Cinder Girl Ch. 03

"My parents are both in service," he said, "Mum's a housekeeper and Dad's stable manager. I wager they could get us into a house. I could have been a footman when I was younger, but being in the King's Guard sounded so much more exciting. Had I known I was mostly going to be shuttling the prince's mistresses back and forth I'd have been content polishing silver."

"I know a lot about cleaning," ventured Gabriella, "But I'm afraid I'm quite unfit for kitchen work. Do you think they could find me a maid's position?"

"I wouldn't doubt it," said Octavius. "If not in their own house, then they'll know someone who needs one. Are you sure that's what you want?"

"It's really all I know," she replied truthfully. Though at one time she might have been a grand lady, had her father lived, those days were long gone, and at any rate she had no desire to draw particular attention to herself, where it might come to the attention of the prince.

They were sitting near their fire, the last one in the woods, he'd promised her, before they reached his village and the hospitality of his parents. Gabriella didn't quite know how to put into words the rest of her thoughts. She didn't want to do anything else, because it might take her away from him. In the time they'd spent together, they'd grown incredibly close. With little else to do but talk as they made their way south, they soon learned all about each other. Now, in the firelight, his face close to hers, she could only think about him, and that she never wished to be parted from him.

"I'm glad," he said. "I'm very glad that you'll be close. So I can check on you and make sure the prince hasn't hunted you down."

"Is that all?" she asked, disappointed.

"Well. Also because I've grown rather fond of you over the last couple of weeks," he said.

"I've grown... rather fond of you as well." Her eyes met his, and in the blink of a moment, their lips met and he was kissing her, deeply, passionately, and it was everything it should be, and everything that had been lacking from her encounter with the prince. His hands were upon her breasts, squeezing and feeling them through the cloth, and then under it as he slipped his hands through the gap at her chest, his fingers trailing over nipples, long-ago left un-corseted and free, and eliciting a deep, abiding ache that seemed to start in her breasts and finish in her most private area.

His hands were tugging at her top, then, lifting it over her head and exposing her bare chest, but she didn't care. His lips moved to cover her breasts, and she threw back her head in pleasure. His hot tongue explored her, savoring her, and she clutched at the back of his head, drawing him closer. "Gabby..." he whispered, and her knees turned to jelly. He lifted the hem of her skirt, his fingers questing until they found what they sought between her legs. She was reminded of the prince's futile efforts to arouse her. Octavius was having an entirely different effect on her; instead of closing her eyes and praying for it to end, she leaned into him, angling her pelvis toward him so that he was able to slip his finger inside her, and she gasped in wonder at the lust coursing through her.

He was lowering her to the ground now, murmuring into her ear, whispering how much he wanted her, how beautiful she was. She wished that her first time could have been like this. "Don't you care?" she asked him, her voice quavering.

"Care? About you? Of course," reassured Octavius. "Gabby, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I don't know if I'm worthy, but I'm going to try."

"No," she said, her face coloring. "I mean, don't you care that I'm not - pure -anymore? After the prince?" Gabriella's face hung in shame. Was she stupid to remind him of her besmirching? Should she have let him go on and pretended it didn't matter.

"You have a pure heart, dear one, and that is all I care about." Octavius kissed her deeply, and she melted into his embrace. Somehow with him she wasn't scared. The ordeal with the prince had been traumatic, yes, but this was not the prince, and she was determined to go on with her life and enjoy it. She would not let the prince ruin her forever. Octavius hovered over her, his trousers removed. He gave her a searching look, waiting for her permission. His erection rubbed against her inner thigh, begging for entry. She knew with him she could say no, even at this last moment, and he would stop. She didn't want him to stop.

"Yes," she said, and she meant yes to him, and to living her life, yes to rescuing herself from the experience that still haunted her mind, yes to putting it behind her and not being defeated by it. "Yes," she said again, and then he was driving his member home. She cried out as he entered her, her legs wrapping around him and drawing him deeper, as his lips found hers again and they kissed passionately. He began to move in and out of her, and this was everything that had been missing from her encounter with the prince. Her body responded beautifully, and she felt the pleasure building and building until finally it washed over her like a breaking wave and she grabbed his shoulder and bit down as she cried out. Her fingers dug into his back, her body curled up and into him, and groaned his own pleasure as he released inside of her.

He held her for a long time afterward, and she felt like a new woman, the taint of the prince washed away, and the distance between her and her step-family finally severing the ties. She was no longer their little cinder girl, nor was she some royal buffoon's plaything, to be bought and sold at will. She was free to live her life and to love whom she chose, and if she never had much money and had to work for a living, well at least she was free. She might have lived in the lap of luxury had she allowed herself to be taken to the palace by the prince, but it couldn't compare to being here in the woods with Octavius, who loved her.

Well, he hadn't said as much, but she knew, and she knew that she loved him too. Whatever tomorrow might hold, as they made new beginnings in a new town, they would face it together, and be all the stronger for it. Gabriella looked at the man slumbering beside her and felt a sense of peace. If she'd never been brought before the prince, she might still be cleaning the floors in Madame's home, and just look at her now! She grinned and cuddled into his body, his arm draping over protectively, and she drifted off to sleep feeling safe and content.