#trr3

Feeling the familiar weight and warmth of her fiancé beside her, Riley sighed softly to herself.  Even with the wedding only a few days away, it still felt surreal and she still wasn’t quite used to sharing the bed.  “You’ll have to get used to it,” she told herself.  In a few days time, she’d have everything she never wanted…a powerful husband, a country to rule, and the weight and expectations of a crown on her head.

As she grappled with her reality in her foggy mind, images of Drake ran through her mind unbidden. Their first real moments of connection in Lythikos.  Finally admitting their feelings after he’d saved her from Tariq.  Forbidden kisses in the Beaumont study and in the courtyard before the Coronation.  It was the night of the Coronation that she had realized she was falling in love with him. Despite that love, she had been prepared to say yes to Liam’s proposal out of fondness for him and obligation to those that said she needed to become Queen.  Everything changed in the blink of an eye though when the scandal broke.

When she returned to court, obligation was no longer enough of a motivation.  She had returned with no intention of pursuing Liam; her only goal was to clear her name.  In the weeks that followed she fell even more for Drake and Liam kept drawing her into his orbit wanting to maintain a secret relationship causing even more confused emotions.

On their final stop of the engagement tour in New York they finally located Tariq and Riley’s name was cleared.  Despite their agreement to talk about them when her name was cleared, Drake had left New York ahead of the rest of the court, leaving only a note saying that they couldn’t be together and that she and Liam deserved each other.  On their final night in the city, Liam took her back to the Statue of Liberty, got down on one knee, and proposed.  Riley had tears in her eyes but they weren’t the tears of joy that Liam assumed them to be.  With her mind screaming “No,” Riley nodded and said “Yes, Liam…I will marry you.”

From there, everything became a whirlwind.  Attacks at the palace and orchards, a Unity Tour, an attempted coup at Lythikos.  Through it all she smiled at Liam’s side as they grew closer, but she still wasn’t in love.  Each day though she made herself promise to find happiness in her upcoming marriage. Even though the threat to their country had yet to be eliminated, Maxwell surprised them with a stag and doe party in Las Vegas.

While they partied the night before, Riley told herself with each drink that she was just celebrating her wedding.  Sitting at the bar with her chin in her palm, drinking her whiskey, and watching Kiara throw herself at Drake, she feigned a smile when Liam joined her.

“Has this evening been everything you hoped for, love?” she recalled him asking.  Afraid her voice would betray her, Riley simply nodded.  “Is there anything else I can do for you to make it perfect, my future queen?”  All she could recall from there was being touched by how loving and kind he was, everything else was a blur.

Standing slowly from the bed, Riley grabbed a blanket to wrap around her naked body and made her way to the mini-bar for some water and ibuprofen.  Groans filled the room and she heard the rustling of blankets coming from behind her.  Grabbing an extra bottle of water she returned to the bed, leaning against the headboard with her legs stretched out in front of her and holding out the extra bottle.

“Thought you could use some water. I know I can, my head is pounding.”

Suddenly the bed covers flew off. “Nevin?”

Riley turned, over come with panic, looking where she had expected to find Liam and instead found Drake staring back at her in shock.

“Drake?  What are you…?  How? Did we…?”

A quick glance to where the covers had been thrown off told Riley that Drake was as naked as she was.  “Oh my god,” she gasped, noticing the condom that had been opened but laid unused on the nightstand beside Drake.  Things must have gotten hot and heavy before they could put it on because the tingle in her body alone was enough to tell her what they had done.

Drake ran his hands through his hair, still not making any move to cover himself up.  “Holy shit!  What did we do?”

“From the looks of it I’d say…”

“Don’t!  Don’t say it.”  Drake stood from the bed and began to gather his clothes that were strewn all about the room.

Despite herself, Riley couldn’t help but admire his body.  “Well this is a nice view,” she said with a nervous laugh.

“Do you really think this is the time for jokes, Nevin.”

“Sorry,” Riley shrugged.  “Just trying to cut the tension.”

“Not even Olivia’s sharpest blade could cut this tension.  I can’t believe this…how did I let this happen?”

“Drake, calm down, you’re freaking out.”

“Uh-huh,” Drake said buttoning his jeans, “join me, won’t you?”

“No…I won’t.  We’ve both wanted this for a long time now.  It was bound to happen.”

“Not this way…not when neither of us even remember it and not when you’re marrying my best friend in three days.”

“I’m only marrying him because you want me to.”

“Don’t say that, Nevin.”

“Why?  It’s true,” she said, watching him pull a t-shirt over his head, “it should be…”

Riley stopped, a breath caught in her throat watching Drake tug his t-shirt down his waist.  “Ummm…Drake?” she stammered, nodding to the t-shirt.  “Where did you get that?

Drake looked down at what he had assumed was his standard plain white t-shirt and saw the word “Mr.” in bold black letter screen printed on the front.  “I don’t…I don’t know.”  

When he turned in search of his normal shirt, Riley gasped again.  “Oh.my.god.”  Across the back of the t-shirt were the words “Just Married – Cupid’s Wedding Chapel, Las Vegas.”

Drake ripped the shirt off again holding it to see the back.  “No, this can’t be true,” he stammered.

Riley rose from the bed and scooped up her own clothes.  Sifting through them quickly, she found what her gut knew would be there, a shirt matching Drake’s with the word “Mrs.” emblazoned on the front in black script lettering.  “Drake…” she said, holding it up for him to see.

“Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit…” Drake began chanting, pacing nervously around the room.  It didn’t matter that it was 9AM, Drake needed whiskey, stat.  Pouring a finger for each of them with shaky hands, he carried Riley’s glass over to where she stood silently staring out the window, clutching her t-shirt.

“No, thank you,” she shook her head when he tried to hand it to her.  “Isn’t that what got us here in the first place?”

Drake nodded solemnly.  “Look what you made me do,” he whispered to the glass in his hand, not caring if it was crazy to be talking to the booze.

“How much do you remember?” Riley asked.

“Some…not a lot,” Drake replied.

“Tell me.”

“Uh, let’s see.  We were in the hotel bar for a few hours.  You were keeping your distance from almost everyone. If it, ahh…weren’t for how beautiful you looked, someone might have mistaken you for me sitting there alone brooding over whiskey.”

“You weren’t alone though, Kiara was with you,” Riley said with the jealousy apparent in her voice.

Drake rolled his eyes.  “I ignore Kiara, even when she’s right next to me.”

“Oh please, Drake.  She’s a beautiful woman who clearly wants you.”

“I told you before, Nevin. You’re the only girl for me.”

Riley finally turned to meet Drake’s gaze.  “Then why have you been pushing me into this marriage to Liam.  We never even talked after Tariq’s statement like we said we would. You disappeared and left a note.”

“There was nothing to talk about, Nevin.  I’ve told you all along, I can’t give you the life you deserve.  Only Liam can do that.  That’s why no matter how hard it is to watch, I want you to marry him.”

Riley angerly turned from the window, walking over to the table and slamming down the glass of whiskey she still held.  “Well what about what I want?  You make this unilateral decision and just expect me to be okay with it.”

“Damn it, Riley,” Drake yelled, “at least some part of you must have been okay with it because you said ‘Yes’.”

“What the hell was I supposed to do?” she shouted back.  “You left! I wanted to talk about us and then talk to Liam together, but you left!  I was going to talk to him on my own that night…tell him everything even though you clearly didn’t want to be with me.  I felt like he at least deserved to know, but before I could, he was down on one knee. God, Drake,” she exclaimed throwing her arms in the air, “when he asked, I thought of you and it made my heart ache so bad and I cried.  I’m sure Liam thought they were tears of joy, but they weren’t, they were for you.  But he looked so hopeful, and I…I just couldn’t hurt him.  Not like that.  I do care about him, he’s one of my best friends.  I wanted to say no, but I didn’t want him to feel the same heartbreak I felt when I got your note.”

“I did want to be with you, Nevin.  I do want to be with you, but I can’t.  My best friend loves you and can give you the world.”

“I don’t need the world, Drake,” Riley yelled.  “I just need love…and not the kind of love I can live with…I want the kind of love I can’t live without.”  Riley crossed the room to where he stood and placed her hands on his cheeks.  “That’s you, Drake…you’re the love I can’t live without.”

Drake shook his head and reached up taking her hands from his face.  “No, Nevin.  You may not feel that for Liam now, but you will in time.  I’ve seen you getting closer throughout the tour, Nevin.  If you let yourself fall, you can have that kind of love with him.”

Hot angry tears rolled down Riley’s cheeks.  “No…no. I believe that kind of love is a once in the lifetime thing, Drake.  And I know you love me like that too, Drake.  I know you do.”

Drake nodded and wiped a tear from her cheek.  “I do. And that’s why I can step aside for your happiness.”

“Why are you so thick skulled? Look at me?  Do I look happy?  A crown and a kingdom won’t give me the happiness you think I deserve; only you can do that.  But instead you want me to marry a man I don’t love while I have to see you and long for you every day.”

“I won’t put you through that, Nevin.  I’ll leave after the wedding.  Without me in Cordonia, you can move on.”

“No, don’t say that…I can’t…I can’t lose you, Drake,” Riley said as her body shook with sobs.

“I’m sorry, Riley.  But it’s for the best.  You need to stop thinking about me, about us…the wedding is in three days.”

Riley’s breath hitched and she looked down at the t-shirt still clutched in her hand.  “I can’t have a wedding if I’m already married,” she said softly.

Drake looked at her with wide eyes.  “What? What are you saying, Nevin?”

“I’m saying I want to stay married, Drake.  I’m already married to the love of my life, I can’t…I won’t marry someone else. There isn’t going to be a wedding.”

Sometimes, her need to be near to him becomes too great to care what certain onlookers may think. The way he made her heart expand earlier in the day by instantly looking for her as they arrived at the Castellarian estate, only to take her hand and sneak a kiss, did nothing to help her keep her affection for him at bay.

So now that they were in the company of people Charlotte genuinely considered to be trustworthy, she felt confident enough to let her love for him show a bit more.

That’s why, after the wine tasting, she and Liam stood at the balcony whilst the rest were mingling and lightly clearing up. She had, at some point, snaked her arms under his jacket and around his waist, head resting lightly on his chest as he wrapped one of his strong arms around her in turn.

They’d settled on a wine choice for their wedding, talking about other little nothings to do with the day as they looked out over the vineyard.

She was lucky. She was so incredibly lucky, and she knew it.

Shifting her head to look up at him, she was struck once again by the reality of it all. This beautiful, kind, caring, witty man was hers. Soon enough, he’d be hers forever. It was all she could do to drag her thoughts away from just repeating the words, “iloveyouiloveyouilo-“.

Honestly, she might be embarrassed if he could hear her thoughts, but a tugging in her heart reminded her that she had incredible evidence to believe he felt the same way.

Head tilting downwards, his eyes caught hers. She could see the shift in emotion as their eyes met – she could write essays about how beautiful he is when he is able to take just a tiny bit of the weight of the world off of his shoulders.

He was silent for a moment before he spoke, choosing his words carefully.

“You know… I know that we’ve agreed to make our wedding a public event for rallying Cordonia’s allies and people, but part of me wishes that it could just be the two of us, with no one else to distract us.”

Charlotte’s straightened slightly as her arms loosened to instead relax on his sides. Turning to face him, the previous repetition in her head restarted.

Liam almost took her hesitance to respond as disapproval, or a sign that he shouldn’t have shaken the already rocky road that had brought them to their engagement. He was ready to amend what he’d said when she looked up at him once again, turning the idea over in her head with furrowed brows.

“Well… why don’t we?”

“Sorry?”

“Oh, I mean, it could be, right? Just us? We could pull it off. I’ve seen enough movies to know that people can get married almost anywhere, by anyone,” she began to ramble. He felt her swinging their interlocking hands as she went on and couldn’t help but grin at her.

He did that a lot lately.

She was still talking, though. “I mean, you remember in that grotto in Italy during the ‘dark days’,” she made exaggerated quotation marks with one hand, “and you asked me what I could picture our alternative future as being? And I said I could see us getting married in a small church on a cliff? Well, why don’t we?”

Her chattering was growing more excited. Unbeknownst to the couple, it started turning a few heads in their direction. The rest of the gang were used to it, proud of their friends for finding this kind of love, even if they couldn’t quite hear what they were actually even talking about.

Penelope, however, was new to such occurrences. Even the blind could see the love between the pair – it radiated off them in waves. For months, she had felt guilty about her role in the scheme against Charlotte. She knew now how deeply they loved each other, but any time they interacted in her presence, she felt like a horrible intruder in their lives. To have kept them apart was a cruel act, even if she had naively thought at the time that Charlotte’s heart lay with Tariq.

“Max could covertly find a place, and I’m sure Drake would be willing to officiate. We wouldn’t even need the fanciest clothes, well, apart from a ring, but we could do it. I mean, if you really wanted to?”

Liam could see his whole future when he looked at her, and it shone with the brightest sunshine.

He gently cupped her face and kissed her, unable to hold back any longer.

Anyone still spying on the pair hastily looked away.

Her hands found purchase clutching to his button up as the kiss deepened. 

After what they both considered to be too short a moment, they separated. Charlotte was left breathless, a culmination of her excitement and unpreparedness. Looking up as they caught their breath, she tilted her head in silent question.

His responding smile was so wide and laden with love that she felt her heart working overtime to sew up the seams where it had burst.

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes. I- yes. Let’s do it.” He pecked her lips again, still panting softly. Both hands were still on her face as he continued.

“There’s a chapel on the coastline. It’s sat on a cliff right by the sea. A small, old, white building – nothing around it save for a small town a half mile away. I found it online after we spent that evening together in the grotto. The image you painted of us, there, together, stuck in my mind. It’s a stunning scene.”

Charlotte felt her bones go weak.

“I- Do you think we could?” she ventured.

His face contorted as he went over all the possibilities, quickly coming to a conclusion. He took a deep breath.