“DON’T LEAVE.”
“Come here.”
The prince beckoned with a finger, that same playful smirk he had on his pretty tanned face whenever he wanted to mess around with you. The coquettish glint left his eyes as you turned on your boot, effectively ignoring his command, and left the room, closing the door to his chambers with a resounding echo.
“Wait!” His body bolted upwards and long legs carried him toward the door. Before his brain could even reason, he was out the door, on your tail. Princes didn’t beg, they didn’t chase after anything nor anyone, much less a lowly palace guard.
Oh, but he would. He would chase you down to the very ends of the earth if it meant he could have a sliver of your time. A fragment of your presence near him. A piece of your perfect smile that seemed to have burned a hole into his perfectly made shell. He craved it, more than he’d care to admit. He wanted your time, your presence, your smile—every polished princess who swooned his way be damned, he wanted you.
They didn’t challenge him like you did. They didn’t laugh with genuineness and annoyance at his stupid jokes like you did. They didn’t care for his wellbeing like you did.
They simply could never hold a candle to you.
Princes demanded the attention of every subject. Common folk should beg for him. For his time, for his presence, for his charming grin, for his very existence.
But all that was thrown aside the moment he reached you. The very moment he spun you around when he clutched onto your armor-clad forearm.
Princes like him did not lower themselves to this feeling.
None of it mattered to him though. It never did. He was resigned; resigned to this ache he felt whenever you left his side. Love? Is that what the tales talk about? Whatever it was, it wasn’t fleeting. It wouldn’t leave him. The emotion had burrowed into his flesh and wouldn’t relent. It pulsed whenever you neared and whenever you’d leave. The blood would rush to his complexion, a crack in his prim and proper form. All he knew was that caution was thrown to the wind when it came to you. The lovely guard who had dominated his very heart, mind and soul.
He couldn’t stop it, he couldn’t expel the feeling that had taken up residence in the beats of his heart. And he could only hope that, maybe, after all these years of being at his side, you suffered from the same pesky disease he had endured all this time.
He figured. He reasoned. He mulled it over countless times.
Love?
His plush mouth met yours before he could piece it all together.
Please, tell me you feel this too.
He moved slow, hesitance mingled with pure adoration for you seeping through his kiss.
Please. Please.
His grip on your arm only tightened, and he hoped you didn’t mind it. His nerves overtaken by the overwhelming feeling of your lips finally slotted between his.
Please.
And there it was. As if time had been running slower and now came back to full speed. Your hand had reached up and curled at his nape, drawing him nearer, desiring his kiss as much as he had desired yours. He couldn’t help the soft grin that stretched across his lips, the hand that once gripped your forearm anxiously relaxed and slid slowly between your unoccupied hand. After a moment more, he rested his forehead on yours, the tips of your noses grazing as he tried to regain his breath.
Such an intimate expression that he only dreamed of doing. And he couldn’t go back to living without it, no matter the consequences.
“Don’t leave.” He breathed against your lips, his gaze fixed on yours and utterly lovesick.
Not a trace of the prince was present in his words or his eyes, but rather, the man that had been desperately in love with you had surfaced and seemed like nothing would keep him from having you at his side the way he’s been longing to.
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✉️note from the luvyard keeper: bring back men who LONG >>>