The Kings Mate
Chapter 2:

My eyes have continually dropped closed since I rested myself down on the lounge, flicking through all the channels on the bright and large television screen until I settle on some documentary about some tall glassed building on the beaches of Dubai.

Nothing good is on the multi channelled satellite television, but my mind is not even remotely concentrated on the thousands of moving frames. I can’t stop thinking about the words between my maid and my two guards.

Why I even need those three people in my life, still remains a mystery. Hopefully ‘his majesty’ can explain all this to me like Ellie said. My desire to have this knowledge does not outweigh the fear that I have that he will want me to aid him in his sexual desires. It wouldn’t be the first time that some male who I have housed with that has asked me to do so, ignoring me even if I were to say no.

One short and surprisingly loud knock at the door causes me to jump, sliding further down on the soft plush material. I thought my eyes were just dropping, but I had actually falling asleep a warm thick fluffy blanket thrown over my body as I rested the weight of my head on my bent arm.

“Miss?” the same deep voice that reassured Ellie before, comes through the door.

There’s another knock against the heavy white wooden door before its pushed open and the tall male dressed in the tight black button up short sleeved shirt walks in. His ashy blonde curled hair has been swept to the left as if he has been running his hands through his hair from stress.

“Sorry miss, did I wake you?” he sounds concerned as he quickly darts a look over his shoulder before they land back on my face.

“Uh,” The tips of my fingers rub lightly underneath my eyes moving to the corner to wipe at the sleep, alerting him to the fact that I am about to lie. “No, I was just resting.”

The black clad guard nods his head in question, unsure of the way I answered most likely not comfortable enough to pull up the fact that I just lied to him. He can see the dark skin underneath my eyes and the way I am moving slightly slowly as I sit up on the lounge.

“If you wish miss, we can postpone dinner for you to rest longer.” His eyes look to the ground before they move to mine for a second then back around the room, trying not to look me in the eyes.

“Maxon?” Ellie said Maxon was going to come get me and right now I really wish to ignore what he’s saying.

“Yes miss?” he asks his eyes moving back to my face even though I don’t meet his eyes as he gains the somewhat slight confidence to look at me now that I have addressed him by his name.

All of them seem to be nervous around me even though all of them, even Ellie are muscled and could easily overpower my undernourished body. It is me who should be scared of them, and I am. Not that I have ever been comfortable with eye contact in the first place.

“I am fine to eat now and please stop calling me miss, my name is Lottie.” He gives me a small smile and holds one arm out, gesturing towards me to step in front of me and the other one behind his back as he leads me into the other room.

Maxon leads me further into the large room barley to scale with the rest of the furniture that is tiny in comparison with it, careful to stay at least a step away from me the entire time, his hand lingering down near the small of my back hesitant to actually drop it down there. He does take my hand though, to help me slide down into the bench seat, he seems hesitant to let go of my hand when I let out a hiss at the pain in my midsection, he finally does hesitantly let go after I tell him that I’m fine.

“Eat all that you can, Lottie.” Maxon tells me as he gives me a small smile.

Some of the most decadent food I have ever seen in my entire life, even the glimpses I had of the television at Carlett, covers a majority of the rectangular dining table. My stomach begins to beg for food as Maxon walks over to stand near the door that leads out of the massive suite that has been labelled as mine.

Standing up from the seat that I am comfortable in, I ignore the luxurious food and the pressuring pain in my ribs, I make my way towards the large window and thick grey curtains covering the wall. A knock at the door stops me in my tracks and I turn back towards the door expecting to see Maxon standing there but I don’t, it’s the guy with Hazel eyes and he’s smiling that wonderful smile at me, Maxon now gone from the room.

“Do you mind if I join you?” his voice sends shivers up my spine, my eyes unable to move from his as he waits for my permission to enter the room.

He steps away from leaning against the door frame his hands dropping into the dark pressed dress slack pants, the sleeves of his grey pin stripped button up shirt are folded up to just above his elbows the material bunched a little. My eyes are left to wonder down to his chest, the top buttons undone and I can stare at his revealed tan skin and tight muscles that strain against the thin material.

Nodding, telling him that he can join me, he walks slowly into the room. His hazel eyes move over my body as mine move over his, until he’s stood in front of me. His warm smooth hand slides into mine, pulling it up to his lips, pressing a small kiss to the back of it, leaving me with shortened breath. The tight grip of his hand holding me steady as I feel my knees weaken ever so slightly.

“I don’t believe that I introduced myself before.” his hazel eyes are locked with mine and even though I would usually try to pull mine away, I can’t pull them away from his. “I’m Ryder Connolly.”

My breath is stuck in my throat as I try to answer. “Lo-Lottie.” I stutter out my eyes moving down to his lips for a quick second, evening my breathing out before I look back into his hazel eyes.

What is with them? Why are they so, so perfect?

“Lottie?” he questions back a small laugh leaving his plump lips as he drops his hand back down to his side not releasing my hand as he does, the long length of his fingers intertwining themselves with mine.

Letting out the deep breathe in my throat, I look down at our intertwined hands. “Charlotte.”

I shouldn’t be getting this close to him. I should be pulling my hand from his and telling him that I’m leaving and he can’t stop me nor the bulky guards, but I’m not.

I can’t.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. I’m almost afraid to ask why you were in soaked torn clothes asleep in an alley, so I’m not going to. But is it just Lottie, you don’t have a last name?” a finger lifts my chin up sending more of the sensational tingles through me as he forces me to meet his eyes again.

Ryder is purposely trying to get me to look in to his gorgeous hazel eyes and no matter how hard I try I can’t bring myself to look away from them, or to make the foot of distance between us wider. They hold me to him, and he knows the power that they hold over me. They aren’t judging me though, their patient as they stay locked on mine, his thumb rubbing over the protuberant bone of my knuckles gingerly as I bathe in the warmth and questionable power that his body emits.

Once I give a small shake of my head to him, his tight and defined jaw clenches, intensifying the warm feeling in my stomach and the sensational shocks of his touch. “I don’t know it and I really don’t care to know it.” I whisper stepping back away from his finger, griping at his hand still wrapped tightly around mine.

Ryder lets out a shaky sigh with a small shake of his head. “Come on. Have you realised how thin you are? You really need to eat.”

His strong hand leads me back to the seat that Maxon helped me into, away from the window. The food on the table looks so nice though and I don’t argue as my stomach releases another small growl. Ryder continues a light conversation with me throughout dinner and not once does he push me in the direction of talking about something that I don’t want to.

When Ellie walks in clearing the food once Ryder is satisfied that I’m full enough and can’t eat anymore, I can see that she is trying to avoid his eyes. She’s scared of him, she doesn’t even try to meet my eyes but I put that down to the fact that she apparently said something to me that she wasn’t supposed to and he would be angry about it. Why would she be scared of Ryder though?

Ryder stands his hand reaching out, pulling my attention from Ellie leaving the room. Jumping from his eyes to his hand, sighing I finally reach out and take it in mine. Once I’m stood, gently I pull it out of his strong grip and he lets me, his hand sliding back into the pocket of his pants with is much like how he was when he first made his way into the room with me.

With the way that I feel when he touches me, I need to stop before I become attached to him and I can’t leave him.

I fear I already am attracted to him.

“You want me to walk you to your door, or you think you can fight all the bad guys off by yourself on your long walk.” Ryder laughs his head turning towards the door that leads to the bedroom, which isn’t that far away at all.

Biting my lip I try to stifle the laugh at his words. “I’m pretty sure I can make it there by myself.”

The double doors open and the guy with long hair in a ponytail are stood on the right of the door along with another guy with short cropped blond hair standing on the left. The two males look to be the same height, and their having a whispered conversation between the two of them, every now and then they look back towards us.

Maxon isn’t there though, he’s gone. He and the guy with the ponytail have been outside the door since I woke up and before as well and even though I only talked to him for a couple of seconds I knew that I could trust him on some level. These two I don’t know.

“Lottie?” Ryder questions.

Not realising that I was staring at the two guards I look back towards Ryder, his gentle eyes gazing down at me as he patiently waits for me to meet his eyes again and when I do they flicker over to the guards for a second before he concentrates on me again.

“Goodnight, I’ll see you tomorrow, ok?” His voice is quiet, as he nods lightly at me.

“Ok.” I whisper nodding my head back.

Turning, making my way back towards the room I can feel Ryder’s eyes on me. I stop when another husky male voice carries towards me through the room. “My King, Maxon is down stairs in the meeting room with the council. They need to talk to you.”

King?

Turning my head to look at them I see that it is the guy with the ponytail facing towards Ryder meaning that he was the one that addressed him. Ryder is facing towards him but he’s looking at me, he gives me a small smile with a raise of his eyebrow.

Heat rushes to my cheeks and dark strands of hair fall into my eyes as I face back to the door again. Taking a deep sigh I try to wash the redness from my cheeks, raising my hands up to my face rubbing over my skin. Why am I blushing over him?

“Thank you Reynolds.” Ryder’s voice replies. He says something in a much quieter voice, which I can’t hear.

Shutting the two doors to the bedroom, behind me I can hear the other two doors leading out of the suite close as well and with that it can only mean that Ryder is gone to speak to Maxon where the guy Reynolds said he was.

Reynolds also called Ryder a King. Either that statement is correct or Ryder is the ‘King’ of some creepy cult and these are just all his followers. I can’t see that in Ryder though at least not what I expect to see in a cult leader. I also can’t see him as the type of King that would hold reign over a country.

If he is a King, of the royal or cult type, I don’t know how to react to that. What does that mean for me? The way he looks at me? The way I feel around him? None of it makes any sense to me.

Ellie said that a ‘his majesty’ was going to explain everything. That would be Ryder and he hasn’t explained anything to me. Not yet at least.

It is already late at night I can feel it. Ryder and I were sat in the other room for an hour and half and by now it has to be around nine o’clock. Usually this is about the time that I would have found somewhere to hide myself away, so I could be up early enough and away from any angry tenants because I used an alcove of their housing for free.

Grabbing the remote of the table, I flick the television on, hoping that if I fell asleep to it before than I could probably fall asleep to it now.

After a while, I begin to settle into the movie that is set in the early 50’s and after a while the background swing music caused my eyelids to begin to drop closed, my breathing evening out. I force my eyes to stay open now, enjoying the movie and I want to see how it ends.

Knocking at the door causes my head to whip from the screen to the door to see it open slightly and Ryder standing in the small gap. He gestures to the seat next to me with a questioning look, asking if he can come in and sit down next to me. Nodding towards him he walks in slowly closing the door behind him after he says something to whoever is just outside the door.

Once again his voice is quiet and I can’t hear what it is that he says to the two guards that must have moved closer in to the room, to be stood outside the two double doors leading into the room. As I pull my legs up to my chest wrapping my arms around them Ryder sits down on the opposite end of the dark lounge.

“Are you ok?” His eyes bore into mine and he raises his hand, going to move towards my cheek but then decides against it and drops it down on the back of the lounge. “You seemed a bit shocked about what you heard before, and I just want to see if you’re ok with it.”

“I’m fine.” My eyes zero in on his hand, watching as his fist open and close over the soft material. “I just can’t understand what you want me here for.”

Ryder’s hand freezes and when the words leave my lips and I look up towards him. “I don’t really have the right to ask you this, but do you trust me?”

Trust him? Biting down hard on my lip, I have no idea how to answer.

“Careful.” Ryder slides closer to me onto the middle cushion of the lounge his hand coming up pulling my lip from between my teeth, his legs brushing against mine.

A gasp leaves my mouth as his thumb hovers over my lip, sending tingles and small electric shocks down to my stomach. “As cute as it is, you’re drawing blood.”

He’s wearing a pair of dark basketball shorts and a white t-shirt with a black zip up hoodie on over the top. The formal attire again replaced by this more casual one, even his hair is more casual now looking as if he has run has hand through it a hundred times over to get rid of the slicked back style that he had before.

Pulling the sleeve of his hoodie to cover his thumb he rubs away the blood from the cut I caused from the pressure of how hard I bit down. “You trust me?” he sounds afraid of what my answer will be and I know that he cares deeply about what I am about to say.

“I trust you.” My eyes concentrating on his lips as his are concentrating on mine. “I don’t know why, but I do.”

A relieved smile crosses his face and he follows it with a laugh. “Then you need to trust me when I say that I can’t tell you why you are here, but because of that reason you’re safer here than anywhere else.”

“Will you tell me more than that at some point?” I joke but still hold some meaning behind it.

He was nervous, I could hear it. Everyone has been telling me that I am safe here and with the amount of black dressed, large muscled guards positioned just outside my door and around the palace, it adds up that I’m safe from anything on the outside but whether I am safe from them is still in question.

Ryder makes me feel safe though, it’s weird but he does. I know that when he says I’m safe with him that he means it.

Ryder’s lips purse together and his hazel eyes scrunch up. It makes me laugh lightly which I’m guessing what he hoped to do. “Maybe.”

Giving him a small smile I turn back towards the television my shoulder instinctively sinks in the material beneath his hand, his fingertips brushing gently over the skin of my shoulder sending warm tingles through me. The same warm tingles and strange pleasurable feelings that I get every time that he touches me. Which he seems to do a lot.

“Do you want me to leave, or I can I stay here and watch the TV with you?” Ryder questions softly, his fingers dancing in the slightest against my skin.

“You’re welcome to stay and watch television with me your Majesty.” Dropping my arm from around my legs I make an immaculate sweep gesturing towards the television.

Ryder tries to hold the laugh and he raises a hand pressing it over his mouth. “Ryder–nothing else Lottie, or I’ll put you in a smaller room.” Biting my tongue, I hold in the laugh. “You’re an evil little thing, you’ll fit in.”

My eyes concentrate back on the television watching as a new more modern movie starts to play. Taking a deep sigh Ryder rests himself further into the thickly cushioned lounge, his fingers moving further onto the bare skin of my shoulder his knuckles rubbing gently over my skin.

“What country are you King of?” I ask quietly my voice hinting that I am on the verge of sleep.

Ryder lets out a small laugh. “You don’t even know what country you’re in right now?” He lets out another laugh as he shakes his head at me. “Jordena.”

Jordena. I freeze when he tells me that. I don’t know much about the country, but I do know that it is a country in between France and Spain and it is one of the only monarchy families, that doesn’t belong to the Catholic Church.

“I’m guessing with a reaction like that, you came a long way to be here.” He whispers, dropping the conversation, knowing that it’s making me uncomfortable.

Carlett was in London, so how I ended up in Europe doesn’t make sense to me. If I didn’t somehow navigate myself to a different country, I wouldn’t be here with Ryder which is the reason behind why I am so uncomfortable.

Ryder’s fingers continue to move over my shoulder for a while as if on instinct while the movie played through nearly to the end, his smooth skin gently lulling me to sleep. Twisting I move so my knees push lightly into his side my arms moving down to drop down onto his thigh causing him to freeze at the contact and watch carefully as my head rests on his arm, using it as a pillow on the back of the lounge. Once I settle, my breathe evening out as I begin to fall asleep, Ryder relaxes, his fingers continuing to tickle at the back of my neck and underneath my ear.

Having him this close to me dismisses the pain that I feel in my ribs whenever there is distance between us. It took me more than three times to reassure him that I was fine and my ribs weren’t hurting, but I can tell that he still does not believe me, his eyes concentrated on my torso as his fingers continue their pleasurable assault.

Knowing that I should get up and move to the bed and make sure that Ryder is out of the room before I fall asleep, I allow his comforting touch to allow me to get to sleep, ignoring my previous thoughts. I haven’t had a good sleep in a long time and Ryder is giving me that in more than one way it seems.

“Lottie,” Ryder whispers his warm breath hitting close to my ear.

Too tired, I let out a small hum telling him to continue but I’m not sure whether he heard it or not because of how quiet the sound was.

“Why were you living on the streets?” He sounds unsure of the question. I can feel the question in his touch and the way his body is pressed against mine. It frightens me as much as I enjoy it.

He isn’t unsure about the question though he’s unsure of how I’m going to react to it, yet I think that he’s asking it now because I’m on the verge of sleep and I might possibly give him an answer to a rather good question on his account without much of a second thought to what I am saying and because of it I might not remember it in the morning. He is wrong.

“Maybe I’ll tell you, when you tell me why I’m here.” Opening my eyes I meet his loving hazel eyes.

“Evil,” He whispers his lips pulling up into a small smile, “Beautifully evil.” Smiling at him, I close my eyes again letting his fingers lull me into sleep.