The King's Lover-Chapter 452: Adorable

Rose lay in bed with Caius’s arms wrapped around her. Her head lay on his naked chest, while his arms held her. He had allowed her to put her nightdress back on but refused to wear his robes.

Rose couldn’t understand how he was so comfortable being naked, but she couldn’t judge or complain as he had rubbed off on her, and too many times she had gone to bed in the same manner. However, she would hang on to the notion that it was no fault of hers.

Rose’s eyes were bright as she lay on the bed; even after everything she didn’t feel sleepy. She found herself listening to the soft beat of his heart and feeling the warmth of his chest on her face.

"How’s your hand?" Caius asked for the umpteenth time.

"Doesn’t hurt," she lied again.

She had her maids change the bandage twice today, and each time it was clear she couldn’t do without it. She also couldn’t grip things, as that had hurt too much, and had to use only her right hand to eat; even cutting the steak had been a problem. Rose was almost glad she ate alone, as she had to improvise and didn’t want to recall how she had done so.

"Liar," he whispered. "Your left hand didn’t have as much grip when you dug into my back."

Rose thought about biting his chest for a brief moment, but knowing Caius, he would take it as an invitation and her nightdress would be on the ground again. She would like to avoid that.

"I can’t have the same grip; it’s a bandage," she said, instead.

"Hmm, so you do admit you get too excited when we..." he let the rest of his words trail off.

Rose shook her head; it was her fault for humoring him. She didn’t answer him and closed her eyes, hoping he would take the hint.

"Would you like me to get Paul to look at it?" Caius asked.

Rose’s eyes flew open and Caius was looking down at her. He looked serious and concerned. Rose thought it was a skill how he could move from aroused to serious and vice versa. However, the latter was more often than the former.

"No need to bother him. I will be fine in no time," she replied and placed her head back on his chest.

"Are you certain?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

She closed her eyes and tried to sleep, using the steady beat of his heart as a lullaby. Rose was almost drifting away on the waves of sleep when Caius asked a surprising question.

"Would you like me to get you a pet swallow?"

"What?" Rose bolted from his chest to look at his face.

"Would you like a—"

"I heard you. Why would you ask that, Your Majesty?"

Caius shrugged. "Do you want one or not? You said I shouldn’t do things without confirming if you want me to or not."

Rose blinked multiple times; there were too many things he had said for her to process. Firstly, she was certain she had never given any indication that she would like a pet. Secondly, why now? And thirdly, he had just confirmed with her before taking action.

"I don’t want a pet, Your Majesty. Let alone a pet bird, especially one that has been captured; they don’t do well in captivity."

Rose would know; when she was younger, she did capture a lot of birds and tried to keep them, but her father always rescued them from her clutches.

"Very well," he said and tried to make her lie back while looking offended.

"Why would you want to get me a swallow?" Rose asked.

She knew why; she didn’t think he cared enough to make amends for taking the wooden swallow because he had taken it without any remorse and he had even bullied her over it, but here he was offering her a pet bird. If she didn’t think he was a lunatic, Rose would have found it adorable.

"No reason, go to sleep."

Rose didn’t budge. She peered at him as she waited for some explanation. "Your Majesty."

Caius sighed. "I wanted to give you something in exchange for taking the swallow."

Rose stared at him for a moment. Her first instinct was to make him feel better, but she immediately decided against it.

"You don’t have to give me anything. I will just ask my father to make a better one," Rose said with a smug look on her face.

"So, asking your father to make it is fine?"

"Of course, I’m his daughter. He will definitely make another one for me." She lay on his chest with a smug look on her face.

"That’s great to hear," Caius said absentmindedly as he became absorbed in his thoughts.

Rose didn’t expect him to take her words so easily, but she didn’t think too much about it as she closed her eyes and let herself drift to sleep.

It was quite easy for her to fall asleep and she didn’t wake up the whole night. The next morning when she woke up, she was still in Caius’s arms even though he was wide awake. She tried to get out of his grip but he held firm.

"Go back to sleep; it’s too early for you to be awake."

"Your Majesty," she called as she tried harder. "We can’t keep having this fight every morning."

"What fight? I only want you to get enough sleep."

He pressed her against his body and Rose immediately stopped moving, becoming stiff as a plank—but not as stiff as something she didn’t want to think about.

"Stay with me a little longer," he whined and rolled so some of his weight would be on her, locking her between himself and the bed.

Rose didn’t like it when he got whiny; he was harder to convince and she could tell he was having an idea.

"Your Majesty," Rose whispered. "The maids would be here any moment."

"They can wait," he whispered, his voice heavy with arousal, coupled with the fact that he had just woken up; Rose could feel her eardrums vibrate in excitement at the tempo.

She scolded herself as she realized she was giving in without him doing much convincing. His hand had moved from her breast and was slowly hitching up her dress.

He lifted his weight from her to look her in the eye as though to give her a chance to push him off, but Rose merely looked at him, and there was a slight smile lingering on his lips as he bent his head to kiss her.