Free Ceremony of Seduction by Cassie Ryan Page B

my daughter.”
    “As do I, Your Majesty, but Sasha gave me no chance to ask, and closed the door in my face.” Stone’s lips curved. Sasha’s job was to do the princess’s bidding, not his, and apparently, the princess had her own timetable.
    “She is still getting used to our very different culture. Remember, she was treated as an outcast among the humans as well as the Cunts.” He took a sip of the wine, savoring the fruity flavor, thoughts of licking it off Alyssandra’s writhing body making him instantly hard. “I think if we let her take things at a pace she’s comfortable with, she’ll recover from this faster.”
    The majordomo cleared his throat, interrupting their conversation. All of them turned their attention toward the large ornately carved double doors in the back of the room. “Your Majesties and Prince Stone, may I present the First Princess of Klach, Alyssandra de Klatch.” Wrapping his fingers around the round door ring, he pulled and the heavy doors slowly slid open.
    Interminable seconds later, they revealed the most breathtaking woman Stone had ever seen, let alone imagined. It took him a moment to reconcile her with the girl he’d visited in dreams for the last ten years. She smiled at him and he realized his mouth hung open. Snapping it closed, he looked his fill.
    She wore the gauzy half top of the Klatch women, dyed a medium lavender color that reminded him of the ponga fruit. The bottom curves of her ripe breasts were just visible underneath the hem of the top. On the bottom, she wore a pair of half shorts in the same material. They hung low on her hips, showing her full figure and gently rounded stomach to perfection. Her hair tumbled around her shoulders the way he loved it best, but small braids with purple beads were scattered throughout. Her eyes were kohl lined, her lips full and ripe, glistening with color.
    From behind him, he heard the king and queen stand and step forward. But they must have been just as stunned as he, for neither spoke. Finally, Alyssandra lifted her chin in a stubborn gesture he’d come to know well before she walked toward them, her back straight, her gaze guarded. He shook his head in an attempt to regain his senses, but most of his blood now resided firmly in his groin. “Alyssandra,” he said, his voice a strained rumble. “You take my breath away.”
    When her face blossomed into a beaming smile, he knew the stubborn display of a moment before was because she thought he hadn’t approved. She’d taken his silence for something other than total amazement.
    The king and queen brushed past him in their haste to get to their daughter. Darius’s voice was thick with emotion as he stopped an arm’s length from the princess, his hand still firmly holding his wife’s. “Alyssandra, you are even more lovely than I’d imagined.” A shocked expression played over the princess’s face before she was buried in a crushing hug by her father and then her mother.
    When she pulled back to look at them, tears glistened, unshed in her lavender eyes. He’d brought her home to all of them at last. Now if they could successfully complete the coming-of-age ritual and allow Alyssandra to ascend the throne, the Klatch might still yet be saved.
     
    Alyssa couldn’t believe what was happening. It all felt like a surreal dream and she was terrified that at any moment, her alarm would sound and she’d be back inside her dingy apartment hearing Debbie across the hall fucking someone.
    The tight grasp of her father—her real father—enveloped her and she wallowed in the sensation as if she might never get this chance again. “Father,” she whispered, hoping to cement this reality before it disappeared. She refused to call him “Dad,” because that’s what she’d called her imposter father all her life.
    Pulling back just far enough to look into her face, the king smiled down at her. “Alyssandra, I thought this day would never come.”
    She blinked furiously