The Wicked Prince

by Celeste Baxendell

“From the moment I first saw you under that hood, I knew I would either kill you or marry you.”

Prince John might think he held all the cards, but Robin always kept a few up her sleeve.

Robin didn’t go anywhere in the castle without three guards. She was the prince’s fiancée. She needed to be protected. John also didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her, and he couldn’t throw anything very far, much less her.

His heart started beating faster, and he could barely breathe watching Robin come down the aisle. She was stunning. Her hair was half-up, half-down, pinned back with gold and pearl pins, slightly curled and falling down her neck and back. It was the perfect shade, not quite brown but not obnoxiously blonde. Her veil was covering her face, and John’s fingers were itching to lift it before she’d even made it halfway down the aisle.

If the dress was purposefully designed to be difficult to try to run away in, well, weren’t all wedding dresses? It was no less magnificent.

he lifted her veil and grinned at the intense blue eyes that greeted him. The officiant had started speaking, but John barely heard him as he met Robin’s eyes and reached for her hands. She placed her hands in his. Her expression was neutral, but her eyes were a storm. John couldn’t imagine a more perfect bride.

“I should break your leg for that. I told you not to move.” “You told me not to scream.” “Not moving was implied.” “You’re going to kill me over an implication?” “You’re Prince John. There are plenty of reasons to kill you.”

Robin Hood was a young woman. And John? John had a much better idea than an archery competition. Robin could have the golden arrow. John was going to have Robin.

Robin was an objectively beautiful young woman and he was a young man with a taste for the finer things in life who very much enjoyed beautiful things.

All he wanted was to pick up his charcoal and capture the way the candlelight had reflected in Robin’s eyes, more intense and determined that night at dinner than normal.

His outlaw was out of her depth, and he’d be happy to show her. She wanted games? He’d play. And he’d win.

“My righteous outlaw, my brave princess, my hateful wife, save your people from their greedy, wicked tyrant.”

John didn’t like this game. As he stared at Robin in the candlelight, he had a strange realization. He didn’t want to win if it meant Robin lost.

He’d be the most hated man in the world twice over for her sake.

Even though it was looser than most of the dresses he saw her in, there was something more appealing about it because of that fact. Maybe he just liked the reminder of how feral she really was.

he was pleased to see her guards never appreciated her unconventional outfit the way he did. Good. He would hate to have to have their eyes cut out.

🤭

“Alright, if you insist on us beating each other with sticks, I at least need to make sure you don’t get my face. It’s my best feature.” Robin’s eyes flickered to his arms for a moment before she looked back up and said, “We’ll see.

she couldn’t match an outfit to save her life. He’d once spotted her with black slippers under a tan and green dress. Feral woman, at least she had worn shoes.

So he couldn’t love her. Because he couldn’t bear what would happen if it slipped out. He couldn’t lose what little he did have with her. No matter how much he wanted more.

John rested his hand on her leg again and closed his eyes, unable to pretend he didn’t feel his heart swelling so much it was about to break right out of his chest. He loved her. And he could never let her find out.

Why my guards? I could use a sparring partner that will give me a challenge.” John leaned on his own hand, staring Robin down. “Because I’m not going to let anyone leer at or get a handful of my wife.”

“Besides, if I ever looked at you the way some of those men look at any beautiful woman, much less touch you any way you didn’t want me to, you’d kill me.”

She was Robin Hood, the most wanted criminal in the country, not some little girl tongue-tied around a handsome boy. John wasn’t a handsome boy. He was a handsome man though. Especially as they sat on the ground side by side, still flushed from sparring and the cold, his hair in complete disarray, and his brown eyes burning hotter than any fire she could wish for in such a chill.

That was a whole other challenge, planning a ball for the woman he spent almost all of his day with and keeping her from discovering said plans. It was almost as hard as keeping the very same woman he spent every day with from discovering how pathetically in love with her he was.

John knew he would not be satisfied with just one. But his greed for Robin knew no bounds, so he would simply have to take whatever she would give him.

John leaned his head against Robin’s, taking in the feeling of her hair against his cheek and in his hand. It was a horrid thing, to be trying to memorize what it was like to hold her while she cried, but John could not help his greedy, wicked heart. If this would be the only way Robin would ever be close to him, he was going to take it and engrave it into his memory.

The light that radiated out of her smile and her eyes went straight into the heart that seemed to beat only for her. It took root there and started to grow. Hope. If he loved her enough without saying it, maybe she could love him in return.

Even terrible fighters get lucky, not to mention your height and natural strength advantage even if you still have a lack of skill. Plus, I often leave openings for you to take advantage of on purpose and you never do.” “Oh, so you want me to take advantage of you?”

How could you think it was going to end any possible way but this? After everything you did to her?” John had settled in, willing to just take it like he always did, but that dug under his skin like sand. He snapped, “Like what? Spared her life? Didn’t force her to do anything she didn’t want to do? Kept my hands to myself? Worked with her to try and keep our country together? Painted a portrait of her parents and her because I love her? Gave a speech and put myself amongst people who would like to see my head roll because she believes in them? Came running after her the second she ran away so that I could have one last chance to make it clear to her how much I love her and value her and have a hope that maybe she’ll see me for more than the weak coward I was before I ever met her?”

“All of it because I did not know how to tell you I love you. But I do. I love you, and if I must lose you, I will have you face me.”

Even better than the day Prince John caught Robin Hood was the day Robin Hood chose Prince John.