Free Loving a Prince Charming by Danielle Monsch

encompassed him, held him close
to her, his weight no consideration at all.
    They lay like that for several minutes,
wrapped tightly in one another’s arms. After they were both
breathing normally ad the sweat was cool on their skin, Seth
nuzzled her neck, her cheek, his hands coming to rest in her hair.
“I’m too heavy.”
    Her legs tightened. “No, stay.” Stay,
stay, stay. Stay forever. Stay with me .
    She leaned up and began nibbling his ear, and
was rewarded with a stirring of life from below. “I believe someone
mentioned a round two?”
    “Yeah.” He pulled away from her, looking down
with a satisfied smirk plastered over that handsome face. “Also
three and four, if you’re lucky.”
    “Trust me,” she said, twisting her hips
against him and making him moan. “I am very lucky indeed.”

Chapter Ten
     
     
    Kira no longer traveled with him.
    The early morning sun rose overhead. The day
promised to be sunny and cheerful, with birds flying overhead,
singing and twirling their own private joys. It was wrong that not
every living thing joined him in his mourning. Why should they
sing, when Kira was even now traveling the opposite path?
    Was this what a man felt when he lost a limb?
When he kept looking to see it, a twitching and tight and pinched
appendage, only to discover a blank spot where something so
necessary once lay?
    Dark thoughts swept through him even as the
sun rose higher and the animals began the preparations for their
day. Only if a random peasant burst into song could the day become
any more nauseatingly cheerful.
    When Matthias’s castle loomed before him, he
was surprised. He hadn’t realized he had traveled that far. It was
though it appeared without warning. Well, not without warning, just
without his attention.
    Kira would be ashamed of him.
    A sob tore at his throat. He held it back,
only for another to chase it, and then another, and then another.
They poured forth, deep, choking sounds that tore away and were
carried on the wind.
    The birds no longer sang when Seth finished,
but he wouldn’t have minded their song now. The tears were
cleansing, freeing. He had a dozen-plus years of keeping his secret
and dreading the loss of Kira. They were over, and though the wound
was raw and deep and would never heal, not truly, he kept his word.
Today, Rosamund would be free, and the nightmares that he would
fail her would stop.
    No one stopped him as he entered the palace.
His feet carried him down a long-forgotten corridor and toward a
double door that still made him uneasy. A shove, darkness, and
there she was.
    She was older now, a young woman with
still-delicate features and too-pale skin. “Seth?”
    He breathed deep. He was here, and she was
here. This was going to work. “Hello, Rosamund.”
    Her smile was tremulous, unsure. She took a
half-step toward him before she stopped. “Did my father send
you?”
    “No, I came on my own. I know how we can
break the curse.” Her eyes grew brighter, hope building upon each
word. Yes, this was the right thing. No matter the consequences, he
was glad to be here for her. “I’ve come to set you free.”
    She broke out into a teary smile, a choked
little laugh her answer. She took two quick steps toward him and
wrapped him in her arms. “I knew you would. I knew you’d save
me.”
    “I promised, didn’t I? I said I would marry
you and no other.”
    She hung on for a moment longer before she
let go. “I know you did. I was afraid and silly, I’m sorry.”
    “Let’s get out of here.”
    “To go where?”
    “To get married.”
    Rosamund giggled as Seth led her away. Only
instinct guided his steps, instinct that was proven right when
moments later they found themselves in the dark room. This time,
Seth pushed open the doors and they walked outside, into the
light.
    Rosamund faltered. Seth turned to see her
staring in open-mouthed wonder through the windows at the wooded
grove beyond the castle. “They’re so beautiful,” she said,