22 Pampered!

"Uh-hun."

"Open your mouth," the Prince stared at her once more, this time frowning while commanding, after insisting twice. He held the soup spoon in front of the maiden's mouth.

"Why can't I use the spoon myself?"

"Do you have yet to ask why?"

After the servants had served the supper and dismissed at the Prince's snap of fingers, they were alone in the dining room.

"Come on, Lady Saskia, or do you like your soup cold?"

The aroma of the food was delicious, so Alexa capitulated on that Prince's odd whim, opening her mouth so he could feed her. 'Maybe he has some crisis of conscience after dragging me in the mud,' she thought.

After two spoonfuls under the Prince's watchful eye, Alexa recalled,

"Your Highness was going to tell me about Kielstadt, about your family… I heard Your Highness calling Father Gianpietro a cousin. Is that true? Are you really cousins?"

"Yes, Father Gianpietro is my cousin, my uncle Cosimo's third son. Di Borghesi is a family with a lot of business in Florence. My mother was the first female sibling, Letitia."

"Do you remember her?" Alexa supposed Letitia was the Black Queen, who had long dark hair. A very intriguing and active Shade with a lot of power. And as for the indifferent way he spoke of the Di Borghesi, she didn't know what to think. Father Gianpietro was the confessor of the princes, and that meant some kind of influence, didn't it? She just didn't know how much Klaus felt attached to the Italian side of his family.

Klaus suspended his spoon for a moment, and even in the half-light of the candlelight, the maiden thought she noticed a change in the Prince's gaze, but he said,

"Yes, she died when I was four. She was a gorgeous woman, and I look like her, as you can see."

Alexa laughed at the self-praise, sipping some more soup, "Am I going to get some wine too?"

He poured a glass of wine, tasting before, and asked casually,

"Do you have any connection with my brother's family?"

"Do you really think we can be related, the Sleeping Prince and me?"

"You tell me, Lady Saskia," he took another sip of wine, looking at her with his feline eyes. "If it's some kind of approach what you want, maybe it's better to have an ally like me, right?"

'I don't think so,' she thought. 'You aren't the kind of person with good intentions. You reacted impassively at the news of your brother's death. It seems like you expected it. Do you think if I had something to do with Prince Alexander, I would say something to you right away?'

But she shouldn't argue about these things while she was alone with him in an unfamiliar place, right? No one knew where she was or with whom. She hadn't even paid attention to the way. She should enforce a friendly atmosphere. The years of accompanying her family on various East-West journeys had taught her a great deal about the art of diplomacy, and she thought she had learned enough to make use of it in such situations. It was time to give in a little.

"I am ignorant of what happens here in the North, Your Highness. I only know of a state of war between the kingdom of my future husband and France, and that is why I should travel incognito and wait for his return in his castle."

"But did you travel with only two men?"

"No. It just happened to be two men left in the end. But now I only have the human charity and Divine Piety to help me reach my destination."

"Ah, you do have such a sweet tongue to win people's hearts, milady," he scorned the shameless tone the maiden purposely employed in her last line, serving another kind of food in Alexa's mouth.

"It's just Your Highness and Prince Alexander? Are there any girls? Who are that gray-haired lady and the handsome brown-haired guy?" she snapped after chewing and swallowing.

"Just the two of us. Alexander is the son of another woman. That Lady is my aunt, my father's older sister, Countess Godiva von Habsburg. And the young guy… Wait, handsome? Do you think he's handsome? You defined Alexander as handsome; now you say Konrad is handsome. Do you find every young man you meet handsome?" he blinked in astonishment and outrage.

"Can I have some wine?!" the maiden conveniently remembered that she was thirsty, with a devilish smile, obviously not responding to the Prince. He poured more wine into the same cup and said, while slowly swirling its contents,

"Konrad is a Duke in a neighboring kingdom and my cousin. Son of my father's younger sister. Aunt Godiva has been his guardian since his parents died. They have been staying here since Michaelistag. Did it cover all your questions?"

"Uhum, but the wine…?" she insisted, looking anxiously at the Prince and the cup in his hand.

He took a deep breath, staring at her, then stood with his goblet in his hand, coming to her. Alexa parted her lips, waiting for the wine, thirsty.

The cold metal and the cooling liquid touched her lips, and she realized she was dehydrated. The wine was also of excellent quality, slightly astringent and tannic, and she was tilting her head back to sip the wine at once.

  Klaus followed the movement, allowing her to drink it all, and even supporting her head with one hand as the maiden leaned back thirstily. Alexa felt his big firm hand slipping through her hair, cupping her skull carefully.

When she finished drinking the contents of the glass and breathed, opening her eyes, Klaus took the goblet out and held her in the same position, facing her from above. Their eyes locked at this moment. Candlelight reflected in the golden eyes of the fiendishly handsome Prince, and she could see the green specks in the amber, between the thick and long dark lashes, coming closer.

'Coming closer…?'

Klaus' lips touched the maiden's lips, while the hand holding her skull became more possessive, fingers digging into her silky hair. The pressure of those lips to part hers, the heavy breathing meeting hers, all this was new and caused a strange heat rising across the damsel's body from forbidden places.

Then the Prince's tongue touched her lips, her teeth, and slipped like a snake seeking to invade her mouth!