Will You Spend The Night With me?
"I will consider it."
The Queen said, then stood up, abandoning the grapes. She found something she wanted to revel in more than them, and she wasn't about to waste time not doing just that.
"Follow me," She said when she noticed he was still on his knees.
He stood up and walked behind her, only realizing that he was still wearing the hunting outfit.
She placed a hand on a family portrait, and a large concrete wall moved, just big enough to let them pass by. She went in first, and he followed.
The door led them to a massive library, with shelves that seemed to stretch to the sky, each one with tall ladders and labels handing down. The library was brightly illuminated in all corners.
"Do you need a book, your highness?" he asked, thinking of how easy it was.
"Yes. A lot." She walked to the table and wrote a few titles on it, then thrust it on his chest.
"I'll set a timer. I need them in fifteen minutes." She said, looking him straight in his eyes.
He blinked and moved away, collecting the paper from her.
There were a total of thirty books, from astronomy, science, art, ethics, etiquette and manners, and a few novels.
He looked up at the shelves. "Your highness...Fifteen minutes is the time I would use to climb up one shelf."
She shrugged. "That's the time I am giving you to climb all the shelves." Her expression was bank, yet her eyes twinkled with mischief.
He nodded. "I understand."
He understod that she would want to get back at him. For crossing his boundaries with her. It was okay. He brought it on himself, anyway.
He started with astronomy, the queen calmly taking a seat, her legs elegantly crossed as she watched him.
He climbed up, risking falling twice, as he tried to maintain speed, and find the book in the millions available.
He got the first book and got down, then went to science. He had only climbed up to half the ladder when he heard the Queen smirk.
"Looks like your time is up."
He turned away and looked at the overturned sand clock on her table, and the top compartment was empty.
"It normally takes fifteen minutes to run out."
She stood up and came to the foot of the ladder. "Let yourself down."
"Yes, your highness." He felt defeated even though he knew he wouldn't be able to pull it off. "I am sorry." He said as he got to the last step of the ladder.
The Queen didn't say a word as she watched him get down, his distracted eyes flickering from her eyes to the ladder.
Unsurprisingly, he missed the last step, and would have landed head first on the ground, had the queen not held his hand again, breaking his fall mid air.
He wasn't sure if it was instict, or intentional, but her thumb moved a little against the back of his palm, and she smiled.
"It feels like we reversed roles, Hector. This is happening way too often."
Her voice was low, as if she was whispering, breathy, as if she was hyperventilating. Her eyes were dark and they constantly flickered across his face, down to his lips.
"I am sorry," He managed to say, breaking the silence.
She pulled him forward hard, so he didn't stand on his feet, but came towards her, unable to control the force. He stopped right in front of her, his eyes taking hers in an extremely close range.
The smile on her lips reflected in her eyes as she leaned forward, stopping for a bit. She didn't want to lean in for anything else, but she knew she had to take her mounting feelings easy.
She leaned closer to his ear. "Spend the night...with me."
Hector's heart beat wildly in his chest, her breath caressing his neck. He felt like he was breaking into a cold sweat, his hand jittery. Yet, by some force, he couldn't pull away. It felt like when he woke up he would be back in his bunked bed, Lana talking to him, with the queen in her chamber.
"Will you?" She asked again, her hand still holding his hand that she had caught him with.
"Your highness.." He manged to say.
"You are so pale, some would think you have seen a ghost."
He swallowed and tried to raise his hand to feel his forehead, but she was still holding it. She slowky let it go, as she smiled again, then turned and walked out of the library, without even collecting the book she had asked him to get.
He stood there, his breathing still ragged, his body had gone cold.
'Spend the night with me'
It wasn't something he had expected to hear from any other woman, given his status, and much less the queen herself. She practically owned him, owned his existence. Had it been a joke?
He turned towards the door. She had left it open and he could see her hair as she walked in her room, probably getting ready to sleep.
The Queen, she was...weird. Strange. She felt like he was discovering a specie he wasn't sure would turn out good for him. This specie could be poisonous, just like her parents before her.
He shook his bead, as if it would clear his thoughts. Lana. He had to go to Lana. She was home, comfort, his safe spaace. His happy place.
He walked out of the library and he tried to close the door, but it wouldn't budge.
"You don't have to close it." She was back where he had met her, munching grapes like she hadn't brought the heat to them back there in the library, as if she had said nothing out of the ordinary.
"I.."
"Yes, you can leave." She said. "But there is something you have to do for me."
He wasn't sure he could handle any of her requests.
"Yes, your highness."
"I want you to participate in the contest."
"Contest, your highness? What contest? I do not..know how to ride horses that well..and..I have been in the palace since I was eight, my education is a bit lacking compared to the premium education of aristocrats."
"This contest requires none of that."
"Yes, your highness?"
She stood up and walked to him. He bowed his head as she came closer, but she put her finger under his chin and lifted his face till his eyes met hers.
"The contest...is not just for aristocrats. This contest is for my hand...in marriage."