Chapter 205

Seeing the kiss, my stomach drops and the blood drains from my face. I didn’t see the lead up, nor did I hear the things that were said. But I can see it now, and the shock of it ripples down to my bones.

After Caleb left Annabelle at their wedding, I thought things would be different. Caleb didn’t understand commitment, but in that moment, he had seemed so dedicated to me that it had been so easy to forget about the hundred other woman who called this palace their home.

Caleb might not have entertained his harem for some time, but that doesn’t mean that he never would. Maybe, already, he’s looking to share his attentions with them once more.

Caleb sees me standing in the doorway to our bedroom. He keeps his gaze on me, eyes locked with mine, until I glance away first.

I step back into the room, not wanting to see anymore. Caleb and the consort must have already been parting ways though, because he quickly follows me inside.

“Why are you upset?” he asks.

Turning my back to him, I walk further into the bedroom. “You are free to do whatever you please,” I said. “You don’t have to concern yourself with me.”

Caleb growls slightly as he comes closer, walking up behind me. I still don’t turn around.

“Why are you acting like I betrayed you?” he asks.

“You have a harem,” I reply. “By utilizing that, you are only being the kind of king people expect you to be.”

My hurt is immense, but I have no right to condemn him. It was my foolish heart that lead me into this mess. He’d always been forthright about the kind of man he is and the life he is used to living. How can I be mad at him now that he continues to be that kind of man?

He left Annabelle. He will not marry anyone in the harem. That should be enough for me.

Maybe someday, it will be. Right now, fool as my heart is, it hurts.

“You say things that don’t make sense,” Caleb says. He’s close behind me now. Maybe I should take a few steps to add more distance between us, but I don’t.

Reaching towards me from behind, he places his hands over my wrists. Then, slowly, he drags his touch up my arms to the elbows. His touch is warm and I shudder.

Stepping directly behind me, his chest presses against my back. “Now,” he says, his voice low, impossible to resist. “Tell me the truth.”

I swallow thickly, trying to plan my next move. His touches are so soft, trailing up and down my arms, and his voice so seductive, I find myself wanting to give him the truth even if it leads to an argument.

It’s like he’s urging me to trust him, and I do.

So the words slip from my lips, unbidden, “I hating having to share you.”

He lowers his head near mine, brushing his lips to the shell of my ear. His hands find their way to my shoulders, where he pulls me toward him, so that we are aligned shoulder to hip.

“What makes you think you are sharing me?” he whispers.

“She kissed you.”

“A brief kiss made in gratitude,” he says. “It meant nothing.”

“To you, maybe,” I say. “But who knows how she feels? She is a member of your harem, Caleb. Perhaps you have even laid with her in the past.”

“The past is the past.”

He doesn’t understand. It’s not about the past, it’s about the now.

“So long as that harem exists,” I say, “I will be made to share you.”

Caleb stills a moment as my words hit home. I freeze as well, nervous about what will happen next. Will he condemn me for having such opinions? Would he mock me? Would he simply storm out of the room in annoyance or anger?

“It seems I have given you unjust cause for concern,” he says. Slowly, he drags his hands from my shoulder to my clavicle and then inches his fingers down to cup my breasts. “Perhaps you need a reminder of who has my full focus.”

My breath escaped me shakily, as he massaged and caressed me with his strong hands. My knees weak, I leaned even further back against him.

Then, when I thought I might collapse, he turned me in his arms, gripped me roughly against him, and kissed what was left of my breath away.

Hours later, Caleb sits in his office. There’s work to be done, papers to go through and approve. Yet, his gaze is entirely drawn out the window. While his eyes may be on the tree there, with its arrow-shaped green leaves, his attention is entirely elsewhere.

In some moments, he is back in the bed with Harper. In others, he is walking across a field to a farmhouse, his catch of fish hanging over his shoulder. In a few, he is a young king, recently crowned, mourning the loss of his brother while trying to do right by his father.

“You need a harem,” Hector said. “A large and healthy harem reflects the status of the kingdom.”

“Yes, father,” Caleb said then, as he so often did. He’d been eager to please, wanting to be the best King he could be to follow in his father’s footsteps.

His desire to have a harem wasn’t entirely selfless. Over the years, he had found pleasure in the arms of the women dedicated to serve him. Yet always, the passion was fleeting. As soon as he found his release, he sought no more comfort from those women.

They served their purpose dutifully, and Caleb has always respected that.

Yet now… can he not admit to himself that things have changed?

His kingdom is quickly falling into civil war, the harem wasn’t going to save him from that. And since Harper’s arrival, he’s only found pleasure and comfort in her arms, no longer tempted by any of the others.

Would it truly be so terrible to release the harem now?

Caleb scoffs at himself and his changing stance on the topic. When Annabelle ordered him to disband his harem, he had adamantly refused.

Yet, with a hint of sadness from Harper, he was considering doing the same thing. She had not even asked him to do so! Still, he knew doing so would please her.

Curious, he never really cared about someone else’s opinion before. His own feelings have always been first in his mind.

Yet with Harper, he finds that he cannot be selfish. He doesn’t want to be.

For whatever the reason, he wants to please her and keep her happy.

It’s a strange, unusual feeling, to care for someone else more than himself. He’s not totally sure when and how it happened. Yet now that he has Harper, he’s not willing to let her go.

So he procures a fresh piece of paper and he starts writing a draft.

His advisors are sure to be furious. Wherever his father is hiding, this is going to piss him off as well.

It might even anger the half of the kingdom that still supports him.

To hell with it. To all of it.

He’ll fight the whole world if he has to, so long as he gets to keep Harper.