The King's Unbreakable Wife-Chapter 76: Holding hands (3)

"Prince Tobias, your dinner has arrived."

Hazel jumped, startled by a maid’s voice behind her. She was backing the maid but the maid could see what was happening depending on the angle she stood at.

Tobias still had her hand to his mouth, giving it one more kiss before letting it go. The maid didn’t make him flustered like it did with Hazel. He was annoyed more than anything. "Prepare the table and chairs for us. Then be on your way. Do you want to keep walking around while they set up, Hazel?"

"We can sit down on a bench. I’ve seen enough," Hazel said, putting the hand Tobias kissed behind her back. She could still feel his lips on her skin and it made her jittery.

"There is one here. After you," Tobias said, ushering Hazel to the bench for them to sit down. He was enjoying himself, watching Hazel be conflicted.

Tobias knew he was far from Hazel having any real feelings for him. This was just her being affected by a man’s touch. He wanted her to react this way because it was him. That no other man could try courting her when he wasn’t around and she would feel this same way.

Tobias enjoyed the challenge of not getting to kiss more than her hand. It was exciting to find new ways to flirt with her. He wished they had not been disturbed so he could have given her other hand the same attention and then teased her by going further up her hand with kisses. A little more and he might have seen Hazel frazzled before she kicked him again.

Hazel sat down first and then Tobias to her right. There was a little space between them so no one could speak of them being close, but the sight of Tobias kissing her hand was going to be shared tomorrow even though it was a common gesture.

The palace had a way of making small interactions sound more scandalous than what it was.

Hazel stared at her hand resting on her lap. She liked that Tobias respected what she said and made no attempts to kiss her on her lips without warning because he thought that might make her like him. She didn’t want that.

Hazel was determined to only kiss the man declared to be her husband and though at the moment it seemed that she was going to wed Tobias, she wanted to wait a little longer. She wanted to share her first kiss with Tobias when the time was right.

Tobias watched the maids be quick to set up for them and tried to avoid looking at Hazel so he wouldn’t make her feel embarrassed. As much as he enjoyed teasing her, he wanted to give her some time now to figure out whatever was on her mind.

"It is finished," the maid announced.

"Thank you. You may be on your way now," Tobias said, standing up to inspect what was prepared for them. "Why does the bottle say wine? This is not wine in my eyes. They could have left this out."

"They wanted us to have a good dinner without getting drunk. I think that it is alright," Hazel said, joining Tobias in going to the table and then taking the bottle from Tobias’s hands. She didn’t want to get drunk and make a fool of herself in front of Tobias. Then she might cause a scene when going back to her room. "I have never tasted this before."

"It is just like juice. Allow me to help you to your seat."

Hazel didn’t move and stared at Tobias. "Are you always this way?"

"Who the hell would I be pulling out seats for? That is always done for me. Well, there’s my little sister," Tobias remembered his sibling. "Avoid her as much as you can. She’ll never want to stop playing or talking."

Hazel felt terrible for not remembering about the princess. It might be due to not seeing her at the ball and since she came into the palace. They were doing a good job of making sure the princess didn’t cross paths with those in the selection.

"I forgot you know what it means to have a younger sister," Hazel confessed.

Tobias chuckled, amused by the fact she could forget about Sofia. It wasn’t like there were twelve princes and princesses. "We must be glad that you were not asked a question about the princess today or you would have gotten one answer wrong. You impressed my mother and your peers today by answering quickly and being right."

"Not all of them," Hazel replied as there were ridiculous claims now. "Some think that I had known about the questions and prepared the answers in advance. It cannot be helped that my mother made us study a lot. She wanted us to be well educated so we could be aware of what happens around us."

"Smart woman. I’ll send her a gift," Tobias decided.

"Do that and my mother might faint after overthinking why you sent them. There is a rare chance it might cheer her up after what happened with Helena," Hazel replied, watching on as Tobias pulled out her chair.

Hazel moved to stand before the chair and waited for Tobias to push it back to her to sit down.

"You won’t stop me?" Tobias asked. He would have bet on Hazel to tell him no to sending her mother a gift. In fact, he wasn’t serious but now he wanted to send one to start getting his in-laws to like him.

"You are the prince of this kingdom so you can do whatever you want. How would I be able to stop you? Thank you," Hazel said, thanking him for helping her with her chair. He was quite the gentleman.

"I wouldn’t do it if you said no. I’ve not done things you said no to," Tobias reminded Hazel. "You’re a special kind of person in my life. I don’t listen to when my mother says not to do something these days."

"You sound like a headache to the queen," Hazel replied.

"If you start taking my mother’s side, my feelings for you might go away. They’ll come back the day after so don’t get excited," he added before Hazel could get any ideas. "My mother, father, and sister are all headaches to me, but I still love them. It’s normal with family to have moments when you need to be away from them. You said it yourself."

"That is true, but with you sneaking out of the palace, I feel like you must give the queen a lot of headaches. If you and I were to disagree in the future, would you flee the palace and seek shelter with Edgar or your other friends?" Hazel questioned.

The palace was large enough with many rooms for Tobias to go to another room to be away from her and not need to leave the palace. He said they wouldn’t be sharing a room in the beginning so he could go to his room while she stayed on her own.

"Of course not. When we are married, why would I run to Edgar’s home to be away from my wife? I’ll just annoy you until you forgive me," Tobias answered honestly. Hazel failed to stay angry with him for a long time. He was quick to make her laugh.

"Lucky me," Hazel muttered. "Now it doesn’t sound bad of an idea that you go there."

"I won’t. I enjoy that you are starting to ask questions about our future. Is there anything else you want to know?" Tobias asked, leaning forward to pick up the bottle of juice to open it.

"Not that I can think of right now. I will think it over and bring it up another time. I will say my greatest concern is this court you speak of. I always hear my father complaining about a few men there so many times that I have memorised their names. Will they be a problem for me?" Hazel asked.

"Yes," Tobias answered honestly. "They are a problem for anyone who lives in the palace. Even the maids and guards. Many of them are old bastards who think they are royalty in the palace. They fail to let go of old traditions. Some that would make you want to vomit."

"The most they will bother you about is having a child, balls, and this selection in the future. It’s a bit hard to get rid of them because it is to avoid the king having a lot of men who will do anything he says, leading to him abusing his power," Tobias explained.

It was hard to get into the palace court and harder to get out.

"I suggested killing them, but no one wants to listen to my advice. Unless haunted, a dead man won’t bother you," said Tobias.

"Many of them will need to watch their backs around you. As future kings, some of them must have started to be nice to you so they could benefit from your time on the throne. I understand you a little bit more day by day. Our younger selves would be confused by the sight of us now," Hazel said as they were closer now than they were in the past.