The Royal Romance - The Valtoria Diaries

Emergency spoons

An hour or so later, the bedroom door slowly opened, and she peered across the dimly lit room from her oh too comfortable position underneath the sumptuous layers of quilts and covers.

"It is I! Your devoted husband, back from his travels, to furnish you with this gift..."

She giggled as he closed the door behind him and held up what looked like a tub of ice-cream as if it were some grand trophy.

"It better be cookie dough..." she commented.

He put on his dramatically-wounded expression. "I can't believe you would even question that."

She watched as he wandered over to the bed and sat down next to her, putting the tub of ice-cream down on the dresser. "And, I seem to think we have emergency spoons in one of these drawers.... Ah! Yes! Here we are..."

She looked curiously at him. "Babe, we moved in what, three days ago, and you've already got a stash of emergency spoons in our bedroom?"

"Yeeeahhh.."

"Firstly, when? And secondly, why?" She couldn't keep a straight face. "And, thirdly, are there not more important things for you to have at your disposal here? Like..." She giggled. "A month's supply of black Gucci shirts?"

"Yesterday. Because ice-cream. And yes, but they're all still in laundry. Or at h..." He stopped himself. "Or at Beaumont Manor."

She raised her eyebrows.

"Hey, it's going to take me a while to get my head around the fact that this amazing place is my home now, Jen..."

"We need to go get all your stuff, then. That will help. We should do that this weekend. Road trip?"

"I'll make a playlist. Ooh!" He shot up. "That reminds me! I promised you a playlist for our reunion this evening..."

"Maxwell, it's been, what, fourteen hours..?"

"Yeah, yeah, but I don't like it when you're not there," he said, straight faced. "I'm not used to it. And the last time we were apart for that long.."

She caught his gaze, recognising the fear in his eyes.

"Hey," she said, reaching an arm out to him. "I'm safe now. And, you're here to keep me safe."

He took her hand. "Through the power of my music! Hey, you getting out of bed to dance?"

"That depends on how good the music is," she teased.

Maxwell pulled out his phone. "I see they sorted out the mood lighting. The next thing we need in here is a Bluetooth speaker.. but for now this will do..." Upbeat music began to play from his phone. "Good enough for you, Your Grace?"

"Ah, I might stay here and dance," she purred. "Getting up seems like a lot of effort."

"Oh, hell no, Jen, you're.." He whipped the duvet off. "....naked?"

"Mm-hmm.."

His face was a picture. "That, I was not expecting. But.. I do endorse it."

She patted the mattress beside her, suggestively. "Why don't you come and dance with me?"

"Well, now that you come to mention it... perhaps some horizontal dancing doesn't seem such a bad idea.." He knelt over her, still fully dressed, and grinned. "After all, the view's pretty nice.."

She giggled, and hooked her arms around his neck to bring him down towards her. She sighed as he peppered her neck with kisses. Just as she thought about liberating his chest from his signature Gucci, he pulled himself upright, and looked to his right with a wicked grin.

"Oh, look what we have here..."

He reached for the tub of ice-cream and placed it on her stomach.

"Oh!" She hardly had the chance to react. "Wow. That's cold..."

"You fancy some?"

There was only one answer to that question, and she nodded, eagerly.

He reached in the drawer for a spoon, and opened the container, taking a generous spoonful. "One for me..." He took a large mouthful. "Mmmm. Derish. Mmmmm." He placed the spoon back in the tub. "Now. One for you..." But he didn't place the spoonful in her mouth.

She squealed with a tortured pleasure. "Maxwell!!!"

"Oops! Dropped it. Hey, I guess those beautiful bouncy things are so big, they're always getting in the way..."

She giggled. "Those what now?"

"It's okay, don't worry. I know how to clean this mess up. But, we don't want to be wasting this lovely ice cream. So, I'm afraid there's only one thing for it." He unbuttoned his shirt carefully. "It's a difficult job, but someone's got to do it..."

Her giggles continued as he threw his shirt to one side, but soon turned into sighs as he drew his lips down to her chest and began to lick the ice-cream, along with all of her cares, away.

***

The playlist was still going sometime later as they both lay in the bed together, an empty tub of ice-cream lying by the side of the bed and flushed smiles on their sleepy faces.

"I just realised something," she said to him as she gazed into his blue eyes.

"That you prefer mint choc chip? Cause I can get you mint choc chip next time.."

"Not that. You didn't knock on the door, like you said you would," she giggled.

His face fell. "Oh. So you got my note."

"Yep."

"And.. you read it?"

She sat up. "Aha. Every word of it."

He gulped. "Even notched?"

She nodded.

He shuddered, and blushed. "And, we're okay?"

She sighed, and tousled his hair. "Of course we're okay. I love that you wanted to share all that with me. I think I already had a good understanding of why you are who you are.. but it all makes perfect sense now."

She could see him visibly relax.

"It's all part of what makes you the confident, sweet guy that I fell in love with. I love that you trust me enough to bare your soul like that to me. And, for the record, having got both sides of the story, I think you were both equally at fault for the breakdown of your friendship. Although, if you'd stayed friends, I'm not so sure we'd have been here now. You might have moved back to London. You might not have been able to join Rick in New York. Just remember, things happen for a reason."

"You think?"

"I do," she said, snuggling closer to him. "Like, the reason you were such a bed-hopper back then was obviously to perfect your skills for my benefit."

He laughed. "Perfect, huh?"

She nodded. "Did you not hear me expressing my appreciation for your perfection just now?"

"I think Hana probably heard it from her cottage.."

She threw a pillow at him. "Right, Beaumont.. let's hear you scream."