How To Tame An Empress (BOOK I)

Chapter 7 - Where She Belongs

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The sunlight streaming in through the windows woke me up as it usually did. 

The bed was cold. And as I reached my arm out, fingers brushing nothing but rumpled covers as soft as silk, I inhaled my wife's lingering scent for a moment.

I shifted to lay on my back, looking up at the draped fabric which cascaded down from the posts of the bed. No rustling sheets, no warm body, and no soft voices greeted me with sleepy affection. There was just the distant sound of birdsong.

It seems that, once again, in the week that we have been wed, my wife has left my side before I could be given the chance to awaken. 

I sat up slowly with a low groan, running a hand down my tired face. I told myself not to be upset, she was not avoiding me, she never was. She simply rose earlier than I did, gentle as the dawn itself.

After washing up, I dressed with methodical grace, brushing the hands of the valet away when he came to assist. I did not need help this morning, what I needed was her. I needed her to be with me under those bedsheets, wrapped in my arms, both at night and in the morn.

Even before we were married, I made sure that our lives would be nothing like an ordinary Empress and Emperor's, and the first step to take towards that life that I had been envisioning was to ensure that we would be living in the same chambers instead of separate ones.

"Where is my wife?" I asked the guard standing outside our chambers.

"Her imperial highness stated that she would be in the north-east garden while she waited for you to awaken. So that you may dine together for breakfast, dominus." He answered with his head bowed down, but I was already walking towards the place he mentioned before he had even been given the chance to complete his sentence. It was the same sentence that I have been hearing for the past few days anyway.

It had been going so well. From our first wedding night to the morning in which I awoke and found her still sleeping soundly beside me. But I should have known that a day like that was a rare one, because ever since then, my darling wife has been rising earlier than me, back to her usual schedule before she wed me.

Now that she was my wife, I hated waking up in an empty bed. So, I need to come up with a solution to keep her by my side.

Shall I lock the chamber doors? No, I know all too well that Valeria despises being confined to one place, she likes being free. Free... How that word has lodged itself in my throat like a thorn, I would never have guessed. Then, shall I restrain her in bed? No, that is even worse than the first option, worse for her, I mean.

The answer failed to come to me by the time I arrived at the garden. But, nevertheless, there she was. Laughing and smiling like a dream.

She danced barefoot across the grass, her gown dancing in waves around her as laughter spilled forth from her lips. I could only sigh quietly while gazing at the sweet sight.

"Oh, well. I guess it is not that dire of a problem." I mumbled to myself before going to approach her. It didn't take long for her to notice my presence, upon which a light blush graced her features as if remembering our activities from last night.

"Good morning." She greeted softly as I paused before her, tucking strands of her hair behind her ear. She should have said that to me in bed, I thought. With every day that passed, and every moment we shared, I could feel my hunger for this woman growing uncontrollably.

"It would have been a much better morning if I had woken up to see you by my side." I crossed my arms once more as I said that, and her blush reignited, but nonetheless, she looked up to meet my gaze, and graced me with a cheeky smile.