“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” declared the priest. “You may kiss.”

With not a moment’s hesitation the now-married couple did just that. Eugene and Rapunzel practically leapt into each other’s arms and kissed as only two people madly in love can. The crowd filling the chapel erupted in applause, cheering and throwing confetti in celebration.

Whatever little adventure Pascal and Max had been on to have them suddenly so dirty and dishevelled did cause a brief moment of confusion and worry, but since the ceremony was able to proceed uninterrupted, questions about that could be left for another time. They also nearly lost the wedding cake as whoever had moved it had forgotten to lock the table wheels. But some luck, quick thinking, and Rapunzel making use of her dress’s eighty foot long train as a whip, like she so often did with her hair when it used to be that long, they prevented the cake from getting away on them.

Thankfully, that was the last of the unexpected events and the remainder of the wedding and the following party went off without a hitch. Dinner was exceptional, followed by a few speeches and then stories were shared by friends and family, like Lance sharing a couple of the more embarrassing capers that Eugene got up to in his youth, and the king sharing how he felt when Rapunzel was born, briefly lamenting on how he missed her growing up, and eternally grateful to have her back even if he had to now give her away.

During one of Lance’s stories, Eugene noticed Rapunzel had lost her look of pure joy and instead wore a somewhat melancholic look and seemed to not be paying much attention to the tale. “Is everything alright, my love?” he leaned over and whispered, trying not to draw attention to the two of them.

Rapunzel blinked a few times, lost in thought, before answering. “Hmm? Oh, yes, everything’s fine, Eugene. It’s just ... you have so many experiences from your childhood,” she began to explain. “You met so many people and made so many memories.”

“Keep in mind that a lot of those people weren’t very nice and many of those memories aren’t the good kind,” Eugene pointed out.

“At least you got to experience something of the world. Until you came along my entire world was just that tower. I know I had Pascal, but there’s only so much one can do when you’re isolated from everything else like that.”

Eugene took her chin in his hand and turned her face to him. “And yet look at the amazing woman you became,” he said, then gave her a soft kiss. It was difficult to control himself and not let it grow into something more passionate, but that wasn’t what she needed at the moment. “Not to mention you more than made up for it since then. We travelled all over the continent, met some very strange people like the Lorbs and the merfolk, found my father, got our minds swapped with a bunch of monkeys, and even saved the kingdom from a bonafide demon.”

Rapunzel smiled as Eugene reminded her of some of the adventures they had been on, of the wonderful and sometimes not-so-wonderful memories they had made. But the smile failed to reach her eyes. She let out a sigh.” ... I miss Cass.”

Eugene took her hand in his. “Ah, so that’s what’s really bothering you.”

“She’s my best friend and she couldn’t even be here for our wedding.”

“That’s not her fault. You know she’d be here if she could.”

“I know, but that doesn’t change the fact that I still miss her.”

“Don’t worry. You’ll see her again. I know you will, and deep down in your heart you know it too,” Eugene reassured her. He gently tucked a loose strand of her hair back behind her ear. “And hey, if you’re thinking of Cassandra on today of all days, you can bet that she’s thinking of you, wherever she is. And you know she’d be happy for you.”

Imagining that Cass was happy and thinking of her did make Rapunzel feel better. She squeezed Eugene’s hand. “For us,” she clarified. “Cass cares about you too, you know.”

Eugene feigned a shiver. “Brr, don’t remind me,” he teased, which earned him a playful swat on the arm. Before Cassandra had left to go on her solo adventure, she and Eugene had finally made peace but it was still a little strange to think that the two of them were actually friends now. “No more sad thoughts, okay? You’re married now, my wife, and I won’t put up with you feeling down, especially on your wedding day.”

His wife. Rapunzel was Eugene’s wife. It still felt surreal that the two of them were actually married. The smile returned to Rapunzel’s face and this time it did reach her eyes. “You’re right, my husband,” she replied, putting emphasis on his new title. “Happy thoughts from now on.” She leaned in and kissed him. This kiss lingered and grew in passion and the two of them essentially made out for nearly half a minute before they broke apart.

Only then did they notice that Lance was no longer talking. They looked over at him and saw that he had a questioning look on his face. Then they realised that everyone was staring at them. They both blushed.

“I’m sorry,” Eugene said loudly, addressing the crowd. “Could you repeat that? We, uh, weren’t paying attention.” That made everyone chuckle, even the newlyweds, although it also caused Rapunzel’s blush to grow.

The remainder of the evening went by quickly. There were more stories shared, toasts given, and then there was plenty of dancing before it was finally time for the new couple to head out on their honeymoon. They made a big show of leaving out the castle’s main gate, supposedly off to wherever their honeymoon would take them, but once they were out of sight they doubled back to a side gate and reentered the castle. It was late and setting off on their honeymoon now would not be the best of ideas. Besides, there was something the two of them wanted to do much more than hit the road.

Hand in hand, they quietly made their way to Rapunzel’s bedroom. Or really, their bedroom now. Thankfully, Rapunzel’s mother had instructed the guards to leave that particular area of the castle alone, ensuring her daughter and son-in-law would have all the privacy they required. That wasn’t the only thing Arianna had arranged, either, as the two of them noticed as soon as they entered their room.

Candles filled the room with a soft, warm glow, and a fire crackling away in the fireplace had the room at the perfect temperature, keeping the night’s chill away. There was also a large ornate bathtub sitting near the fireplace almost full of steaming hot water. Almost full because Faith, one of the castle’s hand-maidens, was in the middle of transferring a bucket of water from a large steel tub next to the fire into the bathtub.

“Oh! Your Majesty!” Faith said. She put the bucket down and curtsied deeply. “You’re here already.”

“Yes, we are. But why are you here?” Rapunzel asked. “It was my understanding that all the guards and servants wouldn’t be in this section of the castle tonight.”

Faith kept her head bowed as she answered. “And we won’t be. I’m the only one here and will be leaving now that you’ve arrived. Your mother tasked me with making sure the tub was filled with warm water for when you got here as she was sure you’d want to, um, freshen up before you, ah, retired for the night,” she said, blushing heavily and keeping her eye looking down at Rapunzel’s feet. “And having this many candles unattended is not a good idea, either.”

“Oh. Well that was very kind of you Faith,” Rapunzel said, trying her best to control her own blush. It was one thing to know she was going to lose her virginity very soon. It was another to be discussing it, even vaguely, with someone else so close to the actual event.

“I’m just doing my duty, milady. Before I go, I’d just like to say on behalf of the staff, congratulations on your marriage.”

“Why, thank you!”

“Yes, thank you very much,” added Eugene. “Now I will apologise if this comes across as rude, but did you say you were about to leave?”

Faith nodded, still not looking up. “Yes sir. There is more hot water in the big steel tub next to the fire, and towels are over there on the end table.”

“And if we need anything...?”

“I’ll be out of earshot, just like everyone else. Even if you were to shout I’m afraid no one would be able to hear you. Someone will come by in the morning with breakfast though, and if there’s something else you need you can tell them then.”

Eugene couldn’t keep the smile out of his voice. “Perfect.”

“May I have your leave, Princess?” Faith asked, bowing again.

“Oh, of course!” Rapunzel replied. “Please make sure to close the door on your way out. Have a good night, Faith.”

“You too, milady,” Faith replied automatically, then blushed even heavier as the implications of her words sunk in. She quickly made her way out of the room and firmly closed the door behind her.

As soon as the door was closed Eugene pulled Rapunzel in for a very passionate kiss. Despite the awkwardness with Faith, Rapunzel returned the kiss with equal passion and soon their hands began to get involved. Rapunzel placed hers on Eugene’s chest, feeling his strong muscles even through his clothes. Likewise, Eugene had his hands on Rapunzel’s narrow waist, but they didn’t stay there very long. He slowly raised them up over her stomach, then ribs, then suddenly they were on her breasts, eliciting a surprised moan from Rapunzel, who broke the kiss and pulled away.

She knew such touches would be coming, and was actually anticipating them, but Rapunzel wasn’t quite prepared for how powerful it would feel. This was the first time anyone had ever touched her breasts, not counting when she would bathe or the incidental contact when someone was helping her dress. “Sorry!” she said. “That was just ... I wasn’t ready for...”

Eugene held Rapunzel’s hand, concerned he might have done something wrong. “Are you okay? We can slow down if that’s what you want.”

“No!” Rapunzel nearly shouted, then managed to collect herself. “I mean, no, I don’t want to slow down. It’s just that it felt more ... intense than I was expecting. I’m sorry for making you worry.”

“That’s alright, my love. But I should probably ask, since you grew up in that tower knowing next to nothing about men and relationships, you do know what’s about to happen, right?”

Rapunzel blushed, but smiled and nodded. “Yes. I was ... let’s just say innocent as to what husbands and wives do behind closed doors, but a few weeks ago my mother, um, cured me of my ignorance. I know,” she then took a deep breath to calm herself, “and I’m ready.”

Eugene smiled. “Speaking of bed,” he said, then scooped Rapunzel up in his arms and carried her to the overly large canopy bed that took up a sizable percentage of the room. She giggled and held on in nervous anticipation as he made his way to the middle of the bed. He could hear Rapunzel’s heart thundering in her chest as he gently lowered her down onto the middle of the soft mattress. Gazing down at her from above, he felt a desire beyond anything he’d ever felt before, and she seemed to return the look with equal intensity. It took a great deal of self-restraint for him to not just tear that beautiful dress off her.

“God, you’re beautiful!” he said, then lowered himself down and began to kiss her. He started with her lips but he was soon kissing all over her face. He kissed her cheeks, her nose, her forehead, her ears, even her eyelids as he basically worshipped this wonderful woman who had blessed him with marriage. He kissed her neck, he kissed her collarbone, he kissed the upper portion of her chest. He kissed every bit of skin she had that wasn’t covered by her dress. He then pulled one shoulder of the dress down, exposing the skin there, and kissed that too.

Rapunzel moaned in pleasure. When Eugene kissed her neck, she shivered. When he kissed her collarbone, goosebumps formed pretty much everywhere. And when he kissed the upper part of her breasts her heart practically leapt out of her chest. But she had never imagined that even her shoulder of all places would feel so good being kissed. Whatever Eugene was doing to her she never wanted it to stop.

But he did stop, and far sooner than Rapunzel would have liked. Eugene had tried tugging Rapunzel’s dress lower in order to kiss more of her skin, but it was simply too tight to move at all. He sat up on his knees and looked down at her. “As beautiful as that wedding dress is, my love, it’s kind of getting in the way.”

Rapunzel gave a shy blush at Eugene’s implication and sat up herself. “So what should we do?” she asked.

Eugene held out his hand, which Rapunzel took, and led her back off the bed. Once they were standing he walked around to her back and slowly began unlacing her dress, loosening the tight cords holding everything in place. As soon as there was enough slack he began to kiss her neck, much to her delight. He then slipped both shoulders of the dress down, trailing kisses along the newly exposed skin.

With gentle tugs from Eugene the dress began to drift down Rapunzel’s body. She lowered her arms, allowing the dress to slip free and ultimately pool down at her feet, leaving her clad only in her undergarments, which consisted of a snug corset and panties. A shiver coursed through her body and she had to force herself to remain still. Never before had she revealed so much of her body to a man and while she was by no means shy this was something entirely new.

To give herself a moment to relax she slipped out of Eugene’s arms, picked up the dress and carefully draped it over one of the chairs. “If Cassandra were here I’d never hear the end of it if I just left it crumpled on the ground to get all wrinkly,” she explained.

“If Cassandra were here it’d make what we’re about to do very awkward,” Eugene joked, which made Rapunzel smile despite her nerves. Having collected herself, she returned to Eugene and hugged him tightly. “Nervous?” he asked.

She nodded. “Just a little, though mostly excited I think. I would imagine all girls feel this way the first time they let someone see them naked, huh?”

“Yeah, but I’m not just someone. I’m your husband,” Eugene said, smiling. “Shall we continue?”

Rapunzel nodded and kissed him. Then, unexpectedly, she shoved him, causing him to stumble back and fall onto the bed. “One of us is still fully dressed,” she said with a grin once he was sitting up. Evidently, Eugene wasn’t the only one eager to see what the other looked like without clothes. He smiled then began taking off his jacket, then his shirt, while at the same time Rapunzel knelt down and took off his shoes and socks. They didn’t take nearly as much care with his clothes as they did with hers and heedlessly tossed them onto the floor somewhere.

Once he was down to just his pants, Eugene reached for his belt, but then stopped. “Care to do the honours?” he asked.

Rapunzel playfully bit her lower lip at the thought, her excitement having washed away her earlier trepidation. With just a little hesitancy, she reached out and slowly began to unbuckle his belt. Having never undone a man’s belt before, especially not while he was wearing it, it took her a moment to figure out the right way to tug it to get it loose. Once she succeeded, she looked up at Eugene with a smile. He returned the smile and then quickly raised his butt off the bed and yanked his pants down. Rapunzel helped finish the job by pulling them off his legs and tossing them so they joined the rest of his clothes.

There was a momentary pause as Rapunzel let her eyes wander over her nearly naked husband. He was absolutely gorgeous and she definitely felt a surge of arousal as she took in the sight of a body that looked as though it had been sculpted from stone. She had seen him in similar states of undress when they had gone swimming together, but swimming trunks out in public carried a very different feeling compared to underwear in the privacy of a bedroom.

“So, um, should I keep going, or do we switch back to you?” Eugene asked. He was fine either way, but he wanted this to be as wonderful an experience for Rapunzel as he could possibly make it.

“You’re already hard,” she noted, glancing at the obvious tent formed in his underwear.

“Darling, I’ve been hard since before we entered our room,” he admitted. “How could I not be?”

Almost unconsciously Rapunzel began to reach towards that tent, but paused. “May I?”

Eugene grinned. “Sunshine, that’s a question you will never have to ask.”

Rapunzel grinned then continued. As an artist she had seen her fair share of nude paintings and sculptures, but those were all artistic and the men depicted were never erect. She found that she really wanted to know what that looked like, what it felt like. She let her hand slide up the length, feeling the heat through the fabric, then did her best to circle her fingers around the shaft, gripping it firmly but not too tight. During her crash course on the subject her mother did stress how sensitive an organ it was, after all. Eugene visibly shuddered at her touch.

“Can ... can I see it?” she asked, to which Eugene vigorously nodded his head. She let go of his shaft and slipped her fingers into the waist of his underwear, running them across his stomach off to his sides. Eugene raised his hips again and Rapunzel pulled down, carefully lifting the garment over the bulge that was so very close to her face. When Eugene’s dick came into view Rapunzel couldn’t help but gasp. All the paintings she had seen and the studying she had done didn’t come close to capturing the sight before her. “H-how in the world is all that supposed to fit inside me?” she said out loud before she could stop herself.

Eugene couldn’t help but feel a brief surge of pride at the compliment, whether Rapunzel intended it that way or not. “It’ll fit. But if you’re at all worried, we’ll just have to make sure you’re nice and relaxed when the time comes.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?” Rapunzel asked, genuinely curious.

“Telling you now will spoil the surprise. But trust me, I guarantee you’ll like it.”

Rapunzel gulped but nodded. She let Eugene’s underwear fall to the floor, then carefully wrapped her fingers around his shaft once more. Eugene quivered in delight at her touch. “It’s hard. But soft at the same time,” she noted, feeling the way the skin seemed to slide up and down the firm core of the shaft.

Eugene was obviously thrilled with what Rapunzel was doing, but as much as he was enjoying her fingers there were even more pleasurable things that he desperately wanted to get to. “Don’t play with it too much, my love, or it’ll go off in your face.” Rapunzel let out a little yelp and quickly let go, making Eugene chuckle at her reaction. “It’s okay. I’m not there yet, but it bears considering the next time you want to play with it.” He ran his fingers through her hair before saying, “However, you’ve now got to see me in all my glory. Don’t you think I deserve the same?”

The colour in Rapunzel’s cheeks deepened slightly, but she did herself credit by not backing down from this little challenge. “If you think you can handle it,” she teased as she stood up and backed away from the bed. Eugene made to follow her but she held up a hand, silently asking him to remain there. She stepped over to the window, where the bright moonlight combined with the glow of the fire and candle light to bathe her in an ethereal glow, She kept her back toward Eugene and reached behind her, untying the cord that held the back of her corset tight. Once loose, she then unhooked the clasps on the front then let the piece of clothing fall to the floor. With her upper body now completely bare, she looked over her shoulder back toward the bed.

Eugene gulped. “Good lord, Rapunzel. Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me?” he asked, his voice laced with barely restrained desire. The sight of Rapunzel’s naked back and barely clad ass was heart-stoppingly beautiful, and the tease of her bare breasts being just out of sight greatly testing his ability to remain where he was.

“I think I have some idea,” she replied, glancing down at his dick which was standing straight up and seemed to be even bigger and harder than before, if that were possible. Still turned away from Eugene, she closed her eyes and took a breath to help steady her resolve. She hooked her fingers into her last remaining article of clothing then, bending at the waist, pulled her panties down.

Even from as far away from Eugene as she was, Rapunzel could still hear the sudden and huge intake of breath as he caught his first glimpse of her most intimate area. Doing her best to put on an air of confidence she didn’t completely feel inside, she stood up straight and slowly turned to face her husband, though it took some effort to not cover up her breasts as they came into view. Tipped with firm, pink nipples, those breasts weren’t particularly large, but they were by no means small either, and fit Rapunzel’s frame perfectly. She leaned back against the bench that was built into the window frame and presented herself to her husband.

“So what do you think?” she asked, desperate to not let on how nervous she was feeling.

“I think I’m the luckiest man to have ever lived,” Eugene said after he managed to pick his jaw up off the floor. “I know I said it before but my god, Rapunzel, you are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen.”

Rapunzel both blushed and beamed at the compliment. She held out her hand invitingly and in less than a second Eugene was there, pulling her to him and kissing her with unbridled passion. She moaned into the kiss, emotion and arousal flooding her senses as his tongue invaded her mouth and her bare breasts were pressed against his muscular chest.

He reached down and grabbed her ass, pulling her tightly against him. She returned the gesture, and could not ignore the fact that Eugene’s dick was pressed against her stomach. She was tempted to wrap her fingers around it again but before she could Eugene reached up and cupped both her breasts in his hands. Rapunzel let out a cry of pleasure as he gently squeezed them and ran his palms over her very sensitive nipples. Unable to resist any longer, Eugene bent over and captured one of those deliciously firm nipples in his mouth.

“Oh god!” Rapunzel cried as lightning shot through her whole body, starting at her nipple and ending at her groin. Eugene kissed and licked and sucked on one breast while continuing to play with the other one, teasing and torturing her for nearly a minute before he switched breasts and did it all over once more, which caused her to cry out yet again. She gripped his hair tightly as he suckled on each teat, wanting this to last forever while at the same time finding the pleasure almost too much to bear.