Without His Mask

The clock was ticking and time slowly passed. Arielle's nervousness slowly faded. Hearing Ronan's soft breath, a sign that the man had fallen asleep, Arielle smiled. She found the man funny, sleeping on her lap like this.

It reminded her of herself who was always sleeping on Tania's lap when she was sick. Arielle knew well enough that a noble would never fall asleep on a maid's lap. However, she and Tania were friends as well as family. So Arielle could understand Ronan's attitude.

She might have been the man's personal maid, but it seemed the king thought of himself as a friend so he could fall fast asleep on her lap. Just like she and Tania….

Arielle returned Ronan's grip and with her other hand, she traced the man's pitch-black hair.

"Friend?" she muttered. Arielle chuckled softly, feeling happy that she now had another friend besides Tania.

***

Ronan woke up from his deep sleep with a yawn. He didn't know how many hours he spent resting. The two nights of full moon made him restless. So, once he closed his eyes, he instantly fell asleep. He didn't realize it was already night.

Right now, Ronan felt so at ease that he took off his mask to be more comfortable. He wanted to bury his face in the pleasure of the warm sensation his pillow provided.

But, hold on!

Damn, Ronan just remembered that he fell asleep on Arielle's lap. He grabbed his mask quickly and was prepared to put it back on. However, he became distracted for a moment when he saw Arielle fast asleep.

She managed to fall asleep while sitting, and with her cute face tilted. For a moment, the man chose to sit on the opposite side of her. He looked at Arielle's sleeping face in front of him.

After the king felt satisfied, he had had enough of looking at Arielle, Ronan got up and placed his hands under the young woman's knees and back. He picked up Arielle and put her on his bed.

He helped Arielle take off her shoes and then draped the thick black silk duvet over Arielle's body.

There.

It was much more comfortable for a person to sleep in the bed.

Ronan turned his body left and right and stretched. For him though? He already felt refreshed. The throbbing pain in his head was gone, and so was his tiredness. Ronan unbuttoned his shirt one by one, then changed into looser clothes.

His eyebrows rose when he heard a knock on his bedroom door. He glanced at the sleeping Arielle and made sure the princess wasn't awakened by the knocking sound just now.

Ronan approached the door and asked, "Who is it?"

He didn't want to bother putting his mask back on if it was someone he knew.

"Lucas, Your Majesty."

Ronan opened the door and in front of him stood Lucas. The man panted in exhaustion. The two guards behind Lucas immediately lowered their heads when they realized the king was not wearing his usual mask. Lucas currently looked panicked which made Ronan impatient.

"What is it?" asked Ronan sharply.

"Princess Arielle..." Ronan's eyebrows rose as he waited for Lucas to regain his breath. "W-we couldn't find Princess Arielle since this afternoon. Tania, her personal maid, said she hasn't returned from the Cathedral when I saw you with the Princess."

Lucas continued, "However… earlier when I knocked on Your Majesty's room, there was no answer. Which made me think Your Majesty and Princess Arielle had left the room. But after we searched around the palace, we couldn't find Princess Arielle…"

Ronan opened the door to his room wider and leaned against one of the doors.

"Look," Ronan ordered Lucas to raise his head.

Lucas raised his head doubtfully. He looked around but couldn't find— Ah, soon, the man breathed a sigh of relief when he found someone with shiny white hair sleeping on the king's bed.

A sudden realization slapped him that something had happened. Lucas looked at the king in disbelief. His mouth was agape, but a second later, he shut his mouth tightly and looked down.

"Sorry to interrupt your time, Your Majesty. I was just worried because Princess Arielle's personal maid insisted on finding the princess, so I panicked."

Ronan just glanced at him indifferently.

"Bring my work here and tell Princess Arielle's maid, the princess will spend the night here."

"Here?" Lucas asked in disbelief.

"Do I look like I'm joking now, Lucas?"

Lucas swallowed his saliva when the King said his name. He nodded and excused himself to leave.

Ronan used his free time to read a book until Lucas returned with the work he hadn't had time to finish that day. The king was slowly immersed in his work.

When he felt his body was getting tired, Ronan crawled up onto his bed. Arielle looked comfortable in his bed. During Ronan's work earlier, he ended up becoming distracted when he watched Arielle change and shift her sleeping position.

Now that they were in bed together, Ronan soon rested his face beneath one of his palms and watched the princess' pink lips part slightly.

In all honesty, this was the first time Ronan had felt so mesmerized by a figure he had never even thought of before. Ronan felt so calm and peaceful as he looked at Arielle's sleeping face.

He was not a young man and a virgin who had never touched a woman. Ronan knew quite well the ins and outs of a woman's body. It was just that he had left his pursuit of pleasure many years ago. Northendell needed him…

The truth was that he always liked curvaceous women. He especially liked long legs and some larger body parts, especially on the chest, hips, and buttocks departments. Ronan looked back at Arielle who looked... standard.

The girl just stood out with her pale skin and shiny white hair. Ah, maybe if the girl fell on the snow, Ronan wouldn't be able to tell which one was Arielle and which one was snow?

The thought made him chuckle. But of all that, why did he feel such a tremendous attraction to her?

Ronan needed to admit to himself that he really wanted Arielle to always be by his side like now. He didn't even care anymore about what William said about him abandoning his job just to be with Arielle.

Unintentionally his index finger came into contact with Arielle's loose white hair. Ronan fiddled with his index finger, swirling and pulling Arielle's hair. He was so stunned by Arielle's shiny white hair between his fingers that he didn't realize the owner had woken up.

Arielle opened her eyes slowly. She blinked a few times and realized that she was in the same room as before. Her eyes continued to glance around until she found someone busy playing with her hair down.

Arielle's heart now pounded really hard as she saw Ronan's face for the first time without a mask. She clearly saw the white line of the scar that ran from the top of his right eyebrow to the bottom of his chin. His nose was very high, and his jaw was very firm.

The man was very handsome, Arielle thought. She held her breath when Ronan smiled and showed two dimples on his cheeks.

"Your Majesty?" called Arielle in a hoarse voice now that she woke up.

Ronan's body stiffened and he stopped playing with the princess' hair. His eyes widened as he looked up in a panic. He saw Arielle awake and now she stared at him closely. Ronan immediately raised his hand to cover Arielle's eyes, but the girl reacted quickly by dodging.

"Why should I close my eyes?" asked Arielle in protest.

"I'm not wearing my mask."

"What for? I've seen it all."

"Forget what you saw."