Royally F*cked Page 5

  This all probably didn’t matter though, because I doubted that I would ever see her again. She had made it clear that this was just a fling to her. A fun story she could tell later on to friends about the wild and crazy night in Ronovia. .

  “Yes,” I said. “I’m fine. I’m sorry. I was just thinking about something.”

  “Oh, would you care to share?” Marcel asked a bit sarcastically.

  I thought fast. “Well, I just don’t see why this rule still stands. What is the real need for me to be married?”

  “Prince, while this rule does seem outdated to you, it is a part of our national identity, and the way our country has always governed itself. Marriage is a sign of maturity and adulthood. We can’t break protocol because you are not ready to settle down. And we certainly can’t have a king who is off with a different woman every night. There is a certain level of maturity, a certain station in life, that one must have accomplished before you can really obtain the status of King. Certainly, you understand this.”

  I gritted my teeth and held my breath a moment before answering.

  “I certainly do. And I am not nearly as immature as you would believe. Being married is not something that is obtained in my opinion. It isn’t a skill or something you train for at the University. It is two people who love each other, coming together to form a lifelong union. It is not a political chess game. Believe it or not, I do want to be married. But I don’t want to just marry someone in order to become king. I just don’t get why no one can understand how wrong this is. I don’t need a wife by my side to rule, just because it looks better.”

  “This is not what we are suggesting. You are approaching life as if you were a normal man. You are the prince. And if you are to become king, then you have certain duties that will be required of you. That means you will have to do things differently, things you don’t really want to do. Surely you can understand that.”

  I glared at Marcel. I had known the man all my life and I always known him to be level-headed, but right now he was as stubborn as a bull.

  “This rule must be changed,” I said. “I understand there is a tradition at stake here, but traditions get broken over time as people progress towards new ideas. That is what civilization does. It evolves. What worked hundreds of years ago no longer works today. I will be king with or without a wife. You will have to get used to the idea,” I said.

  With that, I stormed out of the room.

  My hands were shaking I was so angry. The only thing keeping me anchored at the moment was the thought of Teagan, her sweet, beautiful face repeatedly flashing in my mind. I knew that I would never forget her, and I realized that she would never be out of his thoughts. It was going to drive him mad eventually. I had to talk to her. I had to see her again.

  I picked up my phone and gave Teagan a call. I could no longer go without hearing her voice another second.

  “Hello, this is Teagan Norton. I’m not available right now. Please leave your name and number, and I’ll call you back soon. Thanks.”

  Teagan Norton. So that was her full name. I loved the sound of it. There was a nice ring to it.

  “Hey, Teagan. This is Cort, from last night. Cort Monreau. I would love to talk to you and maybe get together again soon.”

  I left my number and told her to call anytime.

  Ugh, I hated voicemail. Now I had to wait until she decided to call me back. If she decided to call me back. That was the torture of it all. I was so close to saying screw it and having his personal assistants track her down and bring her to the castle, but I knew that was over the top and borderline stalker-ish. This girl meant too much to me to scare her off like that. But I had to know if she felt the same way about me.

  Just hearing her sweet, angelic voice was enough to calm me down and give me just enough hope to go back into the chambers and apologize to the council for storming out. I took a deep breath and walked back into the room.

  “Council members, I will apologize for storming out, however I won’t apologize for feeling that there is a need to change this rule. There has to be a way that we can reach some sort of a compromise that will work for everybody.”

  Marcel and the others whispered amongst themselves a moment.

  “What do you have in mind, your highness?” Marcel asked.

  CHAPTER 9

  Teagan

  “You are holding onto too many thoughts, too much negativity. You must let go of all the things in this world that bring you down. Embrace the light that surrounds your life force.”

  I held my stretch, relaxing deeper into the movement. I felt my body start to shake slightly and cry out, resisting the change. But I was the master of her body, not the other way around. I would tell it what I required, and I would allow my inner strength to take over. I held on to Siri’s words, hoping that they would guide me through.

  I was vaguely aware that Siri was right beside me now, watching my every move. Siri placed his hands on my lower back and glided my body forward and deeper into the movement. My muscles were screaming out for in a mixture of pain and relief.

  After about thirty seconds, I was grateful for the help. My body began to shift and move much more freely as I leaned down farther to the ground, still keeping my feet planted firmly to root myself, to anchor her body and soul.

  “That’s it…” Siri’s voice was almost right beside my ear now. “Use the pain. That is just the outpouring of negativity from the world around you as it is replaced with all of the light from the universe filtering in.”

  From the moment that I met Siri, I have to admit I was a bit star struck. I had dreamt of the opportunity to work with him for so long that when it was actually happening, I was almost frozen stiff with awe. But now that I’d been working with him, I had been able to concentrate on his teachings. I was already learning so much from him.

  But I would have been lying if I told myself or anyone else that I was not distracted. I knew I was capable of doing hard poses that were not making my knees shake, but my mind was somewhere else.

  As hard as I tried, I could not stop thinking about Cort. Every movement I made with my body reminded me of the way his hands grabbed my hips. Sex had never felt that way for me before. It was like my body came alive underneath him.

  And I ached for his hands to touch me again.

  As Siri’s hands glided over my body to gently correct my positioning, I thought about Cort and the way he would touch me. He was the kind of man that I had dreamt of meeting my entire life.

  And I let him go.

  It was the stupidest thing I’d ever done, and I hoped that I didn’t have to pay for it too long. Hopefully he would call me, and leave a message. Then once I got back, I could call him and we could get together again.

  But what would even be the point? My logical side started to kick in. Sure, we would probably have mind blowing sex, but I would be leaving. I planned to stay in Ronovia only one two days after the retreat. I had only known Cort for a night. For all I knew he probably just thought that I was a one-time thing. It’s not like we would somehow start a relationship when I lived in San Diego and he lived here.

  “OK, that is all for today everybody,” Siri’s voice pulled me from my trail of thoughts. “Please gather around the campfire in twenty minutes. We will have dinner, and then we will have a group meditation.”

  I moved my body slowly back to mu normal standing position and breathed deeply. I went back to my tent and sat down for a moment, just trying to get a few quiet moments of reflection to myself. My body felt amazing. It was relaxed and free of all tension. As if my muscles had been stretched and pulled to the point where my body felt like jelly. Even though my thoughts were still racing, I felt that I had started to reach a sense of calm. When my thoughts ran, I was able to work to control my breathing and slow my thoughts bringing my mind back to the present. It was a tough thing to accomplish, but it was what I always strived to teach my students. To see their worries and stress, and then let them melt off of the
m on the yoga matt. It was time to start following my own advice.

  I took a deep calming breath and tried to push the thoughts of Cort out of my mind.

  But he refused to leave.

  I closed my eyes and imagined Cort there with me right then, just the two of them alone in the middle of nature. The sounds of the birds, the gentle breeze brushing over their naked bodies, and him taking me right here in my tent.

  I could just see him hovering over me, his rock-hard length only inches from my core. He would grab my legs as he pushed deep inside me. My back would arch as I pushed my hips up to meet his.

  Cort would start thrusting and my hands would race to his back as I hung on for dear life. His hands would move to my hips to guide me faster down on top of him.

  Fuck, I wanted him.

  I could feel my whole body heat, and instead of the calm feeling it had before, it was now tingling with need. Even though I knew he wasn’t there with me, I felt like I was about to come.

  “Teagan are you coming?”

  “Oh yes…”

  “Hey, Teagan?”

  My eyes flew open. That wasn’t Cort’s voice. It was a woman’s voice. I looked around to see one of women in my group, Angela Watson, was standing over me.

  “What?” Teagan asked confused.

  “Are you coming? The group is getting together. And dinner smells amazing!”

  I looked out of my tent slightly and over at the fire that had been started and the sausages that were being roasted. I felt the blood rush quickly to my face. I hoped that I just looked like I was meditating, not having a hot daydream.

  “Oh, yeah. I’m on my way,” I replied.

  I stood up, my legs shaking slightly, and I walked over to join the group. I felt a bit embarrassed, but Angela did not seem to know what I had been thinking about. It should have been obvious based on the look on my face, but apparently, Angela was pretty clueless.

  I took a few deep breaths and tried to settle myself down. I did not know if I could take two more days of not knowing if Cort had called or not.

  I desperately wanted to be here; I was having the time of my life.

  But I also desperately wanted Cort.

  CHAPTER 10

  Cort

  “Hi, you’ve reached Teagan…”

  I threw my phone down on my desk and leaned back in my chair. I tried to calm myself down, but I was getting so pissed. It had been three days since the night with Teagan. I had already left another voicemail, and figured that three voicemails was a bit overkill. She was probably trying to give me a hint, by not answering my calls, but I still held out some hope. No matter how futile it might seem.

  I hated feeling helplessness. I was going stark raving mad over this woman, and I felt powerless to do anything but wait by the phone like some lovesick teenager. It was humiliating. If any of my friends knew I was doing this, they would never let me forget it. Hell, if the public found out that I was being snubbed by a random tourist I hooked up with in a dark alley, I would have been the joke of the nation. Not to mention the potential scandal.

  I took a deep breath and poured myself a glass of scotch. It was barely lunch time, but I didn’t really care. I needed something to take the edge off, and some sweet scotch would usually do the trick.

  Still, I hated feeling so damn worthless. I sat back down at my desk and let my thoughts wander. My eyes caught my computer. I wonder if I could find out anything there. I fired up the computer and began to do some searching for Teagan Norton. I opened up my internet browser and started to type her name into the search bar. As I finished typing her name, I realized that I had no idea what part of the States she was even from. There had to be thousands of girls named Teagan Norton out there. I was never going to find her. I didn’t even have a picture of her.

  I glanced quickly at my phone. I did have her phone number. I tried to do a reverse search, but nothing came up. I bit back a curse as I remembered her saying that it was an international phone. So it was probably pay as you go with no account attached to it.

  I poured another drink and then laughed as I finished it up. To think this sweet, beautiful girl was doing this to the prince of Rovenia. That was a huge laugh. But it was also unfortunate. My heart felt like someone had just pierced it with a dagger. It was painful. I just wanted to find this girl, talk to her, hold her in my arms… was that too much to ask?

  Apparently, it was.

  How had I fallen for this woman I barely knew? Had I really fallen for her? Did I want to find her because she was so unattainable? I was used to women fawning over me. Everywhere I went, hundreds of women would try everything to spend just a minute with the prince. Was it the fact that she was the first one that didn’t care, the reason why I was so infatuated?

  “This is ridiculous. I’m going out of my mind,” I laughed.

  A knock on the door startled me from my thoughts.

  “What?” I answered hastily.

  “Your highness, I’m sorry to interrupt,” one of the palace assistants said as he walked into the room.

  “It’s fine, Frederick,” I said.

  “The council has reached a decision and the council requests a word with you.”

  I took a deep breath and followed Frederick out of my study. A few days ago, I had sent a long proposal to the council detailing why the ruling should be changed. I showcased my maturity and how there was no need for a marriage to prove to parliament, and to the country that I was ready to follow in my father’s footsteps.

  We walked into the council chambers, where all of them were waiting for me. They each stared me down as I entered the room. Fuck, I hated these assholes. I sat down at the head of the table and waited for someone to speak. Marcel cleared his throat and stood up.

  “We’ve evaluated the matter that you have presented to us,” Marcel began.

  “I’m pleased to hear that,” I said. I tried to keep the positive attitude flowing. I really needed to hear some good news right about now.

  “After careful consideration, the council has reached the decision that the law will be upheld. You are to find a bride by your thirty first birthday if you expect to assume the throne.”

  Anger bubbled up inside my chest. Why is the council so stuck in the past? “What? I thought I made my points very clear on this!” I said through gritted teeth.

  “You will conduct yourself properly in this court. Do I make myself clear Prince?” Marcel asked.

  “Yes,” I said calmly, correcting himself. I pushed my anger down the best the I could.

  “This decision is final. We will not change the ruling. If you do not secure a bride by the appropriate time, then your uncle Charles will assume the throne.”

  I knew it was futile to argue. The decision had been made, and there was not a damn thing I was going to be able to do about it. He shuddered at the thought of his dimwit uncle, my father’s younger brother, barely older than himself, assuming the crown. The country would fall apart if this happened. My uncle had been married for some years, but he hardly even spoke to his wife and routinely had women sent to his room. He spent at least half of every day in bed with food, wine, and women. It was appalling and unbefitting of someone who was about to assume the title of king. He was like a cliché of ancient Roman monarch. Didn’t the council see that?

  No. They wanted to uphold the laws that had been in place for so long, no matter what the better alternative would be.

  “Do you have anything else to say?” Marcel asked.

  I knew Marcel was trying to bait me. He was trying to get me to lose my temper and fly off the handle, further proving to the council that I was unfit to be king. Marcel had always hated me for some reason. I almost believed that the Marcel was enjoying this.

  He probably was.

  “No. I have nothing further.”

  “Very well then. Meeting adjourned,” Marcel said.

  I started to walk away.

  I was not going to play their game. The people of Ronovia d
eserved better than this.

  CHAPTER 11

  Teagan

  I sat down on the bus clutching at my bag. It felt good to be sitting in a vehicle again, knowing that I was on her way back to civilization. The past four days had been challenging, but so rewarding. I would never forget the experience, and I knew that the combination of the yoga classes, and business discussions would help me grow my practice to where I wanted it to be. Having the privilege of working with Siri one-on-one and getting to know and commune with the others was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I was still in shock that she’d been chosen, and I felt that by the third day I was really starting to impress Siri and the others. There were some good, dedicated practitioners there, but I was impressed with how well I held her own.

  I think what I improved the most on was how I was able to focus my wants and needs for Cort, to my yoga practice. It was as if I took all my pent up sexual frustration and channeled it towards pushing myself. And it helped me to learn and grow. I knew that I would be able to use that knowledge to help my students push through their own worries and channel it into something useful to them.

  It felt odd to be thinking so highly of myself when I tended to suffer from self-doubt, but Siri had given me a lot of praise, but it was hard earned. He really pushed me, and then I started to push myself. Hopefully, I still had students to go back to. I needed to talk to Ellie and find out how everything was getting along without me there.