Disclaimer: I neither own Reign, nor profit from this story.

"Catherine…Catherine!"

Rolling her eyes, Catherine sat back in her desk chair and just waited for Henry to find where she was.

She didn't have to wait long as a few moments later he barged into the room and made it over to her in a few quick strides.

"Catherine, we need to talk," he said, oddly polite in his request despite his tone.

"Yes Henry, I heard you loudly and clearly from all the way down the hall, now what has you so upset husband."

"You."

"Yes I gathered that as well, could you be more specific?"

Turning around he began gesticulating, though it did not seem to make any more sense than what he was saying…or rather trying to say.

"I," he began before turning back around, "you." he continued…

"Yes Henry, you and I, the two of us. Are we all cleared up now?" She concluded, knowing that this could antagonize him further, but if she was just lucky enough in might antagonize him right out the door.

Letting out a frustrated sigh he made quick work of rounding her desk and into her personal space. Realizing his intended destination just a little too late she was not able to get up in time before he shoved her chair backward, grabbed her first by the hands and then the waist, and hoisted her out of her chair and onto the desk. Not a moment later he had cupped her face in his hands and began assaulting her lips with more passion than she had felt from her since their early years.

After several moments she regained her senses suddenly and tried to push him away, but he only hugged her arms back down to her side, one hand on her lower back and one cradling her head as he began to lower her down to the desk.

With no other conceivable way to fight him off she brought her knee upward in a swift and sure motion and knocked some sense back into him.

Unfortunately his initial reaction was to bite down on her tongue and drop her unceremoniously onto he desk but he did release her. His head however, was now rested on her abdomen and they were both left panting in the wake of the kiss.

"Henry," she ground out, "get off of me!"

Still panting he moved just to the left and rested his head on her desk before raising his finger to signal that he still needed a moment before thinking or speaking would be an option.

Unfortunately when he hand lowered it landed on her hip and after a moment he began running his thumb over the barely protruding crest of the bone.

He never had been very good at keeping his hands to himself.

She eventually sat up and gave Henry a gentle shove to sit back in the chair from which she was recently so rudely removed.

By the time he was finally was able to look at her again she had regained her breath and her composure. She was sitting with her arms across her chest, her knees crossed and an eyebrow raised, waiting for him to explain his actions.

Standing once more her moved back over to her, but instead of assaulting her, he simply uncrossed her arms and held her hands.

"Catherine, I love you."

She huffed and chuckled briefly before looking away.

"And you love me," he continued

"Yes well, words spoken in the heat of passion are hardly meant to be taken out of context," she said keeping her eyes well trained on the wall off to their side.

"And yet in all my years of knowing you, I've never heard you speak a lie during out moments of passion" he continued dropping one of her hands to turn her face back to his with a finger on her chin, "at least not by the time we get to…."

"And how do you know that I wasn't just saying what you wanted to hear?"

Internally chuckling at her insistence at denying her own words. "Because Catherine," he continued, "I know you, and I know that though the moments are few and far between, there are some moments when you cannot lie to me…I recognized it then and it thrills me even now."

Choosing to harden her heart to his words she smiled, "And you can think what you want husband, but thanks to our many mistakes over the years, this marriage never really had a chance.

"Perhaps in the past, but Catherine I cannot get you out of my mind!"

"Always the charmer with that tongue of yours Henry."

"No, Catherine…" sensing that his words would be of little other use he moved the hand he still clasped toward himself and brought it further downward.

Growing more annoyed by the moment she yanked her hand back before answering "Henry this is not a game, and I am not interested."

"But I am," he continued, silencing her so that he could continue. "and for once it would seem that my heart has overtaken my usual fleshly desires."

Rolling her eyes at the nonsense she could hear coming down the channel, Catherine sighed and tried to speak again, only to have him release her hand and place his finger on her lips to silence her.

"During my moments of…need…I can only seem to conjure images of you. No matter the time of day, the task at hand, or the company I keep. I cannot, I have not been able to…"

"Sign the contract? Find absolution? Satisfy your basal impulses?"

"Because all I can think of is you! The moment I begin to enjoy myself, my mind returns to your enchanting hazel eyes or your impossibly delicate skin, I lose…momentum."

"I'm flattered," she replied sarcastically.

Huffing and dropping both arms to his side Henry looked down before continuing.

"I realize this is not particularly romantic, but…"

"No Henry, this goes so far beyond that it's degrading."

She stood so that even if she still had to look up at him, at least her legs were no longer dangling mid-air.

"You are asking me to let you bed me so that you can get me out of your system and move on with your gambit of mistresses. Like a task that you have to complete before you get to move onto your fun. But I am a person Henry, a human being, and your wife. Even your playthings are treated better than this! You woo them and entice them, before bedding them but you haven't even given me the curtsy of consideration, merely propositioned me like a common working girl and expect me to just swoon over your vulgar demands. I won't have it Henry!"

His head had dropped lower and lower as she had picked apart his request until he recognized it for the insensitive degradation that it was.

"However," she paused at this and waited for his eyes to reach hers," I will heed your request under one condition."

His eyes widened when he realized she might actually be considering this, "Catherine I…"

"No, don't speak. Not until you have heard my terms. By all accounts you can demand this anyway, so I only ask that since you did so in such a crude and heartless way that you consider me offer, it really is not all that terrible a request."

Pausing a moment to give weight to his answer he replied, "I will listen."

"You may bed me as you like, if you spend at least an hour a day with the children…our children whom you so seem to so easily dismiss. It may be too late for us to be anything more than we are, but Henry and Charles in particular are young enough that you can truly be a father to them, it is not too late. Even Claude and Francis would not object to having you look at them as more than just heirs and political pawns. However," she paused a moment so that she knew he would hear her, "discussing politics and matters of the kingdom do not count as "spending time" unless they are in the midst of a time otherwise specifically set aside for them."

She placed a hand gently on his chest she continued. "In the wake of our children's happiness, my feelings and our history are irrelevant. I hope you can see this and will consider spending more time with them, regardless. Trust me, they are worth it."

Reaching up on her tiptoes she gently kissed his cheek before moving around him and gliding her way to the door. When she was half way there she threw back over her shoulder, "and if you want anything at all to happen tonight you will come down to see the children to help me tuck them into bed."

Henry could only watch his wife's retreating form as she made her way out through the various doors of her chambers until she was out of sight entirely.

Gone was the aggravated, vengeful, plotting Black Queen as she was known by those who had been on the receiving end of one of her brilliant plans to stymie whatever they had plotted against her. Gone still was the Queen of France, the stunning beauty that bewitched men with but a single laugh and transfixed them with her whit and charm.

In their place was his wife, a woman of strength and of pride, of flesh and of bone. A woman that could be sure and insecure all in the span of a breath, and one that knew how to use her own capabilities to their limit.

Memorized as her hips were currently telling a story entirely their own became lost in the retreating presence of his wife.

It was a sight to behold, and one which he was certain he would never become immune.