All the while, King Richard finished his work late and he called for Mahnu while he continued to drink and had bathed. She didn't come, and he was out of the bathing chambers sooner, because of being annoyed. He went to his bed chamber balcony, calling for her again, when there was a knock on the door.

It was the Queen…

She smiled attentively and asked him if he could be with her. When he politely refuses, she asks about the rumour that he had kissed someone.

The King sighs at the haste of the rumour getting around the palace and confirms it openly.

He doesn't want to play games, thinking the Queen close enough to understand. Afterall, there were Kings that had more than just the Queen…It was perhaps abnormal for him to not have them, yet now…He felt like he had just become one of those Kings with more than one woman.

Just one more, he thought, Mahnu and no one else.

…Besides…It wasn’t like he and the Queen had more of a relationship, and he doubted that could ever be fixed. She had deceived him once and he was not looking at trusting her again anytime in the future. As it was…She shouldn’t be in his bed chambers, as the rule of her being unable to enter it was still currently in place!

The Queen stumbles on words, asking who ‘she’ is.

The King looks at her and respectfully asks her to leave, so that he can go to sleep as he was tired. He knew that he would have to talk to her about Mahnu soon but now wasn't the time. As it was…It seemed that it was a secret and…That secret seemed to please him for now. Of course, if Mahnu became known, it might be better, but in a case, it might also be worse.

He would obviously go and see her often, wherever she may stay, but…Wasn’t she able to be nearby now, whereas if she were stuck in a building in the palace…

Yes, now wasn’t the time to tell the Queen about Mahnu…Especially when he didn’t know yet how Mahnu felt about him. Which did worry him a lot!

…The sad question was…Would Mahnu want to be with him…

For some unexplained reason, he felt like he never had any right to force her into anything…

With knowing her talent of appearing and disappearing as she does, he was afraid that if pushed her into a position of consort, she might just leave and never return!

He couldn’t have that!

Finally, the Queen leaves his Majesty's bed chambers angrily. Her father in her head again about keeping the King’s attention.

'I don't want to see conflict for the throne!' His words were now, once again, drumming into her ears…

Mahnu had heard this past thought from the Queen and it did remind her of some incidents regarding the throne in the past…

Jealousy played a part within the past royal lines, as well as power.

For centuries woman had tried to control more then what they could handle and most of the time they would die with regrets or feel unjustified…

The suffering didn’t stop at the commoners or some of the nobles…It continued into the royals and even they themselves felt great pain, just like everyone else…Mahnu knew it quite well…

As for this current Queen, she was selfish and wanted control. Yet, she was like that because she was forced to be like that, due to her father’s upbringing. But even though she was like this, it felt like she wasn’t all that smart, so she was relatively lucky that she had nothing to worry about when it comes to the King having other women…

Should she feel pity for the Queen or distrust?

More importantly…Mahnu was starting to question whether or not to continue what she was following earlier with her emotions. Was it worth making the Queen of Kralaide feeling this way?

She was a betrayer, how could someone like her shake up a Queen this way? Wasn’t it…Something that was petty? Was she getting carried away and not realising what was at stake for following her feelings?

The King sighs and wonders if Mahnu will see him, even after that conversation with the Queen, because he was sure that Mahnu would have heard it.

His desire to see her took him back to the veranda, to say her name once again.

She comes, but keeps her distance, "The Queen..."

The King sighed, "Please don't worry about her."

He could feel the distance between them already growing. He wanted to keep positive and continue to take that step forward, but he couldn’t help sighing over feeling the obvious distance from when they were together earlier.

"…I am not one to get involved in petty things."

The King got mad, he closed the gap between them, taking her into his arms. "You call this petty?"

He kissed her, so that she understands his urgency. She parted her lips and he took advantage of her mouth, melting along with his tongue.

How can something that feels this way be petty? He wanted to ask her.

He wanted her to fight for this, fight to have this feeling and want, so that she would stay beside him. He wanted her to match his desire…

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And for a long time, Mahnu hearing his thoughts and feeling his touch once again, was refreshed on what it was like to live by the day. Her existence was never based upon urgency, as she had all the time in the world, but at this moment, she started to wonder…What if tomorrow never came? What if this is my only chance to be with this man!?

**Warning sex scene**

Slowly, he started to undress her, and he felt her flinch.

Pulling back enough, to look into those beautiful, wide eyes of hers, he asked her if she had come here before. It was an attempt to ease her mind by changing the subject.

She breathed in and looked away, making him gather her closer to him. He felt sure that she was a bit shy, as she was not running away. Actually, her actions were sweet and bitter at the same time, as she would sigh and close her eyes, but had not hugged him back yet!

"And why didn't you come to me in the bath when I called?"

She looked at him and said, "I was taking care of something."

The King leaned towards her ear, asking her what this something was, before nibbling at it.

He felt her hands hold onto him then and her breath quicken. It seemed anything she did, even if it was as simple as breathing heavily, it became obvious to him. He liked it…He liked her ear lobe, her quickened breath…Because he knew he was behind it! And finally, she was embracing him, making him feel very happy!

He was sure now, that this woman was feeling like himself and wanted to be with him, just as much as he wanted to be with her.

"Well?" He asked again, kissing down her neck. He couldn’t help but smile through his entertainment. It really was so much fun to make her arch towards him!

Holding onto her tighter, he also felt her hands grab onto him tighter as well.

King Richard almost forgot that he was trying to ask her a question, as kissing her fine, smooth neck was already something that had his sexual hunger being something that already wanted to poke itself into the same body that he was kissing…

Mahnu felt utterly defeated, she couldn't even respond to him properly!

The power he has over me is scary, she thought, leaning towards him.

"...There was...Another assassin." She had nearly completely forgotten what they were talking about! As it was, her hands had a mind of their own and she felt this man’s hair in her palms.

Was this really not petty then? Considering that this was something I had never done in my entire existence, was it really something that I could act upon? Could I…Have this man?

Having somewhat forgotten what she had just said, it didn’t mean that the King had…

The King stopped, he really didn't like it that she was doing something so dangerous!

With his thoughts as such, and being able to read them, Mahnu was brought back from her own thoughts and said, "It's ok, they are with the authorities now."

Her eyes still held desire in them, making King Richard pick her up and take her to his giant bed.

He'll deal with that later, he thought, as right now his mind was completely occupied with her.

After removing the rest of her clothes and his, Mahnu become shy, making the King become even more desperate for her. Her innocence was flushed all over her face, and he thought that she looked utterly adorable.

"What's wrong, my dear?" Her face told him that he needed to slow down.

He sprawled beside her on the bed and trailed a finger across her belly.

"Mmm?" He tried to tempt her to answer.

When he kissed her shoulder, she finally answered, "Uh...I don't know..."

King Richard looked at her and put his hand to her face. "It's okay. Just focus on me...On my hand."

He closed her eyes with his hand and put his thumb slowly across her lips. He put his hand slowly down her neck and then over to her left exposed breast.

Watching as she let out a sigh, he decided that he had never had so much fun giving someone pleasure before. He had only done quick foreplay before with the Queen, but this was different…Every time she sighed or hitched in her breath, he was completely captivated, watching her every single detail that would change. Seeing goosebumbs appear over her skin, he was already having trouble holding himself back from taking her then and there!

He took in one of her nipples into his mouth and felt her luscious body beside his move.

Letting out a groan, he moved down, kissing her stomach and she said quickly, "What is this!?"

The King settled himself lower and murmured, "Desire."

A brief moment later, he asked her, "Why are you clean?"

What...You want me dirty? Mahnu thought. She didn't understand why she was angry that he had stopped what he was doing. It had felt like she had been rising towards something that she found herself looking forward to!

Putting a finger to where his mouth had just been, he watched as she let out a moan.

"Is it because of that other night?" He asked teasingly, watching her has now become his new favourite thing to do.

"Ye...Yes"

"I want you to have baths with me from now on." He whispered.

She responded, but not to what he was saying. She was in his power and he felt obliged to help her reach the peak of that pleasure.

Placing himself on top of her, he drove himself into her with haste, unable to wait any longer. His desire was now at a peak that he'd never felt before and he was not normally one to have this type of hunger and have to wait to satisfy it.

She held onto him and cried out, making him worry if he had hurt her.

Shamelessly, he kissed her instead of asking and drove into her further, making them both groan.

Bodies became entangled and shameless moans could slightly be heard from outside of the room...Completely stunning the guards and confusing them. They weren't sure at first, thinking that they were hearing things, but it was indeed real...The King was bedding a woman!

They were not used to this at all and even wondered if another man was in there with another woman!

Not wanting to leave their posts or get into trouble by interrupting what was going on inside His Majesty's bed chamber, they sent out someone to make sure the King was nowhere else first...

But...If the King was really in that room and...Bedding a woman...They were sure it wasn't the Queen...

So then...Who would it be?

This type of thing was not normal for them, so the guards had a long night of silent questions and curiosity...

Was this what it was like to become a woman, Mahnu wondered. It was so exhilarating that she could understand why some humans wanted it so much.

Unable to stop herself latching onto the man bedding her, she dazedly looked at him and watched his face show something to her that she had not seen before.

He leaned down and kissed her, meshing their tongues together and Mahnu felt the slight pain change into something completely beyond her own imagination!

Feeling him thrust into her and hearing him groan out, she felt like something was rising up and there was no way to stop it!

His kisses, his hand touching her breast, his manly groans of pleasure and his thrusting seem to bubble her into an unknown state of something completely unknown to her…

When King Richard whispered her name, Mahnu whimpered out as a huge, new feeling overcame her. It was such a shock to her that she latched onto him even more desperately as she moaned and felt herself arch back.

The feeling overcame her entire being, making her tremble all over and think of nothing else. Having unconsciously arched back, she found that the trusting had gone even deeper as his hand went to her bottom and pushed up towards his body. It was…So…Good!

Heat flushed through her like waves and she found herself moaning, unable to hold in her voice.

This kind of feeling was the total opposite of pain, that Mahnu never knew existed. It hardly seemed realistic to her, she would more so believe that she was trapped in some kind of fantasy instead. It was far from what she was used to feeling, that acute, knife searing kind of pain, instead of this…Mind blowing, unrealistic, desirable pleasure!

Over a thousand years and still learning that such a thing existed, made her want to laugh out in hysterics!

Mahnu started to feel normal again after a moment and remembered where she was.

"Oh...My!" She said, unable to create any other words.

"Mahnu." King Richard whispered in her ear, making her tremble yet again.

"Your Majesty?" Mahnu noticed her voice shook.

"Call me Richard."

He lifted her higher and she could feel the promise of even more pleasure. "Richard!"

Mahnu clung to him, as he did her, and they forgot everything else.