Ever After Quotes

“Cassius?” Prince Merrick whispered, looking at him as though he could feel Cassius’s tension. “Are you well? You’re shaking.”
“I’m…I’m sorry, Your Highness. I am well.” He managed to get the words past his dry lips.
Though it was too dark to see the prince’s eyes, he could feel them upon him, his stare intense. He felt it like a caress, like soft yet urgent fingers against his skin.
Why could he not have this one thing for himself? A moment that went beyond satisfying his prick with a man he did not know, but with one he did. Someone he enjoyed, someone he desired beyond simple fucking.
Because he is a prince and you are his servant…
This was not a story, a fairy tale selling the lie of a happily-ever-after that couldn’t be a reality for someone like Cassius. That was not a reality for Merrick either.
He turned away, did not let himself gaze at the prince for the rest of the performance. He ignored Lady Penelope’s whispers to Prince Merrick, the jealousy that burned through his gut.
This was his reality, and he had better get used to it”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“Once upon a time there was an exquisite prince Who filled my wintry soul with all the colors of spring He became my day, my night, my sun, my moon My heart, my soul, my very bones My Ever After”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“What do you think they’ll say about us?” Cassius whispered in Merrick’s ear as they danced heart to heart and cheek to cheek.
“That we are two handsome princes madly in love.”
“We are certainly handsome this evening,” Cassius replied with a twinkle in his eye. They had chosen to wear matching black tailcoats with golden cuff links. “And I shall definitely love you until I take my final breath.”
“And I you,” Merrick replied with a thick throat as he pressed a discreet kiss to his temple.”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“I believe I was afraid…of not being worthy of you. I have spent weeks writing, scribbling my thoughts, reliving every moment we shared, and I saw…the happiness we shared when we were together. The gleam in your dark eyes when you saw me. And I realized…that is what it’s about, is it not? Those pieces of happiness are what matters. Not title or name. I write stories and poems of love and dreams coming true, but I did not allow myself to see it as something that could be real…not for me…but it was true…what we shared, and not only am I better for it, the world could be too.”
“I am a better man because of you, Cas. Imagine what we could do together?”
Cassius gasped…hoped. “Do you still want me, my prince?"
“I have never wanted another the way I want you. There will never be another I love the way I love you.”
Merrick raised his hand, cupped Cassius’s cheek. Cas nuzzled into him, closed his eyes, trembled when he felt Merrick’s lips touch his. They kissed slowly, deeply, reexploring each other.
Cassius swallowed down Merrick’s moans and then fed him his own.
And it was…perfect.
When they pulled apart, Cassius led Merrick back to the rock. The sun kept the chill off as they climbed on together”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“I did not think you would come back.”
Cas’s heart bled for the pain he’d caused his prince. “I did not think I would either,” he answered honestly. Merrick whipped his head up at that. “Not because I didn’t want to. You have much to lose, my prince. More than I could ever give you in return.”
“Should I not be the one who decides how much what I lose or gain means to me?” He shook his head. “You do not get to make that decision for me, Cas, just as I cannot make it for you…and that is what I did by approaching you at the ball. I apologize for that. I should not have done it so publicly, but that doesn’t change what I want. You think you don’t give me much, but your love gives more than any title ever could. It is with you that I am the truest form of myself.”
Cassius’s knees went weak. His heart thudded in his ears, and his vision blurred. “It is with you that I am the truest form of myself as well. I could not separate my love for you from my fear of what you would sacrifice for me. I could not see how the trade was fair to you…to the people of Evergreen.”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“Come. You can borrow a horse and go to him. I will send word to Winterfrost that if Merrick returns, you have gone to find him.”
“Why?” Cassius stopped and looked at her. “Why would you do all this? I have ruined his reputation. I…”
“Love my brother, that is what you do and that is all that matters to me. You still love him, do you not?” she asked.
“With every ounce of my heart and soul,” Cassius replied.
“Nothing matters more than that.”
No…no it didn’t. They hurried the rest of the way to the stables. Princess Marjorie watched while Cassius prepared Tabby to ride. When he finished, he hiked his bag more securely on his shoulder before using the stirrup to climb into the saddle. “Thank you, Your High—Marjorie,” he told her, and then he was gone, flying through the woods and to their magical place beneath the canopy of dreams where all their stories could come true.”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“She is someone to be admired. She will produce a worthy heir.”
“I know it is not how you envisioned it, Father,” Marjorie muttered into her teacup. “I could always keep the Davendall name. It would be a very modern thing to do. Or perhaps someday Merrick might consider adopti—”
“That will be enough for one day, my dear,” their father said, grasping for his chest. “But no matter what we decide for our future, we are a family, and we must stick together.”
His mother nodded. “The monarchy will survive whatever comes our way”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“You care for him,” his mother murmured as if the idea of it was finally dawning on her.
“I love him,” Merrick replied in a steady voice. Of this he was certain. “I know it is difficult to understand. You probably think it unnatural. Deviant. Impossible. But I was born this way, and all we want…all I want is someone to care for. To share my life with. Same as you.”
He heard a noise from behind his elbow and realized his sister was weeping. He patted her shoulder, shushing her.
“Merrick should be able to live as he chooses,” Marjorie blubbered as she dabbed at her eyes. “It is not fair that he cannot be his true self. Why does it matter whom he loves? He is not hurting anybody.”
Merrick held his breath as he watched his parents’ faces soften, and they glanced expectantly at one another.
“Is that what you want, son?” his mother finally asked. “To…live on your own terms?”
“More than anything,” he said in a breathless whisper. “I am sorry I am not who you wanted me to be.”
He felt his sister reach for his hand. “You are exactly who you were born to be.”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“My dearest brother,” Marjorie replied with a sorrowful smile. “I am only sorry your heart has been broken.”
“Cassius was right to refuse me,” Merrick replied even as the words ripped the fresh wound along the seams again. “He was only protecting himself. His reputation.”
The words stuck in his throat. Had Merrick thought about the repercussions, he would’ve chosen a different route last night. He would not have done it so publicly perhaps, for Cassius’s sake, no matter what they’d whispered to each other their last night together.
“I do not care who knows. It is only the harm it could do that holds me back. If I could, I would walk proudly by your side.”
But what then? It was a jumbled mess no matter the outcome.
Marjorie shook her head. “Cassius was protecting you. That much was evident.”
The words only warmed Merrick for a brief instant. He knew Cassius cared for him. But now he understood that the idea of them being together was only a fool’s wish, no matter how many times he recited the words of Cas’s poem from memory and wished them true with all his might”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“I love him,” Cassius found himself saying.
She brushed his hair from his forehead. “He loves you as well, dear brother. He wore it like armor for me to see. Armor he was proud to wear because it kept him safe. You wear it too. I saw it in both of you when you brought him home. It makes you strong.”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“Cassius could not control his rapidly shaking hands. He wrung them together as though that would prevent it, but of course, it did no such thing.
Merrick had chosen him. He had approached Cassius with all of Evergreen’s aristocrats in attendance, and had asked Cas to dance.
And Cas had run.
That had been the right thing to do. He knew that to the depths of his soul. Merrick had too much at stake, too much to risk for Cassius. The kingdom was more important than Cassius, and Merrick was as well.
Merrick had chosen him…”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“Merrick moved away from the guests and toward the terrace doors, where Cassius had made his escape, hoping it was only a dream and he would see his love waiting for him.
But as the cool air hit his skin, he only saw the vast forest before him and heard the whistling wind through the trees. He felt hollow once again.
A rectangular object on the stairs caught his attention, and he bent to pick it up. It was Cassius’s notebook, flipped open to the very last page. His gaze greedily drank in the sentences written by his lover’s hand.
Once upon a time there was an exquisite prince
Who filled my wintry soul with all the colors of spring
He became my day, my night, my sun, my moon
My heart, my soul, my very bones
My Ever After”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“I am sorry,” Merrick said with his back to Cassius.
“I am too, Your Highness.”
Merrick did not turn around when Cassius finished and walked toward the door. He had just set his hand upon the knob when Merrick added, “Thank you, Cas…for everything”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“You are in love.”
“What?” His first instinct was to draw back and deny it. But this was his sister, whom he’d shared many a secret with over the years, and this was one he could no longer deny.
His shoulders dropped in defeat. “Yes, I love him. Very much.”
She sighed as she cupped his chin. “My heart hurts for you, brother.”
“I will survive.” Merrick shut his eyes momentarily as he drew a deep breath. “You survived…”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“I cannot imagine never being inside you again.”
Cassius glanced over his shoulder, his gaze softening. “We have all night, my prince.”
And that was exactly what they had. It was hours before dawn.
They napped, fucked again, and nestled tightly together until light filtered through the window.
They were covered in each other’s seed, the room smelled of musk and sex, and Merrick wanted nothing more than to live forever with Cassius in his arms”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“Cas, my darling Cas,” Merrick murmured into his throat. “I am yours. I will always be yours. You own my heart.”
Cassius swayed and moaned, his hand reaching up to clasp their fingers together. “And you own mine, my prince”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“Please, my prince…my Merrick.”
Merrick trailed his nails over the dimples of his buttocks before his lips found the shell of his ear. “Anything, Cas. I would give you anything.”
Cassius’s breath ghosted out of him as he arched his back, his head sinking to the crook of Merrick’s neck. Cas twisted his mouth, and the way their lips brushed together made Merrick shiver. “I would like to feel your cock inside me.”
Merrick gasped as he gripped Cassius’s hair in his fingers, bent his head back, and crushed their lips together.
“Take me,” Cassius groaned. “Make me yours.”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“Nothing has ever felt like it does when I’m with you.”
He raised Cassius’s hand to his lips and kissed his wrist. Cassius closed his eyes and sighed. “For me as well.”
Merrick leaned forward and rested their foreheads together. “I wish this could be real.”
“It is real,” Cassius replied, placing his hand against Merrick’s chest and then his own. “Inside both of us. So let us pretend it’s real everywhere else for tonight”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“My sweet Cassius,” Merrick replied before cupping Cassius’s cheek and kissing him again. “We shall make this the best night of our lives.”
Cassius grinned, kissed Merrick’s hand, and said, “It already is”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“We will have one night in each other’s arms.”
One night was all they would have when they longed for their ever after…
“Yes, my prince.”
Cassius closed his eyes, felt the prince’s soft mouth upon his. His tongue lashed Cas’s lips before he parted them. It was difficult to be as close to Merrick as he wanted because of their layers of clothing. Still, Merrick’s touch somehow seared through him; he felt the warmth of Merrick’s hand against his back. Cassius raised his hands and cupped Merrick’s handsome face as they shared what he hoped was their first kiss of a night full of their mouths intimately attached.
He longed to hear the soft noises that came from Merrick’s throat when they kissed. As though he heard Cas’s thoughts, he made a soft sound into Cas’s mouth, and Cas swallowed it down as though it nourished him.”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“I’d very much like to meet your family.”
Cassius pulled suddenly to the side of the road and turned to seek Merrick’s gaze. “Why would you request such a thing?”
“Because they are part of your life, and I long to know more of you.”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“I only… I want to know what it is like to be normal. To spend a day and a night with my lover where we do not have to hide, where we can just be like everyone else. Where I could hold your hand and dance with you and…” He shook his head. “I sound foolish. Forgive me.”
“No.” Cassius fingered Merrick’s hair. “You do not sound foolish. It is my dream as well.”
“We shall dream together, then.”
Cassius nodded before he leaned down, pressing his lips upon the prince’s. Merrick’s tongue sneaked into his mouth, and Cassius welcomed it, sucked it, offered his own to Merrick. He pulled Cassius on top of him as their tongues continued to tangle and Cassius fingered Merrick’s hair. His hands cupped Cassius’s buttocks as they fed each other, quenched each other’s thirst with the pleasure of the moment.
They kissed until Cassius’s jaw hurt and he leaned far enough away that he could look down at the prince again. He touched a lock of his hair. “Please do not cut it,” Cassius asked”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“Will you tell me a story?” Merrick asked.
So Cassius did. He told a story of two men who were in love. How one courted the other, and their families shared dinners, and magic allowed them to fly. They laughed together, drew together, wrote together, and spent their days having snowball fights with children. They hung the moon together each night and helped the sun rise each morning.
And they lived happily ever after, in ways Merrick and Cassius could not”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“I write about you too. What it is like inside you.” He took in a shaky breath and then asked, “Can I see them?”
Merrick nodded. He reached for his notebook before leaning back against Cas again. He thumbed through the pages, and Cassius saw his face, his smile, his eyes, his prick, and his buttocks.
“They are…they’re beautiful. I can hardly believe they’re me.”
“Why?” Merrick asked. “You are beautiful.”
He couldn’t believe it because they were drawn by Prince Merrick’s hand with such care…such affection, that it stole his breath. When Cas didn’t reply, Merrick continued, “What if we could do it together? I could draw illustrations and you could write the stories. We could spend eternity that way.”
“It is a nice dream,” he replied, because that was all it could be”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“We can stop…” Cassius said.
“We can…”
He felt Merrick’s breath upon his mouth.
“I do not want to,” Cassius replied.
“I do not want to either.”
Then their mouths were lightly teasing one another. They pressed gentle kisses upon each other’s lips as though they were testing the waters again.
“I felt you all day…the evidence of you being inside me. Each time I sat or moved, my body recalled taking you deep.”
Cas shuddered. “I wish I could feel you inside me as well, so I would always know you there.”
They were kissing again then, more hungrily. Cassius had never tasted anything as sweet as the prince on his tongue. His prick hardened, ached. He wished to embed the mixture of brandy and Merrick into his taste buds. To feel the strength of Merrick deep within his ass. To burn Merrick into the memory of his fingertips so he could recall it over and over and over again.
“You wreck me, Cas,” Merrick said against his mouth. Their tongues moved together. Merrick’s hand cupped the back of his head, slid under his hat, and threaded his fingers there”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“I…thank you, my prince,” Cassius replied. He didn’t have the words to express what that meant to him, what Merrick did.
“Cas…” Merrick whispered. Their hands were still clasped together. Merrick used his free one to cup Cassius’s cheek. “You cause me to desire things I should not desire, things I cannot have, but…” He brushed his thumb over Cassius’s bottom lip, making Cas gasp. “Your lips are soft. I want to taste them again.”
“We shouldn’t,” Cas replied, but his head leaned in slowly as he spoke.
“No, we should not,” Merrick replied as he leaned in as well. They did not stop until their foreheads pressed together”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“He recalled their first conversation in the stables about flying and freedom, and this moment was just that. They were traveling together, journeying to a land that was theirs and theirs alone. A secret world where responsibilities and rules regarding what was proper or not didn’t exist. A place that was made in Cassius’s imagination where he and Merrick could touch, kiss, talk, and laugh with no consequences.
A place he wished truly existed but did not. It was a lie. They were not lovers, not in the true sense. He would not be allowed to have Prince Merrick again or to give himself to the prince. But in this moment that truth was not their reality, and Cassius allowed himself to pretend Merrick was courting him. That they were simply two men who desired one another and could have what they wanted”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“Say my name again.”
“Merrick,” Cassius replied. “Merrick, Merrick, Merrick,” he said against the prince’s lips.
“I shall never forget this moment.” He kissed Cassius’s cheek, the corner of his mouth. “It will be with me always, and I will always long for more.”
“I will forever long for more as well, my prince.” His chest squeezed tight in a way it shouldn’t have. He knew what this was and had to remember that.
Merrick cupped Cassius’s face in his hands. “Thank you.”
“Please do not thank me for this.”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“It is like a dream come true,” he admitted. They had both dreamed of one another, but now it was real. Now it was flesh and reality, and he wished this night could last an eternity.
“Maybe you will write it one day…a story or a poem of a prince who desired his valet like his lungs yearned for air.”
His heart thundered, grew, swelled within his chest. Yes, Cassius thought he would. He could immortalize them in words.
Cassius gasped when Merrick lowered to his knees to remove Cas’s trousers and undergarments. His prick ached as it sprung free, and the prince leaned in, nudging his nose in the coarse hair at Cassius’s groin.
“Merrick.” Cassius twined his fingers in the prince’s soft hair.
“You smell of my soap.”
“I need you,” Cassius replied.
“I am here.”
― Riley Hart, Ever After

“He did not see how he could be considered the breathtaking one with the prince in the room. He was everything Cassius was not. He set Cassius’s soul afire. And yet those words filled him in ways he did not know he needed filling. “You are…breathtaking, Cassius.”
“Cas,” the prince whispered again.
“Merrick,” Cassius tested the name on his tongue once more. “I would like to taste the brandy upon your lips. We can have tonight, can we not? Just tonight?” It was all they would ever be allowed to share. The prince would be forced to continue to court Lady Penelope or another woman, and Cassius would watch from afar and dream.
“If I cannot have more, then I will gladly take one night with you.” Merrick clutched Cas’s hand, twined their fingers together, and led him to the side of his bed. “May I undress you tonight?”
Shivers wracked Cassius’s body. To hear the prince make a request such as that to him… “Yes, my prince.”
― Riley Hart, Ever After