.  Midas wasn’t thinking rationally.  She’d accidently hit on an issue that went straight down into his deepest and most instinctive fears.

And that triggered hers….

“Is this about your True Love?”  Gwen blurted out.

Midas hesitated for a beat too long.

“It is!”  She cried, not giving him a chance to answer.  Her own insecurities took over, driving her on.  “You’re waiting for her and so you don’t want to sleep with me.  Is that it?”

“What?”  His head snapped around.  “No.”  He gaped at her like she was speaking in tongues.  “God, no.  I don’t want anyone else.”  He sounded incredulous and kind of a little bit insulted.  “How can you even think that?”  He paused. “I mean, I know why you’re thinking it.  Because Arthur was a cheating bastard.”  Golden eyes narrowed.  “That asshole is still trying to take you from me.”

“This isn’t about Arthur.”  Gwen retorted.  “I was perfectly happy with him dating Jill and staying away from me.”  She waved them both aside.  “I am not happy with you dating other people, though, because you are my husband.  Arthur was just some guy I was married to.”

Midas’ eyes gleamed with that hungry light they always got when she called him her husband.  “I waited my whole life for you, Gwen.  Every minute of every day.  You don’t ever have to worry about my True Love coming between us.”

“Of course, I’m worried about her!”  The woman weighed on Gwen’s mind so much that she’d started stalking the internet for information on True Love, hoping to find a way to cure it.  So far, she’d found nothing and it made her eyes fill with tears.  “You said only Bad folk could feel things, but that’s not true.”

He cringed, realizing that he’d hurt her.  “I know it’s not true.  Gwen, you have so many beautiful, pure feelings.  I see them in everything you do.  I love how Good you are.  And I would never want anyone but you.  It kills me that you’d be upset over this woman, when…”  He tilted his head back, like he was trying to find a way out of a maze.  “Fuck.”

She sniffed, only slightly appeased.  “Even if you don’t want this other girl yet, you could.  What if some beautiful stranger shows up and you instantly fall head-over-heels in love?  Huh?  You’d probably do any crazy thing she wanted, no matter how illogical and dangerous and bad for business.”

Midas’ gaze flicked to hers.  “You think?”  His mouth curved, although it wasn’t the least bit funny.

“It’s not just some romantic fantasy!”  She declared, thinking he was scoffing at the idea.  “It’s actual science.  They can do blood tests and know when two people will match-up.  It’s --like-- biology.”

“So you believe in True Love now?”

“I believe something’s happening.  Something that could be life and death, Midas.  People will do insane things to be with their True Love.  Like really insane.  That could be you.  I’ve read studies online that claim Bad folk just know their True Loves, as soon as they see them.  I heard you and Avi talking about it, too.  They say it’s instant.”

“I’ve heard that rumor.”

“So, we should have a plan in place, just in case this woman arrives. I mean, are you going to leave me?  If you just look up and she’s there, will you break our Contract?”

“No.”

That characteristically simple answer made her feel better, but it wasn’t enough.  “Would you want to leave me?”

“No.”

“So you’re going to just stop desiring your True Love?”  She challenged.  “I don’t even think that’s possible.”  And it sure didn’t seem like him.  The man was uncompromising when it came to having everything he considered “his.”

Midas stood up, focusing hard on fixing his clothes.  “This whole conversation is pointless.  Cross the True Love part out of the Contract if it makes you feel better.  As a matter of fact, I’ll willingly sign away the entire Termination Clause.  I have no intention of ever ending our marriage.  You’re the one who insisted on adding it.  I thought it was a waste of paper and ink, if you recall.”

Gwen wasn’t fooled by his exasperated tone.  “Are you going to stop looking for her?”

“I’ve already stopped looking for her.”

“Impossible.”  Gwen jerked her top back into place, not even bothering to try and salvage the bra.  “You said every woman but your True Love was settling.”  That remark still stung.  “You’ve never settled for anything in your life, Midas.  You really expect me to believe that you’ll just give up on this girl?”

“I’m not settling.  You and Avalon are exactly what I want.”

“That’s not an answer. Are you going to give up on your True Love? Tell me the truth.”

Another long pause.  “Give up on her?”  He repeated carefully.

“Yes or no.”

Midas began to look hunted.  “You are my wife.” He spoke slowly, like she was the one being unreasonable.  “For me, there is no one else.  I give you my word.”

“Still not an answer.”  And if he wasn’t answering, it was because he wasn’t giving up on the bitch.

Midas scrubbed a hand over his face.  “Why are we arguing about this?  I won’t ever leave you for another woman.  Ever.  I’m not stupid, Gwen.  I’m not going anywhere until you kick me out.  Even then, I’d probably try to find my way back in.  I just don’t get what else you need to hear.”

She wanted to hear that he loved her, dammit!  Was she being fucking subtle about it?

Why wasn’t he just saying the words?  She was madly in love with this idiot.  The least he could was return the sentiment.  Forget his bimbo of a True Love, he had to love Gwen back.  There was no way she was the only person feeling the connection between them.  He said he felt it, too!  No one looked at a woman the way he looked at her unless he was completely smitten.

Right?

Annoyed at herself, and especially at him, Gwen got to her feet.  “I’m going to bed.  Alone.”

“It’s not fair of you to be mad at me about not sleeping together.”  He called after her, sounding pissed off.  “You’re the one who wrote Clause 21- ‘Amended Physical Contact Agreement.’  I’m well within my rights of our partnership and you know it.”

“Sweet dreams.”  She called, ignoring that logical, truthful, and one-hundred-percent-certified dumbass argument.  “I’ll just go give myself an orgasm.”  Unfortunately, she wasn’t going to be able to use her standard strapping stable boy fantasy to accomplish it, because Midas was the only man who seemed to turn her on, anymore.

Damn it.

He groaned like he was in pain.  “Really?  You’re going to tell me something like that and just walk away?  Please, don’t…”

She slammed the door to her room, cutting him off.

The man was the biggest moron in the kingdom.  Totally unfeeling and without the slightest idea of how to make a girl happy.  It was a wonder she’d retained even a shred of sanity having to deal with the gigantic dickhead all day long.  She’d be better off married to a toadstool.  At least it might show some potential for emotional growth.  Midas was totally, totally hopeless.  Why had he even married her if he was going to be such a jackass?

She hesitated in the middle of her mental rant.

Actually, why had he married her?  That was at the heart of everything.  Why had he agreed to this deal, in the first place?  She’d never been able to figure it out.

Despite the wizards’ backing, he still showed no real interest in ruling a kingdom, so that couldn’t possibly be his motivation for their partnership.  Even Gwen could admit that she’d done a pretty crappy job of initially selling him on the wonders of a “lackluster” marriage.  He’d never even heard of Dark Science before she came along, so that wasn’t the reason for helping her, either.

In short, there were zero incentives for Midas to sign their Contract.

No.

Gwen’s head tilted, fragments of conversations and bits of information coming together in her mind.  No…  Actually there could be one incentive, if you were lucky and Bad and very careful.  If you were really talented at not saying too much and really clever about seeing the catur board from an entirely different angle.

If you were the smartest man in Camelot.

And, just like that, Gwen suddenly beheld the single blinding answer to all her questions.  Why Arthur had never shown her the results of that mystio-physiological screening done on Gwen and Midas’ blood.  Why Avalon had always been so sure that Midas was her daddy.  Why Gwen knew in her heart, nearly from the first moment, that Midas would be the Right Man.  Why Midas was so evasive about his True Love and so reluctant to sleep with Gwen.

It was all so clear she was amazed that she hadn’t understood it before.

All this time, Midas had been working a deal of his own!

He’d let her do the hard work to make everything happen, while he sat back and got what he wanted.  Their negotiations played right into his hand, because Gwen had been focused on everything except what Midas actually cared about.  No wonder those golden eyes had gleamed with satisfaction as she’d presented him with the final Contract.  A Contract that gave him exactly what he’d been seeking, without Midas having to write a single clause, give up anything that mattered to him, or reveal his actual motivations.

That tricky bastard.

He’d married her because he wanted to marry her.

Gwen had believed she’d strong-armed him into their agreement.  In reality, Midas would have done anything to finalize it.  Given her anything.  That was what he was scared of her discovering, if they had sex.  To his mind, Midas was in an impossibly weak bargaining position and he’d done everything he could think of to hide it from her.

And it had worked.

To hell with catur, the man should be a poker player.  He’d bluffed and obfuscated and maneuvered his way into total victory, before she’d even understood the game.  He hadn’t boasted about his strategy.  He just masterfully and discreetly shifted cards around, all the while letting Gwen think she was the one dealing.  Until he held the winning hand.  Until he had the one and only thing he was truly after.

His True Love.

Their entire Contract was simply about Midas marrying his True Love, because he never, ever settled for less than the best.

Gwen slowly smiled as she finally realized the truth:

The Kingpin of Camelot wasn’t such a terrible businessman, after all.