Royal Love (F1 x LH44)

Two

We swayed to the music and made the typical first dance that I've been doing for years now. It always has the same moves. He turned me around and than bowed over me, which was the last part of the dance. I sighed relieved and waited for the duke to put me back on my feet. As soon as I did, I curtsied and went straight back to my throne, where I sat up straight and tried to find the guy from earlier. I couldn't see him anywhere, only his partner who he turned to earlier when we had eye contact. I let it go and turned to my family. They had a talk going on about problems in the market. Things that didn't really concern me. So I only half listened as I drifted off into a daydream.

I sat there for a few minutes, just staring at them and only listening half, until I heard a ticking against a glass. I looked around and saw that my dad had stood up. He was ticking against his glass as the crowd slowly went down with it's volume. I enjoyed the few seconds of silence before my dad began to speak.

"Welcome everyone to our royal feast. We're happy to see so many of you and are happy to join us today at the knighting ceremony," the King said.

Knighting ceremony? So that's why there was such a big group. It all made more sense now.

"I first welcome forward, Lewis Hamilton, to be knighted. As a King I'm proud of how far this man has come. A 6 time world champion that races under our flag. It is a great honour to have you as a knight of the United Kingdom." The King went on as the brown-eyed guy from earlier stepped forward. He bent down on one knee and looked down as the King put his sword on his shoulders. He thanked the King to then stand up, bow, and head back to his partner from earlier. I kept my eyes on him the entire time, even when the King started calling forward more people.

~~~

After the ceremony I excused myself from the room. I went into the hallway and made my way towards the toilets. Not like I needed to go, but I just couldn't find another excuse to get away from the whole feast. I walked into a quiet part of the wing and walked into one of the toilets. I locked the door behind me before going to the mirror and look at myself. My light brown hair was braided into a crown around my head and was still in pretty good shape as I started to apply some extra mascara to my lashes. I rinsed my face with some water and then looked at my reflection. I somehow didn't look as exhausted as I felt like, which was good, because I couldn't imagine the black rings under my eyes if they did show up.

Without looking away I picked my phone out of my pocket and opened it. I moved my glance away from the mirror to look at my phone. I had a few new unread messages. One from my best friend, Luke, the duke of Winston. He was the only duke that I could call a true friend. I've known him since I was 10. And from the start we liked each other. Not like love, that wasn't even an option since he has always liked men more than women. My dad did ask about him a few times. Like why I won't marry him or why we don't do royal duties together. Mainly he just wants us to get married. But I made clear from the start that I felt like I needed Luke more as my best friend than my husband. After some years my dad let the subject fall and started his own research on men. He started to invite tons of dukes to all my royal duties and made me dance with them. I hated it as much as I hated the duties in general. My dad never really noticed it and just went on with putting men into my life. I stopped caring about it a while ago and didn't mind even looking at men anymore.

Except for earlier... No. I stopped my thoughts from getting further and thought about something else, anything else. But somehow he just kept getting into my head. The brown-eyed guy, Lewis Hamilton. Now Sir Lewis Hamilton. He somehow stood out when I scanned the room. I never had eye contact with someone for so long... But for some reason I didn't seem to forget about it.

I opened the texts from Luke and read them. He started talking about some guy he saw on the streets and how he was smoking hot. Than he started talking about this new story he found about me in the news, and he wasn't positive about it at all. I didn't reply on those messages and only asked him about the guy. Than I asked him why he didn't attend the feast and waited until he was online. He immediately started typing a minute after I send my messages. The first thing he typed was: "he's like crazy hot, I can't! But I didn't get his number and now I'll probably never see him again.." I laughed at the message. This always happens to him somehow and it makes me smile every time. It was nice to know that his love life was as bad as mine.

My attention got tracked back to my phone when another message popped up, it said: "I wasn't in the mood to go." That made me scowl. I always hated it when he said he didn't like to go. Because I didn't want to go, but I still had to. I send him a quick message and than put my phone away. I was probably gone for too long.

I opened the door and walked out of the toilet, only to bump into someone as I came out of the room. I totally lost my balance as I didn't expect to walk into a wall. The 'someone' reached out his hand and grabbed my wrist, pulling me back on my feet before I would fall on the ground. I looked up and totally spaced out when I saw who was in front of me. No more than Lewis Hamilton. He stared at me and was completely lost into something. He just stared right into my eyes. But then he blinked and put his gaze to the ground, letting his eyes hide under his eyelashes. I didn't even notice that I got lost in his eyes until he said something. I muttered a "what?" And he had to repeat his comment.

"I'm sorry, your highness, I didn't see you." His voice was rough but at the same time so soothing, I completely lost myself in it. But I had to focus, it was rude to be impolite now.

"It's okay, sir..?" I dreaded the word as much as possible to let it come over as a question. He took the hint and answered.

"Lewis Hamilton, your highness." He head-bowed and took my hand and kissed it. He then looked up to me again and he stared at me through his lashes.

I felt my blood boil up as he stared at me. I completely lost myself in his eyes and my lips parted just like earlier when we first made eye contact. "Nice to meet you, Sir Hamilton, I hope you enjoy the feast?" The words came out harder than I thought. It was as if his presence made it difficult to make me speak.

"Yes, I do. It's a wonderful feast."

"Well than you'd be the only one here to think that. God, I hate those feasts. I'd much rather die of boredom than do those royal duties-" I clasp my hand before my mouth as I realise what I just said- out loud. My eyes got big and all the blood left my face.

But instead of being stunned, he laughed. I haven't heard something so joyous in a long time. His laugh was pure and sweet, but at the same time a bit harsh and loud. I slowly dragged my hand from my mouth and my face slowly began to get very warm.

God, I'm so embarrassed! I turn bright red and look as the man in front of me shakes his head. "Your highness.. you should watch out about what you say. Maybe they'll do them more often to punish you." He laughed again. And I only got more red. Why is this so embarrassing? I pinch my nose and than grinned. It is such a dump mistake I made I can't even be mad at myself. It just slipped and now I made him laugh. "Well than I must pray they won't do that. But I should head back. Have a nice evening, sir."

With that I walked away as fast as possible. I didn't turn around to look at him again. I just kept on walking and didn't even breathe until I sat back at my throne.

"Hey, sis, are you okay? You look a bit red." My brother asked.

I cringed "I'm totally fine, Nick." Not at all. I just had the most awkward meeting in a life time, plus I admitted that I hate this stupid feast. God could this evening get any worse?