Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
Looking over my shoulder, I saw that Milo was walking over, so I stepped back from the group I was with, cocked a hip and tossed my hair to make sure he saw me. I heard his barking laughter first.
“Why are all you idiots wearing kilts?” he hollered as he trotted over. “And which one of you got Flurry to convince me to wear mine?”
I snickered at him, claiming the title without admitting a thing.
Me, Wally, and Bridge all had on kilts in homage to how Milo had arrived in the Winter Court roughly a year ago.
Though none of us would be flashing our princes from the breakfast table—well, maybe later—I couldn’t resist poking fun at him for everyone’s anniversaries.
Apparently, Bridge had dropped into Hydris’s pool, Wally had fallen from the sky to crash into Solaris, and I, of course, had plopped right onto Incendis’s bed.
And in every single scenario, someone had been naked or taken a dick to the face.
Ol’ Lars had not been subtle when it came to throwing us at our princes.
“Who could resist,” I said on a laugh, “letting our dangly bits waggle free as we celebrate the first annual Freedom Day Festival?”
Milo groaned like he was in pain, but then he caught me into a hug. “You sure you’re wearing a kilt? Should I verify that?”
He tried to grab my ass, but I danced out of reach.
“I’m sure,” Incendis said offhandedly. “I checked earlier and look forward to doing so again later.”
A laugh jumped out of me because yes, he had, and yes, he would.
“Such wickedness,” Flurry murmured, as if he didn’t abduct Milo from our get-togethers whenever the mood struck him. “Someone should do something.”
Solaris snorted, while sweet Hydris blinked innocently. “Do what about what?” he asked.
“I’ll show you later,” Bridge told him and kissed his cheek.
A year together, and I knew so much more about love.
For example, it grew deeper with each passing day.
The love I felt for my friends, and the love I felt for Incendis.
I’d thought I’d known what it was all about before, but oh, how I’d been wrong.
This place, these people, my prince…that was love.
And to watch how the princes all loved each other and my friends was so beautiful to see and made me feel so full of happiness that, every now and then, I’d look around and wonder how any of this was real.
“Go on and get food,” I said, shooing everyone deeper into the festivities. “There are artists painting portraits, vendors selling all kinds of things, and performances everywhere. Oh, and the unicorns are racing each other in ten minutes—you don’t want to miss that.”
Since I was the chair of the celebration committee that had planned all of this over the past eight months, I had to stay available to help solve last-minute problems. I’d witnessed all of the performances when they’d auditioned and practiced and, if you’ve seen one unicorn look like a rainbow rocket shooting across a field, you’ve seen them all.
Incendis came over and tucked me against his side. “When are you going to tell them about your play?”
I chuckled in a slightly evil tone. “I’m not. I’m just going to sit them down in the front row.”
The other thing I’d been working on for the past year was a play about how my friends and I had arrived, messed up the princes’ lives, and helped to break the curse.
It was mostly a comedy, but there was some drama, too.
A couple people died, and a few ran around naked.
They didn’t know it yet, but I’d used our talks like interviews to build the scenes that would tell our stories for everyone to see.
The acting troupe was going to perform my play for the first time tonight, and then go on tour through the courts to visit fifty different towns and villages.
Incendis quietly laughed. “You’re terrible.”
“I know.”
Honestly, I hadn’t told them simply because I’d wanted to capture my vision without having three—or six—other people telling me what to do. Nothing would be untrue, no one would be made a fool of, but there were moments from last year that I felt this world needed to know about.
I wanted everyone who saw the play to be as proud of my friends and their princes as I was.
“Do you have a moment to assist me?” Incendis asked.
“Assist you? With what?” I looked around, but everything I could see was something the committee had been responsible for doing.
“It’s back at our tent.” He took my arm. “Very urgent matters.”
He was practically making me run. “Very urgent? What’s happened?”
“You’ll see.”
I would? I looked down at my clipboard—a device I’d had to get someone to make for me because they hadn’t ever had such a thing—and there wasn’t a single thing Incendis was needed for on the entire schedule.
“Incendis, are you sure? I don’t have you down for anything all day.”
When he grinned at me, I knew exactly what he was doing.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” I pulled, trying to make him stop. “I don’t have time for another under-kilt inspection.”
“Of course you do.”
“I do not.”
He stopped, turned to face me, and grabbed both my arms. “Is your team capable of handling any issues that might come up? Do they know what they’re doing as far as the schedule goes? Can you trust them to take care of anything that arises?”
Oh, my god, this little shit was throwing my words back at me. He hadn’t micromanaged his people in ages because of my interventions. Plural. He’d needed three. But now…
“Are you saying I’m micromanaging everyone?” I asked, aghast.
He pulled me into his arms, and I almost dropped my clipboard. “Darling, three people have asked me if I might be able to find something for you to do for a few hours.”
I gasped. “Who? Who were these people?” I glared around the grounds, looking for them. “I bet one of them was Rolly. Can’t stay on task to save his life, but doesn’t want to be handled. Well, we’ll see how long the lines are while you pour one glass at a time, won’t—”
Incendis pecked my lips. “Sweetheart,” he said, “you need to let your team work.”
I made an involuntary noise, absolutely affronted. They couldn’t possibly think I was that bad. But from the look on Incendis’s face… He agreed with them.
“Oh,” I drew out in dawning horror. I’d known I was often frustrated, and maybe I’d taken over and done a few things myself, but had I really been a bother? “Oh, no.”
“You need to let them do their jobs without any interference.”
From the prince of micromanagement, that stung.
But I was an adult and I could listen and learn. I’d feel petty about it all and maybe I wouldn’t talk to a few people for a while, but I could walk away and let them sink or swim on their own. Shove those baby birds right out of my nest and watch them fly. Or get eaten by cats.
“Fine.” I set my clipboard down on a random table and then didn’t know what to do with my hands without it. “What would you like to do now? Since I’ve been fired and have the day off and all that.”
Incendis wrapped his arms around me and smiled. “Well, if you’ll recall, there was something in our tent that I needed your help with.”
I snorted a laugh.
“It’s a very important project,” he continued.
That his first thought when someone asked him to distract me was to seduce me was kind of cute. Very on brand for him, really. My ex-virgin prince was making up for years of saying no to everyone now that he could say yes to me every day. Often more than once a day.
I went up on my toes and looped my arms around his neck. “Since this is so important, maybe you should fly us there very quickly.”
I’d barely gotten that last syllable out, and he was airborne, zooming us over everyone’s head.
I didn’t squeeze my eyes closed when he flew me around anymore, but I still clung to him like a koala and swore we might be breaking speed records.
His wings were no joke as he took us toward the outskirts of the event where the tents were.
Ours was on a hill and there were golden threads in the autumn-themed fabric, but it was still kind of modest in comparison with the one Flurry had brought, which had turrets and flags everywhere.
Unexpectedly, Incendis flew right into the tent through the flaps, and I couldn’t stop the holler that left me even if he set us down a second later.
And it was as I made my kilt lay flat against my ass that I realized I might’ve just flashed thousands of people.
“My kilt was…” Embarrassment swamping me, I pointed outside. “I think I…”
Laughing, Incendis picked me up and held me over his head.
I yelped and kicked my feet, holding onto his wrists as he braced me up by my hips.
The front of my kilt fell open, revealing all of me.
“Ah, yes,” he said, “I see the problem. Oh, but actually, you were like this,” he said before he spun me around so I was facing up.
Now the back of my kilt was showing my whole ass. “You do have a very fine derriere.”
“Put me down!” I flailed involuntarily, not at all caring about who saw what while I was eight feet off the ground. “Incendis!”
He brought me down—gently, thank goodness—chuckling and dodging when I spun around to smack at him. Sometimes my stuffy, responsible prince was absolutely wicked. He caught me back into his arms and kissed from my cheek to my neck. “We were flying too fast for anyone to see you,” he whispered.
I tipped my head back to give him more room to kiss. “I certainly hope so.”
“They might’ve seen a flash of white.” He reached down and under my kilt to palm my ass. “Nothing more.”
“I’m not that pale.”
“Like the globes of twin moons.”
I snickered. “Oh, shut up.”
“Yes, dear.”
It wasn’t long before he was down on his knees and ducking under my kilt to take my cock into his mouth. He held onto my ass as he bobbed his head under there, his wings fluttering off and on. I just tried to keep breathing as I petted his hair and listened to him moan as he worked me over.
Where he’d gotten lube, I didn’t know, but he was suddenly using it to shove two fingers up my ass and absolutely assault my prostate. I fisted his hair and curled over him, seconds from losing it completely. “In-Incendi— Incendis!”
But instead of letting me come, he pulled back and out, leaving me bereft. “Wha—”
“Turn around and get on your knees.”
Well. Somebody was feeling a bit bossy. Lucky for him, I was willing to let him.
I turned around and went down on my knees, the feel of my kilt on my stiff cock teasing me until I bent over onto my hands.
But that wasn’t what Mister Bossy wanted, because he had me straighten up again.
Curious, I watched him work the buckle open on my kilt before tossing it away.
He hummed as he ran both hands up my abs to my chest beneath my pirate’s shirt.
“I’ve been thinking about this all day,” he whispered in my ear as he eased up against my back.
I opened my mouth to say something sassy back to him, but the head of his cock pressed for entrance, and I moaned as I let him in. He had one hand low on my belly, holding me still so he could work himself deeper, as the other one teased my nipples.
“So tight and hot and mine,” he practically growled.
I shivered from the sound of him, what he said, and how he started pounding into me now. Someone might’ve thought we’d been apart for weeks, but no, we’d given each other blowjobs just this morning. It had to be the kilt. That thing was officially an aphrodisiac.
I could feel myself leaking obscenely, and then his hand was there to slick my dick with precum as he stroked me as fast as he fucked me from behind. I was exclaiming with every thrust, holding onto his forearms while he owned all of me. It was all so good. So good. I couldn’t— I had to—
I came with a wail of release as my cock creamed is hand and my ass spasmed on his still-thrusting dick inside me. He wrecked me absolutely every time. I loved it.
With a grunt and his one arm squeezing my waist, Incendis shoved in hard and came. Over the sound of his long drawn-out moan, I could hear the whirring of his wings beating fast behind him. I smiled as he kissed my neck one more time.
“Now,” he said, “we can go visit the vendors and see what you’ve accomplished.”
He pulled out, and I fell over. “You might need to carry me.”
Being very gentle and thorough, Mister Bossy became Mister Caretaker as he cleaned us both up and got me back into my kilt. From the look on his face, I could tell this wasn’t going to be the last time he got up under there today. Such a wicked prince.
We walked outside right as someone asked where he was because it was time to light the bonfires.
It had indeed got on toward dusk while we’d been working on that very important project, and I smiled proudly as six bonfires caught and blazed to life with just a thought from him.
I held his hand as we walked down the hill.
“Is it almost time for the play?” he asked.
“It is. I told them to meet us at the stage once the bonfires were lit.”
And there they were, sitting in their assigned seats in the front row, mere feet away from the stage.
Others were taking seats in the rows behind my friends and in the bleachers we’d built behind that.
Not everyone could attend this first showing, but there would be one more later tonight and several during the day tomorrow. I wiggled excitedly in my seat.
The curtain soon rose on a set made to look like an ice prince’s bedroom.
The actor playing Flurry sat at the table inspecting his manicure when, all of a sudden, the burly fae playing Milo repelled down from scaffolding and landed on his back on the table.
His legs were splayed open, kilt revealing everything, and aimed at Flurry.
The shocked expressions on their faces were absolutely perfect.
And mirrored by the real live Milo and Flurry sitting next to me.
When they panned over to stare at me, I grinned with devilish delight. “Did I mention,” I said, while the audience was laughing, “that I wrote a play?”
There was blushing, staring, and finally Flurry and Solaris started laughing. Hydris was right behind them, giggling into his hand, and then Milo, Wally, and Bridge were groaning and chuckling.
“Don’t worry,” I said, “they all live happily ever after.”