The Scarlet Phoenix and the Prince of Winter

Chapter Forty Seven

This was not what I was expecting to happen. This was not what I was expecting to see. I knew that I am already so redundant about how handsome he looks on a normal day, or in a normal outfit, but right here, right now was a different kind of handsomeness.

"You could take a bath too, Rainha," he repeated what he said earlier, smiling from ear to ear while he started going down to the steaming bath. "This is one in a thousand chance. Even the castle doesn't have something like this," he added.

"R-Really?" I asked, my voice almost shaking from the tension. But this was a different kind of tension too. "The castle doesn't have hot baths?"

"We used to have them," Prince Kao answered, "but we never used them since I became in charge of the coalstone logistics in the castle. Heating a bath for an hour requires almost three thousand coalstones alone, you know, so that was very pricey and unnecessary."

I nodded but my head wasn't actually into coalstone logistics right now. I was more concerned about how long I was going to be able to talk properly if my mouth was starting to get dry and my throat starting to get hoarse. The topless Crown Prince made it incredibly hard for me to concentrate on what he was saying right now.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he suddenly said. "Are you uncomfortable with me right now? You can wait outside if you like. I am not forcing you to join me here, Rainha, although it would be a waste of time if you just let this opportunity pass."

He was right. Taking a bath in a warm bath just like this isn't exactly a common experience that someone like me would be able to grab whenever I want, but still... if I choose to join him right now that would only make the situation a lot more uncomfortable.

"I t-think I'm good here just watching you take a bath," I finally said, deciding against myself. "I would love to join you but I don't really feel like taking a bath, you know..."

He immediately nodded. "Alright. I won't force you."

"Thank you. It does look good though."

"It is. The Forresters are wealthy enough to have this kind of bath and I almost feel envious. But at the end of the day, this is just a bath, and I would be damned if I used a lot of coalstones for something like this when a lot of people don't even have enough coalstones for a month."

"That's right," I agreed. "Since you are the Crown Prince, it is not good to know that you use the coalstones improperly. That would just defeat the purpose of everything that you have fighting for."

Prince Kao nodded. "Exactly. And even though this kind of bath has its benefits too, I don't think I would be having this bath from time to time. I heard that when my mother came to the castle for the first time when she married my father, she never used the bath for something like this. And because of that, I almost don't want to bathe here too. I think she will get disappointed if she was here."

I suddenly felt sad for him when he told me that. "Your mother was a humble and a kind-hearted woman. I am no longer surprised that she was like that when she was still alive."

Prince Kao smiled and started to massage his hair and the view right in front of me now made me blink. I think I would never forget this from my mind, ever. This would be forever etched on my brain. The Crown Prince bathing, his muscles and abs glistening in the water and his wet hair making him more enchanting than ever before. I am so blessed to have witnessed this, and I almost shouted how I love my job. But that would turn off the Crown Prince so I just bit my tongue to stop me from making any kind of noise.

"But you know what, I think I have to tell you this," he said.

"What?"

"I was not like this when I was younger," he said and then he started rubbing his shoulders with the loofah that he was just suddenly holding. "Could you brush my back with this first, Rainha? I could not reach it," he added with a wink and I almost want to slap him for being a flirt right now. I knew that he was this playful but it hits differently when you feel something for him too.

"Okay. Give me that," I nervously said and then he gave me the loofah which was now filled with bubbles. He then went to the edge of the bathtub and offered his sexy back to me.

I took a deep breath before I even stared at his smooth back. But there was no denying it. The Crown Prince is legitimately sexy and hot. He is attractive as hell and I have to swallow my own saliva more than I could count before I could even have the courage to touch him there with the loofah.

"Just brush my back where I could not reach it. You don't have to brush it entirely," he whispered, and to my ears, it sounded a little bit seductive.

I nodded but then said 'yes' nervously when I realized that he could not see that I nodded. Trying to control the shaking of my hands, I started brushing his back with the loofah. I knew that it would be weird to say this but I was so jealous of how the bubbly loofah was caressing and brushing his smooth skin. I wished I can do that to him too.

"Going back to my story," he then said, forcing me to push back my wild thoughts into a corner, "I was not like this when I was younger, Rainha. I was a different kind of person."

"What do you mean?"

"This is embarrassing for me to tell you but I have to let this out too because I want to know what you will think of me after you heard the truth," he revealed. "You know when I was a teenager, I did not care for my people yet. I was kind of a jerk, and I did not think very well about other people."

That surprised me because I never thought that he thought that way. "W-Well... That's something that you should not be ashamed of telling anybody," I just said to make him feel better about that because I could tell that this was something that he was sensitive about. "What matters is what you think right now."

"That is true," he said nodding while I continued my brushing of his back. My eyes were now fixed on his neck and I don't know why. But this was not surprising for me. Every inch of the Crown Prince's body is so attractive for me and I hate that I don't feel any trace of guilt when I think about that. "However, I feel bad about my actions in the past."

"But you were young then, Prince Kao. It's just natural for us to be a little clueless when we are young."

"But I was just young. I was not stupid," he said and to me, that just makes sense too. "I did not like getting involved with other people back then, so I would always refuse to go outside the castle. I would also not join any celebrations or events, even if I should have gone. Long story short, whatever was expected of me, I did the exact opposite. I was not a good Prince."

"So that's why I have never heard anything about you before when you were younger," I said. "All I heard that you don't like going outside the castle."

He chuckled when I told him that. "That's very much correct. But more than that, I hated interacting with people back then. I don't even want to be the next King since that would mean that I have to face a lot of them."

"But you don't think that way now, don't you?"

He laughed when I asked that. "Of course. But coming from where I was, to where I am now, sometimes I could not even imagine how I suddenly turned out this way. I always thought of my younger self as someone that has been eager to throw anything that was going my way. That started my arguments with my father."

"Well, that is unfortunate, but at least you have realized how wrong you were."

"I have to change," he said humbly. "I knew back then that everyone did not like me because of my actions, but I did not care. However, it is a different story when I was the one who started disliking myself for what I was doing. I could not even look at the mirror because I knew that I messed up and I hurt a lot of people."

The Crown Prince was indeed ashamed of his past actions, but all of that did not matter to me right now because he was here with me, talking about that part of him freely and that meant that he was no longer that same person. He changed, and that to me is enough.