The King's Daughter

6 Arrogant Fool

Giving him a doubtful look, I shook my head with a mocking smile. "You really think you can do that? It wouldn't work, I can promise you that."

"I've never failed yet. I don't plan to start." He returned, standing to his feet.

"You can't kill my parents. They're protected by the royal guard." I insisted.

"Oh honey. I've had countless opportunities to kill them, but I chose not to. Now, I will. After I've married you." He responded, his feet propped up on the table top.

"I would never marry you." I said, clutching the butter knife hidden in the folds of my dress.

"You will. I'll give you time to accept it. On your eighteenth birthday, we shall be wed." He cocked his head arrogantly.

"You would like to think. I'll never say yes to you. You're a...monster." My voice grew softer.

"A monster you say? Perhaps because of the games I play, yes. But you don't know what I look like." He pointed out, suddenly standing to his feet. "I think I could stand you, so you'll stay, which means...you get the pleasure of seeing my face."

"Are you hideous?" I asked.

He chuckled as if I were stupid. "Why? Are you afraid you might have to marry a beast?"

"I'm not going to marry you, so I don't care what you look like." I shrugged.

"You innocent, stupid, naive little girl." He sighed humorously, slowly making his way down the long table toward my end.

I shifted in my seat, becoming nervous.

"You should be excited to see what I look like. Few have seen my face who aren't dead now. Only my men see my face, and now you, my fiancée." His hand slid along the wooden table surface until he was a few feet from where I sat.

"I'm not marrying you. I'm returning to the palace where I belong and you're going to prison." I told him firmly, but my voice shook.

He chuckled again, as if I were funny and then leaned toward me, his hands resting on the table. "I always get what I want darling."

Leaning back in my chair as far as I could, I looked at him doubtfully. "Maybe that's why you're so rude and conceited."

He stood up again and placed a hand on his hip. "It'll take some work training you to be a good wife, but it's possible. You're already fairly meek and accommodating."

I frowned, shaking when I remembered I was hiding a knife. If he got closer I could stab him, but then I realized that I couldn't do that. Stabbing someone wasn't possible for me, no matter how evil they were.

"I'm not marrying you! You're probably an ugly old man!" I replied adamantly.

He laughed at that and shook his head. "You amuse me Aria."

"Don't address me by my name." I ordered.

"Why not Aria?" He said again.

Clenching my fists, I huffed and looked away from him.

"Would you care to see your future husband's face?" He asked.

"No. I don't care what you look like. I'm going back to the palace." I murmured.

"You're ruining the big reveal. There was supposed to be a huge climax leading up to when I remove my mask and you're not cooperating." He grumbled.

"Sometimes things don't work out. Get used to it." I shot at him.

"Oo. The princess is getting a bit feisty. Perhaps I should put her back in her place." He commented.

I quickly looked at him in the dim light. "No need."

"I'm taking my mask off. The moment's ruined anyway." He said and reached up to do so.

I stared at my plate, oddly afraid of what I would see. I expected a hideous wrinkly deformed monster. He set the intricate blue mask beside my plate and my eyes grew wide in anxiety.

"Don't be afraid to look, princess." He reassured me.

Glancing over at his feet, I slowly brought my eyes up until I was looking at his face. My jaw suddenly dropped and my body froze in shock. Never in my life had I seen a more attractive man than he who was standing before me. I couldn't believe my eyes.

His blue eyes sparkled with mischief and his smirk was mesmerizing, no matter how arrogant he was acting. He was almost a foot taller than me and I assumed he had a nice body underneath his fitted classy clothes. His brown hair was messily in his face, complimenting the scruff on his jaw. He was entirely, impossibly, and completely...beautiful.

"Oh."

"Speechless I see." Louis gloated smugly.

Discreetly rolling my eyes, I tore my gaze from him and focused on the hard wood table. He came up to me and I saw his hand reach out at the corner of my eye. I moved away in alarm.

"Don't touch me, sir." I requested.

"Whatever you want, princess." His hands retreated and he stepped back with a flourishing bow. "I shall take you to your room."

"You mean your room?" I corrected, remembering how I'd slept in his bed last night.

"I mean your room. Last night was just so I could keep an eye on you and see how you'd behave. You earned your own room." He explained.

"Honestly?" I asked, suspicious of him.

"Yes, Aria, you can sleep alone for now. I won't be violating your space—you are my fiancée after all. Now follow me." He gestured to the door and waited until I stood up.

Eyeing me briefly, he reached out and grasped my wrist so I'd quicken my pace. Nervous, but not brave enough to resist, I let him pull me from the large dining room and through the spacious house to the main staircase. He pulled me up them and then down the long hallway. We passed his bedroom and soon came to a door. He opened it and nudged me inside.

"This will be your room until your eighteenth birthday." Louis said to me.

The room was lovely and comfortable. However it was nothing like my bed chambers at the palace. I glanced at him anxiously, but curiously. He didn't make any sense.

"A man of your mentality—why would you wait to wed me? Why wouldn't you simply force me now, even though I'm under age?" I inquired cautiously.

He simply smirked and tweaked my nose. "I want to give you time to put your anger toward me away so that you can fall in love with me."

Taken aback, I wondered how he could think me falling in love with him was a possibility. He was a terrorist. He terrorized my country — my people; and now he had just threatened my parents. How could I ever begin to have romantic feelings for this monster?

"You had better understand me when I say that I will never fall in love you. I'll be rescued or I'll escape on my own and you will be executed." I told him firmly, standing a few feet from him.

He chuckled, backing toward the door. "It's cute how you actually believe that."

Frustrated with his irritating nature, I huffed and crossed my arms. "You sir, are unbelievable."

He smiled then and checked me out, raising his eyebrows. "Your opinions of me will change, my dear."

With that, he shut the door on me and locked it.

"What an arrogant fool." I muttered to myself, wondering how I would escape his plans for me.