Snow - By Deborah M. Brown Page 0,16

his own kingdom. The brat could stay here.

He would have everything he desired, this man most of all.

His hands had drifted lower again, closing over warm firm flesh that quivered against his questing fingers. Rui’s blue eyes drifted open, hazy with sleep.

Everything he desired…

The Queen

Anais studied her stepdaughter’s betrothed as he sat beside Snow White, feeding her titbits from his plate. A perfect opportunity to poison the girl and lay blame at Charming’s door… Her hands fisted with frustration, and she sought out Rui where he sat at one of the lower tables.

His eyes met hers. Patience.

They were to bide their time. Let the wedding take place. Let Charming plant a child in Snow White’s belly first, before they made their move. With her new husband accused of her murder and naught but a puling babe left to sit the throne, who else to take control as regent but Snow White’s grieving stepmother?

“It’s a far better plan,” Rui had murmured to her as they lay entwined in her bed. “Twenty-one years before the child is old enough to rule, assuming it even lives that long. A babe is easier to get rid of than a woman grown. There will be far fewer questions asked.”

“But to have to wait another year? Or longer?”

“No more than a year, I promise you. Charming has bastards scattered from one end of his father’s kingdom to the other. He’ll have her with child before the spring thaw.”

“Not so Charming, then?” said Anais.

Rui laughed as he moved to cover her body. She stared up into his mirror eyes. He entered her slowly. “You don’t find him charming?” he asked as he began to move inside her.

She gasped, arching up to meet his thrusts. “There is something about him. He smiles a lot, but the smile never seems to find his eyes.”

Rui’s long hair fell across his face, hiding it. Hiding his eyes. “Obviously his charm lies elsewhere than in his eyes.” His hands gripped her arms, hard enough to bruise as he began to thrust with a fiercer rhythm. “He wants to fuck you. You should encourage him.”

“What?” Anais wrapped her legs about his hips, trying to slow him down. “I would never… There is only you.” She whimpered as he pushed deeper inside her. “Would you want me to…to lie with another? Do you…do you fuck other women?” The obscenity felt strange upon her tongue. Her heart stuttered in an uneven beat. Sweat slicked Rui’s chest and belly. He tossed back his damp hair, baring his teeth as he ground his pelvis against hers.

“No. I don’t fuck other women. Only you. Only you.” His head dropped against her neck as a shudder ran through him. Then another.

Only you.

Anais let her hands play across the smooth, wet skin of his back whilst his breath sawed in her ear.

“Encourage him,” Rui whispered to her. “We need him to trust you, and if that means you must lie with him… Sometimes sacrifices need to be made for the greater good.” He withdrew from her body, rolling onto his back to look up at the crimson canopy above them.

Sacrifices.

Anais couldn’t shake the feeling that the only one making a sacrifice would be she.

She glanced again at Charming, blushing as she realised he was looking at her. Encourage him. “I trust you find our hospitality to your liking, my lord?” she said stiffly.

“I find everything infinitely delightful,” he said, letting his black eyes roam boldly over Anais’s body. “However…” and here he turned to glance at Snow White, “…I find myself eager to claim my bride. I trust the settlement discussions draw to a rapid conclusion?”

“Indeed,” replied Anais. “Everything proceeds as it should.”

A small, secret smile curled one corner of his wide mouth. “Excellent. Then the wedding can take place on the first day of spring as planned.”

It wasn’t a question.

Anais nodded. “One more month, my lord.”

Charming raised Snow White’s hand to his lips. “The longest month of my life,” he murmured.

Was that a blush on the Snow Bitch’s cheeks? Anais sneered into her goblet.

One of her stepdaughter’s ever-present dwarves approached the table and bowed. The tallest one, the one whose dark eyes always seemed to look upon the world with suppressed fury. Anais had heard some of her women sigh over this one and begrudgingly she could acknowledge that he was indeed comely with his high, sculpted cheekbones and chiseled jaw. However, unlike some of his companions, this one had never given any of the ladies a second glance,