The Crown's Entrapment

Waking up in the morning, Clara almost wondered just why her body felt so heavy and stiff only to be reminded of the reason why when she opened her eyes. Somehow, even after hours of sleeping, Gilas was still resting on top of her, his head snuggly buried deep in between her breasts as his soft breaths tickled the skin in between them.

"T-This is a problem..."

Sure, she could always just let Gilas sleep on top of her for a bit more, but the feeling of stickiness was starting to grate on her nerves. She could vaguely recall thinking otherwise of cleaning herself last night, and sure enough, she was paying for that decision right now.

'Then again, I was too exhausted to even think straight last night...' she inwardly chuckled.

Shrugging, Clara began the task of prying herself away from Gilas's sleeping form. It slightly pained her to do so, but her hatred of the stickiness she was currently feeling won out as she slowly lifted her mate's head out of her chest and onto the nearest pillow available.

With that done, she then stood up and quickly made her way to the privy to clean herself up. Even now, she felt the dry remains of Gilas's seed sticking to her, and she really wanted to at least be presentable before heading for breakfast.

'I can only hope that he wakes up without a headache,' she inwardly scoffed. 'But just in case, I should probably have some hangover cure sent up here for later...'

With a plan now formed, she then got herself dressed before heading down to the dining room. There, she saw that the King and Queen, along with the Queen Mother, her mother-in-law Shila, as well as Gideon's parents together with Osman, Bella, and Jayra. Notably, all of the men that went down drunk and disoriented last night were absent. Understandably, they were all indisposed either by still being asleep or by having a hangover so epic that it would take them a while to recover.

Also absent was the new couple of Freya and Gideon. Then again, the two of them being absent was something to be expected.

"Good morning," Clara greeted with a small nod before making her way to the dinner table.

"Good morning, Clara," Shila greeted her with a smile. "We were just about to have breakfast."

"I'm glad I made it then," Clara softly chuckled. "And I take it that the new couple is still in their room?"

"They've been at it since last night, I'm sure," Bella teasingly chuckled. "I wouldn't be surprised if we somehow learn that they only now went to sleep after being in each other's presence."

Clara let out a scoff as he sat beside Shila. Giving out her customary greetings to the rest of the occupants on the table with her, they then began to share a breakfast.

She could only imagine what Freya and Gideon were up to at the moment. Not that it was that hard to imagine, seeing as her own encounter with Gilas last night left her gasping and reeling enough to want more of it to happen.

***

It wasn't until they were midway through breakfast that Gilas entered the dining room. Almost immediately, Clara could tell that her mate was still exhausted from last night. Thankfully, he didn't seem to be hungover anymore, meaning that her earlier request to have some of the cure sent up to their room reached him just in time.

"Good morning..." Gilas groaned.

"Ah, you finally came to join us, Son," Shila chuckled. "I take it you had fun last night?"

Clara fought the blush starting to form on her cheeks. She was sure that Shila had no idea what happened between them last night, so why was she being this affected?

"You're blushing, Clara," Bella questioned her from her left side. "Did something happen between you two?"

"S-Something along those lines," Clara vaguely replied.

Before Bella could question her further, Gilas thankfully spoke once more, taking the pressure off Clara as she took the time to regroup her composure.

"I have a headache that's only now coming down," Gilas sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Thankfully, there was a bowl of hangover cure by the side of the bed when I came to."

"Oh, so that's what Clara requested from one of the servants," Queen Xenia nodded in understanding.

"So I have her to thank then," Gilas let off a smile as he turned to face Clara. "Thank you, Clara."

Once more, just as she thought that she had her blush under control, Clara felt her cheeks redden from his mere gaze. Despite everything, flashes of what happened last night kept on replying itself in her head. Looking at him right now, she knew that she shouldn't expect him to remember just what exactly happened, but a part of her couldn't help but wonder if he truly remembered all of the things that he had done to her.

"We'll speak of this later, alright?" Bella suddenly told her, a look of knowing plastered on her old friend's face. "I have a feeling that something happened, but I won't press you about it now."

Clara let out a resigned smile as she smiled at Bella. Weakly, she could only reply, "Thank you..."

Wordlessly, the breakfast continued as it was. Gilas, having only just arrived, took the nearest available seat to him with his own plate of food. As it turned out, it was also the seat right across from Clara's, which only made her look at him more closely in hopes that she could determine if he truly remembered their time last night.

Unfortunately again for her, their gazes immediately met just as soon as he sat down in front of her.

"Clara?"

"Y-Yes?"

"You're staring," he nonchalantly told her. "Is there something on my face?"

She was frozen stiff with sheer awkwardness. Thinking quickly, she replied, "Y-You still have some drool on you."

Thankfully, Gilas seemed to buy her lie as he promptly thanked her while wiping away the supposed drool off his face. To the rest of the table, however, it was clear that something happened between the two. Already, Clara could tell that there were a lot of burning questions in everyone's minds as they stole glances at both her and Gilas.

Once more, she simply let out a resigned sigh before returning to her food. It was going to happen eventually. She just had to keep her cool... The awkwardness will all blow over eventually...