The King's Lover
Chapter 252: What Did He Want?

Chapter 252: What Did He Want?

Caius stood up from the bed. Rose lay with a dazed look on her face. Her face was flushed, and her lips were red. Caius was starting to think that perhaps red was his favorite color—or Rose just wore it well. Be it her hair, the freckles on her cheeks, or the red marks he left on her skin after their lovemaking.

He frowned at this odd thought because, no matter what she looked like during sex, he knew she wanted nothing more than to leave. She didn’t want to be here in the first place.

He was out of it and certainly not satisfied, even after he had his way—but he knew it was best to stop now. More for his sake than even hers.

He had thought she wouldn’t come to him, and then when he came close, she tried to push him away. Caius had completely lost it then. It was hard to put into words how he felt, but he was suddenly reminded of times he didn’t want to think about.

She blinked and pushed herself to a sitting position, pulling her legs to herself. She wrapped the robe around her, and Caius didn’t miss her body language.

It reminded him of the first time. He hadn’t cared then—he could take her whenever he wanted. That was what he wanted after all. But now it was hard to ignore the tight feeling in his chest, as though it was hard to breathe.

He wanted her—there was no doubt about it—but he didn’t think it was in the simple way he thought. Having her here no longer seemed to be enough.

What did he want?

He knew he didn’t want to let her go. He could give a lot of reasons for that. No one turned him on as much as she did, and he knew he could never get enough of her.

However, there was more—which was as surprising as it was annoying. He enjoyed playing chess with her, the way she furrowed her brows when she concentrated, how hard she tried even though she could never beat him.

He had seen her smile a little, but Caius realized he didn’t know what her laugh sounded like. He ran a hand through his hair.

What was he doing, standing here having these thoughts? What did these thoughts have to do with anything?

Caius turned away from the bed and walked to the washroom. He didn’t turn around even once.

Rose lifted her head and watched the crown prince retreat. Was he done? she mentally asked herself. It didn’t matter—if he was leaving, she wasn’t going to wait around to find out if she had been dismissed.

When she could no longer see him, Rose got off the bed. She winced as she stood to her feet. At least it was the bed this time. It was only a few days, and she would be away from him. It didn’t mean she would escape him forever, but a few days to see her mother was all she needed.

She made her way to the door and out of the bedchambers. Rose got to her room and cleaned up. She felt exhausted as she climbed into bed.

Today was futile. Welma was truly her only hope, but she doubted the maid would be able to find anything useful. She buried her face in her pillow. She didn’t even have the energy to cry.

She recalled what Welma had said about the Queen trying to get Caius to marry. Rose knew exactly how she felt about this. Perhaps, if the crown prince married, she might be free of him forever.

It was great news. Perhaps he would be too busy with his wife to come after her when she escaped. It was wishful thinking but it brought a smile to her lips.

Rose glanced at the fireplace—the fire was dying out. The weather was getting much colder now. It felt like any day now, it would start to snow. Rose knew it would be harder to travel once the ground froze.

With her thoughts going all over the place, it was particularly hard for her to fall asleep. When she eventually did, she didn’t wake up until the girls brought her breakfast the next morning.

Chelsy and Isla didn’t knock for too long before they walked into the room. Rose was still fast asleep, buried deep within the covers as her fireplace had died the night before, and she had covered herself as much as possible to keep warm.

"Shh," Isla scolded as Chelsy dropped the tray. "You don’t want to wake her up."

"We have to wake her up to eat breakfast. What are you talking about?" Chelsy replied, glaring at her sister.

"That’s different from waking her up by banging the tray on the table."

"I didn’t bang the tray on the table," Chelsy replied. "Try setting your tray down and see if it won’t make a sound."

"Of course it won’t," Isla replied and walked toward the table—just as Rose groaned.

She lifted her head from all the pillows and moved to a sitting position, grabbing her head. There was an ache. She was not surprised, with how long she had stayed up thinking. At least the headache was bearable.

"Rose," Isla called excitedly, then turned to glare at her sister. "You woke her up!"

"You’re the one who started arguing about how the tray was too loud."

"Good morning," Rose said with a smile as she rubbed her face. She didn’t think her head could handle their usual arguments.

"Good morning, Rose. I’m sorry that my sister woke you up," Isla replied.

Chelsy’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth to protest, but Rose spoke first.

"Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t have overslept," she whispered and forced herself out of bed.

Isla got a glimpse of Rose’s neck, where the crown prince had left a bright mark. She blushed and turned her gaze away. Chelsy had tried to explain the sort of relationship Rose had with the crown prince, as the younger sister wouldn’t stop asking.

Every time she would see something that indicated it, she would react in this manner. Rose hadn’t noticed yet and Chelsy prayed it would remain so. The sisters excuse themselves so Rose could eat her breakfast.