14. Epilogue
Epilogue
Two Years Later
Rani blinked at me as he was wont to do when I was being mischievous.
“Harold, have you not looked at the itinerary?” He showed it to me on his trusty PDA. It was a very pretty list all laid out in neat little rows with color-coded areas and even little stickers for extra umph.
“I have, yes, and I love the rainbow coloring. It goes well with our trip home for the very first ?stermon Pride event.” I nibbled on my toast as I enjoyed a fine summer morning in South Kensington.
Our tiny patio was sunbathed. The privacy grass walls kept the paparazzi at bay while still affording us fresh air and blue skies.
Mornings out here—weather permitting, which meant it was warm enough for a chilly prince—had become routine for us.
“That, my darling, is not why the blocks are in different colors, but it is a nice homage.” He began pacing around the tiny rectangular table, tapping at his tablet.
The man was so adorable when he was being prickly.
“The red blocks are the most important ones and represent a block that requires an eye to the time.”
I nodded, my gaze on his long, tan legs. Damn, but he wore shorts well. His calves were works of art. “Time being the keyword, Harold. We have to be at Heathrow in an hour. Harold, would you stop gawking at my legs and pay attention? You’re not even done packing yet.”
“Rani, sweet, relax. The plane won’t leave without us.
It’s a private jet. Why don’t you come sit on my lap and enjoy your now cold coffee?
” I patted my bare thigh, my summer robe slipping open to give him a peek at my naughty bits.
Not that he’d be able to enjoy my bits as he was in professional personal assistant mode, even though he wasn’t my assistant.
“I can’t. So you can cover your cock,” he said so sternly that all I could do was sigh and cover it. So much for an early morning blowjob. Maybe tomorrow when we are at the palace. “Alva, Ivar, and their son Nicolas are going to meet us there, and you’ll be late. We’ll be late. I’m never late.”
“You are when you’re with me, and they know that I’m perpetually tardy, so they’ll not arrive until an hour after the appointed time. Sit. I wish to talk to you about something of the utmost importance.”
“No. I am not sitting on your lap. That will lead to sex, and we’ll then have to shower again. Why isn’t Vetra here poking you with a cattle prod to get moving?”
A warm breeze blew into our patio, rustling his curls as it blew down the cobbled mews that we called home.
I’d sold my flat in Oslo to buy this charming three-thousand-square-foot, four-bedroom, five-bath in a very exclusive area.
Dark wood floors set off the crisp, minimalist décor.
We’d done a grand job decorating, even Alva had raved over the choices of art on the walls.
It was close to Alva, so Rani could bike to work if he wished.
He didn’t because he would be sweaty and windblown, but he could have had he wished.
“Vetra will meet us in ?stermon the day after tomorrow. You know this. You and she worked like hyenas on those damn itineraries.”
“It was a rhetorical question.” He tapped at his tablet to enlarge a red square.
“If we are late to the airport, we’ll be late arriving, which will set off a string of lateness that will bring about utter chaos.
Do you wish to have King Frode’s first time grand marshaling a Pride parade to start late? ”
I reached out with both hands to tug my nervous boyfriend into my lap. He stiffened for a moment then turned slightly to press his PDA into my face. Literally tablet to nose. “Red box. Important.”
I licked his tablet. His dark eyes rounded. “You truly will put your tongue on anything, won’t you?” He huffed and lowered his tablet to wipe the spittle off with a cloth napkin lying on the table.
“As you well know,” I murmured before licking a wet stripe up his beautiful neck. “Mm, you taste delicious. Are you sure there’s no time on your little schedule for a fast round of slap and tickle?”
“You’re incorrigible. Trying to get you anywhere on time is like trying to herd cats.”
“Then stop trying, sweet.” I nipped at his sexy earlobe.
I’d not found an inch of Rani that wasn’t sinfully tasty, and I tongued every nook and cranny of this man thousands of times since we’d reconciled.
He began to wiggle. “Sit still.” He grunted.
“If you sit still for five minutes, I’ll finish packing. ”
“Are you trying to blackmail me with a treat as if I were one of the young princes?”
“Yes, yes, I am.” I inhaled the scent of his skin.
Cologne, a tiny hint of sweat, and unadulterated Rani.
“Now, sit still. I have something to discuss with you.” He glanced at his smartwatch, tapped it, and showed me the timer he had started.
One slim black brow cocked, he shook his hand to get me going.
Such an impatient man at times. “Well, I thought we could possibly use this trip home to do a few things at once. One, of course, is to pick up Gilda for her summer in London vacation slash month of summer classes.”
“The western guest bedroom is ready for her.”
“I know, and it’s lovely.” I wriggled him around on my lap a bit so I could look into those dreamy, dark brown eyes of his.
Lashes that thick should be against the law.
“We’ll show her the very best of times while she’s here.
So yes, we’ll be playing queer uncles to our future niece while she’s here being the toast of Old Smoke, but there are a few other things I’d like to do if you’re willing to loosen the time schedule of our trip home just a smidgeon. ”
His nose wrinkled. “Why and how much time will we need to adjust? The palace has a schedule much like mine and Vetra’s, which cannot be jiggled about too much lest the king and queen be thrown off—”
I kissed his lips as my right hand fell from his hip to slide into the pocket of my favorite pink and yellow summer robe. My fingers closed around the dark blue box from Harry Winston holding two platinum bands, thinner than the other two hidden in a wall safe in my closet.
“You have about two minutes left,” he whispered, his eyes taking on that dreamy look they got when we kissed.
“Right to it then. Very well. Since ?stermon recently passed marriage equality into law and we’re on the board of the pride committee, and because I love you more than life itself…
” I slid the box from my pocket to present it to him.
His eyes flared as I placed it into his soft palm.
A palm that had run soothingly over my body for the past two years, teasing, easing, caressing.
“Wouldn’t it be lovely to return to the palace as an engaged couple? ”
He tugged on the small ribbon while asking, “What is this? We’ve not discussed this at all, Harold.”
“We’re discussing it now,” I teased, kissing the lone tear that escaped his dewy brown eyes. “You know me. I love surprises.”
“I hate them,” he mumbled, cracking the box with shaking fingers. “Oh, Harold, these are exquisite!”
“If you detest the thought of wedding me, I can take them back and get you a pocket watch.”
“Don’t even think about it!” His gaze lifted from the rings to me. “I will never know what to expect from you once we’re married, will I?”
“No. Is that a yes?”
“Yes, it’s a yes!” He grabbed my face and planted a kiss on me that nearly tipped the wrought-iron patio chair I was sitting in backward. When he leaned back, the chair thudded forward, almost spilling us onto the patio. “You are the most wonderful, exasperating man in the world!”
“You love that about me, though, yes?”
“Mm, yes, most times.” He kissed me again then held out his trembling left hand. I eased his ring onto his finger, then he did the same for me. Once we were properly ringed, he looked at me in a way that always made me breathless. “This requires a celebration.”
“We are flying to ?stermon in a few hours for a parade,” I reminded him as he moved about to straddle me. The chair creaked a warning we obviously were not heeding.
“I think we may miss our flight,” he purred as he began working on the tie holding my robe closed.
“You’re going to make us late?!”
“Oh yes, quite late,” he whispered before whipping the tie to my robe over the grass fence. The neighbors would be quite perplexed when they discovered it hanging off their azalea. “Several hours late possibly.”
“If we must be late, then let our lateness be due to love.”
I hoped the chair would hold up…
The End