The Crown Jewels by Honey Palomino

quite provocative at the time, causing lots of controversy as its popularity grew. It was quite scandalous, actually.”
    “Is that so?” she asked. “I had no idea.”
    “It’s true,” I replied. “Isn’t that funny? That something so seemingly innocent to us now could be so scandalous hundreds of years ago?”
    “I suppose so,” she said. “But time changes everything.”
    “Yes, it does,” I replied, looking down into her eyes. “Jewels, I’m hoping the same applies for us.”
    “What do you mean?” she asked. I could barely look at her and breathe at the same time, she was so fucking beautiful.
    “I mean now that so much time has passed since we were in school together, that maybe we could start over again and maybe find a way to be friends?”
    “Is that what you want, Will? To be friends?” her eyes flashed. The last thing in the world I wanted was to be just friends with her, but I didn’t think now was the time to say that.
    “Yes, I do,” I replied, spinning her around in time to the music. “I think it’s a good start, at least.”
    Silently, she nodded, and I wished more than anything I could read her mind right then. Dozens of couples swirled around us, and we danced in silence a few moments. Her hand in mine was hot against my palm and my cock began throbbing under the pants of my tuxedo. I struggled to keep from pulling her closer, using every ounce of willpower I had to maintain a respectable distance in this crowd.
    “Do your mother and sister always wear tiaras at formal dances like this?” she asked, nodding and waving at my sister by the bar. Catherine was wearing a small band of diamonds in her hair.
    “The Royal Family has countless numbers of tiaras and other jewels that have been passed on through the family for hundreds of years. Catherine hates wearing them, but mother insists that she does it out of tradition. Mother is very big on tradition, if you hadn’t noticed.”
    “They’re beautiful,” she said. I was beginning to feel her body relax against me and it gave me a tiny glimmer of hope.
    “Did you ever get a tour of the castle?” I asked. “I was supposed to give you one the other day.”
    “No, I didn’t. To be honest, I’m afraid to venture too far off the beaten path because I’m afraid I might get lost in some deserted corner of the palace or locked away in some secret dungeon.”
    I laughed and nodded.
    “That is a possibility. Did you know the castle has two hundred and twenty rooms?”
    “That’s quite a lot,” she replied, shaking her head.
    “My mother’s wing has thirty rooms alone. Mine consists of ten and Catherine lives in a separate residence just west of the English gardens we were in last night.”
    Her eyes clouded over when I mentioned last night, and I rushed to change the subject.
    “There’s only one dungeon, but you have to do really, really bad things to get locked in there,” I said, with a teasing wink.
    She laughed, a delightfully musical twinkling laugh that lit up her entire face.
    “Would you like a tour now?” I whispered. “We could get away from the crowd for a while.”
    She looked around at the people surrounding us and then looked at our parents, who were still dancing and still completely absorbed in one another.
    “Sure, I’d love that,” she said. “As long as you promise not to get us lost. Or lock me up in the dungeon.”
    “I grew up here, getting lost is impossible,” I replied with a wink, before I couldn’t help adding, “And I promise not to lock you in the dungeon…unless you’re a very bad girl!”
    “Just a quick tour,” she replied with a smile. Her eyes sparkled up at me, and I took her hand and led her out of the ballroom.
    We walked past the crowd streaming in, and I greeted people and shook hands along the way. Jewels stood patiently by my side as I introduced to her as an ‘old friend’ numerous times and once we were finally away from them all, we ascended the grand staircase