Evangeline's eyes widen in outrage and she puts her hands on Clover's chest before shoving him away, she raises her hand and smacks him across the face
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
Clover's eyes darken and as he felt the sting in his cheek, he grabbed her by her nape again before dropping his forehead to his "I'm sorry."
She tries to keep up the strong exterior by letting out a scoff "You seem to be apologizing a lot lately"
"And I hardly came around to apologizing for what I said" he lets out a heavy breath before leaning back to stare into her blue eyes "I don't regret going to you in the storm and I won't ever regret it."
Her eyes roam over his face, trying to detect the lie but she doesn't find any "You're a different person around her."
Evangeline doesn't need to mention who, because Clover knew exactly who she was referring to. He swallows thickly "I'll be better."
She scoffs "Just like that?"
"Just like that."
"You're drunk"
"I'm perfectly fine and I mean it, Princess. I'll be better"
"I don't believe you, because if you wanted to be better than you would've stayed away from the maid"
His jaw clenches "Don't call her that"
"Why not? That's exactly what she is."
"Mia more than a maid."
She shakes her head "I am not doing this right now"
Clover stares at her for a moment, her red lipstick smudged from when he kissed her and fuck does he want to do it again "Please do the test"
She frowns in confusion before she realizes what he's referring to "No. I told you I'm not doing it again, everyone just has to take my word for it"
He scoffs when she starts walking away from him again and he clutches her wrist "Can you stop listening with the intention to respond and listen with the intention of understanding?"
She opens her mouth to say something snarky but snaps it shut when she realizes that would just prove his point. "Fine. I'm listening with the intention to understand"
"Good" he says in approval "You should have been made aware of the fact that you'll have to do the virtue test twice and it's utterly my fault for not communicating with you about my family traditions. I expected you to know about it, which was foolish on my side." The tension slowly leaves her body as his words register, the party is still happening in the courtyard but neither of them are focused on that right now. No, right now their only focus is each other. "You have to do the test, Princess, not doing it will seem like you have something to hide. And people spreading rumours about your…purity is not good. For either of us."
It's kind of funny that she once offered herself on a silver platter for him and he declined it.
Wait.
"If you knew all along I'll have to do the test again before the wedding then that night in your chamber…"
He nods slowly "I had to put a stop before we got carried away. I didn't want to tarnish your positive reputation" her lips twitch, trying to fight off a smile at the sarcastic way he spoke about her reputation. Evangeline was not stupid, she heard what people referred to her as and she pretends it doesn't bother her that much.
He cups her face to make her stare at nothing but him "You were in some kind of zone that night. You didn't want to listen to me and I felt being rude was the only way to get you to stop"
She gives him a pointed look "You said we're acquaintances." he winces as she throws his words back at him "The thought of being intimate makes you sick to your stomach right?"
He immediately shakes his head "I lied. I lied, Evangeline." He lets out a bitter laugh as he stares deeply into her eyes "Gods, being intimate with you will probably be the highlight of our marriage"
"Great so you view me as merely a sex toy." she says dryly
"No, no, no" he rushes to say "Stop putting words in my mouth, because that is not what I meant okay? I do look forward to being intimate with you but the idea of having to spend the rest of my life with you consumes my mind every fucking second." his eyes dart between hers as he swallows "And it doesn't sound so bad anymore than it used to"
She blinks in surprise and stays deadly still as his words sink in and when they do, she crashes her lips to his. He grunts, completely caught off guard but then he's kissing her back, he wraps a hand around her throat as he pulls her bottom lip between his teeth before thrusting his tongue into her mouth. She lets out a small moan of surprise as she tries matching his urgency, she has never kissed before least of all tongue kissed but she follows his lead. Clover seems to be having a good fucking time as he grabs the back of her thighs and lifts her into his arms and she immediately grabs onto his wide shoulders and wraps her legs around his waist. They know it's risky and that anyone could see them right now but that only seems to add to the thrill of the moment as Clover blindly walks over to the willow tree and presses her up against it all the while still kissing her. Their hands are moving wildly over each others body, trying to touch as much as they can
"We should stop," Clover says between kisses.
"We should" she agrees before sucking on his bottom lip and that makes him groan softly before thrusting his hips against hers. She gasps in surprise when she feels his arousal pressed up against her
"You like that?" he murmurs, his voice rough and his eyes dark as he stares down at her
"Yeah" she breathes
He kisses her jaw and moves down to her neck as he continues to grind himself against her and she holds onto him for dear life, not wanting him to stop. Someone coughs awkwardly to the side and she shrieks while Clover looks over his shoulder to see who it is
"Marcus."
The gardener looks anywhere but at them "Prince Clover. Princess Evangeline"
She lightly hits Clover's chest who reluctantly puts her down and covers her from Marcus' view as she straightens her dress as her face heats up in embarrassment but Clover makes no effort to hide his obvious…excitement "Did you need something?"
Marcus clears his throat "People are starting to leave. The King sent for you. The both of you."
Right. This was their engagement party, of course they should be greeting their guests goodbye. Not sneaking off to swallow each other's throats. So they went back to the party and thanked everyone for coming and saying they'll see them at the wedding. That night in bed Evangeline had butterflies in her stomach and couldn't for the life of her get some sleep so she puts on her robe and snuck down to Clover's bedchamber. Only to see Mia sneaking into it.