"Well, I suppose you can't get much more damning evidence than that..." She remarked as they examined the ring. She couldn't help but feel a little crestfallen at the discovery though. "I know I should feel relieved as it links Natalie to the crimes against me quite tidily but I was really sort of hoping..."

She throat clenched and her heart tightened in her chest. She didn't realize had badly she wanted to find that her sister hadn't been involved in all this. A part of her wanted to cry but she resist it. "Damn her, she really sent someone to kill me." She left the room and returned to the solitude of the hallway. Now she would have to make an untenable decision about how to punish her. She did not want to give the order to have her sister executed. She closed her eyes and lend back against the wall, forcing back emotions she didn't want to have to unpack right now. "Searching him was a mistake" She sighed, voice heavy with unspent emotion. "We should have waited for Naramis." He'd have known what to say, what to do to make this not feel like the end of the world.

He would have asked to keep the dagger, it was a neat toy and an easy means of concealing an effective tool but now was not the time. He just slipped it on a finger for now and followed her out to the hall.

“I'm sorry ...” he could tell that she was a bit dejected. “But it is probably better he isn't here. He would want to protect you, he would probably want to eliminate such a dangerous threat.”

He paused for a moment as he stood beside her. He was thinking. Reflecting and seeing the obvious. She did not wish to kill her sister, but did not seek to kill her either. “Imprisoning her works but then you have all the scrutiny. Sending her off to a remote region of the kingdom still allows her to scheme.

“But I might have another option,” he took her arm and patted the back of her hand as if trying to comfort her. “Exile. Send her to stay with Naamathite. She'd be a Princess in name but with no real power. You'll be the legit heiress then so no one will back her … if you really don't want any sort of attention marry her off. You nobles still do that right? It gets her out of the country and makes an enemy an ally, or even another nation that you have good ties with or wish to strengthen them, Sirocco wasn't a vacation and I'm sure living with Hassan's people could humble her as well as ensure that she has no resources to draw upon. To the nation it would be just another arranged marriage that they don't have many details about so all this stuff about power grabs and assassins can be swept beneath the rug.”

She opened her eyes to give him a sad but appreciative look. "I know all that but there are draw backs to all those plans as well. Exile her to live with Naamathite is probably the best option. They might still plot and come back with an army to attack us one day but we can prepare for that. We know what direction the threat will come from. I don't dare try using her to forge alliances. She is a viper and if I give her as a bride to an ally without warning them of her conniving nature I could risk war from a whole new front when she eventually tries stabbing her new husband in the back." She sighed and shook her head again. "No, killing her would be the cleanest solution and if I was as heartless as her I would do it but I'm not heartless. I know what I will ultimately have to do, I just don't want to have to think about it anymore tonight..." Naramis would know how to take her mind of things but he might not even be back until morning. She sighed again and pushed back up off the wall. "Shall we return to our room for the night?"

There was risks to everything, often the greater the pay off the greater the risk. It ended up catching up to him eventually. But she was not heartless and this was a tough decision for her. He was out of the loop as far with getting in contact with the right people though he could do a bit of digging if necessary.

“Let's,” he escorted her back to the room thinking with each step. She had not drawn away her hand and he had not retracted it. Once they were inside the room though he had spoke once more.

“Kill her without killing her ...” that sounded confusing and he explained further. “Take her memories, you could give her a fresh start somewhere, invent a title, give her an identity as a commoner. There's magic that can suppress memories. In the end it is your call, your first as Queen once you are crowned.”

He left it at that though. She had her options to mull over. In any event it was all but over now.

The thought had never occurred to her to erase Natalie's memories. It seemed a little wrong to strip a person of all their memories but it was better than killing them right? It wasn't as though Natalie had proven to be such a wonderful person. If she lost herself with her memories that was probably for the best. And maybe a simple life as a commoner might be better for her than the life they'd been raised to with all its power struggles and secrets. She smiled brilliantly at the thief. "I think you may just have solved my dilemma, Jack. I may just owe you two kisses. One for saving my life and one for saving my sister's. Unless there is some other reward you would like..." She had meant it innocently but it was up to Jack to take it that way. She was still holding his hand, too preoccupied to think about the appropriateness of such a gesture. Right now she was just happy to have found another solution to her Natalie problem to be guarded about her emotions.

He smiled, pleased she liked the idea. It wasn't perfect, he knew and he did not have all the details as far as what could and couldn't be done along those lines but there were plenty of stories that served him as a guide of sorts. And it granted him another kiss … though with the offer it was hard to keep his focus on the present.

“Depending on how it works, if her memories have the possibility of returning I could even take her with me, keep an eye on her and watch for signs,” if it seemed as if the spell was wearing off getting in recast wouldn't be too hard, he wasn't sure how things worked out and they would have to speak to a wizard fist. He didn't doubt that he could locate one within a few week's time and their was bound to be a court mage or someone there that would be able to point them in the right direction.

But those were other details that they could work out when it was time to do so. “Well … I'll take one of those kisses now ...” he shouldn't, he knew he wouldn't stop at that, he'd take the second two but he could not pass up the opportunity, and it looked as if he had placed her mind at ease just a little. He set his hand on her hip, during her to face him locking his eyes with her own as he steadily moved in to claim that kiss ...

She hadn't been thinking when she made that offer but, when Jack put his hand on her hip and turned her to turn her towards him, she realized her mistake. She'd put herself in a dangerous situation without meaning to. Not that she thought Jack would try to force himself on her but if she allowed him to kiss her now then she might not be able to bring herself to stop him. Even now, knowing what a bad idea it was, she wasn't stopping him as he leaned in to claim her lips. In fact, she felt her chin lifting to meet his kiss. She was far more eager to taste his lips than she'd ever admit. What would kissing this roguish man be like? She was dying to find out.

It was different from the way that Naramis kissed her. It was rougher, eager but with enough restraint behind it not too be too much. It was just enough, there was no mistaken the hunger there. He knew it was wrong, that he should have resisted until there were others around and had earlier but just holding her had been too much for him to hold back that restraint.

He would if she stopped him, somehow though she did not. Her lips had been most pleasant against his own, fuller, softer than anyone else he had kissed. His tongue sought her mouth, entwining with her own.

Life came with risks though and if you risked nothing you got nothing so his second hand brushed against her side. Slow strokes that would be better if they were against bare flesh though he was careful to steer clear of her breast, stroking along her rib cage as he held that kiss.

They had to break for air and he was just frozen, his hands stilled. Looking into her eyes he gave that grin he was so famous for. “I think I want that second kiss now, any objections?”

She couldn't really say that Jack's kiss was better than Naramis though it may have been a bit more exciting. Perhaps that was because it was so taboo. She should have stopped it, cut it off before it got too intimate... Before his tongue pushed inside her mouth. She definitely should have stopped his hand from stroking her side, almost like a lover. What would feel like to have this man as a lover? No, she shouldn't be thinking like that. She should have stopped it right there. Instead, she moved in closer and entwined her tongue with his.

When they did finally break for air, it was too late. She had tasted the forbidden fruit and when he asked for his second kiss, she knew she'd give him much more than that. "If you wish it, Jack..." She breathed and rose up to find his mouth again, her arms encircling his neck as she did so. She showed him she could kiss just as passionately as he had.

Indeed she had, their lips met for a second time, his heart thundering in his chest. A part of him mind screamed at him that he shouldn't be doing this, another telling him that this couldn't be happening and another telling him he was still asleep.

But she felt too real, too good to be a dream. He went for broke though there was no telling how she would react as his hand fell upon a breast, not an accidental graze but there was no mistaking that his hand was there. It was squeezing her too somewhere between too rough and too soft.

His other hand drew her even closer, close enough that there was no mistaking how had he was. His hand cupping her rear in the process but he had not escalated from such a daring touch, not yet at least content to wrap his tongue about hers and judging the results of such bold action.

She didn't object to the hand fondling her breast. She moaned and pressed closer against him, hands raking through his hair and pulling him deeper into the kiss. She could feel the affect she was having on him, his arousal pressing against her stomach. It made her go hot and tingling all off. This was a mistake, she knew that, but she still wasn't stopping it. She was just as eager as he was for whatever was about to happen between them. She just waited for him to push for more and she would be his.

He hadn't believed he had gotten this far, had been drawn even deeper into that kiss. He handled her breast more thoroughly rolling it beneath his palm as he gave that firm ass a squeeze. When they had broke that kiss he shot her another grin though he was slow to take his hands off her, not completely though as he grasped her wrist, looked at that contact, delayed for a moment then drew her hand to his crotch so there was no mistaken the effect she had on him. He did not keep he hand there, not for long as she saw his eyes dart towards the bedroom door in the suite that they were in.

It was clear just what he was thinking. “I'm afraid I'm out of kisses ...” but he was already pulling her in the direction of the bedroom closing that door too behind them though as soon as it was closed her had slammed her back against it, pressing his lips back to hers as eager hands kneaded her breasts.

But just as eager to see them as he had felt them he worked towards that ends in stripping her between brakes in all that heated kissing that followed. “I want you, Princess.”

She hadn't needed to touch his crotch to know he was hard for her but he liked the boldness of his gesture. Would he take her as boldly once they were in the bedroom together? She didn't have to wait long for her answer. Before she knew it he was dragging back to their room and threw her back against the now closed door to kiss her again. The roughness of it was that more more exhilarating.

He worked her top open and began kissing a blazing trail down her neck towards her now exposed breast. She moaned again and worked her hand down between them to cup him between the legs again, stroking his hard erection through his pants. "Yes, I could sort of tell." She teased and she felt him up too. "We really shouldn't be doing this..." She breathed but did not stop moving her hand, making it clear she wanted to continue just as much as I did.

“Uhhh ...” that touch was unexpected but so damn good. His hands pressed her breasts together before he bit it and tugged stretching it to it's limit and allowing it to snap back before giving it's twin the same treat. He groaned against it, his hips shifting back and forth as she touched him.

“Do you wish to stop?” He asked though it was clear she wasn't slowing down and he was not stopping. He didn't need an answer, didn't stop for one though he did grab her wrist long enough to flip her around so she was facing the door.

He didn't want to burst so soon, especially before they could get started. He used that brief brake to strip her completely, kissing the back of her shoulder then down her spine and finally an ass cheek.

He even widened her stance a little and brought his touch up against that heated slit rubbing it a few times for good measure while his tongue went back to licking her other ass cheek, the barest tips of two of his fingers dipped inside her then retracted just as quickly rubbing her and further teasing her.

She couldn't answer that question honestly because she really didn't want him to stop. He didn't wait for her answer anyway. He spun her to face the door finished divesting her of her clothes. She shivered as he did so but not from cold. She sighed contentedly as he began kissing her shoulders and working his way done her back. Her body was on fire by the time he reached his destination. She waited with baited breath for his mouth to find her sex next but he, it seemed, had other plans. He spread her legs further apart and stroked her with his hand. He teased her by dipping two finger tips just inside her and then quickly withdrew. She cursed softly as he teased her. She was already soaking wet and desperate for more. "Jack! You are teasing a future queen..." She reminded but made no further threat. She just wanted release and Jack was the only one who could give it to her now.