Royal Desire (Maid for the Billionaire Prince Vol 4) (7 page)

A hand snakes around my shoulders. Madame
Fournier, her eyes glistening, has chosen this moment to crumble
her ice queen façade and comfort me in my hour of need.

“The decision has been made less difficult
for me by the sure knowledge that my sister, Marie Vassar, will
succeed me. Marie has graduated with top honors from Yale in
economics, and with her brilliance and ambition, she will
undoubtedly steer this country to further magnificence.”

He pauses, clearly overwrought. Marie steps
up from the side, her eyes shining with tears. She takes her
brother’s arm.

Alex continues, his voice shaking slightly,
“Let us welcome into this twenty-first century the first female
ruler of Moldavia. Long live the Queen. God bless you, my fellow
citizens.”

The video feed winks out.

The room is silent as the anchorwoman cuts
in with a “Now, that was a stunner of a speech.”

Yes. I know.

I bow my head and sob my heart out for Alex
and everything he has lost for me. I sob and sob, unable to stop
even to draw breath. My head hurts with a splitting headache and I
can feel my soul splintering in two.

Madame Fournier puts her arms around me.

“He didn’t want us to let you know what he
was doing. He was afraid you would try to stop him or do something
as foolish as you did like leaving him for his own good,” she
says.

I would have done it too. I can’t bear how
much Alex has given up for me. It isn’t fair to him. It isn’t
fair!

They let me cry and cry until I’m dry all
over, and then they leave, sensing that I’m not going to stop
crying anytime soon within the day. The light outside the windows
shift and change, denoting the passing of the sun. I stay there in
the parlor, stoned – not moving, not even blinking until the door
quietly opens.

Alex slips into the room.

He immediately kneels before my inert body,
still in the chair. My face is puffy and my eyes as red as the
indentations of my fingernails on my palms. I am now tearless and
soulless.

“Liz?” he says in a low voice. He does not
seem saddened in the least. Years have disappeared from his face
and his eyes are bright and clear.

“Why, Alex, why?” I whisper.

“Because I love you more than anything in
this world, and nothing is going to stop me from marrying you and
raising a family with you. I don’t want the throne, Liz. I never
did. It’s something I have never craved. Marie would make a much,
much better ruler, trust me. I did it for us, for Moldavia, for my
family and everyone else – so that everyone can have what they
want.”

“The greater good,” I say dully.

“Yes, the greater good.” He clasps my face
and runs the pad of his thumb down my dried cheeks. “Oh, Liz, Liz .
. . you’re so beautiful.”

“I look awful.”

“No. You’re the most beautiful thing in the
world to me. And finally now we are free. Free of responsibility,
of sorts . . . free to do anything we wish. We can go around the
world, do anything we want. Don’t you see? This is the best thing I
could have ever done for us.”

My mind is still reeling from the shock of
this afternoon’s events, but yes . . . I’m slowly beginning to see
it too. Alex can be what he was when I first met him – a prince.
Only now, he’s removed from the burden of responsibility. Yes, he
will have responsibilities, but his life is not dictated to the
whims of the palace so much anymore.

He grins. “So what do you say? Shall we set
the date?”

EPILOGUE

It’s eight months later.

The day of my wedding dawns fair and bright.
I wake up at five to begin my makeup and hair. Monsieur Danton
teases my tresses into a mass of flowing waves that will gleam in
the sun. Stella Catalan, now world famous as a Moldavian fashion
export, has designed my wedding gown.

Even I cannot believe how gorgeous I look.
The bodice is my dress is done up in ivory motifs of the azalea,
which is the national flower of Moldavia, and seeded with pearls
and little diamonds. The ivory gown is a puffed-up inverted flower,
so elaborate that you should see me float in it. I’m a shimmering
cloud.

For my wedding gift, the Queen has given me
(yes, Queen Marie!) a diamond and emerald necklace so huge that my
neck is practically embedded by its weight. It’s apparently a
family heirloom. Her mother has augmented it with matching diamond
and emerald earrings and a diamond bracelet. The royals are
showering me with jewelry. Probably felt guilty for navigating me
out of a Queendom. The safe in my room is a veritable treasure
chest.

I have a tiara . . . and a silk train. You
should see that train! It has to be carried by twelve
pagegirls.

I am having a very public royal wedding.
Moldavia and the world need its spectacle. They want to see me and
Alex have our happy ending.

It’s time for me to be ferried to the
church. I am going in a carriage pulled by horses. Yes! Just like
Cinderella! I hope it doesn’t turn into a pumpkin halfway. That
would totally ruin my dress.

The people line up the streets to see me.
Since my Dad can’t be found, there’s no one to give me away, but
that’s all right too. My Mom is here, and I’ve invited Mr.
Mangorean and a few people from the hotel. (Not Cassandra
Pelicano.) I’ve even invited Deanna, my old roommate. I’ve decided
to forgive her.

When she flew in, we hugged each other
fiercely with tears in our eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered over and
over.

“It’s all right. You’re here and that’s all
that matters.”

The people are cheering and waving at me as
I pass. I wave back, smiling. I’m on live TV coverage. Even though
I’m not Queen, this is an event big enough to rival Marie’s
coronation.

I arrive at the cathedral. I climb out of
the coach, tucking my train around me carefully. Guess who is my
bridesmaid? Yes, it’s the new Queen herself! What a kick I’m having
– a Queen as my bridesmaid on my wedding day.

Alex is waiting for me at the pulpit. So is
the Archbishop, who will marry us as a sign of his acceptance. They
both beam down at me as I enter. The guests stand on my account. I
am truly a princess today.

Oh yeah, my new title. Princess
Elizabeth.

I think I can get used to it.

Alex is so handsome in his black suit that I
swoon. His hair is combed neatly and he has a mischievous look in
his eyes. Since his abdication, we have not looked back. He has
thrown himself into his work and humanitarian deeds, as befitting a
prince of the realm. I have organized charities and devoted myself
to causes. We set about healing the royal family and mending ties
with Nuernberg.

As a sign of those mended ties, Tatiana and
her father are at the wedding. They are seated in the first row
beside the Queen Mother.

Alex does not take his eyes off me as I
ascend the steps to the pulpit.

I love you more than anything in this
world,
they say.

And I love you more than anything and
anyone,
I silently say back.

The Archbishop commences the ceremony, and
his words are half-drowned by the rushing of blood in my ears. I’m
alive and with the man I love. We’re together despite all odds. He
puts the ring on my finger – it’s a diamond so huge that it
eclipses every single bauble I have ever seen. And he kisses me.
Oh, how he kisses me. It’s sweet and filled with so much love and
hope for our future than I can melt into his kiss forever.

Later, we will honeymoon in Indonesia. We
will make love on the sands and drink from coconut husks and live
like the beautiful, beautiful natives.

But for now, we are blessed as man and wife
in the house of God. And happiness like I have never known it
swarms my entire being and lifts me to the light of the stained
windows.

WORKS BY ARTEMIS HUNT

EROTIC ROMANCES

The ‘Inhumanly Handsome, Humanly Flawed Alpha
Male’ series

A Virgin Enslaved

The ‘Maid for the Billionaire Prince’
series

Mysterious Desire

Forbidden Desire

Infamous Desire

Royal Desire

ROMANCES

The Body Snatcher Wears Lipstick

Snow White and the Alien

EROTICA BY APHRODITE HUNT

The ‘Bound
and Shackled
to
the Billionaire’ series

His Indecent Proposition

His Indecent Demands

His Indecent Desires

The ‘Initiation’ series

Open Your Legs for Me

Blindfolded and Spread-eagled

Thighs Wide Apart

Teacher, Please Spread my Pussy

The Final Initiation

The Initiation: A Bundle of 5 Stories

The ‘Initiation 2’ series

Open Your Legs for my Family

Bend Over for my Family

Publicly Display Yourself for Me

Sex Slave at Sea

Paraded before the Billionaires

Sex Slave at the Auction

The ‘Initiation 3’ series

Sex Slave to the Dictator

‘
The Royal Captive’ series

Prince Miro’s Capture

Prince Miro’s Submission

Prince Miro’s Enslavement

Prince Miro’s Punishment

Prince Miro’s Escape

Prince Miro’s Final Confrontation

The Royal Captive: Vol 1 to 3

The Royal Captive: Vol 4 to 6

The ‘Naughty Nymphomaniac’ series

I was a Naughty Nymphomaniac

Officer, Please Spread and Cuff Me

Gang Banged by the Chain Gang

Tempting the Hot Navy SEAL

The ‘Delicate Piercings’ series

Her First Clit Ring

Her First Clit Ring 2: Menage

Her First Clit Ring 3: Desensitization

The ‘Undercover’ series

Undercover: Exposing the Bad Doctor

Undercover: Stealing from the Sexy CEO

The ‘Alien’ series

Trapped with Sex-Starved Aliens

Trapped with Sex-Starved Aliens 2

Hot, Wet and Steamy
(individual
stories)

When He’s Inside You

My Stepson is a Naughty Stripper

The Gorgeous Naked Man in my Storm Shelter
(Erotic Suspense)

Dear reader, as this list is not always
comprehensive due to more stories being churned out after this
point in publishing, please visit
http://artemishunt.blogspot.com/
and
http://aphroditehunt.blogspot.com/
for more stories and updates. I write as Artemis Hunt for erotic
romances with a more romance feel and Aphrodite Hunt for pure
erotica and erotic romances which are slightly kinkier. So please
be aware of what you’re getting into, dear reader, when you read
one of my stories. Thank you so much for your support.