I peer through the tiny window in the heavy wooden door. Aurora’s standing out there, resting her hands on the stone balustrade and looking out over my kingdom, cities and towns and then the tall mountains in the distance.

I’m not supposed to be here, but I push the door open anyway and step out onto the palace’s balcony. Her head turns, and she looks slightly taken aback.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” she says.

“Why? It’s my castle,” I point out, grinning.

“It’s bad luck to see me in my dress,” she says, her eyes already sparkling wickedly.

“It’d be worse luck not to see you right now,” I tell her, stepping forward and caressing her curves in my hands.

“You clearly don’t know the first thing about weddings,” she says, and I lean in and kiss her.

I want more. I want so much more than this, right now, even as my tongue invades her mouth and she melts into me, her body practically begging me for sin. And I know Aurora does too, because I’ve made it my mission to know her body better than I know my own.

“You didn’t come out here just for a kiss,” she murmurs, biting my lip softly.

“On the contrary, I did,” I say. “I don’t mind breaking tradition to see you before the ceremony, but fucking before the wedding night? Unheard of.”

Aurora just laughs, and I laugh too, because of course we fucked before the wedding night. We’ve fucked hard and we’ve fucked gentle, we’ve made love and tied each other up and been so rough we left bruises.

“You’re not here to do something filthy to me only hours before we get married?” she asks, mock innocence in her voice.

“I’m here to torture you by making you wonder what I’ve got planned for tonight,” I murmur into her ear. “How’s that?”

“Torturous,” she says.

“You’re enjoying the view?”

It’s not the first time she’s visited Floronia. She’s been here plenty of times, but never before as its future queen.

“I like it,” she says. “It feels like home.”

I stroke the back of her neck, letting my hand drift down between her shoulder blades.

The past four months have been hard, probably the hardest of my life — not that I’ve had a hard life. Aurora was in the hospital for a long time, recovering, and then when she got out she had daily physical therapy.

She was in the neck brace for a long time, and even had to have slight reconstructive surgery on her jaw.

But I told her I loved her, and I told her I’d be there for her. I do, and I was, and I still am. I’d do it again for twice as long, though I could never wish that on Aurora.

And now, at last, she’s standing in my castle. Bones healed, bruises gone, nothing wrong with her besides occasional odd headaches and ribs that ache when it’s going to rain.

By tonight, she’ll be my wife.

It’s the best gift I could possibly ask for.

* * *

That night, I shut the door to the east wing of my palace behind me, the walls echoing with the heaviness of the sound. I’ve already had the lights dimmed, and I carefully take Aurora’s face in my hands and bend to kiss her.

“I don’t know which threshold I’m to carry you over,” I tell her. “Technically, you’ve been in my house all day.”

“It doesn’t matter, as long as you carry me to your bed,” she says, looking up at me through her eyelashes.

I suck in a quick breath. Today was wonderful, beyond fantastic — and it was also sheer torture. Seeing her in her white gown, the very picture of innocence, but knowing what I get to do to her tonight, knowing what she’ll beg me to do nearly destroyed me with impatience.

I pick Aurora up in my arms, carry her down the hall, past a living room and kitchen. I push open the door to my bedroom with my foot, revealing an enormous poster bed scattered with rose petals, moonlight streaming through the window.

I put her down and cover her mouth with mine instantly. She wraps her arms around my neck and pushes her body against mine, the thick fabric of her wedding dress warm with her body heat.

“I spent all day thinking about this,” I growl, letting one hand drift down her shoulder to the top of her stuff bodice.

“Thinking about what?” she asks, her voice low and sultry.

“Wondering if there was any way I could crawl under the banquet table and eat you out in the middle of our own wedding reception,” I say, grabbing her ass and squeezing. “If the photographer hadn’t been there after the ceremony, I’d have torn this dress off of you and bent you over right there in the vestibule.”

She hooks one finger under the top button of my shirt, licks her lips, my cock stiffening in response.

I love this, her combination of innocent and vixen. How I know that despite the way that she looks at me like this is her first time, deep down she loves the dirty things we do just as much as me.

“I’m a little disappointed you didn’t,” she says, tugging lightly at the button.

I reach behind her, find the hidden zipper on the gown, slowly pull it down her spine while Aurora leans in, her lips on my neck.

“This dress used to have buttons, all the way down the back,” she murmurs. “I had them taken off because I didn’t want it to take you too long to get it off.”

With that she slides it from her arms, and her wedding gown falls to the floor.

She’s completely naked underneath. No bra. No panties. Aurora bites her lip and looks up at me.

I let my hands roam her body, pinching her nipples until she moans, sliding my hand between her legs, feeling her wetness. I push her backward, to the bed, until she’s sitting on it and I’m towering over her, between her legs.

“Aurora,” I murmur as I push three fingers into her pussy.

She sighs and moans, her hips thrusting up to meet me.

“Tonight,” I go on, sliding them out, moving them down. “I’m claiming your ass.”

I circle her tight bud with my dripping-wet fingers, and Aurora falls backward, her hair pooling around her head, panting for breath.

“I want you to have everything,” she whispers back, grabbing my hand by the wrist.

She guides one of my fingers into her tight hole, just to the first knuckle. My cock throbs so hard that I think I might come right then, and I know that I can barely wait.