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Jin Heung gazed down longingly at his adoring bride.

“Are you ready to return to my chambers, my love?  My bed has been terribly cold since you left it.”

“Terribly?” she queried as a giggle bubbled up from deep within.

“Terribly,” he grinned with zest as he beamed down at her.  He bent and scooped her up into his arms.  Across his back.  As her mouth released a surprised squeak. 

“Jijin!  What are you doing?”

“Why, carrying my bride over the threshold, of course.”  He turned his head towards her.  “You are all right with me proceeding into our chambers now, right?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked in surprise.  She felt like she’d waited an eternity to be with Jijin.

“I just wondered if perhaps you wanted to take a walk in the sunshine with me first.”

“That sounds absolutely wonderful.  And terribly romantic.  Except that we’d be haunted by ten guards. And this bride wishes to be completely alone with her husband.”

“Mmm.  This husband has similar desires concerning his bride,” he intoned seriously before ruining the effect with a wide smile. “Away we go then!  The sunshine will have to greet us tomorrow morning.”

“Are you going to keep me in bed that long?” she asked in surprise.  They had cut their festivities short due to Jong Su’s disposition.  It was still early afternoon.

“I am going to keep you in my bed for the rest of my life,” he murmured cheekily.

She giggled.  “How ever will I see the sun again then?”

“I’ll be your sun,” he offered.

“You already are,” she murmured sweetly.

“But, seriously, you’re not leaving my bed till tomorrow morning.  Then we’ll seek the face of the sun together.”

“That sounds absolutely…blissful,” she breathed.

Though, truthfully, she was a bit nervous about her first night spent in his arms.  With absolutely nothing separating her from him.  Nothing had prepared her for this moment.  And Sook Myeong had been no help in this realm.  She was still a maiden too.

So it was that Eun Sook found her heart tripping along at an alarming rate as her husband deposited her in the middle of his bed before he crossed the room to shut the door.  Firmly.  She watched as he locked it too before he turned back towards the bed.

“Well, my Sookie, are you ready to have some fun with me?” he asked.

Breathless, she simply stared at him.

He instantly discerned her anxiety.  He narrowed his gorgeous eyes at her.  “Sookie…you’re not afraid of me, are you?”

“Afraid?” she squeaked.  She shook her head.  “I’m not afraid of you, Jijin.”

His face melted in kindness towards her.  “Then tell me what you are afraid of.”

“Have I ever mentioned that I abhor pain?”

“Hmm.  I’m not sure that you’ve ever had an occasion to mention it before,” he murmured as he approached her slowly.

His speed might rival that of a turtle, but the look in his eyes was raising her blood pressure.

She found herself crawling backwards, sliding away from him.  Until her back hit the wall.  Then there was nowhere else to which to flee.

“Um, Jijin?”

“Relax, Sookie.  There’s nothing to fear.  I’ll take it easy.  I promise.  I won’t do anything that you don’t want me to do.”

“Really?”  Her face relaxed.  “You are wonderful to me, Jijin!”

He smiled ruefully.  “But I am hoping that you enjoy me.”

Her expression melted.  “I always enjoy you.”

“Hmm.  Then why are you afraid?”

“I don’t know.  The unknown, perhaps?”

“Let’s conquer it together then,” he offered generously as he sat down on the bed.  He reached for her, beckoning to her with his hand.  “I’m not going to come after you, Sookie.  If you want me, you’re going to have to come to me.”

“What?” she squeaked, surprised.

He bobbed his head.  “You’re in control, my dear.”

She sat staring at him.  Her indigo eyes wide.

So he lay down on his side of the bed and closed his eyes.  “I await your pleasure, my dear.”

She gulped.  What on earth was she supposed to do now?

She sat for several long seconds staring down at his beautiful face.  After a while, she began to relax as she soaked in his beauty.  The man was wonderfully put together.  Suddenly, she found herself curious as to what lay beneath the folds of his royal robes.

“Um, Jijin?  Can you take off your robes?”

“No,” he replied teasingly.  “That’s your job.”

“What?” she squeaked again and began to wonder if she was related to a mouse.  “You want me to take your clothes off?”

“Yes, please,” he grinned.  But he kept his eyes closed, his hands folded over his stomach.

She swallowed as she leaned forward slightly.  Then her eyes found his face again.  It wasn’t just a lovely façade.  The heart of Jijin, the compassionate boy with whom she’d fallen desperately in love, was communicated in that sweet countenance.  She knew that she was privileged to see a side of him few people – maybe no one else – ever saw.  She was suddenly infinitely grateful for that opportunity.  And that grace.

She stretched out alongside him and bent over him to brush her lips across his own.  “I love you, Jijin,” she murmured longingly against that luscious mouth.

His eyes opened a moment later as he felt something wet sliding down his cheek.  She drew back, and he recognized the tearstain on her cheek.  “Sookie?  What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  I must be the most blessed among women.  To have won the heart of a man like you.”

The serious cast of his mouth lightened momentarily as he flipped the corners of his lips up for a second.  But then the sober lines of his lips returned as he murmured, “No, ‘tis I who am twice blessed, Sookie.  To have found you, a maiden fair with such a rare heart and an incredible gift for storytelling,” he grinned again, “to ease my burdens when they are too heavy.  That is an indescribable gift.  You are the gift.  And I love you.  With all my heart.  I am so happy that you didn’t deny me today.  That you allowed me to be your husband.”

She stared at him.  The king had honored her by claiming her as his wife.  Yet he was treating her as though she was the one who had bestowed honor on him, a lowly man.

“Jijin,” she whispered.  For all other words failed her in that moment.

So she let her lips do the talking another way.  And as she indulged in sweet kiss after sweet kiss, they began to deepen into something born of passion.  And one step led to another….

A while later, as she hovered over him, he reached up and pulled the pins from her pale hair.  And grinned in delight as her long tresses suddenly fell to softly brush against his face.  “Like newly fallen snow,” he murmured poetically.

“You won’t grow tired of it?” she queried apprehensively.

“Of what?”

“My pale hair.”

“Never,” he murmured passionately.  “No one could ever persuade me that it isn’t spun of the finest purity.  Nor that God didn’t collect the color of your eyes from the dusky sky just before night falls.  Were I a poet, I would describe it better.”

“I think, Jijin, that you are the finest of poets.  But even if you aren’t, you are everything I want.  And all I need.”

––

The next morning, after taking a stroll in their garden and basking in the light of a kind sun, Jijin tangled his fingers with hers and tugged her towards his throne room.  “Come.  There’s something I’ve been wanting to do.”

“What?” she asked, breathless, as they ran down the corridor separating their private chambers from that exalted seat.

“This,” he gasped a moment later as he plopped down onto that golden bench and pulled her onto his lap.  Then he bent his head and kissed her tenderly.  “You will reign from this throne with me.  And I swear to you that I will never take another wife as long as you agree to remain here with me.”

Her heart bent.  “But…what if I can’t give you children?  Or,” worse yet, “if they aren’t normal?”

It was her greatest fear.

“Aren’t normal?” he questioned, confused.

“If they’re like…me.”  She gestured at her snowy hair.

“You mean if they are stunning beauties with hair like spun snow and eyes like the night sky after the sun has expired?”  He nuzzled her neck and purred, “Don’t tell the others, but they would be my favorites, of course, for so perfectly imitating their ethereal mother.”  

He kissed her sweetly again.  Lingeringly.  Attempting to make her forget the rejection of her past.

But her tears were dividing her cheek from his.

“Sookie, you are utter perfection.  And our children will be too.  I pray they resemble you more than me.  Especially the girls.  I don’t think I’d make a pretty girl.”

She stared up at him speculatively as she studied his gorgeous face.  “I think, your majesty, that I would have to disagree with you.  I cannot imagine a single child of yours being unattractive.  And you know what a vivid imagination I have.”

“Do you?” He quirked one flat, midnight eyebrow at her.  “Shall we return to our bedchamber and test that theory?”

Her pale face was suddenly replaced by bright and burning color that scalded her cheeks and brought out the indigo in her unusual eyes.  “Your majesty!” she rebuked him. 

 For she did have a very vivid imagination.  Indee