Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) (50 page)

My head started to spin, and I got dizzy just being lost in the sea that was kissing the prince, tasting him and feeling his passion, so I pulled away, panting, my vision hazy and my legs more like jelly than flesh and bones.

His eyes opened again and they caught mine. I watched as his tongue darted out to lick his lips, then he sucked his bottom lip into his mouth for a second as if he was gathering all of my taste from his lips.

My knees almost gave out at the sight and the thought.

Moments of silence passed and our eyes remained locked on each other’s, my hand still touching him, and his hand still covering mine, until finally...he spoke. “What is it you’re doing to me, Beautiful Princess?” hushed whispers were his quite voice, tender gentleness was his soft tone.

I didn’t reply; I only stared even deeper into his eyes for a few more moments before I straightened up and walked around to stand in front of him. I moved his hands off his lap to rest them on the arms of his seat, my eyes never leaving his wondering ones. And then, I placed myself where his hands had been: I sat on his lap, and even made myself comfortable.

I wasn’t very surprised when he didn’t react right away. He was shocked by my actions, but he recovered quickly, and I felt his arms surrounding my body, holding me to him, pretty much hugging me. I rested my head on his chest, closed my eyes tightly shut, drowning in an ocean of kindness, safety and security.

I then looked up at his eyes and finally told him what I wanted him to know, what I truly felt. “Your closeness comforts me,” I admitted.

His smile was soft, kind, and despite his heartbeats that I could hear racing under my ear, he whispered, “And yours does the same to me,” causing even more calmness to wash over me.

I nestled my head even more into his chest, my arm wrapped around his neck, my nose inhaling his scent, all sandalwood and wonderfulness and him. My eyes closed as I enjoyed all of the good feelings his closeness offered.

We stayed like that for a while, his hand playing with my hair softly. Every now and then his lips would touch my forehead gently to place a warm kiss that caused my heart to flutter and my stomach to do a little flip.

It still amazed me how he could be so forgiving towards me. I had hurt him a lot and caused him troubles, with both my words and actions, yet... he was always so understanding and accepting, even when I didn’t apologize or explain. He was something else.

“Do you–” I tried to ask, but I dreaded the answer, so I stopped.

“Do I what, Princess?” he asked in a quiet voice, his hand that was playing with my hair now moving to rub along my arm tenderly.

“Do you regret teaching me about the secret tunnels?” I asked.

“Not for a second, never,” was his instant reply. “Why would you think I would?”

“I lied to you, for example?”

The prince sighed. “Listen, Princess, your safety is too important to me. I’d do anything in my power to keep you safe and sound. I’d even go beyond that if I could as long as you are protected, and if–God forbid–something happened here and you weren’t able to escape just because you didn’t know how, I’d never forgive myself,” he said sincerely, and I smiled a small smile.

“Why was my life in danger then?” I asked. “I thought that it was because you’d taught me about those escape routes. Or is it that I’m not allowed to leave the palace without permission? Was that breaking the law or a rule?”

“No, Princess, it’s not like that,” he started. “Just think about it, you’ve only been here a few days, you’re a bride, you just came into our lives, living in the palace, and then you escaped that way. Of course the first thought that would come to my parents’, or anyone’s, minds is that you were an intruder who’d learned something important and then fled to use it for whatever reason. Anyone would think of you as a spy or something of that sort.
That
is why your life was in danger.”

“Oh, my God!” I gushed. “I never thought of it that way.”

“It’s okay. It turned out okay, thank God!”

“But...how could
you
not regret it?” I wondered. “I did know about things that were really important and then tried to escape. Only you know that truth. How could you not think that I was truly a spy, and even cover up for me?” It was beyond my understanding how he could not.

“I know you are not, Princess,” he said. “Do you think we’d allow Yoseph into the family without looking very deeply into his background–and his parents’ even?”
Oh!
“Beyond that, I actually told you enough to keep you safe, but
only
that. You don’t know of the paths to my father’s wing, you don’t know how to enter the palace from the outside. The system is very complicated, you can only get in with the code you got out with, and if you weren’t in this wing and used its doors, then you can’t get in from outside. The codes always change as well, depending on the number of doors you used to go out and which ones.”

Holy Mother of Christ!

“That’s…” I couldn’t find the word.

“Complicated,” he smiled.

“Understandable,” I said, my mind in a fog just trying to process everything he’d said. And...I failed miserably.

A quiet silence and calm tranquility fell upon us. Time passed while I stayed in his arms, liking his touch, loving his tender kisses on my forehead and adoring the sound of his heartbeat under my ear. I kept my eyes closed and I almost fell asleep, but the prince said he had to get up to pray. I almost asked him not to, but I knew I couldn’t say that; so I got up, and then he did as well. Before leaving the living room, he placed yet another kiss on my forehead, renewing the argument I had inside me to ask him to stay. But still, I fought it and let him go without saying anything, knowing he’d be back in a few minutes anyway.

We talked a lot that night. As a matter of fact, we barely stopped talking at all. I learned a lot about him, and he learned a lot about me.

He still had two years of specializing to do, but wasn’t so sure if he could do it. He told me he’d had to go through a lot to convince his mother to agree to let him leave the country to study abroad. She disliked the idea of him being so far from the kingdom and leaving most of his responsibilities towards his country for his brother to do. She disliked the fact that he was studying something that wouldn’t serve in his position as the future king anyhow, but he said that helping people was something he had always wanted to do–not just ruling and guiding, even if that was what he had been raised to do all of his life.

I told him that he should consider psychiatry: he always knew the right thing to say, always knew how to comfort and solve problems. It was just the right thing for him, in my opinion. Heck, he was able to spread calmness over my heart faster and even better than what my therapist had for all those years. It made him beam, then he spaced out, as if he was really considering it, or at least thinking of the possibilities, because it seemed like his duty towards his kingdom was preventing him from doing anything further than that, just like he’d told me.

I told him about the company, about my parents, about my life in New York. It was kind of embarrassing how very boring my life was; it was only work and more work. And before I had to take care of the company, it was studying and more studying. I had no time for friends, and my family was only my grandmother and my parents, but after the loss of my parents...I didn’t even have a grandmother anymore. Well, not that much.

Still, the prince seemed really fascinated by everything I was saying. He hung on my every word, told me how impressed he was by my accomplishments and all I’d done for the past year. He liked that we were still able to complete the project of having a branch in the kingdom that my parents had started, and that we still kept the branches in London and Paris working as well as before and even better, making me feeling less pathetic about my non-existent social life.

He was that nice, and
like always
, he knew the right thing to say.

Our talk was easy, sweet, and I liked it a lot. But it also made me feel sorry for the past several days I’d spent feeling too much fear to actually enjoy them. But...I don’t think I could’ve ever helped it. Everything was new to me. I was forced to marry a stranger and my brother put a gun to my head…it was difficult. It was
still
difficult, but easier. A lot easier. I was actually enjoying myself.

Later, when Mona brought us food, it looked amazing and delicious as always, but…

“I miss pancakes,” I said. We were just about to eat, neither of us had started eating yet.

“Oh!” the prince said, “I don’t know if my mother knows how to make them or not, but I could have Mona ask her to make you some. She’ll figure it out.”

“No, no, it’s okay,” I smiled, but then thought for a moment. “Uh, can I make some?”

“Pancakes?”

I nodded.

“Yourself?”

I nodded again, smiling widely.

“Now?”

I had to chuckle. “Yeah, I really want some.”

“Isn’t it an American
breakfast
?”

“Um…it’s morning in America,” I grinned.

The prince chuckled and it was music to my ears, shaking his head. “I don’t know, Princess.”

“Is it breaking a rule? Because I assure you, I’ve been
‘spoiled rotten’
enough since I got here,” I tried.

“I don’t mind at all, Princess, but you have to convince Mona. She won’t be happy with you getting your hands dirty during your first week of marriage, no matter what,” the prince grinned.

“I know how to be convincing,” I said with a smug look on my face, making the prince chuckle again, and then we went to the kitchen–me, readying myself for a big argument with Mona.

“It is not appropriate, Princess,” Mona said with wide eyes and shock as if I just told her I’d be torturing puppies, not making pancakes.

“Oh, please! It’ll only take ten minutes,” I said.

“You tell me how to do it, Princess, and I’ll do it with pleasure,” Mona offered.

“Five minutes,” I tried, desperate.

“I promise I’ll try my best, Princess, just tell me how.” Mona was just as desperate.

I looked over at the prince who was leaning his shoulder against the door frame, hands in his pockets, watching us as he tried to stifle his laughter. “Aren’t you gonna help me out here?”

He raised his hands in front of him in surrender. “It’s your war, Stubborn Princess.”

I narrowed my eyes at him playfully, and he chuckled, and then I had to beg Mona some more. I almost thought of bribing her with more hair brushing or something, but thought that would be very silly of me.

Eventually, Mona gave up and let me do it, but all the while she kept asking if she could do this or that herself. I let her help a little only to put her mind at some kind of ease, and she was really happy about it. Rolling up my sleeves for me neatly seemed like some kind of pleasure to her; it was sort of funny, she was just too nice.

To my surprise, the prince wanted to help, as well. Mona didn’t object at all, which I told her was so lame of her. She just smiled and then even laughed at how clumsy he was. He had the cutest smudge of flour on his nose, and both Mona and I snickered at the sight of him.