How to rule a king

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Ronja:

When I finally found it in me to leave the safety of the bathroom, ready to face Alexei again, he and Vasyli, for that matter, had vanished from our chambers. Searching for them in both of the bedrooms as well as the walk-in closet and the living room I came up empty handed. Well, not completely empty handed. Since Alexei had left me a handwritten note on top of the huge king-sized bed inside the still unused bedroom, stating he and Vasyli couldn't wait to see me at dinner. Beside my husband's clearly written signature was a more spidery, childish one with what I supposed were little hearts surrounding it.

Vasyli.

I probably would have framed that cute note and put it on a wall, had it not been for the last comment my husband left on it.

Go talk to Natalia.

You see why the note landed grumbled in the waste pin instead?

I held my head up high as I stalked over to the closet, deciding on wearing the sexiest black lace lingerie I had in my possession. Even though I still didn't feel completely relaxed with the image of Alexei Volkov picking out underwear for his future wife aka my beautiful, absolutely gorgeous, breathtaking self in some high-end lingerie shop, I truly admired his taste. A smile found its way on my face as I imagined him sitting on one of those small, pink, plush loveseats while the clerk tangled various pairs of underwear in front of his face.

Letting go of the huge towel protecting me of the cold air, I cautiously tore the price tags off the lingerie, ignoring the high numbers as I gently slipped my bra and panties on. If he wanted me to actually talk to that witch, I needed every ounce of self-confidence I could muster up. About to put on a pair of black skinny jeans and a light blue wool sweater with a great amount of cleavage, I caught my reflection in the floor-length mirror, which was placed at the left side of our closet. At first I couldn't help but smile as I realized just how mature my body looked in this kind of underwear. Being honest I had always been proud of my stomach staying flat no matter what I chose to eat. My hips however, I wasn't so confident about. Having the figure of a typical Petrov woman, I was on the short side, with a rather fragile and skinny build. While my upper body was lean enough to fit an underwear model, my hips were round, granting me a, to say it in Alexei's words, nice round ass. My thighs were well trained and slightly muscled making the so-called thigh gap impossible for me. I had my daily workouts to thank for that. I openly marveled at the fact that for the first time my pale skin didn't make me look slightly sick, but instead had glowed healthily as it contrasted the black lace material of the lingerie set. 

Then, however, my eyes caught the damage that had been done to my throat only days ago. Normally I had kept it hidden by a scarf or avoided mirrors, but standing in an oversized closet all alone I couldn't help staring at myself. Even though Alexei had cleaned my throat from the dried blood his attack had left on my once immaculate skin the morning after, he hadn't been able to get rid of the dark purple bruises covering nearly every inch of my throat by now. To make things worse, his nails had left five deep scratches on either side, making it appear as if I had been attacked by some wild animal instead of my own husband. I hadn't felt the tears falling until I tasted their saltiness on my lips. By now all my confidence was gone leaving only burning anger behind. At this moment I didn't even care who I was angry at or even why I felt all this rage. Yet it seemed impossible to be kept in for another minute. Forcing my eyes away from my destroyed body in the mirror I hastily put on the black pants, while I left the colorful sweater disregardful on the floor. Instead I tore a black turtleneck shirt from the closet. I quickly put on a black pair of flats, while leaving my now again wavy, red hair unattended as I stormed directly towards Natalia's room.