The King's Lover

Chapter 30

           

    Ryder had never been in the royal treasure room before. 

     It was a large room at the top floor of the palace. Still not as high as Juliet's tower, but it came close.

     Shelves lined the entire room, displaying jewelry and different crowns. Since Amidia was famous for its precious jewels, every color under the rainbow glittered at Ryder as Juliet shut the door behind them.

     She started pointing the crowns out to him as they walked further into the room. "Those are my great-great-grandparent's crowns." She pointed to a crown set of dripping gold and sparkling orange gems. "And in about six generations, my descendants will wear it again."    

     In Trilea, they had so many crowns that it usually was nine generations before they used the crowns again. The kings or queens were generally crowned with their crown, but they could wear any they liked after that.

     Juliet stopped in front of a large, golden crown next to a smaller matching circlet. "These belonged to my parents," she told him fondly, touching the edge of the crown. "I haven't seen them in years."

     She moved to the next shelf. Only one crown was displayed there, the other on Juliet's head. The one on the shelf was silver, like hers, and a plain circlet with a few engravings along the top. Reverently, Juliet lifted the crown from its cushion. Ryder bent his head so Juliet could place the crown on his head, and when he straightened up, she grinned at him.

    "Now you look like a king."

     "What, I didn't before?" He reached up and straightened it. The weight was unfamiliar, but he knew he would get used to it in time. 

     "Only a little," Juliet conceded, tilting her head back tantalizingly. "Before you looked more...lordly. Now you look a little more kingly."

     "A little?"

     "Mm." She nodded. "More dukely, to be honest. Is that a word?"

     She smirked at him, and he couldn't take it.

     He snagged her by the waist and pulled her to him, capturing those lips that had been smirking at him only an instant before with his own. She smiled, wrapping her arms around his waist.

    "You know," she whispered to him between kisses. "We haven't celebrated our marriage yet."

     "Oh?" He slid his hands lower. "We're getting pretty close."

     She snickered and untucked his shirt with a tug. "Ryder, my love, the treasury doesn't have a lock on it."

     "Damn." He flexed his fingers and she squealed. "We'd better go to your room, then."

     She pulled back from him and put her hands on his, still on her backside. "We are not walking through the palace with your hands on my butt."

     He shrugged innocently and pulled back slowly, keeping his eyes on her as he backed towards the door. He was in the process of opening the door when she huffed, shoved him out of the way, and yanked it open.

     "I'm going to get bored if you go that slowly, darling."

     And then she was running down the stairs, disappearing around a corner in moments. He shook his head and followed her just as quickly, stuffing his shirt back in his pants as he did.

     He caught a glimpse of the rear end of her before she vanished again, this time up the spiral staircase to her tower room.

    The lower room was, thankfully, empty of servants as he hurried through, almost tripping on his way up the stairs. He would have shaken his head at himself, but by then he had flung open the door to Juliet's room.

     She turned around slowly into the center of the room, unpinning her hair as she did. It fell down her back in one wave of brown. His mouth went dry.

     Her eyes were locked on his as he approached her. 

     Juliet—his queen. His lover. His wife.

This is the end of the story! Thank you so much to everyone for reading and voting, it means a lot :)