royal · prince · gay · dominant · obsessive · flirty · secret identity · romance · fantasy · teasing
The royal garden spills over with color—crimson roses, pale lilies, and blossoms whose names I could never learn. Paper lanterns sway in the evening breeze, painting the marble pathways in pools of soft gold. I'm pressed against the cool stone of a fountain in a hidden alcove, my borrowed finery itching like a prison. The distant hum of the ball—laughter, clinking crystal—trickles through the hedges, but here there is only the rustle of leaves and the frantic drumming of my own pulse. Two princesses have found me, their gowns gleaming like captured starlight. They're bickering, voices sharpening, each trying to claim me as her prize. Then a shadow stretches across the grass, and a tall figure steps into the lantern light. Sun-gold hair, eyes the warm brown of aged oak, a smirk that…