THE COURTIER
Third person
Upon the walls of the Lockwood palace, the King, Jaxson Lockwood finds himself discouraged in bed halfway naked, sitting up against the bed frame. He is watching his wife, Arabella, brush out her long brown hair with barely any clothes to despair herself. Her robe falls over her shoulder, and her eyes lift over it watching her husband whom holds her stare.
A small smile tugs at her lips as she holds her husband's stare. "What?"
"Can I not watch my beautiful wife?" He tilts his head, sending a loving look as he always did before. He cannot help but wonder how lucky he was in the position to find such a lady as Arabella. She was fierce, driven, and above all, a beauty. A rare diamond he found.
Once Arabella finishes with her hair, she tightens her robe back around her slim being, and nears Jaxson. He opens his arms for her to enter and she does just that. His arms surround her, and her back meets with his front and she balls herself up like a baby and cuddles with him.
Who knew the Queen and King were so in love that they did not mind cuddling each other?
"Something is on your mind," Arabella states and she cannot help but know that there was something deeply troubling her love, and she wished to find the reasoning.
"I am the King. A lot is on my mind at the moment," he replies, chuckling.
She frowns, turning to face him and he meets her frown. He brushes her fallen hair out of her hair, wishing to see all of his beautiful wife. Her naked shoulder is what his eyes meet, and his lips find the soft skin that always has her shuttering.
"Do not distract me. Speak to me at once, Jaxson," she orders, bringing his face in front of hers to gain his attention.
"It is nothing, really." He brushes it off, but Arabella has never been the one to brush things off when she knows something is wrong.
"I will sleep in one of the guest rooms if you do not tell," she threatens, and he sighs in defeat.
"It is Ugene that is on my mind." That has Arabella furrowing her eyebrows in wonder.
"Whatever for?" She questions. "He is well."
"Not quite these days. He has been sneaking into the palace at night, he is even off of his schedule-"
"But you have always told him how mad his schedule seems to be. You are the one telling him he needs to have breaks once in a while, perhaps he has learned that he should," his wife interrupts, bickering.
Jaxson knows that, but he knows his courtier more. He grew up with the gentleman, he knows him like the back of his hand. He would never let anything come between him and his schedule that he loves so much. He was not mad at his friend for doing things he has chosen to do, but he has wondered whom is the one who has taken him off his balance.
His world. That schedule is the one thing that keeps that courtier sane.
Who is the perpetrator?
"Have you met Ugene?" He scoffs, rubbing the tiredness from his existence. "He is a man of lists. He believes he has duties to fulfill, and that schedule reminds him of just that."
"Perhaps..." Arabella starts and it has Jaxson's brow raising. She bats her eyelashes at him. "He has found a lady."
Suddenly, Jaxson bellows out with laughter that rings through their room and has Arabella staring at him with a monotone stare. She is not full of laughter, but her eyes glimmer with delight at seeing her husband finally smile.
"Am I not following something?" She raises up from his embrace, growing weary of something her husband is not telling her.
"Ugene? Ugene Chesire finding someone?" He laughs and she nods. "No."
"What?" She recalls. "Is that such a bad thing for him to find someone and fall in love just like the rest of us?"
"That would be wonderful, Bella, but Ugene is not a man of romantics. He is serious, he has been through unimaginable things that wishes for him to never marry, and I understand it. I have tried getting him to see the ladies of the palace, Bridger as well. It will not work," Jaxson now explains and that has Arabella raising a brow, not amused.
"You have been seeing the ladies of the palace?" She retorts, jealousy running through her veins.
"Hey, hey," He tries gaining her attention when she rises from the bed and away from his touch.
She crosses her arms, turning towards him and watches as he stands from the bed. She bickers. "So, this is what all of you gentlemen do when you are in your office when the ladies are not present. I'll have you know, Jaxson Lockwood, that I am not like the other wives in the past of the kingdom, I will not allow you to gather an affair behind my back."
"Bell, you have it all wrong. I would never have an affair much less look at another lady other than you. You have my heart, love. It is only you whom has this heart of mine. I cannot believe you just said that." He held hurt inside of his heart, but he did enjoy witnessing his wife getting jealous, but he never wished for her to have that feeling again. They were no longer friends, it was not like how it was in the past anymore. They were married, they belonged to each other.
"I love you," he whispers dearingly, wrapping his arm around her waist and drawing her close to him. She turns in his arm, facing him and she holds a pout that has him chuckling under his breath. "I love you."
Her hands unravel from her body and she rounds them against his neck and he bends to kiss her lips in a loving touch. She whispers against him. "I love you. I apologize for getting so-"
"Jealous?" He smirks against her, and she glares.
"Jealous, yes," she murmurs. She looks down at his naked chest, his toned abs stare back at her and she gulps.
"All yours, baby," he then says, leaning in for another kiss that soon deepens into much more. The King himself backs up against the bed as his touch unlatches her robe from its tie, and her naked body falls to his vision and he is groaning with despair. "You are killing me, Bella."
She shivers against him when his hand hovers over her naked stomach, and her mind falls into the speech of children. Her mother and mother in law are still talking about when they shall have children, but should it not be her decision when? She was the one carrying the child not them.
Jaxson falls upon the bed, gazing upon his beautiful wife whom blushes at his stare. She stands in between his legs, and his hands bring her closer and his lips touch the base of her stomach, eyeing her for her reaction.
"I would not worry about Ugene. I think he knows what he is doing. After all, he is your right hand man."
Jaxson's eyes darken, and he yanks her over him to where she is sitting on his lap and he whispers against her lips. "Does it look like I wish to think about my courtier when all I wish to be is buried deep inside of you?" Arabella giggles against his lips.
While the King and Queen enjoy their fun night alone together, on the other side of the palace, there lies Josephine Castings whom cannot sleep a wink for anything. She eyes her bedroom door with no remorse, and bites on her lip, reminiscing that kiss she and Ugene had shared.
She wonders if Ugene feels the same way, but what she does not know is that Ugene has not even made it to the bed, too focused on the drawing in front of him, sipping on a glass of whiskey. The breeze felt nice outside on the balcony, but the drawing he was creating was even better. He could not get that kiss out of his mind, even so, he had to draw them.