The Dark King's Bride (8 page)

             
“Shall we, Lily?”

Chapter Nine

             
A look of complete and absolute shock washed across her face from the sight of Daniel, her king and host, extending one of his hands towards her after he had just asked her for his permission to assist her with her bath in a hidden, subliminal way. Her body froze for a moment, as did her voice, out of the intense confusion that had hit it from the request the had made to her as Magdalene was on her way out.

             
This is not good, Lily…
Her rational side went into full blow panic mode from the situation she had been placed into.
I don’t see a good outcome from him helping you with your bath. This can only go in one direction…

             
I don’t think he has any alternative motives.
Lily kept her eyes upon his face for a few more moments before they moved down to his palm that was still reaching out for her to take while she maintained the conversation she was having at the moment with her conscience.
He hasn’t given me any reason to not trust him.

             
Lily, you cannot ignore the signs that are right in front of your face.

             
If you are talking about the way his voice is sounding right-

             
It is not only the voice, but also the way he has been looking at you…and how he had his strong arms wrapped around the curves on your body to where you were pressed against his body, completely. You can’t honestly-

             
“Lily…”

             
Daniel’s deep voice caused her to break out of the conversation with the rational part of her conscience. Blinking a bit, Lily lifted her eyes towards his face, and found him to be waiting for her next move. Her body shivered with nervousness at the prospect of him assisting her with a bath. She drew in a breath, and had her right hand to slip into his open palm before she looked down in time to focus on his fingers wrapping around the sides of it.

             
I really hope that I am making the right decision, and I won’t be regretting this later on.

             
Even though she had put on a confident and comfortable front with her conscience, Lily couldn’t get rid of an unsettling feeling that was resonating through her. There was a feeling about the moment going on pass the point of no return that she couldn’t get off of her mind.

             
She lifted her eyes from their hands being nestled within one another, and discovered him to be looking at her with concern pouring of out of his piercing gaze. Her gaze slowly started to drift further into his own while she picked up on the sound of his deep, sensual voice speaking to her.

             
“Lily, what is troubling you?” Daniel asked, gently. He clearly saw how upset she truly was at the moment even though it was lingering on the surface and not revealing itself, completely, and it made him become more concerned at the moment. “I can see that something has put you on edge with me, and I would like to fix the situation the best that I can.”

             
His words pulled at her heart strings, and her inner emotions, causing the moment to make them more intense with her. She couldn’t hide the truth from him anymore. She had to tell him.

             
“Daniel,” Lily replied, “I am just feeling a little nervous at the moment.” She spoke from her heart to him, revealing her issues in the softness of her voice. “No one else has ever undressed and bathed me besides my mother when I was little. I…I never had a man do it for me before.”

             
Lily did her best to keep calm and relaxed before him to keep herself from showing more of her feelings, but found it extremely hard from the way his eyes looked into her soul, and his deep, sensual voice causing every muscle in her body to tighten up with little difficulty.

             
“I promise that I won’t do anything you are uncomfortable with, Lily.” Daniel spoke to her with a soothing sound to his voice while his thumb of the hand that was holding hers started to caress the back of it, massaging and sending tingles throughout her body. “If I start to do anything you disapprove of or makes you uncomfortable, let me know and I will stop doing it that very instant. My only wish it to please you and make you happy.”

             
Her body started to ease the tension away from it once she found him wanting to take care of her, not hurt her. She drew in a breath of air, and gave a nod of her head prior to speaking up to him with the nervousness no longer there in it.

             
“Very well, Daniel.”

             
“May I have the honor of bathing you then?”

             
“You may, my lord.”

             
For a moment, Lily assumed he would ask her about calling her by a title instead of his name, but noticed a smile moving across his face in her direction. A shy yet sweet smile started to dance across her face from seeing how content and happy he seemed at that moment with her. She maintained the eye connection with him while her body moved with his towards the open doorway of the adjoined bathroom in the bedroom she had been taken to.

*                            *                            *

              Moving over the threshold, Daniel led Lily over to a side of a large, white porcelain tub was nestled in the heart of the large bath chamber with hot water being close to the rim of it and small amounts of steam resonating from it. He moved his gaze over towards his attractive guest, and allowed it to dance over the curves of her body that was hidden beneath the white gown she had on at the moment since her attention was focused more on the large, lavishly decorated bathroom that he had brought her into.

             
My god…I have never seen any woman so beautiful and pure of heart like Lily in all of the years of me being a vampire on this realm of existence.

             
Daniel couldn’t get over how over a short span of time with the daughter of Radcliff and Marigold he was wanting nothing more than to go ahead and have the wedding that very night with her. She made him feel more alive than anyone else had ever done in the past centuries he lived on the planet in such a short time frame.

             
This is the one for me…If I don’t ask her for her hand and marriage before tomorrow night and I let her slip away…someone else will take her far away from my sight…or her father will make sure she is locked up even tighter than she was before we met one another.

             
He couldn’t allow that to happen. He wouldn’t allow someone else to steal away the heart of the woman who he planned to marry, or Radcliff to lock her away from his sights. The thought of either happening to her made his blood slowly boil a bit.

             
There is only one clear decision in this matter…Lily will become my wife tomorrow night at the midnight ceremony.

             
Slipping his hand away from hers, Daniel went over to where a nearby hook was positioned on the rock wall beside the door to the bathroom, and hung the white robe that Magdalene had placed out for her. He turned back around, and looked towards Lily from where he stood with a kind look in his eyes.

             
“Well,” Daniel said, “Let’s see about that bath now, Lily, in order to warm your body, and relax any tension that is in your muscles.”

             
“Very well, Daniel.” Lily replied, politely. “I think that is a good idea as well.”

             
“Well…”

             
“Well what?”

             
“Lily…You have to remove your clothing in order to take the bath properly.”

             
The moment he said those words to Lily, he watched a look of shock mixing with that of a horrified expression moved across her face. His eyes could tell that she hadn’t realized she would have to undress herself in front of him in the privacy of the bath chamber since Magdalene was not there to assist her with it due to him giving her the rest of the night off.  He took note of her hands grabbing at the skirt of her dress a bit nervously while his ears picked up on the shaky sound that had grown within her gentle voice.

             
“O-Okay, D-D-Daniel.” Lily looked around the area she was in with for a moment for a changing screen, but found nothing there to change behind in order to keep some form of modesty. Moving her eyes back towards him, she focused on his gaze while her childlike nervousness exposed itself even more in her voice towards him. “Um…C-Could you turn around while I undress? I…”

             
Seeing her feeling distressed about taking her clothes off in front of him, Daniel walked across the floor, erasing the rest of the space between herself and him, and cupped her face in his hands. His thumbs brushed her cheeks up and down in a gentle, massaging gesture, while he spoke up to her with his deep voice taking on a more soothing sound to it in order to calm her nerves.

             
“My lady…” Daniel whispered to her, softly, “You have no reason to fear anything from me.”

             
“I know…It is just…”

             
“Just what, Lily?”

             
His eyes watched her head lower down a bit from his piercing stare to look in the direction of her feet. He slipped his hand away from her face just so that it was still nearby as to cup it again when the time seemed just right. Daniel waited in anticipation as he listened to her gentle voice.

             
“I have never undressed in front of a man before, Daniel.”

             
Of course…That explained everything to him. He was the first man she had ever been in this situation with, and he would also be the first one to see her body without any clothes on covering the curves that drove him absolutely crazy with unbridled passion. Any woman that hadn’t done this sort of thing in front of a man before would be nervous about what to do or how to go about it.

             
Letting a faint smile come to his face, Daniel moved his hand back onto her face, and cupped the bottom of her chin. He eased her head back up to where their eyes met, and spoke to her with only tenderness within his deep, soothing voice.

             
“It is perfectly natural for you to feel nervous or even afraid to do this in front of me, Lily. A woman who has never undressed for a man before would be just as nervous and on edge like you are right now.”

             
Daniel thought for a moment: How am I going to ease the concern and dread from Lily? He didn’t wish for her to continue to be uneasy about the whole arrangement of not only staying there at his home, but also bathing before him. Suddenly, his sent him a suggestion that seemed to be the perfect fit for the moment.

             
Moving his hand away from her face, he placed his hands at his sides shortly before his deep voice escaped from his strong mouth once more.

             
“If it will help you, I will undress you from behind so that way your more private parts will be facing away from me, and you won’t have to show them to me until you are comfortable with the idea of displaying them…Would that be okay?”

             
“I…” Lily answered, “I would really like it if you did that for me, Daniel…if you don’t care to.”

             
“I don’t care to do that at all for you, Lily.”

             
Walking around behind her, Daniel lifted the very hand that he had cupped her cheek, as well as her chin in, with his other one, and started to tug at the lacings on the back of her dress that kept the rest of soft, fair skin, not to mention her curvy figure, hidden from sight.

Chapter Ten

             
Remain calm, Lily…Everything will be okay. Daniel won’t do anything to upset you or cross the boundary lines he has agreed to.