Chapter 58: Royal Rest and Ruined Mornings

Leo stared at the furious purple-haired woman for a single second before his face completely broke into a wide, mocking grin. He let out a loud, booming laugh, leaning back on his chair as he shook his head.

"A princess?" Leo chuckled, his voice full of pure amusement. "Yeah, right. And if you are a literal royal princess, then I am a fricking king. Come on, Eleanor, if you want to make up a story to hide your thief background, at least choose something believable."

Eleanor aggressively dropped back down onto her chair, her face turning a deep shade of angry pink. She stamped her foot against the floorboards, her violet eyes flashing with absolute frustration as she glared at him. "I am telling the absolute truth, you ignorant commoner! I am the royal princess of Zhelora, Eleanor Roslav—"

She cut her own words off in a sudden, sharp gasp. Eleanor violently slapped both of her hands over her mouth, her eyes widening in pure horror as her own words echoed in the quiet room. Oh no... what did I just say? she thought frantically, her chest heaving. It was supposed to be an absolute, top-secret!

She slowly peeked through her fingers, seeing Leo still staring at her from across the table. A second later, Leo simply shook his head and started laughing all over again. "Nice acting performance. But seriously, stop lying to me now. What would a literal runaway princess even be doing here?"

The absolute frustration on Eleanor’s face slowly drained away, replaced by a deep, quiet sadness. She lowered her hands, her shoulders slumping as she looked down at her half-eaten plate of food. Her usual high-and-mighty voice melted into a soft, vulnerable whisper.

"It is not a lie..." Eleanor murmured softly, her fingers nervously tracing the edge of the wooden table. "My parents... the King and Queen... were forcefully arranging a royal marriage for me. They wanted to force me to marry a high-society nobleman I don't even know. And besides that... I have always desperately wanted to explore the outer world away from the strict borders of my kingdom. So... I secretly packed my bags, left my home under the cover of night, and came all the way to this city to enroll in the university."

Leo’s mocking laughter died completely. He sat up straight, his expression turning thoroughly serious as his eyes tracked the genuine pain in her face. The human side of him could easily recognize that her sadness was zero percent fake.

Eleanor let out a heavy sigh, turning her head away to hide her watering eyes. "It is perfectly fine if you do not trust my words, Leo. You don't need to. Just... just forget I ever said anything."

Leo looked at her for a long moment, a grounded sigh escaping his lips. He rubbed the back of his neck, a relaxed, teasing grin returning to his sharp face to break the heavy tension. "Alright, Your Highness. I believe you. But tell me something... has a royal princess ever slept on a floor mattress before?"

Eleanor blinked through her glasses, looking completely confused. "What?"

.....

The answer to her question arrived twenty minutes later.

Eleanor lay flat on her back, staring blankly up at the dark ceiling of the studio apartment. She was tucked inside a thin blanket, resting on a basic floor mattress that Leo had pulled out from his small storage closet.

Leo sat on the edge of his own twin bed just a few feet away, pulling his blanket up over his broad chest. He leaned his head sideways, looking down at her rigid, uncomfortable posture with a thoroughly mischievous wink. "Look, Princess, I only have one main bed mattress inside this apartment. We can't exactly sleep on the same sheets together... unless you explicitly want to climb up here and sleep right next to me tonight?"

Eleanor’s face instantly painted itself in a blush. She aggressively surged upward, sitting up on her floor mattress as she glared at him in absolute, panicked shyness. "You... you insolent commoner! That is an absolute, massive insult to a person of my royal status! I will personally make certain that you do not go unpunished for such inappropriate speech!"

Leo let out a quiet rumble of a laugh, completely unbothered by her high-and-mighty threats as he closed his eyes. "Well, to get me punished, you'll have to actually go back home to your kingdom first, won't you? Goodnight, Eleanor."

"Hmph!" Eleanor let out a sharp, deeply frustrated huff, violently pulling the blanket over her face as she aggressively turned her back toward him.

Within an hour, the quiet room was filled only with the peaceful sound of their breathing as they both drifted off to sleep.

.....

The bright rays of the morning sun streamed through the glass windows.

Leo blinked his eyes open, stretching his arms as he sat up on his bed. He looked down toward the floor, expecting to see the purple-haired princess still wrapped in her blanket. But the mattress was completely empty, the sheets neatly folded to the side.

Whoosh.

The faint sound of running water echoing from the corner stall caught his attention. Leo rubbed his sleepy eyes, standing up from his bed and walking slowly toward the bathroom door to freshen up for the university lectures. Assuming she was already dressed and brushing her teeth, he casually grabbed the brass handle and pushed the heavy wooden door open.

The door swung inward, and Leo froze completely dead in his path, absolute, profound shock paralyzing his entire system.

Inside the small, steamy bathroom stall, Eleanor was standing completely without any clothes on, right under the running stream of the shower head. The glistening water droplets caught the light, tracking the flawless curves of her body, her narrow slender waist, and the full expanse of her heavy bust. Her long, wet purple hair was wild around her smooth pale shoulders.

"AHHH?!" Eleanor violently screamed out in a total, frantic panic, her violet eyes stretching wide in absolute terror as she locked her gaze onto him.

In a fraction of a second, she tried to aggressively spin her body around to hide her bare skin from his eyes. But the tiled bathroom floor block was completely slick and covered in wet soap. Her foot violently slipped on the wet tiles, and she let out a sharp gasp as her body began crashing heavily toward the hard ground.

"Watch out!" Leo reacted with absolute flash-speed, his body lunging forward into the steam.

His large, powerful arms shot out through the running water, securely catching her narrow waist and pulling her flat against his chest to stop the fall. But the sheer momentum of his lunge forcefully drove both of them straight back against the opposite bathroom wall.

SLAM!

The bathroom door aggressively clicked shut behind them, locking them into absolute, suffocating privacy.

The physical intimacy was sudden, intense, and completely reality-shattering. Eleanor was trapped completely flush between the cold tile wall and Leo’s broad, solid chest. The wet, bare curves of her exceptionally hot physical body were pressed heavily against his clothes, her heaving chest colliding with his torso as water streamed down their faces. Neither of them moved a single muscle. Leo’s hands were locked tightly around her soft, wet hips, his dark eyes staring dead into her wide violet eyes from a mere inch away. Eleanor’s entire face was painted in a blush, her breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps as she stared back into his focused face, completely paralyzed by the raw intimacy m.