Ch. 14：Room Sharing

For the rest of the day, I was cooped up in my new room in the main palace. The thoughts that ran through my head were enough to drive me crazy but every time I felt overwhelmed by the things happening, I reminded myself that I could now get back at Noah and his pack for all the evil cards they dealt me. I promised to make their lives hell the way they did to me and I would stop at nothing to achieve my goal.
It seemed petty and self-destructive but I could not go against the prince so I made the choice of getting the best out of this situation. We could have a polite relationship without love or affection. It would work out. It had to. As for the queen, she would not try anything, right?
With these thoughts running through my head, I yawned, stretching out in the large fluffy bed that felt more like clouds than a bed. Used to the hard wood I called a bed in Red Lake, I felt uncomfortable in such a luxurious bed but with time, I drifted off to sleep.
In my sleep, I heard the door open and I heard some movements but my eyelids were too heavy to open. Working in the palace could not be considered menial labour and the mental work I’d done today with the prince was enough to tire me out to my bones. My eyes did not open despite the movements in my room until I felt someone climb into the cloudy bed. Heavy eyelids snapped open and drowsiness disappeared in the blink of an eye.
“What are you doing?” I exclaimed, scrambling up in bed when I saw the outline of a man in the room only illuminated by the soft moonlight. With fumbling hands, I lit the lamp beside my bed and light flooded the room to reveal the prince glaring at me.
“What does it look like I am doing?” He growled. “Turn off the lights. I want to sleep.” Frost filled his deep voice.
“But you –“ I spluttered, holding up the bedsheet to my chest. Sabrina dressed me in a flimsy see-through nightdress and now he was in my bed? “Why can you not sleep in your – in your room?” I shifted closer to the edge of the bed, he was on the other edge of the bed and if I stretched out my hand, I wouldn’t touch him but to be sharing a bed with a strange man!
“Why can I not sleep in my room?” His red eyes flashed with annoyance. “Good question. Why can’t I sleep in my room, on my own bed?” He asked in a quiet voice that mocked me. “Whose bed do you think you are in?” He asked and realization crashed into me.
“We – We will be sharing a room?” Horror coloured my words and my mouth fell open. I clutched the sheets tighter to my chest and his eyes dropped from my face to the hand I used to hold the sheets up. The dark expression on his face worsened. I gulped as fire lit his eye.
“Do you think I am interested in your body?” He asked, his tone cruel and biting. “With that flat chest and ribs poking about? We have to share a room to avoid suspicion so do not delude yourself. Turn off the lights and let me sleep.” He commanded.
“Y – Yes.” I turned off the light in a daze and catapulted the room into darkness.
I inched closer to the edge of the bed with the sheets still clutched to my chest. Staring up at the ceiling, I felt tears slide down my face and into my ears. What the hell had I gotten myself into? I didn’t expect kindness from anyone, least of all a man who was famed for being cruel and callous so why did my heart shred to pieces with every mean comment he uttered?
It could be because I knew I would have to spend the rest of my life with him, or at least I would be with him until he decided he did not need me to be a seat filler anymore. Or maybe it was because I’d had too many people say and do mean things to me and I was finally sick of it. Perhaps the fact that he could crush me with just a few words bothered me, but whatever the reason was, I felt a deep ache inside me when he spoke about me in such a dismissive tone.
With a start, I realized it was because it made me feel worthless.
I never attached my worth to what others thought of me. Despite knowing I was nobody, a person rejected right from conception, I still maintained a bit of my esteem. No matter the situation, I could raise my head even when people poured mud water on me. With this man, I couldn’t do that. Throughout today, all he did was speak to me as if my existence bothered him.
He should thank me for going along with his lies but he acted as if I was the one who lied in the first place.
With a hundred thoughts going on in my head, I fell asleep late in the night and then dreams of the queen began to plague me. In my dreams, she connived with Scarlett to kill me and then drugged Killian with a love potion.
Warmth surrounded me like a fever sometime later. My body woke up at my normal time to get started on my duties but the warmth enveloping me made it impossible for me to open my eyes. I fell into a deeper sleep in a cocoon of warmth.
Hours later, the urge to pee assailed me from the depths of sleep. My eyes snapped open and then my body froze. I had a lot of bizarre dreams the previous night, including dreams of warm hands wrapping around me but that part wasn’t a dream.
How did this even happen?
The previous night, Killian and I went to sleep on opposite sides of the bed but now we were both in the middle and he was atop me. My cheeks went up in flames when I felt his bare legs against mine and his lips touching my collarbone. It was such an intimate position to be in with someone I just met but what confused me was my body’s reaction. An unfamiliar heat pooled in my guts which caused me to panic.
Flustered, I tried to get out from under him but his weight pinned me to the bed. My bladder burned with every movement and the thought of him waking up to see me like this made me hasten my movements. Again, I tried pushing him off me to get out of bed but in a split second, my arms were pinned above me and his lips muttered faint words against my skin. To my mounting horror, I felt something hard poking against my stomach as he shifted with me in his arms.
I might be a virgin but I wasn’t stupid to not know what was poking against me. My cheeks must be redder than strawberries and my heart pounding would wake him soon. I’d heard men woke up most times with erections but I never thought I would have a strange man’s morning wood pressed up against me like this.
Goddess, if I spent one more second in his arms, I may combust from the heat of embarrassment burning my insides. Desperate to get out of bed, I wriggled some more, pushing him off with all my might. He budged a little but his legs trapped me to the bed.
“Stop it,” he whined. My body froze from the sleepy tone and my mouth went dry.
“I – I have to pee,” I muttered with burning cheeks as he tried to hug me back to his chest.
“Hmmm?” His lips had moved from my collarbone to my ear. I shivered when his breath touched my skin.
“Let me go!” I shoved with all my might as the feeling in my guts intensified, scaring me. I succeeded in escaping his embrace but unfortunately, I also woke him up.
“What is it?” Red eyes blinked open sleepily and to my surprise and chagrin, my first thought was how breathtakingly beautiful he was underneath the light streaming into the room. “Amethyst?” He called my name with a slight frown. I knew the moment realization dawned on him as his eyes widened and he sat up in bed, running his hand through his hair.
It may have been a trick of the light but I think I saw a faint pink stain on his cheeks.