Chapter Seventeen

Emma

I stay still at my spot as I watch Emery—seeing that he has both of his eyes focused on his father, probably thinking something in his head but from here, he seems hopeless. The way he sits down and just eye his father for the past ten minutes, it's something that I can hardly understand.

Less than a week of us being married and we're already facing things. I know, life is never easy and it can be very unfair sometimes; everyone knows that. Truth be told, I hope that the king would get better because I've never had a conversation with him before but not just that, this is actually the first time seeing him other than looking at his pictures.

As I take my time to eye Emery, I manage to see glimpses of similarities between them two. For instance, they both have brown hair—which I'm pretty sure, runs in the family. Their faces are defined and well sculptured, beautifully defining their other features even though they look quite different, I can't help but say that their genes are the bomb dot com.

''How is he?'' He asks.

I glance up at the doctor, seeing that she has been reading her reports ever since we came. The doctor looks up at both Emery and I, ''He's stable, Your Highness. There was an emergency last night but everything is alright now. I made sure of it,'' She replies.

Emery nods before standing up and walking out of the king's chamber after grabbing onto my hand, pulling me out with him. Once we're out, I look up at him, seeing that his frown is not disappearing anytime soon—probably. Then, he let out a deep sigh, ''I'm sorry that our trip ended quickly,'' He says.

''Don't worry about it,'' I reply with a smile, ''We can always go back to New York, eat more food and visit more places but for now, we just have to make sure that your father will be alright,''

He continues to look at me and seconds before he can utter a single word, one of the servants bow her head down, ''My apologies for interrupting, Your Highnesses but the queen requests for your presence. Both of you,'' She says and she quickly walk down the hall after giving us a small smile.

We walk towards the queen's reading room, seeing that she is busy reading a book but as soon as she sees us entering the room, she starts to place it down. Her lips are curving into a small smile, ''How was New York?'' She asks us.

Emery and I look at each other.

''Nothing happened? I mean—'' She stops, eyeing me closely before turning to look at her son. Then, she clears her throat, gesturing for us to sit down. We do as told but as I sit, I can't help but see her staring, ''—forget about that, how was New York, Emery?'' She smiles.

He runs his fingers through his hair, ''It was great. Emma owns a really good restaurant—you have to try it,'' He replies, looking straight at his mother while I continue to eye him from the side; seeing that he's actually complimenting my restaurant, ''We visited a few places and it was great. Things happened—''

Genevieve cuts him off, ''What things?''

Both Emery and I look at her in confusion but he seems to be getting her point a little bit quicker, ''You know, those kind of things. It's kind of a long story,'' He winks at his mother as he grabs onto my hand, making me raise an eyebrow at him; wanting to smack his head but I play along.

All of a sudden, Evelyn starts to enter the room with a smile on her face as she eyes Emery, ''Keep dreaming, I'm one hundred and ninety-nine percent sure that you guys didn't do anything sexual.'' She chuckles as her brother roll his eyes. ''Nice job, Emma.'' She adds.

''How would you know? You weren't there,'' He raises an eyebrow, somehow feeling unsatisfied while I am left here, watching them trying to battle one another. Emery has his eyes squinted at her as she looks down at her manicured nails without a single glance at him.

''I'm everywhere,'' She smirks.

I laugh at her statement before receiving a glare from Emery, seeing that he's not really satisfied with his sister. I immediately stop laughing, only smiling due to his glares; he might want to rip me apart and it's not in a kinky way but in a deathly way.

''Emery, you'll be joining for another horse riding today. Free your time around two,'' Genevieve says, standing up and walk towards her bookshelves; eyeing every corner—choosing a book to read.

''I just got back. Is it important?'' He asks.

She looks at her son, ''You just got back from Australia a few weeks ago—people need to know their prince and future king. Show your face, have a little chit chat, make new acquaintances, meet important people and then you can go home. Agree?''

''No,'' He replies.

I glare at Emery, ''He's going.''

''Yeah like—you know what, fine. As long as Emma is coming along with me, then I'll go.'' He crosses his arms, smiling down at me; eyeing me from up to toe.

''It's settled then,'' Genevieve mutters.

Emery smiles widely at his mother before standing up and grabbing onto my hand; walking out of the room after he has finished glaring at Evelyn who glares back at him just with the same amount of playfulness.

We step out of the room and head straight towards our assigned bedroom; which is in the other hallway, it's quite far from my previous bedroom. When we enter the room, I take a look around—everything is nicely arranged and clean.

With a sigh, I start to enter the bathroom.

After showering, I step out of the bathroom to find that Emery is nowhere to be found—which makes me lock onto the door before entering the walk-in closet to change into a light yellow dress that has been placed on one of the sofas.

Once I'm done changing, I look at myself in the mirror to check out myself; my lips curving up into a smile at the dress. As soon as I turn around, my eyes widen at the sight of two make up artists and Evelyn standing near the door—smiling at me.

''They're helping you get ready,'' Evelyn says.

''Alright,'' I reply with a smile.

They gesture for me to sit down in front of the makeup table before combing onto my hair; while Evelyn go through my closet—eyeing the different types of clothing. They start to put makeup onto my skin, starting off with moisturise and primer.

Then, they start to apply foundation according to my skin tone with a beauty blender. All of a sudden, the queen starts to enter the closet, ''Make sure she's presentable. There will be cameras everywhere,'' She says, smiling before sitting down on one of the seats.

''I thought it was just horse riding?'' I ask.

''Since Emery wanted you to come, you'll be meeting people there. Of course, sources have their ways on finding out that you'll be there. They want to see you live and we need to make sure that you'll be looking flawless because those reporters will do anything to get a bad shot of you,'' She replies, looking at me.

They continue to fill in my brows after plucking them; following my natural shape before applying a light cream coloured eyeshadow. Then, they curl up my lashes without needing to put on any fake lashes.

As I take a better look at my face, I'm starting to look more and more awake; liking how they are doing my makeup. They begin to contour my cheeks, my jawline, my nose and my forehead before lightly applying highlighter on my cheekbones, bridge of my nose, chin, upper lip, forehead and on my brow bone.

Then, lastly, they apply a natural coloured lipstick.

''There, you look beautiful.'' Evelyn says from behind, ''The highlighter will definitely make you look glowing especially outdoors—perfect,'' She mutters.

My lips curve up into a smile when they start to lightly curl my hair, making me seem presentable. When I'm done, Evelyn starts to eye my face; agreeing to my makeup and down to my clothing. Then, we start to walk out of the walk-in closet with the queen at the front but to only come face to face with Emery—seeing him busy looking for something in one of the drawers.

''Emma, have you seen—'' He turns.

Both of his eyes are wide in surprise before staring at my face, eyeing my every features; especially my face as he stands still, making Evelyn chuckle from behind me. Then, all of a sudden, he starts to be awaken from his sudden trance which causes him to clear his throat.

''Are you sure we're going horse riding?'' He asks.

''You'll be the one riding the horse, sweetheart.'' Genevieve replies before exiting the room after gesturing for all of us to follow her.

My cheeks heat up immediately after finding out that Emery has not stopped staring at me; he seems slightly surprised which instantly boosts up my confident level. We start to walk down the hall before walking down the stairs towards the front doors with Emery beside me—trying his hard not to stare.

The whole ride was silence, none of us utter a single word. As for Emery, he won't stop looking at me even when I turn to look at him—he doesn't seem to mind that I've caught him staring a few times.

As soon as we step out of the car, reporters are surrounding the place but they are behind the lines—wouldn't be able to cross over. I turn to see Emery placing his hand on the back of my body, slowly walking with me towards the other people.

When Emery starts to put on his gloves as he stands beside his horse, I am already seated with the other crowds; listening to them talking and complimenting me which I respond back with a smile—not really knowing what to say.

''We heard that you were in New York, Your Highness.'' A woman says beside me, making me turn to look at her nodding my head before smiling politely. Then, I turn around to look back at Emery; seeing him talking to one of the men as they start to laugh.

All of a sudden, I find myself completely and utterly mesmerised by him. Just by the way he stands and the way he laughs, he's an absolute beauty. I've said this before and it would be silly of me to actually say it again but when it comes to him—there's no point in denying.

To my surprise, he turns to look at me; making my eyes widen slightly. Then, he winks at me immediately—heating my cheeks up in which I respond back with a smile.

''Did he wink at me?'' One of the girls say from behind, making me smile to myself—knowing that I would be that way too if I were them. I turn to see that it's actually the prime minister's daughters. They are fanning themselves and smiling widely as they continue to stare at Emery.

''No, he winked at me!'' They argue.

Once the horse riding is over, everyone stands up and start to clap—I follow their every movement, not really knowing what to do. Then, they all begin to wander around; communicating and just having someone to talk to while I stand on my own, silently hoping that Emery will be here any minute.

''Your Highness,'' I turn around.

My eyes meet a pair of light blue eyes as he bows down slightly, smiling at me. I smile back at him before eyeing his every features—seeing that he's actually a very good-looking man. Just by the way his dark blonde hair is messily hanging on his head; that's actually attractive.

''Are you having a great time?'' He asks.

Before I can answer, I feel someone hold me by the waist and I immediately look up to see Emery looking at the man in front of us—smiling slightly at him, ''Excuse me while I be with my wife,'' He says as he looks down at me to lightly run the back of his hand on the side of my face.

God damn.

''Of course,'' He replies, walking away.

''Number one player, don't want to be anywhere near him, do we?'' He glances at my direction, letting go of my waist to stand in front of me, ''He has money, that's why he's here and the other reason is to actually seduce women—rich, beautiful and titled women.''

''Are you saying I'm beautiful?''

I look up into his light brown eyes, loving how he starts to smirk down at me—not expecting me to slowly close the distance between us. Then, he leans in to my ear, kissing onto the side of my cheek; making me smile to myself.

''Let's go home,'' He says, pulling onto my hand and we start to walk side by side; ignoring envious glares by the women even though they are looking at us in respect.

That night, I am sitting on the bed as I chew on some chips while Emery is busy braiding my hair; continuously glancing at his laptop—watching Youtube to braid my hair properly. The reason why we're in this situation is because I won a game of rock, paper, scissors.

''I'm horrible at this,'' He breathes.

''Yeah? Next time, don't challenge me.'' I reply, continuing to chew as I smile to myself—loving how he has his eyebrows furrowed, focusing onto braiding my hair which he has been doing for the past thirty-minutes but I don't mind, I'm not doing the hard work here.

''Kim K doesn't even do her own hair and you expect me to do yours?'' He chuckles and I roll my eyes; agreeing with him but then again, it wouldn't hurt to try and see how horrible he is at doing my hair.

We keep quiet for the next five minutes before I start to speak again, ''You know what, it's fine. I can do it myself—you're taking forever to finish this,'' I say, almost standing up but he pulls me back down.

''No, don't move.'' He mutters.

I do as told, keeping my mouth shut and not moving much. Then, all of a sudden, I find him clapping his hands from behind, ''Okay, sweetheart, you're going to be mind blown.'' He smiles.

Without further ado, I quickly run towards the mirror on the wall—eyeing my braid and a smile appears on my face immediately, seeing that he has done a quite good job at braiding my hair even though it took him almost an hour. I turn around to check it from the side but for some reason, I find him looking at me too.

I turn to look at him.

''Well, with a little bit of ambition, a masterpiece is created.'' He replies, making me chuckle as he uses both of his elbows to support his body from completely laying onto the bed.

From the side, I can definitely see him eyeing me but I ignore that because for some reason, I actually want him to look at me—the same way that he is looking at me right now. I turn towards him again, seeing him eyeing my body before eyeing my face again.

''Take a picture, it'll last longer.''

Our eyes meet instantly, making me feel slightly uncomfortable but he doesn't seem affected at all. The way his brown eyes are piercing deep into mine—it's killing me slowly from the inside. Maybe, it's because of the look that he's giving me or maybe it's because of his eyes? Then again, I don't mind.

I start to make my way towards him slowly, leaving him clenching his jaw as he continues to stare at my face; when my knees are on the bed, he stays still on his spot—only making me cup onto his face.

Just as his arms are on my hips, someone knocks onto the door.