But here, I’m normal
, she thought with great relief.
Here I fit in. Here they actually like that I don’t want to go to tequila bars and do body shots off other girls to turn the guys on.
All I want is to get married, fall into bed with my husband and start making babies.
She pulled Joachim’s head to hers and kissed him with such passion that he was laughing when he gently eased her away from him again.
‘You have had
three
glasses of wine, I think!’ he said teasingly.
‘I’m just so ready to get married,’ she said, feeling suffused with happiness. The pounding bassline was building inside her, heating her blood, making her libido surge; they were a bare month away from their wedding date, and right now, it felt much too long to wait. ‘To get married,’ she said, sliding her hand along his leg, towards his crotch, ‘and start making lots of little heirs to the throne . . .’
Firmly, Joachim picked up her hand before it could reach its destination.
‘This is not the time or the place,’ he said, kissing her hand, holding it to make sure it didn’t venture downwards again. ‘But I too want many little heirs.’
Lori shifted on the velvet seat of the booth; now she had allowed her excitement to grow, it was hard to turn it off. She was getting even more horny by the moment. Despite her previous resolve, she couldn’t help feeling that seducing her fiancé this evening might be just the right way to finish the night.
‘We could practise tonight,’ she suggested, leaning into him, running her tongue seductively around the curve of his ear. ‘We could use protection, so I don’t get knocked up before the wedding. Maybe I should sneak into your rooms when we get back to the Schloss . . .’
‘It would not be fitting, I am afraid,’ Joachim said, shaking his head sadly. ‘You know how I feel, Lori. Much as I would like it, it would not be fitting. But very soon, we will be married. And I have something to tell you, something I know you will like. Lori, as a wedding present, I have decided to pay off the mortgages on your parents’ house and to offer Randy and Hailey interest-free loans for them too. I have come to very much enjoy my new family that you have brought me from America, and I want to make their lives a little more easy.’
Lori stared at him, open-mouthed.
‘Oh my God,’ she stammered. ‘I don’t know what to say.’
‘Then say nothing,’ he said, smiling, and kissing her forehead. ‘You make me so happy, so proud. I want to make you happy too, and your family as well.’
‘Oh my God,’ Lori repeated, her head spinning. ‘You don’t need to do this, honey, you really don’t . . . that’s like, above and beyond anything I could possibly have expected . . .’
‘I
want
to do this,’ he said simply. ‘Please, indulge me. We will say no more about it. Your family will know when they return to America – the Herzoslovakian Embassy will inform them. It will be easiest that way. They will not be embarrassed by learning it here.’
Still reeling from this news, Lori was even more overcome when, on the Makarwiczes’ departure, Joachim presented Sandy and Hailey with diamond earrings and Bob and Randy with Cartier watches. They protested, of course, that they couldn’t possibly accept such expensive gifts, after all Joachim and the Dowager had done for them already, but Joachim deftly distracted them by showing them a stunning pink, blue and white diamond parure which he had had made specifically for Lori. The parure was so extraordinary that the earrings and watches seemed modest by comparison, making it easier for the Makarwiczes to yield. Joachim was clearly a skilled diplomat.
‘Look,’ he said proudly, fastening the necklace around his fiancée’s neck and stepping back to appreciate the effect. The matching earrings were already glistening in her ears, the bracelet on her wrist; Hailey and Sandy were gasping at the brilliance of the colours reflected in the crisp-cut facets of the diamonds.
‘It is a
demi-parure
, technically,’ the Dowager said. ‘The
grandes parures
have also a ring and a brooch. But they are out of fashion now, the young people do not wear a whole set. The clothes are not formal enough to balance the effect.’ She smiled at Lori. ‘You were born to wear this jewellery, my dear,’ she said with great satisfaction. ‘Your height, your bearing, your complexion – truly queen-like.’
Sandy flushed with pride and squeezed her husband’s arm as they looked at their tall, fair, beautiful daughter bedecked in diamonds.
‘Katya says you need to be tall to wear a tiara,’ Hailey commented: most of her sentences these days started with ‘Katya says’ or ‘Kristin says’.
‘Ah yes, Katya – I have another another little surprise,’ Joachim said. ‘Katya and Kristin will fly back with you. We thought you could all stop in New York for a night at the Carlyle, as my guests of course, and do some more shopping for the wedding. They will guide you round the best places, where we have charge accounts.’
‘Oh, how lovely!’ Lori exclaimed. ‘Hey, why don’t I come too? Just for a couple of days? We could have a really lovely time – I’m really going to miss you so much—’
But the Dowager was shaking her head regretfully.
‘There is the school opening tomorrow afternoon,’ she said smoothly, ‘and then the Parliament visit. Philippe has scheduled a great deal of appointments for when your family leaves. It is back to business, as you say in America.’
Joachim was nodding too.
‘You see, it is not all diamonds, being a queen!’ he chimed in jovially to the Makarwiczes. ‘Lori works hard at her new job. She is a very busy girl here. Everyone wants to see her, to meet her, to have her come to support their charity.’
‘We can do a trip after you’re married,’ Katya said comfortingly to Lori, whose face had fallen. She knew that the Dowager and Joachim were right: she couldn’t possibly skip official appointments, even ones of which she had not been aware. But she was suddenly conscious of how much she longed to be with her family for just a day or two longer, back home in the States . . .
‘Yes!’ Kristin added. ‘It will be lovely, we will all go together! We will plan it very soon.’
Lori smiled at her and Katya gratefully.
‘You have your Herzoslovakian lessons, too,’ Joachim said. ‘You have skipped a whole week, and you told me you wanted to be fluent by the wedding. It is only six weeks away! So much to do!’
‘And they’ll all be back so soon,’ the Dowager said quickly. ‘Time will fly by.’
‘It does make sense, honey,’ Sandy said, hugging her daughter. ‘I’m sorry you can’t come, but we’ll be back real soon. We’ll see you before you know it.’
It was true. They would be back in less than six weeks. And yet as the tall Makarwiczes climbed into the limousine that would take them to the heliport, Lori sobbed her heart out as she watched them go.
‘I’m sorry!’ she said to Joachim, whose arm was wrapped around her waist supportively as they waved goodbye. ‘I’m so sorry! I’m happy here, I really am – it’s just, it was so lovely being with them, and I’m going to miss them so much . . .’
‘Of course,’ he said gently. ‘You are a good daughter, you value your family. I love this about you. It is natural that you are sad when they go away.’
He turned, guiding her so she moved with him; the limousine, negotiating the steep curves down the hill, disappeared from sight, her back to it now, the castle looming up before them. And emerging from the main doors were two young men dressed in black, both muscly and well-built, but very different physical types. Lori’s eyes went immediately to the blond god, a total jock, though his brushed-back hair and clean-shaven jaw were much more in the European than the American style. Bright blue eyes sparkled at her as brightly as the diamonds in her parure. He ran lightly down the steps, his body moving with the fluid lightness of an athlete, his pecs clearly defined under the black turtleneck sweater, his waist very narrow. She felt guilty for staring, but it was impossible not to, on first view of him, at least: he was as handsome as the film star he resembled, with his sculpted features and full pink lips.
The sturdier, stockier young man bringing up the rear, taking each step of the stone staircase much more heavily, was like the ugly duckling behind the beautiful swan, darker, wider, his muscles tightly packed, a weightlifter following a gymnast. His features were as solid as his physique, blunt and functional, his black hair growing low on his forehead in tight curls.
‘Lori, these are Mihaly and Attila,’ Joachim said. ‘I have personally chosen them to be your bodyguards.’
Lori’s eyes widened in surprise.
‘Now that the wedding is coming closer, you will be beginning to attend some official engagements, at which I will not always be present,’ he continued. ‘I am very concerned for your safety at all times. Last night, in fact, was when I had this thought, meeting you at the nightclub where men could have bothered you and Hailey, for instance. And I was there to make sure you all returned safely. But in future, when I cannot be with you, there will be these two very efficient young men to take care of everything.’
‘I really feel very safe already,’ Lori said. She smiled at Mihaly, the blond, and Attila, the swarthier one. ‘I don’t mean to be rude, but Herzoslovakia is so incredibly quiet – there’s barely any crime here at all.’
That was, of course, due to its tax-haven status that meant everyone was so comparatively wealthy; certainly there was no crime which sprang from social deprivation.
‘Last night no one bothered us,’ she went on. ‘Or at least, in a way Hailey didn’t like! Honestly, Joachim, it’s really kind of you, but I don’t think it’s necessary.’
And also, I don’t like the idea of these two following me round the whole time, asking me where I’m going, what I’m doing. I’m not used to living in a palace with staff around me every moment, checking to see if I want anything; I know that they’re aware of everywhere I go, everything I do, how long I spend in the gym, when I’m due for my next Herzoslovakian lesson, exactly how I like my coffee – it’s lovely, I shouldn’t complain, but sometimes I want so badly to be alone, and having full-time bodyguards is going to make that so much less likely . . .
‘They will be very discreet,’ Joachim assured her. ‘You will not find them waiting next to the bed when you wake up in the morning!’
It was a joke, and everyone laughed, but Lori had a quick flash of Mihaly doing exactly that, wearing not very much at all, and she hoped to God that her instant physical reaction to that image didn’t show on her face. Sexual frustration was definitely nagging at her: somehow the enforced abstinence mandated by Joachim was prompting her to think about it more and more, about their wedding night, when they would finally release all this built-up tension. She was masturbating almost every day now, had had to buy new batteries for her Rabbit once already, and it was slowing down, which meant that she was due another set. But even that was only a temporary release . . .
And maybe I need a new Rabbit too
, she thought.
It’s bound to break down sooner or later, the way I’m going. I should definitely have a backup. Oh my God, how am I going to get a new one? Order it online? But I can’t get deliveries from a sex shop!
Maybe I could order one from Amazon. Does Amazon sell vibrators? No one would bat an eye at a package coming in from them. But what if they open my mail? What if my new bodyguards insist on opening all my packages for security reasons! What if Mihaly sees my Rabbit and thinks . . . makes a joke about it . . . Oh God, I’d be beyond embarrassed—
Jeez, this is crazy! I need to get a grip, I really do.
Lori glanced back at Mihaly, who was smiling at her, his hands, clasped below his waist, drawing her eyes perilously close to his crotch, and she was sure she went red. She was shocked by how quickly her thoughts had turned sexual about him with her fiancé standing right next to her, and though she felt guilty, of course, she couldn’t be
too
ashamed. She was a healthy young woman, her fiancé’s old-fashioned scruples meant that he was barely laying a finger on her (
let alone
in
me!
she thought naughtily), and she had just been presented with a bodyguard who was exactly her type; no wonder sex was at the forefront of her mind.
After the wedding,
she thought with huge relief,
this will all sort itself out. Joachim and I will be at it all the time, making babies, honeymooning blissfully in Mexico. I can’t wait. And though I’m frustrated now, it’s great to know that he has strong principles. He’ll make such a good father.
She looked up at her fiancé lovingly, and realized with a shock that he had been speaking for a while; she’d been so absorbed in her thoughts that she’d missed quite a bit of what he’d said.
‘. . . jewellery, too,’ he was saying. ‘That alone is a good reason for bodyguards. As the Queen, people will expect to see you wearing the jewels suitable to your station, and Mihaly and Attila will make sure that you can be safe wearing your new parure, for instance.’
Reluctantly, Lori had to admit that this did make sense. She nodded.
‘I
would
be a bit freaked going out wearing that without someone keeping an eye on me,’ she said.
‘There you go! It is settled,’ Joachim said cheerfully. ‘And now I will leave you with them. I must go to do some work. Philippe is waiting for me. I will see you for dinner, my love.’
He kissed her, turned on his heel and went swiftly up the long stone staircase, back into the Schloss.
‘What are your plans for the day, Your Highness?’ Mihaly asked, clicking his heels. His voice was a light tenor, as charming as the rest of him.
‘Oh,’ Lori said, ‘I’m not actually royal yet – you don’t need to call me that—’
‘To us you are already,’ Attila said seriously in a deep bass-baritone. ‘We guard you like you are royalty.’
‘And besides, you will be Queen of Herzoslovakia very soon,’ Mihaly pointed out, his smile revealing that he had a very cute little dimple dug adorably into each cheek. ‘We would just have to change what we call you then. We might as well start now.’