Loving Henry

Tuesday, 29 March

I woke up the next morning around ten, with a slight hangover, so I swallowed some pain pills with a cup of strong coffee. Henry’s plane would be landing in about three hours and once I got past the part of me that wanted to crawl under a rock and die, I was very excited to see him. It’s all that bloody Italian’s fault. If he hadn’t been such horrible company, I wouldn’t have had to resort to drinking myself under the table, just so that I could tolerate being in his presence.

But, moving on…

I didn’t like being apart from Henry and if I was being honest with myself, this thought scared me a little. We’d only known each other a couple of weeks and even though we were taking the relationship part as slow as we could, my heart was going about a million kilometres per second. I have extremely strong feelings for Henry and I don’t know what to do with them.

I’ve never been in such a serious relationship before and I don’t really know what to expect. Henry being a prince isn’t exactly helping matters either. The fact that we had bodyguards accompanying us when we just went to the movies or the park was proof of this fact. None of this is normal.

Henry might tell his friends that he’s seeing someone, but I’m not sure if he’s as serious about this relationship as I seem to be. My heart is running away with me and my rational side keeps trying to tell it to calm down and try thinking it through instead of just feeling. I know that Henry isn’t going to come galloping in on a white horse and make me his princess and we go riding off into the sunset together. It’s not realistic. But the little girl inside of me really wants it to be.

~**~

I showered and saw to my great delight that my curls from the previous evening were still intact. I was making lunch when there was a knock on my door. I let out a very girlish squeak and nearly tripped over myself in my hurry to get to the door.

I pulled the door open and saw a gorgeous prince waiting on the other side of it. He smiled that breath-taking smile of his and then he embraced me.

I savoured the moment of just being in his arms, having him hold me to his chest tightly, almost as if he missed me just as much as I did him.

He pulled back slightly and I looked up to see him staring into my eyes.

“Beautiful Girl, I can finally breathe again now that I’m with you,” he said.

“Oh, Henry…” I sighed and then I tilted my head to kiss him. It was just like our first kiss. Soft and gentle and perfect. Kissing Henry was like having a little piece of heaven on earth.

We stood in the hallway for a few minutes, still embracing and just staring at each other, like we didn’t have anywhere else or anyone else we’d rather be with.

~**~

“I don’t like it,” Henry said.

We’d finished eating our lunch and were sitting on the sofa, discussing the weekend’s events.

“Oh, come on Henry. What’s wrong with it? It was a perfectly good book and I enjoyed reading it.”

“Li, how else am I supposed to feel about the fact that you like reading books with naked Vikings on the cover?”

“He is not naked! He’s wearing pants. And he’s not a Viking… In fact he’s actually British.”

“You will not change my mind on this. And I don’t care how many times you bat those beautiful eyelashes at me, so knock it off,” he sat back and looked for all the world as if the matter was handled.

I rose up and straddled him. I slid my hands across his chest and up to his neck where they rested in his hair.

Henry, apparently, wasn’t falling for it and continued to sit still, although I could see his lips twitching in amusement.

I leaned down and let my breath coast over his neck as I whispered his name. His arms unfolded and he clutched me to him. Our kiss was filled with passion and I was trying to convince myself why it would be a very bad idea if I let Henry take me to my room and make love to me.

Just because I was falling in love with him, does not mean that I can go around, giving out party favours. And in any case, I just told Henry not three days ago that I’m waiting for marriage. What on earth would the man think of me if I suddenly changed my mind?

Did he have to be such a bloody good kisser? Am I not suffering enough?

I sighed and buried my head in his neck.

“Li? What’s wrong?”

I mumbled something unintelligible.

“Li,” he said sternly.

I sat back a little and looked him in the eye.

“You’re too good a kisser and so I will not kiss you again. Ever.”

He looked a little shocked. “I’m too good a kisser and so you won’t kiss me anymore? It sounds more like I’m a horrible kisser and you can’t stand the idea of kissing me again.”

I scoffed. “Like I said, it’s too good and it makes me want to do things that can’t be allowed and I’m having a hard enough time as it is, saying no to you. Really, you only have yourself to blame.”

“Oh, okay, so now this is all my fault?” he asked, smiling.

“Yes. It doesn’t pay to be exceptionally great at everything you do…”

“I’ll just have to convince you otherwise then,” he said with a smirk and a glint in his eyes.

He lifted me up and threw me down on the couch, before he started tickling me for all he was worth. I was squealing and laughing so hard that I had tears in my eyes.

“I give up!” I shouted and Henry sat back a little.

“Do you really?”

“Yes. You can kiss me whenever you want, just stop with the tickling.”

“Good,” was all he said, before he leaned over me and proceeded to kiss me until I was moaning and trying to get his body closer to mine.

Henry groaned at some point and that sound only made me want him more.

~**~

We were laying on the couch, watching a film, a couple of hours later. Henry had eventually gotten off of me, much to everyone’s disappointment and settled in behind me. He occasionally leaned over to softly kiss me before settling in again to watch the movie.

This man really was perfect.